Aggression and Antisocial Behavior in Youth. Force is reasonable in nature and moderate in degree if it does not cause or risk causing functional impairment. In: Dodge Kenneth A, Coleman Doriane Lambelet., editors. 2023 Jan;135:105954. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105954. Ordinary Physical Punishment: Is it Harmful? 2022 May 12;9(5):711. doi: 10.3390/children9050711. This last part begins with an argument for reforms to ameliorate the negative effects of modern child-abuse definitions that reflect both parental-autonomy norms and scientific knowledge, and follows with specific suggestions for policy reform. According to the Committee, this mostly involves hitting (smacking, slapping, spanking) children with a hand or implement (whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon or similar) but it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion. Individualizing Justice Through Multiculturalism: The Liberals Dilemma. Without specific statutory guidance, CPS and the courts must decide which cultural norm to apply (from that of the society at large, the individuals actual familial or cultural frame of reference, or the norm to which the judge aspires for the society) when determining the reasonableness of a particular disciplinary incident. Ann. The following resources present research and literature differentiating among physical discipline, corporal punishment, and physical child abuse. 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. This study found that in both cohorts, chronic mild spanking in children from ages five to nine led to increased antisocial behavior problems in adolescence.174 It must be noted that the children who suffered these outcomes were regularly spanked mildly over a long period of time, which was not the case in other studies where the child subjects experienced mild spanking very infrequently.175 The best scientific evidence thus indicates that the impact of regular mild spanking on a child aged one to nine appears, on average, to be significantly adverse but modest in magnitude.176 In general, children who have been regularly, mildly corporally punished by parents are likely to become less cognitively skilled and more aggressive over time and to use aggression in solving future problems, including in raising their children; rarely, however, do they become criminally violent as a result of mild corporal punishment alone.177. When Inflicted Skin Injuries Constitute Child Abuse. Specifically, we suggest policy reforms that (1) preserve the traditional structure and substance of reasonable corporal-punishment exceptions to child-abuse law, both of which are themselves premised on a generous reading of parental-autonomy norms,8 and (2) require decisionmakers to take systematic and consistent account of all relevant and valid evidence, including medical and social-science evidence, that can shed light on the reasonableness of parents actions. Teitelbaum Lee E. The Family as a System: A Preliminary Sketch. For the following reasons, we strongly suggest adoption of the reasonableness standard. Moreover, to the extent that the law in statutes and judicial opinions is either less precise or even different from the law as it is applied by CPS, the public and parents are inevitably confused or misled. Corporal-punishment exceptions to child-abuse provisions should be made to track the common-law privilege; that is, the exception should be available for discipline only, and then only for force that is reasonable.196 The two-pronged standard makes better policy sense than approaches that focus or appear to focus only on the reasonableness of the force used because it is the most accurate and thus most helpful statement of the applicable law, and because it emphasizes (or brings into the equation) the oft-forgotten threshold condition for the privilege: that it is ultimately in the childs interest that the force be used.197 Conversely, this standard makes clear that the privilege does not apply in circumstances that are not in the childs interests, for example, when a parent lashes out maliciously or without motive or reason. Deater-Deckard Kirby, Dodge Kenneth A. Externalizing Behavior Problems and Discipline Revisited: Nonlinear Effects and Variation by Culture, Context, and Gender. No scientific or case evidence can identify with absolute accuracy the precise point at which corporal punishment becomes abuse. Other examples of punishment may include forcing a teenager to hold a sign that says, "I steal from stores," or calling a child names. Work on several strategies from the INSPIRE technical package, including those on legislation, norms and values, parenting, and school-based violence prevention, contribute to preventing physical punishment. Several states require not only a finding of physical injury but also a determination that the injury harms the child or impairs the health of the child.20 On the other hand, in Arkansas, certain intentional or knowing acts constitute abuse whether or not the child sustains physical injury. Importantly, errors (both ways) also occur becauseother than those respecting egregious physical harmthe definitions do not codify a considered or generally accepted sense of the nature of the harm the state intends to prohibit. Political philosophy and constitutional theory teach that parental autonomy is good for society because the family is considered to be the fundamentalas in first and foundationalsocial unit of society. Dodge Kenneth. The Evidence Base for Shaken Baby Syndrome: Meaning of Signature Must be Made Explicit. After accounting for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, only Ninitial exposure to physical abuse was significantly The only question in these cases, then, is whether the force used was reasonable. Webphysical punishment and unacceptable physical abuse is largely semantic; they are linked with the same detrimental outcomes for children, just to varying degrees (Gershoff et al., Corporal punishment triggers harmful psychological and physiological responses. Infants brains are soft and malleable, like unset gelatin, in contrast with adults brains, which are more like set gelatin. Again, functional impairment refers to short-term, long-term, or permanent impairment of emotional or physical functioning.212 Scientific evidence about which parenting behaviors lead to functional impairment supports the formal incorporation of several factors into this aspect of the reasonableness inquiry: the severity of the physical injury that results from parental conduct; whether the parents conduct is normative; the proportionality of the conduct in relation to the childs transgression; the manner in which the punishment is administered, which includes consideration of the location of the childs injuries and whether any objects were used; chronicity, meaning the frequency of the corporal punishment; and transparency and consistency, or whether the child knows the rules that will result in punishment and whether the parent administers those rules non-arbitrarily.213 Aside from the severity criterion, all of the factors force examination of the context in which the corporal punishment occurs and of the childs reaction to that context.214 Depending upon the circumstances, any one of these factors alone or two or more factors in combination might suffice to characterize parental conduct as unreasonable. Keywords: Courts commonly consider such factors as whether medical treatment was required, how much pain the child experienced, and whether the injury resulted in disfigurement or impairment.94 Courts are reluctant to find that bruising alone is severe enough to constitute physical abuse.95 In fact, some courts have specifically rejected CPS rules and regulations that permit a finding of abuse when a child experiences a bruise lasting more than twenty-four hours.96 In general, courts appear more willing to find physical abuse when punishment results in multiple or very large bruises, bruises with a deep or intense color, bruises lasting a week or more, bruises that are especially painful, or bruises on a location other than the childs buttocks.97 At least some courts demand more before they are willing to find that the requisite serious injury has occurred. N.Y. Soc. In many states, corporal punishment becomes child abuse when the child is harmed. Because it is the childs perspective on normativeness that matters for purposes of functional impairment, application of this rule to children in this category would be inconsistent with their welfare. Thus, in order to fulfill their professional obligations, case workers, prosecutors, and judges should be regularly educated about the status of scientific evidence in child abuse and be trained to interpret that evidence. Child Abuse Negl. 2009 Jan;33(1):1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2008.12.001. R. Evid. Child Abuse & Neglect: Multidisciplinary Approaches. B.R. The requirement of a disciplinary motive is inherent in the allowance, see. Chadwick DL, et al. Because corporal punishment is so frequently justified by referring to religious teachings and values, a discussion of those religious teachings and values is needed. On average, 17% of children experienced severe physical punishment (being hit on the head, face or ears or hit hard and repeatedly) but in some countries this figure exceeds 40%. WebThere is general consensus that corporal punishment is effective in getting children to comply immediately while at the same time there is caution from child abuse researchers that corporal punishment by its nature can escalate into physical maltreatment," Gershoff writes. Part 1: Spanking - The Virtuous Violence has four chapters that discuss corporal punishment, attitudes towards corporal punishment, hitting adolescents, and cultural norms and attitudes towards corporal punishment. government site. So it can be difficult to say exactly where the one ends and the other begins, WHO addresses corporal punishment in multiple cross-cutting ways. http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws-policies/statutes/define.pdf, http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/defining/state.cfm, http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspxTabId=17800, http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-124-5452_7119_7194-159484--,00.html, http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/pediatrics;110/3/644.pdf, http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1810.pdf, http://www.dontshake.org/sbs.php?topNavID=3&subNavID=28&navID=115. Minns RA. 8600 Rockville Pike Serious harm, which is the criterion for abuse in most jurisdictions, includes not only immediately obvious physical injury but also internal brain damage and long-term psychological and cognitive disability. 8600 Rockville Pike As a result, it sometimes appears that CPS intervenes in the family to protect a child based on a combination of concerns, including about the childs emotional and developmental welfare, only to have the court reject the intervention because the physical injury is viewed as insufficient (standing alone) to permit it. Parental physical and psychological aggression: psychological symptoms in young adults. The Difference Between Discipline and Abuse Like the long-term follow-ups of children found by CPS to have been maltreated, these studies also reveal that physically maltreated children are likely to suffer numerous adverse outcomes, including being arrested for violent as well as nonviolent offenses, dropping out of school, becoming a teenage parent, and being fired from employment.188 These outcomes hold across cultural groups and family contexts, suggesting a fairly universal adverse impact of the experience of physical abuse.189. Others reflect a rejection of existing practices or the development of alternatives that better conform to the premises underlying the corporal-punishment exception and the scientific evidence that supports the resolution of individual cases. Although immediate symptoms may be minimal, over weeks the infant may develop irritability, lethargy, tremors, vomiting, retinal detachment, and seizures, and in some situations, may even lapse into a coma or die. 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. In general, states define physical abuse of a child to include harm or threatened harm to a childs health or welfare, nonaccidental physical injury, or serious physical injury Nor have they ameliorated the negative effects that are our target: the failure of the law to fulfill its expressive function, inconsistent case analyses and outcomes, and false-positive and false-negative errors. The states rules on expert testimony are similar. WebCorporal punishment includes the use of physical force with either the parents hand or an instrument as a way of disciplining a child for what the parent considers to be inappropriate First, regardless of whether the common-law right to use reasonable corporal punishment as a means of discipline is also a constitutional one, it is undoubtedly true that society places a premium on parental autonomy and family privacy, and that the strong expectation of the citizenry is these rights will not be violated by the state without a very good reason. 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. Gilbert Ruth, et al. This behavior can indeed place the infant into a trancelike state. Frchette, Zoratti, & Romano (2015) Keenan HT, et al. 80 Op. Functional impairment refers to short- or long-term or permanent impairment of emotional or physical functioning in tasks of daily living. Webphysical punishment use of physical force with the intention of causing the child to experience bodily pain or discomfort so as to correct or punish the child's behavior FOIA This is true whether the question is presented as a federal constitutional claim150 or as a state-law claim that itself reflects this constitutional norm.151 Finally, because federal constitutional law formally preempts all other lawsincluding government-issued regulations, policies, or protocolsinconsistent perspectives on the factors that should influence where and how the line between reasonable corporal punishment and abuse is drawn are largely irrelevant to the legal process.152, For present purposes, this means that lawyers and the judiciary will always be inclined to test CPS interventions designed to protect the welfare of the child against the right of family privacy or parental autonomy, and they will generally read child-abuse definitions and corporal-punishment exceptions through this lens. 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. Second, society continues to support parents right to use corporal punishment, ensuring that normative disciplinediscipline that meets the reasonableness standardgenerally will not cause functional impairment. There are no perfect parents, and everyone can imagine themselves to be damaged even by exceptional ones. In some countries, almost all students report being physically punished by school staff. Decisionmakers, perhaps especially CPS professionals, have increasingly defined serious harm to include delayed internal injuries, long-term disability, and even psychological or emotional disorders. 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. A nonaccidental physical assault on a child is child abuse unless it is privileged or excused. This ambiguity has been rationalized primarily on the ground that the state needs flexible definitions to ensure that it can act to protect children from maltreatment in whatever form it may appear. When is Parental Discipline Child Abuse? The issues of discipline and punishment always arise in any consideration of child physical abuse because this is the primary justification given as reason to beat, burn or cut a child. Epub 2021 Nov 27. Children in The Legal System: Cases and Materials. Until recently, CPS decisionmaking was relatively unconstrained, resulting in a landscape where social workers personal orientations influenced results.66 In jurisdictions following this approach, a social worker or agency holding particularly strong views (one way or the other) on the moral or religious foundations for corporal punishment or on the relevance of any emotional or developmental impacts, might render decisions about the reasonableness of individual instances of corporal punishment (at least in part) according to those views.
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