CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: Acceptable Parenting or Abusive Behavior?

It All Depends

Parents do have a right to use reasonable physical force against their child in order to maintain discipline or to promote the child’s welfare. The use of excessive corporal punishment, however, legally constitutes neglect.

What is Reasonable?

Since there are countless different scenarios arise, the law is often very unclear when it comes defining any issue. Thus, every situation is analyzed on its own.

It is easiest to first think in terms of what is most obvious. Certainly any corporal punishment that results in a real injury will be deemed excessive. Thus, there will never be a dispute when the parent causes the child to suffer from a head injury, laceration or broken bone.

Lesser injuries of bruises or scrapes are less clear. Marks on the face and neck are always judged to be excessive. Marks on other areas of the body are almost always deemed to be excessive as well.

Also, the use of a an object as a tool in the corporal punishment is also usually deemed to be inappropriate. Thus, a parent should never employ items such as a belt, cord or broom stick when exercising corporal punishment.

What Corporal Punishment Can I Use?

If a Court does find that corporal punishment was not excessive, it is usually because it was an isolated incident with an open hand and without an object that did not cause any physical injury to the child.

But I Was Raised Differently?

It is true that historically corporal punishment was acceptable, even to very significant levels. And it is also true that much of the world still allows for the practice. But here times have changed and parenting strategies are expected to be quite different, at least from the legal perspective.

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