R. Evid. In such cases, normativeness should not be determinative. A large body of researchshows links between corporal punishment and a wide range of negative outcomes, both immediate and long-term: There is some evidence of a doseresponse relationship, with studies finding that the association with child aggression and lower achievement in mathematics and reading ability became stronger as the frequency of corporal punishment increased. Courts frequently consider whether an act of physical discipline is an isolated event or part of a larger pattern of arguably unreasonable discipline.109 If the individual injuries are relatively minor, a pattern, or chronicity, may cause them to be classified as abuse.110 Courts may place importance on a pattern of abuse because they fear that an escalation of violence in the future could put the child at risk. The elimination of violence against children is called for in several targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development but most explicitly in Target 16.2: end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children. the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. All Rights Reserved, Victims of Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Elder Abuse, Rape, Robbery, Assault, and Violent Death, A Manual for Clergy and Congregations, Special Edition for Military Chaplains, Section I: Child Abuse and Neglect, Effects of Child Abuse on Children: Abuse General, Effects of Child Abuse on Children: Child Sexual Abuse, Injuries to Children: Physical and Sexual Abuse, Effects of Child Abuse on Adults: Childhood Abuse, Effects of Child Abuse on Adults: Childhood Sexual Abuse, Child Physical Abuse and Corporal Punishment, Nationwide Crisis Line and Hotline Directory. As a theoretical matter, this standard reflects appropriate recognition of the societal significance of parental rights and responsibilities and permits intervention in the family only when there is evidence of important physical, emotional, or developmental harm to the child. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal Depending on the jurisdiction, trial courts may be specially denominated family, juvenile, or dependency courts. Decisionmakers, perhaps especially CPS professionals, have increasingly defined serious harm to include delayed internal injuries, long-term disability, and even psychological or emotional disorders. On hitting children: a review of corporal punishment in the United States. 6303(b)(1)(i), 6303(b)(1)(iii) (West 2001) (emphasis added). These provisions typically use the term reasonable to describe legally acceptable corporal punishment, although some employ the term excessive to describe corporal punishment that has crossed the line of acceptability. Edwards Leonard P. Corporal Punishment and the Legal System. Several states have chosen to codify the common-law standard as we suggest, as a two-pronged test requiring that accused parents establish both a disciplinary motive and the reasonableness of the force used.210 As to the first, disciplinary prong, some states require a finding that discipline be reasonable in the circumstances, whereas others require a finding of necessity.211 The necessity standard places a much higher burden on parents: it is literally the difference between having to establish that the community would or should find a particular discipline acceptable and that the community would or should find such discipline necessary. In particular, courts and the lawyers practicing before them sometimes appear uninterested in or uncomfortable with scientific evidence about nonphysical sequelae. Because they do some important good, however, and because their contents often reflect nonnormative parenting, either in fact or aspirationally, we do not suggest that they be eliminated. They approve (or not) CPS decisions to declare children in need of protection, either temporarily, during the pendency of an investigation, or for a longer term, following substantiation of maltreatment. Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 40103 (1923) (discussing the downsides of alternative child-rearing models); Davis et al.. Lehr v. Robertson, 463 U.S. 248, 257 (1983) ([T]he Court has emphasized the paramount interest in the welfare of children and has noted that the rights of parents are a counterpart of the responsibilities they have assumed.); Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584, 602 (1979) (Parents generally, have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare [their children] for additional obligations.) (quoting Pierce v. Socy of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 535 (1925)); Bartlett Katharine T. Re-Expressing Parenthood. Physical punishment appeared to be highly prevalent at both primary and secondary school levels. The manner in which this is resolved theologically must be left to each minister, priest, rabbi or imam.Child Abuse Introduction | Signs of Child AbuseChild Abuse Statistics | Its Under ReportedEffects of Child Abuse on Children: Abuse GeneralEffects of Child Abuse on Children: Child Sexual AbuseInjuries to Children: Physical and Sexual AbuseEffects of Child Abuse on Adults: Childhood AbuseEffects of Child Abuse on Adults: Childhood Sexual AbuseDefinition of Physical Abuse | Signs of Physical AbuseDefinition of Sexual Abuse | Signs of Sexual AbuseDefinition of Child Neglect | Signs of Child NeglectDefinition of Emotional Abuse | Signs of Emotional AbuseAbusers | PedophilesChild Physical Abuse and Corporal PunishmentTreatment for Child AbuseCosts to SocietyConclusionsReferencesState Child Abuse LawsNationwide Crisis Line and Hotline Directory. Rather than discovering a cut-off level below which corporal punishment has no ill effects, scientists interpret the research findings as indicating that corporal punishment experiences have a cumulative effect that grows proportionately with the amount and severity of punishment. Johnson Kandice K. Crime or Punishment: The Parental Corporal Punishment DefenseReasonable and Necessary, or Excused Abuse? Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions. Code Ann. Hamilton County Jon & Family Services (2020) 2017 May;67:64-75. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.02.008. Consistent with state statutes that typically define physical abuse in terms of harm or injury to the child, courts drawing the line between reasonable corporal punishment and unlawful physical abuse focus heavily on the degree and severity of the childs physical injury. Deater-Deckard Kirby, Dodge Kenneth, Sorbring Emma. The cases suggest that courts are more inclined to classify a disciplinary measure as abuse when the act is administered against a young child or one with physical or mental disabilities.100 The courts consideration of these characteristics can be explained in two ways. Depending on the severity, chronicity, or context of corporal punishment, however, parental behavior can also harm the child, including to the level of functional impairment, and that thus should be identified as physical abuse. Consistent with prevailing statutory language, when evaluating whether an act of corporal punishment was reasonable or abusive, CPS most typically considers the nature and degree of the immediate physical harm to the child.49 The extent to which that injury may have longterm or even permanent physical consequences will generally affect the CPS determination, particularly in those jurisdictions that require a serious or severe injury either statutorily or by custom. Teitelbaum Lee E. The Family as a System: A Preliminary Sketch. These two paradigms together should govern the development of the operative legal definitions and process because, separately and at times in combination, they are the approaches currently used by the relevant legal actors. Epub 2009 Jan 23. State Intervention on Behalf of Neglected Children: A Search for Realistic Standards. Notably, the merits of this traditional doctrine are reinforced by scientific findings that children are more likely to suffer functional impairments from moderate corporal punishment when they do not perceive a legitimate disciplinary motive.199. Duhaime A, et al. Nevertheless, a careful analysis of the relevant cases shows that, in general, courts consider many of the same factors as CPS does, including the degree and severity of the childs injury, the childs real and developmental age, the manner of discipline, and whether a pattern of abuse (chronicity) is present. This probability is based on matching the parents behavior and childs current status with a scientific literature that says if the parents behavior is. 2009 Jan;33(1):1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2008.12.001. The second involved a series of interviews with CPS professionals, including CPS directors, supervisors, and frontline social workers in counties in several states across the country. The state, on the other hand, could more easily marshal this evidence given its expertise; furthermore, the evidence would mostly be reusable in its other and future cases. When Corporal Punishment Becomes Physical Abuse . Epub 2017 Feb 27. At least some case workers appear to be using a combination of valid evidence, intuition, or presumed knowledge about the nonphysical sequelae of physical injuries. Accessibility As one court pointed out, an object may create a barrier between the parent and child and prevent the parent from realizing how hard he is striking the child.105 Uncontrolled, forceful striking or the use of an object to strike a child also might increase the risk of severe injury if the child squirms or otherwise moves as the discipline is being administered.106 Interestingly, there is some evidence that parents choose to discipline with an object instead of a hand because they believe doing so is less harmful to the child. The state should have the burden of alleging and proving that a parent has abused a child. This in turn demands that the parents be given a wide sphere of discretion.129 Although the United States Supreme Court has never had occasion to rule on whether corporal punishment is included among parents federal constitutional rights, this disciplinary option is well-established under state law.130 Specifically, states have long provided parents with an exception to tort- and criminal-law prohibitions against physical assaults when they can establish a disciplinary motive for the assault and when the assault itself is reasonable.131 Twentieth-century case law is thus replete with holdings like this one: A parent has the right to punish a child within the bounds of moderation and reason, so long as he or she does it for the welfare of the child.132 The states approach has its origins in the Colonial period, [when] [corporal] punishment was thought to be a desirable and necessary instrument of restraint upon sin and immorality, as well as having a regenerative effect on the childs character.133 This view derived in turn from traditional English doctrine, which holds that a parent may lawfully correct his child, being under age, in a reasonable manner, for this is for the benefit of his education.134 Modern maltreatment law has adopted this common-law exception.135, In general, parental autonomy is viewed as being good for society, good for parents, and good for children. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help Caused or may have caused physical injury or death to an individual receiving services. In the case of potential child abuse by physical beating, it becomes extremely important that such scholars do resolve these apparent discrepancies. These passages from the book of Proverbs read, He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (Proverbs 13:24, King James Version, KJV) Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. (Proverbs 22:15, KJV) Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. Just over half of state definitions contain only broad language and fail to provide specific examples of injuries or acts constituting physical abuse or to elaborate otherwise on the meaning of physical harm or injury. Code 300 (2006). Cultural Normativeness as a Moderator. The parents behavior per se is less significant than the meaning of the behavior as interpreted by the child.178 This meaning is determined by the family context, including chronicity of the act, the contingency of the act on the childs misbehavior, mitigating factors such as temporary stress and the childs instigation of the act, and exacerbating factors such as parents taunting and psychological abuse. Examples of the latter include infants and some special-needs children who, because of their level of brain development or pathology, simply cannot make the connection between their conduct and the physical force that follows. Finally, personal histories, training, and ideology may continue to influence social workers exercise of discretion, regardless of the nature of the administrative constraints under which they are placed. Of course, some nonnormative behavior will neither cause nor risk functional impairment and some normative behavior will cause or risk causing functional impairment. Specifically, it is consistent with long-standing parental autonomy and corporal-punishment law, which draw the line of impermissibility at assaults that are either not in the childs best interests or that will accomplish the opposite of the goal of the corporal-punishment exceptionsecuring the childs future as a law-abiding and otherwise successful child and citizen.194 Notably, the rationales underlying the traditional corporal-punishment exception focus on the childs intellectual and emotional development, not on the childs physical well-being. For a discussion of these and other nonnormative disciplines, see Renteln. One study, which followed 3,001 white, African American, and Mexican low-income toddlers from ages one to three, found that, even after controlling for fussiness or other factors that might lead a parent to spank a young child, the experience of being spanked even modestly caused children to become more aggressive and to have lower cognitive development (as measured by the well-validated Bayley Scales of Infant Development).173 A second study followed two cohorts of children: the first, a group of 499 children followed from ages five to sixteen; the second, a group of 258 children followed from ages five to fifteen. In K-12 schools, corporal punishment is often spanking, with either a hand or paddle, or striking a student across his/her hand with a ruler or leather strap. To some extent this discomfort is due to the exclusive focus of statutory abuse definitionseither in plain text or as interpreted by other courts in the jurisdictionon the childs physical injuries. 2d 1027, 1028 (Fla. Dist. This law is effectively dispositive because CPS decisions in individual cases mostly go uncontested. Child Welfare Information Gateway is a service of the, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Philosophy and Key Elements of Family-Centered Practice, Family-Centered Practice Across the Service Continuum, Creating a Family-Centered Agency Culture, Risk Factors That Contribute to Child Abuse and Neglect, People Who Engage in Child Abuse or Neglect, Overview: Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs, Public Awareness & Creating Supportive Communities, Developing & Sustaining Prevention Programs, Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention, Introduction to Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect, Differential Response in Child Protective Services, Responding to Child Maltreatment Near Fatalities and Fatalities, Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare, Collaborative Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect, Supporting Families With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, Introduction to Family Support and Preservation, In-Home Services Involved With Child Protection, Resources for Managers of Family Support and Preservation Services, Transition to Adulthood and Independent Living, Overview: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency, Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families, Permanency for Specific Youth Populations, Working With Children, Youth, and Families in Permanency Planning, Working With Children, Youth, and Families After Permanency, Resources for Administrators and Managers About Permanency, Children's Bureau Adoption Call to Action, Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State, For Adoption Program Managers & Administrators, For Expectant Parents Considering Adoption and Birth Parents, Administering & Managing Child Welfare Agencies & Programs, Evaluating Program and Practice Effectiveness, ndice de Ttulos en Espaol (Spanish Title Index), National Foster Care & Adoption Directory, Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series. charleston style house plans for narrow lots. Kang Jerry. Before This behavior can indeed place the infant into a trancelike state. Corporal punishment is likely to lead to functional impairment to the extent that the child (even a toddler or infant) experiences and interprets the parents actions as rejecting, hateful, or threatening. Guidelines for the decisionmaker come from features of both the parents behavior and the childs reaction. Only a handful of the cases reviewed contained any references to emotional or developmental effects. Of course, children sometimes lie or fail to communicate clearly, and so clinical judgment by a skilled professional may be particularly helpful to this process. The article proceeds as follows: Part II describes what is known about how the relevant institutional actorslegislatures, CPS, and courtscurrently find and define the line between reasonable and unlawful corporal punishment.15 Part III separately describes the parental-autonomy norms and scientific knowledge that currently compete for primacy in the discourse about corporal punishment and, as far as we can tell, largely contribute to decisions about the lawfulness of particular incidents on the ground. Part IV begins with an argument for definitional and methodological changes that reflects both parental-autonomy norms and scientific knowledge and follows with specific suggestions for policy reform. the force used is reasonable in nature and moderate in degree. (June 16, 2009) (on file with L & CP); telephone interview by Erin Vernon with a county CPS supervisor, Adams County, Neb. 232.68 (West 2006). The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Lansford Jennifer E, et al. Abuse and Neglect: The Educators Guide to The Identification and Prevention of Child Maltreatment. Episode 84: What Does an Effective Support System Look Like? 12-18-103(2)(A)(vi) (2009). WebOne distinction is that physical abuse results in nonaccidental physical injury to the child, while corporal punishment may cause temporary discomfort, but should not result in McCurdy William E. Torts Between Persons in Domestic Relations. Comment on Gershoff(2002). MeSH They are often willing to view physical discipline, even physical discipline that causes minor physical injury to the child, as reasonable, provided the parents disciplinary act was a legitimate attempt to correct the childs misbehavior.117 If the evidence suggests that a parent was instead acting viciously out of anger or cruelty, however, courts are not willing to afford parents the same discretion.118 Many courts that do not explicitly evaluate the necessity of the disciplinary act still take into account the parents motivation by considering whether the parent employed physical discipline in a manner indicative of her desire to help, not harm, the child.119 Specifically, courts consider whether the parent-administered discipline in a controlled manner, whether the parent was angry when he or she administered the discipline, and whether any evidence suggests a malicious intent.120, Finally, when evaluating whether a finding of abuse is warranted, courts commonly refer to a parents right to administer reasonable physical discipline.121 The courts explicit recognition of this right as part of an attempt to draw the line between physical abuse and reasonable physical discipline suggests thatunlike some CPS agencies and professionals, who view their role primarily as saving children from their parents122courts are focused either on simultaneously protecting children and preserving parents disciplinary autonomy, or, in some cases, primarily on the latter.123. 1989); This inclination is consistent with recent moves in some jurisdictions to classify all physical discipline of children under a certain age as per se unreasonable. The current trend is to the contrary: jurisdictions at either the state or the county level tend to adopt elaborate regulatory schemes designed to standardize, to the extent possible, the decisionmaking process and the scenarios that will and will not constitute unlawful corporal punishment.67, Some administrative protocols for substantiating maltreatment include only immediate physical factors such as the age and size of the child and the severity, duration, and location of the mark.68 Protocols may also take into consideration other observable or quantifiable factors like the object used, the number of hits or strikes, and the chronicity, but may exclude most or all emotional and developmental factors.69 Increasingly common among these new regulatory schemes are those that focus most broadly on the physical, emotional, and developmental implications of the childs injury70 and that involve a list of factors (differently weighted and sometimes integrated) that social workers must address in their investigations and evaluations.71 Unlike the approach that takes into consideration only immediate physical factors, this approach involves a more-complex analysis of whether a particular incident involves acceptable or unlawful corporal punishment; that is, in addition to considering the medical nature of the immediate physical injury, it places significant value on risk and on the nonphysical implications of physical injuries.72, For example, North Carolina, which has a state-supervised, county-administered CPS system, has established at the state level a decision tree that requires county CPS agencies and their social workers to evaluate not only the degree (severity) and nature of the physical injury at issue, but also factors such as the injurys location on the body, whether an object was used, whether the injury is evidenced by a bruise lasting for more than twenty-four hours, the number of times the child was hit, the childs developmental age, the familys history with corporal punishment (chronicity) and with CPS, the childs sense of safety in the home and with the offending parent, the injurys emotional and developmental implications (including school-related implications), and the risk of future harm.73 Kansas Department of Child Protective Services investigation protocol similarly contains a fairly long list of factors including medical facts such as the severity and location of the injury as well as developmental implications, including a childs ability to succeed in school and his or her emotional response, which must be considered during each investigation.74, Notwithstanding these sometimes elaborate constraints, social workers continue to be influenced by considerations external to the protocols.