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View from the Experts: Research shows that corporal punishment has undesirable effects on kids
Sunday, July 15, 2001 By Lynda Guydon Taylor, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It was 1975 when psychologist Irwin Hyman began researching corporal punishment and its effects on children. What he found was disturbing.
Lowered self-esteem, humiliation, depression and a lifelong hatred of authority were among the undesirable side effects developed by those who were paddled.
"It's a practice that doesn't seem to be very good for kids. I couldn't find anything positive except from an administrative point of view," said Hyman, professor of school psychology at Temple University.
It lead him to found the National Center for the Study of Corporal Punishment and Alternatives, which he directs at the university, and to author five books on the subject. The psychologist of 38 years is working on his sixth.
There are two different cultures, he said, one being that kids are motivated by fear and the feeling that if they do wrong, they'll be punished. The other is that they should do right because it's the right thing to do, not because they're going to be hurt.
In the educational environment, he concludes, "when you give people the right to inflict pain, somebody is going to get abused, and the school winds up protecting them."
In Pennsylvania, each district decides whether to incorporate corporal punishment into its disciplinary repertoire. Hyman's research indicates that of the one-third that use it, most are small and conservative, and those who are hit are, for the most part, poor, rural children. Paddling is not permitted in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia schools.
He finds it "very sad that Pennsylvania, which is a reasonably advanced state, allows it."
He acknowledged that not everyone agrees with the mainstream research, and among its most vocal critics are conservative Christians.
Hyman has studied the subject from both a legal and social science perspective. In the late 1970s, he helped prepare a legal brief on behalf of the American Psychological Association, which opposes corporal punishment.
What he's found is that children don't have constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment. For instance, in Texas, he said, a child can be beaten up to deadly force.
"Does that mean you can break their legs but not an artery?" he asked.
He cited a Georgia case in which the outline of a paddle could be identified on the student's body. The appeals court ruled that was OK. Had anyone else other than the teacher left the marks, he believes, that person would have been convicted of child abuse.
There have been a number of cases in federal district courts rendering different opinions, which the U.S. Supreme Court has never resolved. In some cases, plaintiffs have sued for injuries and won while losing in other cases.
He said every national organization dealing with children opposes paddling students. The exception is the American School Boards Association, which has not taken an official stand but recommends against it because of the potential for litigation.
In spite of assertions that spanking is an option of last resort, Hyman said, the research suggests otherwise. Many proponents have a limited repertoire of techniques. That's how young people become incorrigible. They become violent, aggressive, uncontrollable and could wind up with learning problems because of the violence in their backgrounds.
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