Title: Ending the Physical Punishment of Children
1Ending the Physical Punishment of Children
- Sdim Curo Plant! Children are Unbeatable! Cymru
2What Children Say
- It makes you feel sad (girl 8)?
- It burns your bottom (boy 5)?
- Its horriblepainful (girl 9)?
- Feel like youre gonna die (girl 6)?
- Feel ill (boy 6)?
- Inside your body hurts (girl 6)?
- (Children Talk About Smacking, SC 2003)?
3Purpose of Presentation
- To provide information on
- the issue of physical punishment of children
- The current legal position in the UK
- Promote discussion answer questions
- Discuss ways you or your organisation could
support the No Physical Punishment message
4'Sdim Curo Plant!Children Are Unbeatable!
- Set up in 2000
- Part of a UK wide campaign/alliance of
individuals organisations - Campaigning for
- 1. Legal change - removal of reasonable
punishment defence - 2. Promotion of positive non violent methods of
managing childrens behaviour - no physical
punishment
5Current Legal Position
- Children are the only group of UK citizens who
can be legally hit - reasonable punishment is a defence against a
charge of common assault - reasonable chastisement is old common law
defence dating back to 1860 which was replaced as
part of the Children Act 2004, which came into
force on Jan 15th 2005 - 10 Welsh MPs voted for the clause (defeated)
which would have given equal protection for
children
6Common assault for children is
- The vulnerability of the victim, such as when the
victim is..a child assaulted by an adult (so
that where an assault causes any of the injuries
referred to in sub-paragraph (vii) above, other
than reddening of the skin, the charge will
normally be assault occasioning actual bodily
harm, although prosecutors must bear in mind that
the definition of assault occasioning actual
bodily harm requires the incident to be more than
transient and trifling)
7The Purpose of Legal Reform
- Is to give children equal protection under the
law as that enjoyed by adults - Is NOT to criminalize parents
- Is to protect children
- Is to promote healthy relationships
- Is to reduce conflict within and outside the home
- Is an example of using the law as an educational
tool
8Physical Punishment - a research definition
- Corporal punishment is the use of physical force
with the intention of causing a child to
experience pain, but not injury, to correct or
control his behaviour. This definition mentions
the intention of causing a child to experience
pain for 2 reasons. The first reason is to
distinguish it from acts that have other purposes
but that also may cause pain, such as putting
antiseptic on a cut. The second reason is to make
clear the fact that causing pain is intentional,
not a side-effect. - (Strauss 1996)?
9Research 1 Linking Physical Punishment and
Physical Abuse
- Examples of growing evidence of a connection
- NSPCC 1980-89 most prosecuted abuse began as
ordinary punishment that went too far - Canadian incidence study 1993 85 of all
substantial cases of abuse involved punishment - Durrants Swedish study 1999 after the ban on
parental corporal punishment, child deaths at
parents hands fell from 1 per year to 1 in seven
years compared with 1 per week in the UK
10Research 2 Effects of physical punishment - a
meta-analysis of 88 studies
- Increased aggression as child adult
- Less capacity for empathy
- Less internalisation of moral aspects of
discipline - Increased probability of antisocial criminal
behaviour in adulthood including spousal and/or
child abuse - Evidence of compromised mental health
- Some increase in immediate compliance - least in
ages 2-6 and amongst boys - (E.Thompson Gershoff, 2002)?
11Research 3 Wide-ranging results of childhood
smacking
- Five times the rate of non-compliance amongst
toddlers - A four-fold increase in severe assaults on
siblings - Double the rate of physical aggression amongst
six-year olds against other children in school - Significantly more chance of 4-year olds failing
to fulfil the cognitive potential they displayed
at 1 year - An 84 increase in the likelihood of violent
behaviour in adolescence - (Various)?
12Research 4 Positive effects of not using or
of giving up physical punishment
- Where ADHD aggression co-exist, changing
violent/coercive home discipline deals with the
conduct disorder. - (Paterson 2001)?
- The only children whose aggressive conduct was
not improved by a special programme were those
whose mothers used violent discipline at home. - (Webster Stratton 2001)?
13Context 1 United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child
- 191 countries have ratified. UK in 1991
- Article 19 - protect from physical
violencemaltreatment..from parents, guardians,
carers - Article 24 - take measures to abolish..
traditional practices prejudicial to the health
of children
14Context 2 Europe
- European Convention on Human Rights
- Article 3 - no one shall be subjected to
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment - 1998 - A-v-UK Case, UK found in breach of
Article 3 - European Social Charter
- Article 17 requires a prohibition in
legislation against any form of violence against
children
15Context 3 Other Countries
- 23 Countries have introduced principled legal
reform to ban smacking - Austria(1989) Bulgaria (2000) Costa Rica
(2008)? - Croatia(1999) Cyprus(1994) Denmark(1997)
- Finland(1983) Germany(2000) Greece (2006)
- Hungary (2005) Iceland(2003) Israel(2000)
- Latvia(1998) Netherlands (2007)? New Zealand
2007) - Norway(1987) Portugal (2007) Romania (2004)
- Spain (2007) Sweden(1979) Ukraine (2004)
- Uruguay (2007) Venezuela (2007)?
- http//www.endcorporalpunishment.org
16Sweden
- 1979 Sweden is first country to ban smacking
- public support for physical punishment 53(1965)
to 11 (1994)? - no increase in prosecutions
- decreasing number of children into care
- evidence of parents seeking help earlier
- no increase in anti-social behaviours
- (A Generation Without Smacking - SC 2000)?
17What Children Say
- It makes you feel sad (girl 8)?
- It burns your bottom (boy 5)?
- Its horriblepainful (girl 9)?
- Feel like youre gonna die (girl 6)?
- Feel ill (boy 6)?
- Inside your body hurts (girl 6)?
- (Children Talk About Smacking - SC 2003)?
18Governments' Attitudes
- Westminster say NO to change
- WAG committed to legal change since Oct 02
19Welsh Assembly Government
- Non-devolved area of responsibility
- WAG committed to legal change since Oct 02
- First UK country to take principled stand
consistently recognises - childrens rights (UNCRC),
- a child protection issue
- part of Domestic Abuse agenda
- need for parental support
- Numerous representations to Westminster
- Keen to find ways to promote Assemblys stance
20WAG Booklet
- Booklet on Positive Parenting with the No
Smacking message is being developed through
Fforwm Magu Plant Raising Children Forum - To go with From Breakfast to Bedtime and Over
the top behaviour.. - http//www.childreninwales.org.uk/areasofwork/pare
nting/forparents/booklets
21Help at Hand Toolkit
- A toolkit to change attitudes and behaviour
around the physical punishment of children - Launched by SCP!CAU! in March 2008
- Materials which can be used by a wide variety of
groups and individuals - Web base toolkit with links to other resources,
and activities and information sheets on the site - www.helpathandtoolkit.info
22Hitting Children is wrong, and the law should say
so!
- Physical Punishment
- breaches childrens human rights
- causes hurt harm
- is ineffective
- is domestic violence/abuse
- gives out message might is right
- adds to levels of violence in society
23A Last Word for Children
- A big person should not hit a small person, not
anyone ever. - Amy, Age 6