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In Reply to: Re: According to the late Dr. Joan McCord, Criminologist posted by Thinker on March 03, 2009 at 18:45:27:
What I said about using spanking as an "excuse" was just another way of saying that none of us turned to crime, nor did we hit any more than the average child, although we had been spanked as children.
Yes, I did spank our first child until I learned other ways of dealing with him. As my parenting skills became more informed, I didn't need to use spanking except on the rarest occasions. I'm not trying to make a case that spanking should be a parent's primary form of discipline, but I don't think that it should never ever be used or made illegal by the government.
I don't believe that #2 & 3 under your "actions and results" are completely truthful. Using myself again as an example, I had no trouble understanding that my father was spanking me because he was the one in authority and I had done something that I was told not to do. It never occurred to me to turn around and start hitting others because I had been spanked.
Also you wrote: There's lots and lots of evidence that shows that children who are hit are more likely to be hitting later on, and it's even a very good predictor of crime later on.
You say that they are MORE likely to hit, but I haven't seen that. I know children who have never been spanked yet they have hit or bitten other children. It seems to me that "researchers" tend to generalize about spanking. I believe that there are parents who slap their children around for small infractions. They don't care where they hit them. It can be in the face or on the head. They scream at their children and are constantly threatening them. This type of parenting is very violent, but the type of parenting that uses spanking with discernment is very different, and shouldn't be lumped into the whole.
