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Corporal Punishment

Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering intended to punish a person or change his/her behavior. Historically speaking, most punishment, whether in judicial, domestic, or educational settings, were corporal in basis. Global progress towards achieving full prohibition of all corporal punishment of children is accelerating worldwide. The UN Study on Violence against Children sets a target date of 2009 for universal prohibition, including in the home. School discipline in the West generally avoids physical correction altogether. The United States, where paddling remains legal in several states, is now the only significant exception to this (Canadian corrective force is widely reported[1] as being of a non-corporal nature). In most European countries it was banned at varying points in the 20th century. On the other hand, school corporal punishment, though probably on the decline overall, is lawful and remains in use in various other parts of the world, and is commonplace in some countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, notably in former British territories but also in a few countries that were never under British rule, such as South Korea and (until very recently) Thailand. According to the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, at least 106 countries do not prohibit the use of corporal punishment in schools, 147 countries do not prohibit it within alternative care settings.

Unofficially, physical punishment in schools also persists in some countries where it is technically illegal, such as South Africa and China.

Corporal punishment is still widely used by parents in the home, but since 2007 it has been banned in 23 countries. These legal bans are mostly of recent date.[2]. The exemption of corporal punishment from criminal assault in Canada stipulates that the assailant must be a teacher or parent (or guardian assuming all the obligations of a parent), that the force must be used "by way of correction" (sober, reasoned uses of force that address the actual behaviour of the child and are designed to restrain, control or express some symbolic disapproval of his or her behaviour), the child must be capable of benefiting from the correction (ie: not under the age of 2, disabled, etc), the use of force must also be "reasonable under the circumstances" - ie: it results neither in harm nor in the prospect of bodily harm. Corporal punishment which involves slaps or blows to the head is harmful.[3]

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