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USA
Corporal Punishment by Parents
Fact: It is legal in all 50 states for a parent to spank, hit, belt, paddle, whip or otherwise inflict punitive pain on a child, insofar as the corporal punishment does not meet the individual state’s definition of "child abuse".
Fact: It is illegal in all 50 states for an adult to strike or to otherwise inflict any type of punitive pain upon another adult citizen, including spouses, domestic partners, employees, teachers, senior citizens, patients in psychiatric facilities, military trainees and prisoners. The same does not apply to persons under the age of 18.
Fact: The United States and Somalia are the only two countries in the United Nations who refuse to ratify The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, "the most comprehensive children's rights treaty
in existence" (Stohl, 2002).
Fact: Minnesota is the only state in which parents tried for child abuse cannot defend their abusive actions by claiming they were exercising their right to corporally punish their child (www.stophitting.com).
Fact: The states of Nevada and Oklahoma recently renewed their laws allowing parents the right to strike their children (www.stophitting.com).
Fact: Boys are the victims of the majority of parental corporal punishment; their punishments are more severe, more frequent and more aggressive than punishments administered to girls (Straus, 1994; Kipnis, 1999; Kindlon and Thompson, 1999; Newberger, 1999; Hyman, 1997).
Fact: Both mothers and fathers are more likely to hit their sons than their daughters, with mothers doing the majority of the hitting of both sons and daughters. Fathers are least likely to hit daughters (Straus, 1994; Bartollas, 1997).
Fact: The first publicly documented victim of child abuse required protection under the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1871, as there was no such protection agency for children until 1874!
Corporal Punishment by Schools
Fact: It is legal in 23 states for public and private schools to paddle or use other forms of corporal punishment on a child.
Fact: The following 29 states have formally banned corporal punishment in public and private schools. They are recognized as:
- Alaska
- California
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Dakota
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania (2005)
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
In all other states it is legal for children to be physically punished by school teachers or school administrators, and in some states, residential facility workers, foster parents, day care providers and youth detention workers, as permitted by state law or individual school districts (For specific USA statutes and the most up-to-date info on school CP law, visit The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children at: http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/ or The Center for Effective Discipline athttp://www.stophitting.com).
Fact: Seven states stand out as being the most violent towards school children, all of which overwhelmingly administer the most school corporal punishment in the United States:
- Texas
- Florida
- Mississippi
- Indiana
- Arkansas
- Louisiana
- South Carolina
www.stophitting.com
Fact: Boys are the victims of the majority of school corporal punishment; their punishments are more severe, more frequent and more aggressive than punishments administered to girls (Straus, 1994; Kipnis, 1999; Kindlon and Thompson, 1999; Newberger, 1999; Hyman, 1997).
INTERNATIONAL
Corporal Punishment by Parents
Fact: Sweden was the first country to fully protect children against assaults by adults. In 1979, Sweden formally banned parents from using any form of corporal punishment on their children.
Fact: It is illegal in the following 17 countries for a parent, teacher or caretaker to use any form of corporal punishment on a child:
- Sweden (1979)
- Finland (1983)
- Denmark (1985)
- Norway (1986)
- Austria (1989)
- Cyprus (1994)
- Croatia (1996)
- Italy (1996)
- Latvia (1998)
- Germany (2000)
- Israel (2000)
- Bulgaria (2000)
- Iceland (2003)
- Romania (2004)
- Ukraine (2004)
- Hungary (2004)
- Portugal (2004)
(For specific statutes and the most up-to-date info on CP International law, visit: The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children at: www.endcorporalpunishment.org or The Center for Effective Discipline at www.stophitting.com)
Fact: Bans on parental corporal punishment are not encoded into criminal law; therefore, they are laws based on principle, to declare the human rights of children, not to criminalize parents. For example, In Sweden, no parent has actually been prosecuted for corporal punishment under the ban.
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