Physical Abuse

6 Pages 1417 Words

“Physical Punishment: Is it abuse?”
By Han Simpson

Imagine that you are a child again. Remember when your Dad told you not to do something and you did it anyway? You knew what was coming next when he found out that you disobeyed him, you’d be getting a good old-fashioned spanking.
As a child, I remember always getting into some kind of trouble. I also remember always getting a lot of “ass” whippings. I never hated my parents for doing spanking me, either.
Is abuse the same as spanking a child? Different people look at physical punishment differently. Many people in today’s society believe that if a child is physically corrected, it is abuse. To others, physical punishment is accepted and practiced.
Looking back in time, a “spanking” was accepted in society in the first half of the twentieth century. The emphasis and concern of child abuse was minor from the 1920s to the 1960s (Lindsay 1). The reason for this fact was because most parents were more comfortable in physically punishing their children because it was expected and thought of as a way of raising children right.
Today’s society is much different from early twentieth century society. “The secular philosophy that a parent who resorts to corporal punishment as a child disciplinary measure is angry and out of control has influenced their mindset” (Dunlap 1). These people have accepted the idea that physical discipline is a form of child abuse.
I believe that “spankings” are part of good child rearing and is very different than abuse. Abuse is when a parent takes the child’s punishment to an extreme point, while a spanking is done out of love and correction - not anger. I also believe that if the child is not corrected when he is younger and a consequence is not given, the child will continue to do wrong and get worse as he gets older.
Physical abuse has many forms. It can involve the hitting of a child with hands, feet, or an object such as ...