The advantages and disadvantages of corporal punishment

Corporal punishment can be defined as physical punishment that is meted out to someone
because they have done something wrong. More often than not corporal punishment involves
the use of canes to beat someone. Corporal punishment is normally meted out to children in
schools by teachers and at homes by parents or guardians. As of 2008 corporal punishment
has been banned in 24 countries, including Germany, Greece and the Netherlands.
Nevertheless, it is still widely used by parents in their homes.
Corporal punishment helps to serve as a deterrent. When children see that someone has

been whipped for misbehaving, they try not to do similar things in order to avoid
getting whipped. Schools in Singapore conduct caning to students who break school rules
such as smoking and stealing in hope of educating others students that any students
committing serious offense would have to face similar consequences. At the same time, the
pain left behind deter student from committing the same offense.

Corporal punishment in school instils discipline to students and also helps keep the
students under control. It is inevitable that bad classroom behaviour will filter into life
outside school. You only have to look at the crime statistics to see that crime has increased
dramatically since the abolition of corporal punishment. Between 1981, when corporal
punishment was legal and in 1997, after the abolition of corporal punishment, there was a
67% increase in crime in United Kingdom. Therefore, when children learn the discipline in
school, it is less likely for them to commit crimes in the society.
Corporal punishment can be associated with higher rates of aggression, more substance abuse
and an increased risk of crime and violence as many victims of corporal punishment tend to
lash out and repeat this abuse as they don't know any better. In other words, it teaches
children to use physical violence. The fact that corporal punishment increases crime and
violence has been supported by the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) which has stated
that "the more children are spanked, the more anger they report as adults, the more likely they
are to spank their own children, the more likely they are to approve of hitting a spouse and the
more marital conflict they experience as adults." Hence, corporal punishment not only starts a
vicious circle of violence but also affects the childs life and wellbeing once they become an
adult.
To discipline or punish a child through physical violence is clearly a violation of the most
basic of human rights according to UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As well as
being lawfully wrong, corporal punishment is morally wrong. There are plenty of other

alternative methods to discipline a child other than beating the child. For example, a person
can take away the privileges of the child or prevent them from carrying out their hobbies or
even insist that they do some other form of work to make up for their bad behaviour.
Nonetheless, physically harming the child is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.
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