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Corporal Punishment
Ashley Boardman
PSY 101: Introduction to Psychology
Instructor: Loriana Fiorino
July 2, 2012

Corporal Punishment
As parents we often have to discipline our children, as heartbreaking as it can be at times we have to do it in order to show them right from wrong. This being said, all parents raise their children different and have a different definition of what the appropriate punishment is for their child. Over the past couple of years, a huge controversy had been made over parents using corporal punishment such as spanking to discipline their child.
Corporal punishment is the use of physical force causing pain, but not wounds, as a means of discipline.” Spanking, rapping on the head and slapping are forms of corporal punishment which we do not classify as abuse. There are two factors to be taken into consideration when distinguishing between corporal punishment and physical abuse: intensity: the extent to which injuries have resulted from the use of violence, intention: the extent to which the intention is to teach/discipline. Corporal punishment is just one of the wrong ways to discipline a child. The aim is not to substitute corporal punishment with psychological abuse but to discipline without using violence (UNICEF, 2010).
Corporal punishment is a tremendous controversial issue among Americans all across the country. Many studies have been researched to prove the behavior of children that have been disciplined with corporal punishment and how it affects the well-being of the child at the present time as well as in the future. Parents are not the only individuals that have been allowed to discipline their children with such punishment, our children’s teachers and caretakers have also been allowed use such punishment as well.
All fifty states allow parents to use corporal punishment for purposes of disciplining their children. This

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