In order to discuss the effectiveness of corporal punishment one must first understand what the definition of corporal punishment is. Corporal punishment is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as, “physical punishment, as spanking, inflicted on a child by an adult in authority” (Webster). This definition is important in understanding why this subject is debated in terms of it’s effectiveness. …show more content…
Within the last decade more and more countries are adopting laws that prevent corporal punishment within the home due to it’s ambiguous nature and possible negative ramifications. These countries include: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Norway, and Sweden (Gershoff 540). These countries have banned corporal punishment because they have deemed it ineffective and ultimately harmful. These countries came to this conclusion from analyzing data presented by several notable psychological and sociological studies. These studies determined that there are multiple reasons as to why it’s …show more content…
Scientific studies do not show any long term advantages to corporal punishment of children within schools. In fact, psychologists who study corporal punishment in schools note that there are several observed disadvantages to corporal punishment of children in schools such as,
The child 's withdrawal from the punishing situation whenever possible, causing aggressive reactions, modeling the act of delivery of punishment, drawing attention to the punished behavior, which then may be emitted by other students in situations when the teacher is not present, and producing, negative peer reactions to the child receiving punishment (Rose 159).
These scientific observations are based off several different studies done by both psychologists and sociologists over a series of