This may not be the same place you live. The most common form of physical punishment is spanking on the buttocks with an open hand on the buttocks. However, more than one in four parents have also reported using an object, such as a hairbrush or wooden spoon, to hit their children. Despite opposition from medical and social services professionals, as of , the spanking of children is legal in all 50 states.
Spanking your children was routine decades ago, but it is far more controversial today. Today, more people view spanking as an unacceptable punishment that parents should avoid.
While spanking a child is not considered a separate and distinct crime, it can be considered child abuse in certain situations.
Child abuse laws make physical attacks against children or actions that harm a child criminal. Both minor injuries, such as bruises, and serious injuries, such as burns or broken bones, are abusive if the adult intends to inflict them on a child. Even if the adult does not intend to cause the injury or causes no injury at all, intentionally assaulting a child is criminal. Most state child abuse laws allow for mild physical force for discipline.
This refers to spanking with a moderate, open-handed blow on the part of the body which is not particularly sensitive or prone to injury.
