Corporal Punishment and Children

Running Head: CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND CHILDREN
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND CHILDREN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND CHILDREN1
Speech Title: Discipline by force
Specific Purpose: To venture the need and effect of Corporal punishments
in present times
Introduction:
A. What is Corporal punishment? Who can help?
The intentional application of any physical force in order to cause harm, pain or
discomfort as a measure or kind of punishment for one’s behavior that is unacceptable is
known as corporal punishment. Pediatricians play a key role in guiding parents and
teachers to develop a proper behavioral approach, which is effective in disciplining a
child across ages. Corporal punishments like shaming or spanking a child in the public
has a negative impact on the psychosocial, emotional and cognitive development of the
child.
B. Background:
The United Nations (UN) Convention on the child rights has long banned the use of
any form of corporal punishment to change child behavior. This includes hitting, like
slapping, smacking, spanking, kicking, pinching, pulling hair or ear(s) by force or
even using an implement like a belt, wooden spoon, stick, whip, or similar for
inflicting any form of physical punishment. Such behaviors inflicted on children during
their growing ages can have negative effect on teenagers during their adolescence. Public
shaming or verbal abuse might even push to depression and mistrust in their close ones,
like parents, family or teachers.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND CHILDREN2
Discussion:
A. Abuse as Discipline:
Oftentimes, abuse, regarded as discipline, by parents or teachers, used to train
and teach their children or students, respectively, in order to develop acceptable social
behavior. According to Bennet & Davis (2015), chronic spanking leads to creation of a
stressful situation of threat for the child, who is likely to remain in a state of trauma and
thus, becomes toxic, neurobiologically. Thus, this kind of punishment tends to become a
threat for the child, leading to a state of causing depression, mental distress as well as
developing a situation to causing harm to self. Bennet & Davis (2015) also state that a child’s
brain experiences spanking as both a physical and emotional stress. In this kind of situation,
the greatest fear is the establishment of a situation of trauma that invokes the feeling of lack
of someone, within the child, to protect him/ her. Living in a situation where children are
having immature conscience and are being harmed by people who they had trusted to love
and protect them, are abandoned by them and are robbed off their one-to-one relationships,
make them feel less valuable and unsafe. This eventually leads to a difficult childhood or
building up of a difficult human, often with disturbed psychology.
B. In the realm of law:
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in the U. S.
says,
“At a minimum: any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which
results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act
or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm. (U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau [USDHHSCB], 2015, p. 17)” (Polk, 2016).
CAPTA, not just identifies the various kinds of child abuses, from physical abuse, emotional