Some people had very abusive parents, and cannot distigush between a hit out of discipline and a hit out of anger. To them all spanking is is child abuse.

its all abusive bullshit, most parents from that generation belive anything... im 16 and i was hit when i needed.. it got me to behave, i plan on hitting my kids when they need it as well. i mean come on! i was hit and i turned out fine... i have a 3.75 GPA for gods sake! WTF! my violence lvl may be a little higher than others prob because my family loves halloween, i seen a horror move when i was five, watched them ever since... its all B.S.

because..and this may come as a shock...there are douchebags of all shapes, sizes and genders who were probably abused as a child or knew an abused person who couldnt think of doin that kind of stuff to their kids and cant bare the sight of people inflicting pain upon their children. so now after some years of douchebaggyness in court, children have more rights then the parents and people can butt into stuff that have anything to do with them........

in some states, it is considered illegal, and looked at as child abuse.

SPANKING - The Facts The lasting effect Current research in the fields of mental health and child development supports the theory that acts of violence against a child, no matter how brief or how mild, are like exposing the child to a toxin. Repeated exposure has a cumulative and enduring effect. To some extent, we can demonstrate this from personal experience. Most of us would have to admit that the most vivid and unpleasant childhood memories are those of being mistreated by our parents. Some people find the memory of such events so disturbing they pretend that they were trivial, even funny. You'll notice them smiling as they describe how they were punished. It is shame, not pleasure, that makes them smile. As a protection against present pain, they disguise the memory of past feelings. Some parents, eager to justify their behavior, will argue:"You have a duty to grab a child who is about to do something dangerous - to touch the hot stove or run into a busy street - and deliver a good smack so that your warnings about life's dangers will be remembered." Were that argument valid, spankings would become increasingly infrequent as children learned their lessons. But that's not what usually happens. Spankings tend to escalate in frequency and severity, and spanked children tend to behave worse. In fact, being spanked throws children into a state of powerful confusion, making it difficult for them to learn the lessons adults claim they are trying to teach. Parents who deliver the so-called "good smack" are not teaching their children that hot stoves and busy streets are dangerous. They are teaching them that the grownups upon whom they depend are dangerous. That's a bad lesson. Lost trust Survival is the newborn infant's overriding concern. Fear of falling and of loud noises, like the need to suckle, are not learned responses. They come ready-made and fully functioning at birth. And beginning immediately after birth, the sound of the mother's voice, the warmth and gentleness of her touch, the scent of her body, the taste of her milk - these key experiences inform the infant of its world and set the stage for all that follows. Trust is crucial and must be established early. Tragically for many, it is destroyed early. Neglect, rough handling, threats, shouts and associated harsh treatment including spanking, all of which begin earlier in children's lives than anyone wants to admit, are the principal agents of that destruction. Over the years, I've compiled a list of synonyms for spanking. That list continues to grow. I don't think there is another act with as many names for it in the English language. The reason for this seems clear to me. People who hit children feel compelled to trivialize and minimize the act, even to the point of making it seem comical. To this end, they have created a special language for the subject. They improvise endlessly on that language as if it were possible to sweeten violence toward children merely by inventing new, colorful, funny-sounding names for it. Meanwhile, what's happening to the unseen, internal life of the child? The spanked child, like one who is denied adequate food, warmth or rest, is less able to regard the parent as a source of love and security. The parent-child relationship is inevitably soured by this betrayal, and consequently the child fails to mature and thrive in the best possible way. When trust between children and their closest caretakers is damaged, the children's ability to form trusting relationships with others is also damaged, and the effect may be lifelong. People who have been harmed this way tend to see all relationships as negotiations, as deals to be won or lost. They are always on guard. They see honesty and trustfulness in others as weaknesses to be exploited exactly as it was once done to them. They tend to see the world as an extension of their early home life — a dangerous environment in which the best protection against being a victim is to become a victimizer. Neglect and permissiveness Defenders of spanking often argue that a caretaker's only choice is between spanking and doing nothing. That's a false choice. Permissiveness is as unwise and counterproductive as hitting. The wise caretaker establishes a safe environment with age-appropriate boundaries and reasonable rules, models called-for behaviors, and appeals to and cultivates the child's natural inclination toward imitation and cooperation. This method takes more skill and patience than hitting, but it works. It strengthens the bond of trust between parent and child, between teacher and learner, thus paving the way for the more challenging lessons ahead. Spousal battery and spanking In the overwhelming majority of cases, husbands and wives whose relationships include violence are also violent toward their children. Such people surely were spanked when they were little and likely witnessed others being spanked. Battering and battered spouses who spank their children are raising them to become batterers and victims exactly like themselves. The children learn from the parents' example that the way to vent frustration, express disapproval and assert authority is by hitting someone smaller and weaker than themselves. They see this principle demonstrated every time they witness their parents come to blows, as well as every time they are on the receiving end of violent punishments. They learn that once they are big enough and strong enough, they can control others by threatening or hurting them. They learn that it is okay for husbands and wives to mistreat each other and for adults to mistreat children. When children, whose personalities have been formed in violent households, grow up and have children of their own, they find it very difficult to break free from the behaviors they have witnessed and experienced. The skills they apply to family life will be the poor ones they learned from their parents, and they are likely to perpetuate the cycle of abuse through their own innocent children. As spanking disappears from family life, other forms of domestic violence will also disappear. Escalation Physical injuries and deaths of children caused by their caretakers often are the consequence of physical punishment. Perpetrators of even the most horrendous acts against children typically explain that the child's misbehavior called for punishment, and the outcome was unintended."Accidental" is the child abuser's all-weather alibi. Many infants' and toddlers' deaths attributed to accidents such as falling out of the crib, falling down the stairs, or accidentally drowning in the bathtub because the parent was distracted by a telephone call, would be reclassified as homicides if the truth were known. Sometimes the victim is blamed for his own misfortune, for example:"he bruises easily," "has soft bones,""is accident prone," "she brought it on herself," or "wouldn't hold still." Some defenders of spanking caution that spanking, to be done correctly, must be done with deliberation and methodically. "Never spank in anger," they say. The implicit message here is that it's quite alright to hurt another person on condition that one does it calmly. (Sadists enthusiastically endorse this formula.) But it is highly unlikely that anyone being abused - child or adult - notices or cares about the abuser's frame of mind. Many spankers are habituated to the practice because it provides them with an instant outlet for their feelings of frustration and anger - not because they've found it an effective way to improve a child's behavior. And because acts of violence, by their very nature, tend to escalate as they are indulged, there is no safe way to hit a child. Spanking and sexual molestation Spanked children learn that their bodies are not their personal property. Spanking trains them that even their sexual areas are subject to the will of adults. The child who submits to a spanking on Monday is not likely to say no to a molester on Tuesday. It's time spankers realized that - no matter what else they think they are accomplishing - they are setting children up to be easy prey for predators. Spanking the buttocks and sexual development Medical science has long recognized and documented in great detail how being struck on the buttocks can stimulate sexual feelings. Children are especially susceptible. The tragic consequence for many children who have been punished by spanking is that they form a connection between pain, humiliation and sexual arousal that endures for the rest of their lives. In Slaughter of the Innocents, David Bakan writes: "...The buttocks are the locus for the induction of pain in a child. We are familiar with the argument that it is a safe 'locus' for spanking. However, the anal region is also the major erotic region at precisely the time the child is likely to be beaten there. Thus it is aptly chosen to achieve the result of deranged sexuality in adulthood..." 1971 (p. 113) The pornography and prostitution industries do a thriving business catering to the needs of countless unfortunate individuals whose sexual development has been derailed by childhood spankings. If we put all other considerations aside, this should be reason enough never to spank a child. The physical dangers of hitting the buttocks Located deep in the buttocks is the sciatic nerve, the largest nerve in the body. A severe blow to the buttocks, particularly with a blunt instrument, could cause bleeding in the muscles that surround that nerve, possibly injuring it and causing impairment to the involved leg. In addition to nerve damage and soft tissue damage, a blow to the buttocks can cause injury to the tailbone (coccyx) or sacrum. It sends force waves upward through the spinal column possibly causing disc compression or compression fractures of vertebral bones. Some people, in their attempt to justify battering children's buttocks, claim that God or nature intended that part of the anatomy for spanking. That claim is brazenly perverse. No part of the human body was made to be mistreated. Physical danger of hitting the hands The child's hand is particularly vulnerable because its ligaments, nerves, tendons and blood vessels are close to the skin, which has no underlying protective tissue. Striking the hands of younger children is especially dangerous to the growth plates in the bones, which, if damaged, can cause deformity or impaired function. Striking a child's hand can also cause fractures, dislocations and lead to premature osteoarthritis. Shaking Being shaken can cause a child blindness, whiplash, brain damage, spinal cord injury and even death. Spanking at home, performance at school Perceptive teachers will tell you that the children who exhibit the most serious behavior problems at school also have the most troubled home environments. For many of these children, the battle zone which is their home life carries over into their school life. This sets them up for academic failure and dropout. In their attempt to erect a shield against what they see as a comfortless, hostile world, these children naturally seek the company of other children with similar problems. Street gangs evolve to fill the void left by failed home life and failed school life. We should not be surprised that many youngsters reject the adult world to the degree they believe it has rejected them. Nor should we be surprised that those who throughout childhood have been recipients of violence will become dispensers of it as soon as they are able. Some teachers work tirelessly to curb violence-impacted children's aggressiveness, to instill trust which those children lack, and to redirect their energies in positive directions. But that is a daunting task for even the most dedicated and best prepared teachers. It requires extraordinary resources unavailable to public school systems. School dropout, addiction and delinquency would cease to be major problems wracking our nation if only it were possible to persuade parents and other caretakers to stop socializing children in ways likely to make them antisocial and/or self-destructive. Spanking, smoking, drinking and drugs To be spanked is a degrading, humiliating experience. The spanked child absorbs not only the blows but also the message they convey: "You're worthless. I reject you!" That message powerfully influences the child's developing personality. It instills self-hatred. Sooner or later every child is exposed to substances that promise instant relief from feelings of worthlessness and rejection. Everywhere people can be seen medicating themselves in order to feel good. It's hard to convince a child who is suffering that something swallowed, inhaled or injected cannot relieve the pain more than briefly, but will compound it by creating additional, serious problems. Spanking and criminal behavior Everyone is familiar with the list of social maladies believed to be at the root of violent criminal behavior: poverty, discrimination, family breakdown, narcotics, gangs and easy access to deadly weapons. And it's clear that every item in the above list contributes to violence and crime. However, one key ingredient is rarely acknowledged - spanking. In 1940, researchers Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck began their landmark study of delinquent and nondelinquent boys. They discovered how certain early childhood influences cause children to develop antisocial, violent behaviors. They showed that the first signs of delinquency often appear in children as young as three - long before children come into contact with influences outside the home. The Gluecks showed that parents who fail to manage their children calmly, gently and patiently, but instead rely on physical punishment, tend to produce aggressive, assaultive children. The more severe and the earlier the mistreatment, the worse the outcome. The Gluecks also found that the lowest incidence of antisocial behavior is associated with children who are reared from infancy in attentive, supportive, nonviolent families. The message here for all parents is a simple one: if you want to do everything within your power to prevent your child from one day joining the prison population, guide gently and patiently. Remove shaming, shouting, ignoring, threatening, insulting, bullying and spanking from your parenting tool kit. Spanking and prejudice Spanking fills children with anger and the urge to retaliate. But this urge is almost never directly acted upon. Even the most severely spanked children, as a general rule, will not strike back at those who have hurt them. Instead, they are likely to seek relief in fantasy where they can safely vent their anger against make-believe adversaries. Sometimes bullying and acts of cruelty against younger siblings or family pets serve this purpose. Much popular entertainment aimed at young audiences caters to this need. As children grow and come under the influence of prejudices within their community, their anger can be easily channeled toward scapegoated groups. Hate cults and extremist political factions and sects beckon to them with open arms, offering an opportunity to convert fantasy into reality. In every generation, more than a few seize that offer. Spanking and brain development In early childhood, the brain develops faster than any other organ in the body. By age 5, the brain reaches about 90 percent of its adult weight, and by 7, it is fully grown. This makes early childhood a very sensitive and critical period in brain development. Stress caused by pain and fear of spanking can negatively affect the development and function of a child's brain. It is precisely during this period of great plasticity and vulnerability that many children are subjected to physical punishment. The effect can be a derailing of natural, healthy brain growth, resulting in life-long and irreversible abnormalities. According to researcher Dr. Martin Teicher of McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, "We know that an animal exposed to stress and neglect in early life develops a brain that is wired to experience fear, anxiety and stress. We think the same is true of people." (From "Child Abuse Changes the Developing Brain," Yahoo! News, Dec. 29, 2000.) In Teicher's article, "The Neurobiology of Child Abuse," Scientific American, March 2002, he writes: "...New brain imaging surveys and other experiments have shown that child abuse can cause permanent damage to the neural structure and function of the developing brain itself. This grim result suggests that much more effort must be made to prevent childhood abuse and neglect before it does irrevocable harm to millions of young victims (p. 70)... Society reaps what it sows in the way it nurtures children... (p. 75)." See www.nospank.net/mteicher.htm No responsible parent would deliberately jeopardize a child's normal brain development, yet that is precisely what spankers unwittingly do. Spanking at school The disciplinary hitting of students in the United States typically involves battering the buttocks with a flat stick or board called a paddle. At the time of this writing, the practice is legal in 21 states. It should be understood that paddling is not the only method for inflicting pain. Forced exercise and denial of use of the bathroom, for instance, are commonly used as forms of corporal punishment. But paddling, because it is specifically prescribed and so blatant, serves to overshadow and thereby give cover to less obvious forms of abusive treatment. Corporal punishment is deemed by its users and defenders as being in the children's best interests and essential to the smooth functioning of the school. Were that true, schools that are the most punitive would be the highest-performing, children who are routinely punished would be the best behaved, and teachers' colleges would teach paddling. In fact, school systems with the highest rates of corporal punishment are the worst-performing, children who are the most punished are the most troubled and difficult to manage, and there is not one accredited college in the United States that instructs future educators in the proper method for hitting children. Documented research shows a correlation between school corporal punishment and certain negative social outcomes. States that have the highest rates of school paddling also have the lowest graduation rates, the highest rates of teen pregnancy, the highest incarceration rates and the highest murder rates. (See "Correlation between high rates of corporal punishment in public schools and social pathologies," (2002) The use of corporal punishment in schools also has a demoralizing effect on teachers who don't condone the practice. They have difficulty working alongside paddlers. Their survival in such an environment depends on their willingness to remain silent about what they witness. They know that paddlers feel threatened by their very presence. It's not unusual for a paddling school to degenerate to a level where it is nothing more than a magnet and safe haven for incompetent teachers, including some who are dangerously unfit to be left in charge of children. Teachers who favor a power-based management style, including the use of corporal punishment, sometimes rise to positions of authority where they set a bad example for everyone under their control and influence. A teacher recounts this experience when he applied for a position in such a place: "The interview began with the director asking me how I felt about corporal punishment. I told him that I disapproved of it and that I couldn't and wouldn't do it. He replied, 'Well, since that's the way you feel, you're of no use to us here,' and the interview was over." School corporal punishment has disappeared nearly everywhere in the developed world. Not one country in Europe permits it, and abolition is spreading at a rapid pace among developing nations. Virtually nowhere is there any movement within governments or among educators to reverse this trend and return to the old ways. Only one country on record temporarily revoked its prohibition against hitting students: Germany during the Nazi era. Meanwhile, approximately 1/4 million beatings are inflicted on students in schools of the United States every year. Typical injuries resulting from school corporal punishment can be viewed at www.nospank.net/violatn.htm What should enlightened, responsible parents do about corporal punishment in their schools? If you knew that a school bus had bald tires and faulty brakes, you would not let your child ride that bus, and you would demand that your school authorities correct the problem immediately. If you knew that the air ducts in your school were contaminated with asbestos and the classrooms were painted with lead-based paint, you'd remove your child immediately and alert other parents to the danger. Corporal punishment is no different. It is very dangerous, and all sensible people in the community should unite in opposition to it. WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY "If we really want a peaceful and compassionate world, we need to build communities of trust where all children are respected, where home and school are safe places to be and where discipline is taught by example." Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, 2006. See www.nospank.net/globalreport.pdf "The claim that mild punishment (slaps or smacks) have no detrimental effect is still widespread because we received this message very early from our parents who had taken it over from their parents. Unfortunately, the main damage it causes is precisely the broad dissemination of this conviction. The result is that each successive generation is subjected to the tragic effects of so-called 'physical correction.' ... Physical cruelty and emotional humiliation not only leave their marks on children, they also inflict a disastrous imprint on the future of our society. Information on the effects of the "well-meant smack" should therefore be part and parcel of courses for expectant mothers and of counseling for parents." Alice Miller, Excerpt from: "Every Smack is a Humiliation," 1998. See www.nospank.net/miller3.htm "A society with little or no hitting of children is likely to result in fewer people who are alienated, depressed, or suicidal, and in fewer violent marriages. The potential benefits for the society as a whole are equally great. These include lower crime rates, especially for violent crimes; increased economic productivity; and less money spent on controlling or treating crime and mental illness... A society that brings up children by caring, humane, and non-violent methods is likely to be less violent, healthier, and wealthier." Murray Straus, Co-Director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. From "A Society without Corporal Punishment." See www.nospank.net/straus5.htm. "The most positive social changes around the world have followed mass improvements in the way children are treated." Robin Grille, author of Parenting for a Peaceful World, 2005. "Children should never receive less protection than adults. . . [we must] put an end to adult justification of violence against children, whether accepted as 'tradition' or disguised as 'discipline'." Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Member of the UN Sub-commission on the promotion and protection of human rights, Geneva, 2006. "I have never accepted the principle of 'spare the rod and spoil the child.'... I am persuaded that violent fathers produce violent sons... Children don't need beating. They need love and encouragement. They need fathers to whom they can look with respect rather than fear. Above all, they need example." Gordon B. Hinckley, President, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 1994 General Conference. "Any form of corporal punishment or 'spanking' is a violent attack upon another human being's integrity. The effect remains with the victim forever and becomes an unforgiving part of his or her personality - a massive frustration resulting in a hostility which will seek expression in later life in violent acts towards others. The sooner we understand that love and gentleness are the only kinds of called-for behavior towards children, the better. The child, especially, learns to become the kind of human being that he or she has experienced. This should be fully understood by all caregivers." Ashley Montagu, Anthropologist, 1989. Excerpt from personal communication. See www.nospank.net/montagu.htm "Corporal punishment of children actually interferes with the process of learning and with their optimal development as socially responsible adults. We feel it is important for public health workers, teachers and others concerned for the emotional and physical health of children and youth to support the adoption of alternative methods for the achievement of self-control and responsible behavior in children and adolescents." Daniel F. Whiteside, Assistant Surgeon General, Department of Health & Human Services, Administration of President Ronald Reagan, 1990. Excerpt from personal communication. "When our Founding Fathers wrote into the basic law of our land protection against cruel and unusual punishment for everyone including dissenters and criminals, they had not been convinced by evidence, scientific or otherwise, that such punishments do not work. They added the amendment because of ethical considerations. They prized the climate of freedom more than the security of governing a populace forcibly of one mind. Over the years these proud hopes have slowly approached reality. Except for children. Which brings us back to our original question: How does it become possible to bypass standard ethics for certain sets of people?" Adah Maurer, "Psychodynamics of the Punisher," Watman Educational Services, 1974. See www.nospank.net/maurer2.htm "Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well-known standard effects: (1) escape - education has its own name for that: truancy, (2) counterattack - vandalism on schools and attacks on teachers, (3) apathy - a sullen do-nothing withdrawal. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products." B. F. Skinner, Ph.D., author, Professor of Psychology, Harvard. Excerpt from personal communication, 1983. "Corporal punishment trains children to accept and tolerate aggression. It always figures prominently in the roots of adolescent and adult aggressiveness, especially in those manifestations that take an antisocial form such as delinquency and criminality." Philip Greven, Professor of History, Rutgers University. Excerpt from PART IV CONSEQUENCES, subheading: "Aggression and Delinquency," in Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse, 1990 (p.193) "I have always been an advocate for the total abolition of corporal punishment and I believe the connection with pornography that is so oriented has its roots in our tradition of beating children." Gordon Moyes, D. D., Pastor, Uniting Church, Superintendent of the Wesley Central Mission, Sydney, Australia. Excerpt from personal communication, 1980. "The much-touted 'biblical argument' in support of corporal punishment is founded upon proof-texting a few isolated passages from Proverbs. Using the same method of selective scripture reading, one could also cite the Bible as an authority for the practice of slavery, adultery, polygamy, incest, suppression of women, executing people who eat pork, and infanticide. The brutal and vindictive practice of corporal punishment cannot be reconciled with the major New Testament themes that teach love and forgiveness and a respect for the sacredness and dignity of children, and which overwhelmingly reject violence and retribution as a means of solving human problems. Would Jesus ever hit a child? NEVER!" The Rev. Thomas E. Sagendorf, United Methodist Clergy (Retired), Hamilton, Indiana. Personal communication, 2006. "Researchers have also found that children who are spanked show higher rates of aggression and delinquency in childhood than those who were not spanked. As adults, they are more prone to depression, feelings of alienation, use of violence toward a spouse, and lower economic and professional achievement. None of this is what we want for our children." Alvin Poussaint, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. From "Spanking Strikes Out" , 1999. "Infliction of pain or discomfort, however minor, is not a desirable method of communicating with children." American Medical Association, House of Delegates, 1985. "As long as the child will be trained not by love, but by fear, so long will humanity live not by justice, but by force. As long as the child will be ruled by the educator's threat and by the father's rod, so long will mankind be dominated by the policeman's club, by fear of jail, and by panic of invasion by armies and navies." Boris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D., from "A lecture on the abuse of the fear instinct in early education" in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1919. "Slavish discipline makes a slavish temper... Beating them, and all other sorts of slavish and corporal punishments, are not the discipline fit to be used in the education of those we would have wise, good, and ingenuous men." John Locke, "Some Thoughts Concerning Education," 1692. "Chide not the pupil hastily, for that will both dull his wit and discourage his diligence, but [ad]monish him gently, which shall make him both willing to amend and glad to go forward in love and hope of learning... Let the master say, 'Here ye do well.' For I assure you there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good wit and encourage a love of learning as his praise... In mine opinion, love is fitter than fear, gentleness better than beating, to bring up a child rightly in learning." Roger Ascham, Tutor to Queen Elizabeth I, from The Scholemaster, published 1570. "Children ought to be led to honorable practices by means of encouragement and reasoning, and most certainly not by blows and ill treatment." Plutarch, circa 45 -120 CE, "The Education of Children," Vol. I, Moralia, Ancient Greece. "It is a disgusting and slavish treatment... When children are beaten, pain or fear frequently have the result of which it is not pleasant to speak and which are likely subsequently to be a source of shame, shame which unnerves and depresses the mind and leads the child to shun the light of day and loathe the light... I will spend no longer time on this matter. We know enough about it already." Quintilian, circa 90 CE, Institutes of Oratory, Ancient Rome QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: What do virtually all juvenile delinquents have in common? A: They have been raised by spankers. Q: What was a common feature of the childhoods of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and Charles Manson? A: Each one was relentlessly, severely, physically punished. Q: What do most prisoners on death row have in common? A: Plenty of spankings during childhood. Q: What do rapists, arsonists, terrorists, torturers, serial killers, mass murderers, suicide bombers, kidnappers, snipers, assassins, muggers, vandals, spouse batterers and stalkers have in common? A: Violent upbringing. Q: Which child is destined never to join the company of felons? A: One who is raised in a nurturing, attentive, supportive, non-spanking family. Q: To turn a friendly puppy into a vicious guard dog, what must you do to it? A: Restrict its movement and beat it often. HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE There are people in your community who have never heard the ideas expressed in this publication. It's time they heard, don't you agree? We invite you to become an active partner in our campaign to spread the word that a safe, sane, nonviolent world begins at home, one child at a time. The evidence is clear: gentle, patient, caring treatment of children during their formative years is the "magic pill" that puts them on the right path for a lifetime. Since children behave as well as they are treated and learn from example, we have a duty to expose them to the best treatment and the best examples. They in turn will perpetuate that standard with their own children, and so on into future generations. It's that simple. Many people initially respond to the evidence against spanking with skepticism. Some reject it outright. Some refuse to think about it or may even become annoyed or hostile because this information makes them feel exposed and vulnerable. Don't let that discourage you. There are others who want to know why the old familiar method for socializing children works so poorly. And there are those who already are raising their children without violence but need reassurance that they are on the right track. We are confident that some day soon civilized humanity will look back with astonishment and pity at the time when people believed hitting children was good for them. As this booklet goes to press, there are 26 nations that have modernized their laws so that statutory protection against assault and battery applies to all persons irrespective of age. They have wisely closed spankers' legal loophole. Listed with their respective dates of reform, they are: Sweden - 1979, Finland - 1983, Norway - 1987, Austria - 1989, Cyprus - 1994, Italy -1996, Denmark - 1997, Latvia - 1998, Croatia - 1999, Bulgaria - 2000, Germany - 2000, Israel - 2000, Iceland - 2003, Ukraine - 2004, Romania - 2004, Hungary - 2005, Greece - 2006, Netherlands - 2007, New Zealand - 2007, Portugal - 2007, Uruguay - 2007, Venezuela - 2007, Chile - 2007, Spain - 2007, Costa Rica - 2008, Republic of Moldova - 2009 . . . and counting! RECOMMENDED FURTHER STUDY Visit PTAVE's Web site, "Project NoSpank" at www.nospank.net. There, you'll find scholarly works that constitute the bibliography for this booklet and a vast collection of related articles, letters and book excerpts. Especially see Alice Miller's For Your Own Good: Hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence at www.nospank.net/fyog.htm.

Ok I have to be honest here. I have no kids so I have no idea (nor the desire to find out) how a child should be disciplined, or if all children should be disciplined the same way. What I DO know is, the sound of someone elses child screaming their head off while mommy decides she's gonna ignore the child and let her brat scream it off drives me insane. The sound of a child's scream (one of many reasons I don't have kids)sends a signal down my spine that sends a painful shockwave through my entire body and triggers a reflex that makes me grab the nearest sharp object and shove it in my ears....or the source of the sound....or anyone within arm's reach for that matter. Frankly I don't care how people like that discipline their kids. Beat them, take them to the car, do whatever it takes to shut them up..but DO NOT IGNORE THEM!!! Mothers, you might know how to block out the lovely birdsongs of your precious progeny, but I cannot...and honestly, shouldn't have to.

Why would anyone need abuse?

I don't know what the child was doing but I don't think it was something that endangered itself or others. That is the only reason hitting a child is acceptable. Using corporal punishment on a child damages their emotional growth. It is lazy parenting at best and could cause irreparable damage to the child.

people talk so much bollox these days. i was spanked as a child and i believe im a very well rounded individual with no "mental problems" as it has been suggested. an odd slap does them no harm.

Larry, I think the internet can handle the "page hogging" TiZion, like gtravels said, you sound desperate to justify some sort of guilt or abuse of your own. Do you have any research to back up your claims? The "line of b.s." you mentioned was based on clinical research of spanked/abused people. And they were not talking about abusive people becoming psychos, they said CHILDREN who are abused go on to have problems. And YES, spanking does indeed cause sexual abnormalities. I know many people into BDSM, or Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism simply because of being spanked/abused as a child. Have you ever wondered why that community is so large? Yes it is a hot button issue. It seems that people are desperate not to believe that it hurts children because that would make them abusers.

I have a 22 year and a 16 year old both boys and both who have never been in any trouble. Both at one time or another recieved one good open handed smack to the back of the head and only one was needed. Spankining a child is fine and people have no right to butt in however, I have also seen the kid that no longer responds to being spanked then what? But noone has the right, even though they are trying, to tell you how to raise your kids. hurtzsogood

Because people believe all that psychological bs. Yes, some people are abusive but that is a very small minority. When I was a kid a teacher or even a neighbor could spank you and then, if they had, you got another one when you got home. I never got one that I didn't deserve! And, I'm a better person for it. The world that I grew up in was so much better than the world that these psycho know-it-all buttinskies have created that it is just pathetic to see how things have turned.

Why is it against the rules of the Geneva convention to spank prisoners, yet people think it's ok to do the same thing to their children?

If an adult came up to another adult and started to hit them or spank them, they would be charged with assault. So how can people think it's ok to hit a small child? Do they think the child has no human rights?

I am ashamed to say that there have been a couple of occasions in which I have slapped my son's hand - with the intent to shock him into changing his behaviour. The second he felt it, he dropped the fish tank's power cord out of his mouth, and stared at me with the most confused look on his face... and I was devastated. Here I was, his Mama, the one person that gives him comfort, protection, that nurses him to sleep every night and kisses away his boo boos, and I STRUCK him! How dare I do that to my boy? Yes, I was scared - he was biting an electrical cord, for christ's sake - but was there ANYTHING I could have done otherwise? Of course. I SHOULD have kept my cool. I KNOW that. So why was my first reaction to grab his little hand and slap it? It was like a flashback in a bad movie... I saw my mother through the eyes of a six year old girl, and she was holding a wooden spoon and screaming. I will NEVER strike my child again. Period.

I'm sorry but I have swatted my children on the rear...not often but when it was called for. When a behavior repeats itself over and over and over and the time out no longer works and going to your room doesn't work. My children figured out very quickly in public that my options were limited. I couldn't put them in time out when I had a grocerie cart full of food, there was no room to put them in, and being threatned did not bring immediate punishment, You can bet your ass when my child was screaming at the top of her lungs and refused to stop because she wanted this or that I sawtted her butt...and because I didn't do this very often..they knew I meant business and they would never do it again. Do they remember it? I just asked and they don't. I swatted my children less than 5 times before the age of 5...and my son once when he was 8 for tossing a ball into the street and making my two year old go get it. I don't think it had lasting effects. My children are well rounded young adults with manors and are very respectable within my home and community. Your studies have lots of merit but I don't completely agree. My supporting facts are my children and what they have stated to me. They don't recall it, my son is not here, I am sure he does but I know this did not have terriable lasting effects on him.

these are the same people who only believe in positive reinforcement ... never say no to a kid because it will lead to problems down the road in life ... what a load of bullshit that is , look at how this last generation of kids have turned out. They fall to bits when they don't get their own way or get everything given to them on a plate or when REAL LIFE smacks them in the mouth. Nothing wrong in giving a kid a smack on the arse when its needed.. pulls them very quick and it gets their attention, I grw up in a generation where almost every kid got a smacked arse and I know of very very very few who this had a bad effect on in later life ... the few who did had or would have had problems anyway

A) they are hippies OR B) people criticize what they do not know/or are afraid of I believe in spanking :) one of the few