Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Petersons arrest on child abuse charges has sparked a huge debate about corporal punishment one that exposes deep cultural rifts. I have to admit Ive been surprised -- no shocked -- at those whove jumped to the 217-pound football players defense.
Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity said on his show this week I dont want to see this guy get a felony. I dont want to see this guy lose his job. ... He deserves parenting classes. Hannity followed up his defense by taking off his belt and slapping the desk to show how he was beaten as a child and also described being punched in the face by his dad. I deserved it he said.
CNNs Don Lemon weighed in as well. While not condoning what Peterson did Lemon said I have to say that when I was a kid I would have to go and get the switch off the tree. And if I brought back a switch that wasnt big enough then my grandmother or my dad or my mom would go get a bigger one.
The pictures of Petersons 4-year-old son taken several days after the incident and available online show blood-encrusted whipping marks on his thighs both outer and inner. The indictment also describes similar marks on the boys back buttocks ankles and scrotum and Peterson admits stuffing leaves into the boys mouth to stifle his screams.
This wasnt discipline. It was a beating by an angry thug who felt entitled to engage in it because the child is his biological offspring. (The man has multiple children -- he wont say how many -- by multiple women one of whom was beaten to death at age 2 by another man.) One of Petersons other children also 4 at the time bears a visible scar on his forehead from a whooping Peterson administered while the child was confined in a car seat. In that case officials declined to prosecute the player.
Hannitys and Lemons stories apparently resonate with large numbers of people. Whole swaths of Americans believe it is perfectly permissible to hit a child -- even to use an instrument like a belt stick paddle or anything else handy -- if the child misbehaves. According to the University of Chicagos General Social Survey (GSS) the overwhelming majority of Americans (about 70 percent in the last survey) believe that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good hard spanking.
But when does a spanking become a beating? Both Hannity and Lemon described beatings not spankings. And while both men claim that the punishment did them good the empirical research on corporal punishment is clear and virtually unanimous: It isnt effective in discouraging future bad behavior is likely to increase the childs own aggressiveness and produces children who grow into adults with increased violent tendencies and other mental health problems.
Many born-again Christians who are more likely to defend corporal punishment according to the GSS point to the Biblical injunctions to justify physical punishment of children found almost exclusively in the Old Testament especially Proverbs. The New Testament however is mostly silent on the issue. In place of admonishment to use the rod of correction there are stories of forgiveness as in the parable of the prodigal son.
According to the GSS blacks are more likely than whites Hispanics or Asians to favor corporal punishment. Southerners are more likely than those from the Midwest West or Northeast to think its OK to spank and Republicans are more likely than Democrats to agree.
Im not going to say its never permissible to spank a child (though I never received a spanking or spanked my children) -- but the rules should be clear. Disciplining a child should never include hitting bare flesh. Nor should it ever involve using anything other than an open hand -- certainly no fists belts cords switches paddles wood spoons or any other instruments. And there should be some reasonable limits on the number of swats a parent can administer and to how young a child.
Children are vulnerable and need protection -- and unfortunately that sometimes includes protection from their own parents. Too bad those who have been abused now see the need to defend the abusers.
Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and author of Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics .
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Petersons arrest on child abuse charges has sparked a huge debate about corporal punishment one that exposes deep cultural rifts. I have to admit Ive been surprised -- no shocked -- at those whove jumped to the 217-pound football players defense.
Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity said on his show this week I dont want to see this guy get a felony. I dont want to see this guy lose his job. ... He deserves parenting classes. Hannity followed up his defense by taking off his belt and slapping the desk to show how he was beaten as a child and also described being punched in the face by his dad. I deserved it he said.
CNNs Don Lemon weighed in as well. While not condoning what Peterson did Lemon said I have to say that when I was a kid I would have to go and get the switch off the tree. And if I brought back a switch that wasnt big enough then my grandmother or my dad or my mom would go get a bigger one.
The pictures of Petersons 4-year-old son taken several days after the incident and available online show blood-encrusted whipping marks on his thighs both outer and inner. The indictment also describes similar marks on the boys back buttocks ankles and scrotum and Peterson admits stuffing leaves into the boys mouth to stifle his screams.
This wasnt discipline. It was a beating by an angry thug who felt entitled to engage in it because the child is his biological offspring. (The man has multiple children -- he wont say how many -- by multiple women one of whom was beaten to death at age 2 by another man.) One of Petersons other children also 4 at the time bears a visible scar on his forehead from a whooping Peterson administered while the child was confined in a car seat. In that case officials declined to prosecute the player.
Hannitys and Lemons stories apparently resonate with large numbers of people. Whole swaths of Americans believe it is perfectly permissible to hit a child -- even to use an instrument like a belt stick paddle or anything else handy -- if the child misbehaves. According to the University of Chicagos General Social Survey (GSS) the overwhelming majority of Americans (about 70 percent in the last survey) believe that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good hard spanking.
But when does a spanking become a beating? Both Hannity and Lemon described beatings not spankings. And while both men claim that the punishment did them good the empirical research on corporal punishment is clear and virtually unanimous: It isnt effective in discouraging future bad behavior is likely to increase the childs own aggressiveness and produces children who grow into adults with increased violent tendencies and other mental health problems.
Many born-again Christians who are more likely to defend corporal punishment according to the GSS point to the Biblical injunctions to justify physical punishment of children found almost exclusively in the Old Testament especially Proverbs. The New Testament however is mostly silent on the issue. In place of admonishment to use the rod of correction there are stories of forgiveness as in the parable of the prodigal son.
According to the GSS blacks are more likely than whites Hispanics or Asians to favor corporal punishment. Southerners are more likely than those from the Midwest West or Northeast to think its OK to spank and Republicans are more likely than Democrats to agree.
Im not going to say its never permissible to spank a child (though I never received a spanking or spanked my children) -- but the rules should be clear. Disciplining a child should never include hitting bare flesh. Nor should it ever involve using anything other than an open hand -- certainly no fists belts cords switches paddles wood spoons or any other instruments. And there should be some reasonable limits on the number of swats a parent can administer and to how young a child.
Children are vulnerable and need protection -- and unfortunately that sometimes includes protection from their own parents. Too bad those who have been abused now see the need to defend the abusers.
Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and author of Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics .
