Child Abuse, A perspective

The primary cause of violence is child abuse. It is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause, but it is a highly likely one that becomes reinforced by later social and cultural forces. Children who are physically, sexually, or emotionally terrorized and exploited, and whose real needs are neglected by adults, become damaged. They suffer from a pervasive sense of shame, lack self-esteem, and believe themselves flawed, defective, and unworthy of getting their needs met, especially the most basic need for love. This sense of worthlessness is usually unconscious.
.....While the golden rule of ethics teaches us to do unto others as we would have others do unto us, the leaden rule of the unconscious compels us to do unto others as significant others have done unto us. The most important lessons that affect our way of relating to the world occur before we are three years of age, when we are so utterly helpless and dependent on the kindness of our care givers. Child abuse during this period and later is much more pervasive in our society and worldwide than is commonly recognized. In fact, there is massive personal and cultural denial about child abuse. Many children who are violated will take violent revenge upon others later in life, most frequently not on their abusers, without ever knowing the real causes of their own hatred.
.....Extreme shame, resulting from child abuse and aggravated by other factors, is the root psychological cause of all violence.8 It is a necessary but not sufficient cause of violence, since, as shown above, shame is universally experienced by all humans at some time or other, but most people have nonviolent means of coping with it.
.....Severely abused children are at high risk of becoming either self-destructive, violent toward others, or both, unless they are fortunate in being recognized for who they are and supported by at least one compassionate, empathic witness, who helps them feel their pain, discover and express their true feelings, and learn that the abuse they suffered was not their own fault. The earlier such a witness intervenes in their lives the better, but even later interventions can make a difference for all but the most seriously damaged.
.....Children are weak and defenseless in relation to adults. Much corporal punishment in homes and schools is even legal. Any hitting, beating, or spanking of children is abusive, and it ought to be criminal, as it would be if adults were similarly assaulted. However, worldwide 90% of adults believe in beating children for their own good. In the U.S., only one state, Minnesota, has outlawed parental corporal punishment of children, and only 11 nations worldwide have done so. Beating children in schools is still legal in twenty-three states. Texas, which had the highest rates of capital punishment under governor George W. Bush, also leads in corporal punishment in the schools with 118,000 beatings administered per year. Nationwide, children are battered in schools with wooden paddles on their buttocks from 400,000 to 1 or 2 million times annually, according to varying estimates.12 School disciplinarians specialize in punishing children physically, “This punishment is given for minor offenses usually in the form of paddling on the buttocks... There is a graded scale of different forms of corporal punishment aimed at meting out ‘discipline.’” Such legal abuse needs to be outlawed.
.....Six U.S. children are reported abused or neglected per minute. This amounts to over 3,100,000 cases a year and 63 million over a generation. We can reasonably assume that much child abuse is never reported, however. Children are often threatened with even worse abuse, or the murder of their pets, for example, if they dare report how they are being abused.
.....While virtually all violent people were once abused children, only some abused children become violent. Therefore, child abuse is a necessary, but not a sufficient cause for violence. Depending on the degree, extensiveness, and age of onset of child abuse, there are different outcomes. The earlier the abuse occurs, the more intense it is, and the more sustained and repeated over time, the worse the effects are and the more likelihood there is of resulting violent pathology. When they grow up and become parents, many who were abused children repeat the abuse on their own innocent offspring.
.....The most severely abused, who never received help, become the violent psychopaths, also called sociopaths. They are the sadists, predators, murderers, serial killers, assaulters, batterers, rapists, abusers of power, dictators, terrorists, and necrophiles attracted to death and decay. They may also become destructive political leaders who send others to their sacrificial deaths in wars.
.....Other abused children become the dominators in relationships, politics, and business. Inwardly empty, they are driven to win. They desperately want to appear successful in others’ eyes. They seek rewards for themselves no matter what the expense to others. When narcissistic corporate leaders despoil the environment, use workers instrumentally, and ignore human rights, they are displacing their own shame. For example, the real estate entrepreneur Donald Trump names most of his towering constructions after himself to prove his own grandeur. His books are replete with bragging about his triumphs and vindictiveness toward anyone who opposed him: “I’m screwing people against the wall, and I’m having so much fun. People say it’s not nice, but I really believe in getting even. I believe in an eye for an eye.” With regard to an environmentalist who had opposed one of his schemes, Trump wrote, “Often you appreciate a good fight, and you respect your opponent, But in this case I really liked grinding her into the ground.” Trump’s grandiosity and narcissistic contempt for his “opponent” reveal the shame from which he is trying to defend himself by humiliating her. His preoccupation with his image is so extreme that it extends beyond his own lifetime: “One of my biggest fears concerns how I will be perceived after I am gone.” Trump is far from unique among successful business leaders in such behavior, which usually derives from having been abused. Even Bill Gates, the world’s wealthiest individual, is known for temper tantrums against employees and berating them with such humiliating words as, “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.” A person with a stable level of self-respect who is capable of empathy for others would never demean them in such ways. Clearly, no amount of net worth can give a person self-worth.
.....Many abused children grow up to manifest their damage through psychosomatic illnesses, depression, self-destructive addictions, and becoming submissive, masochistic victims in relationships with abusive partners. They also may elect or follow destructive political, religious, or ideological leaders, all of whom are essentially parent figures. This includes cult leaders such as Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson, Muktananda, and Reverend Moon. The followers are blind to the character flaws of those to whom they submit because their leaders are similar to their early abusers whom they did not dare to criticize, could not see for who they were, and whom they may even idealize. Many eventually leave the fold, either because they awaken to the irrationalities, abuses, and contradictions they notice, or because they undergo a shock that leads them to choose an independent life over continued subjugation. However, the followers and victims of some necrophilic, charismatic leaders and dictators are not always so lucky in being able to escape. For example, Jim Jones commanded the mass suicide of all the members of his intentional community, and few survived.
.....Another group of abused children become idealists, altruists, helpers, and activists. They have become sensitized to injustice and may adopt any number of callings and causes. They are among the environmentalists, animal rights activists, peace and justice protesters, social workers, and psychotherapists, for example. Some recognize their own original wounds, usually with the help of an empathic witness. Others project their hurt onto the causes they choose to champion. The latter can be recognized by such signs as dogmatism, intolerance of diversity within their movement, extremism, and vehement anger that hurts rather than helps their cause.
.....The discussion above provides only a partial indication of how different people adapt to having been abused more or less severely in childhood. It is not intended to exhaust the possibilities, but only to show that violence is not a universal result of child abuse.
.....Psychiatrists working in U.S. prisons with convicted murderers, serial killers, and rapists have been able to document in at least 90% of cases that these destroyers of life were themselves extremely abused children. They were, for example, the objects of attempted murder, usually by parents or other close relatives. They saw other family members murdered. They had been tortured and maimed, shot, hit with axes, burnt, prostituted, sexually abused, frozen, starved, locked in confining spaces, shaken violently, beaten into comas, had their bones broken, were smeared with excrement, and were subjected to relentless verbal and emotional abuse.
.....What we know about the serial killers within our society regarding child abuse is relevant to the tyrants. In every case for which there is data, including Hitler, Mao, and Stalin, we discover that these cruel dictators who condemned millions to violent deaths had themselves once been defenseless children who were beaten mercilessly and repeatedly. Tyrants command the slaughter of millions of sacrificial victims while avoiding feeling the terror from their own childhoods that dominates their unconscious minds. They inflict it all around them without ever recognizing its source in themselves. Information about their childhoods also shows that America’s war-making presidents, including F.D. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagen, Bush the first, Clinton, and others were once neglected and abused children.
.....We have so far been speaking of physical child abuse. What about sexual abuse? Standard statistics from government agencies report that one-third of American girls have been sexually abused before the age of eighteen. The actual rates are almost double that. Lloyd deMause calculated, on the basis of in-depth studies, that sixty percent of girls and forty-five percent of boys have been sexually molested, with the average age of abuse being seven. As far as technologically advanced democracies go, the U.S. is highly likely to be a leader in child abuse since the murder rate here is from 5 to 10 times higher than in any other industrialized or post-industrial democracy.

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From The Plague of Violence: A Preventable Epidemic
by Mitch Hall (2002)

Mitch Hall is mental health counselor for underprivileged children and youth from diverse backgrounds, a peace and children’s rights activist, an inspirational educator and speaker, a gifted writer, a skilled scholar and a certified yoga teacher. Mr. Hall contributes to cultivating inner and outer peace, nonviolence, children's rights, social justice and well-being.

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To read Mitch Hall's entire article, see
http://web.me.com/breathepeacefully/Breathe_Peacefully/The_Plague_of_Violence.html

Child Mistreatment, Child Abuse — What is it?

Humiliations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away. However, as adults, most abused children will suffer, and let others suffer, from these injuries. This dynamic of violence can deform some victims into hangmen who take revenge even on whole nations and become willing executors to dictators as unutterably appalling as Hitler and other cruel leaders.

Beaten children very early on assimilate the violence they endured, which they may glorify and apply later as parents, in believing that they deserved the punishment and were beaten out of love. They don't know that the only reason for the punishments they have (or in retrospect, had) to endure is the fact that their parents themselves endured and learned violence without being able to question it. Later, the adults, once abused children, beat their own children and often feel grateful to their parents who mistreated them when they were small and defenseless.

This is why society's ignorance remains so immovable and parents continue to produce severe pain and destructivity - in all "good will", in every generation. Most people tolerate this blindly because the origins of human violence in childhood have been and are still being ignored worldwide. Almost all small children are smacked during the first three years of life when they begin to walk and to touch objects which may not be touched. This happens at exactly the time when the human brain builds up its structure and should thus learn kindness, truthfulness, and love but never, never cruelty and lies. Fortunately, there are many mistreated children who find "helping witnesses" and can feel loved by them.

© 2010 Alice Miller

see www.alice-miller.com

Basic Human Rights for All?

AS A CULTURE, we demand the basic human rights of freedom from violence, oppression, physical threat, and discrimination. Unfortunately, we somehow fail to include children as a part of humanity.

It seems apparent that many of us are seemingly imprinted with the notion that children should be treated in a less respectful manner than other human beings. As a matter of fact, even some egalitarian and existential positions still fail to include children as a part of their philosophy.

Many of us find it extremely difficult to entertain the notion that children should be granted the same basic human rights that we demand for ourselves. This type of thinking predominates in spite of the fact that it would seem logical to grant children a greater leniency and tolerance with regard to their daily behavior. In light of the innocence of children, and their lack of understanding or knowledge as to how they should behave according to our culturally defined expectations, one would think that we would be less punitive toward children than we are toward ourselves on a daily basis. While they can be excused as novice students in the way of cultural expectations and the ways of the world, we adults, on the other hand, have no such justification for not following the rules of society. Yet, we adults demand that we not even be threatened with treatments of a violent nature, which I should add, includes hitting, swats, whacks, taps, smacks, or spankings. Even our most murderous adult prisoners are legally protected from corporal punishment as a means of routine discipline.

It seems to me that if anyone is deserving of physical pain as a means of punishment, it should be us adults rather than children. After all, we should already know the rules of society, while children are still trying to learn what's expected of them. Of course, I am not suggesting that anyone should be subjected to physical pain. But, when we find ourselves forced to suffer punitive physical pain, we consider such treatment to be inhumane, cruel and unusual punishment, abusive treatment, and even torture in some cases. While many will support the idea of children being hit as a punitive measure, these are often the same people who will cry foul should they themselves ever be accosted for the same reasons.

Some people find it difficult to conceptualize a more esteemed view of our young. This prejudicial attitude stands as the major obstacle in the way of children becoming viewed as sufficiently worthy of being considered viable members of the human race along with the rest of us. Until we put such thinking behind us, it would seem fruitless to propose that we expand our definition of “fairness” to include children under the umbrella of treatments we consider for ourselves to be fair, just, and humane.

I don't believe any of us would deny the wisdom and humanity offered by the Christian tenet, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Most of us like that idea when it comes to interacting with other adults. But, we all pretty much know that when it comes to treating others as we ourselves would like to be treated, most of us exclude children as being people or “others”.

There was a time in our history when “we the people” also excluded slaves, women, Native Americans, and immigrant groups as well as children. Well, times have certainly changed, and we can look with pride at the social progress we've achieved over the years in developing a greater degree of social sophistication. As evidence of this fact, we can point to the just fairness we've come to show toward minorities and women by affording them the same protections under the law, which had been previously enjoyed exclusively by white men.

It seems to me that if we are to remain on our path toward making continued strides in our social progress, a logical issue to now address should include one of our last remaining bastions of societal double standards, and discriminatory treatments — the lack of social-status granted to the children of our society. Of course there are developmental issues concerning children that serve to limit their full participation in this adult world of ours, but that fact doesn't have a bearing on the unrelated circumstance involving equal protections under the law.

There is certainly no reason why we cannot at least begin to talk about granting children the same protection from violent treatment that we adults enjoy. As defined by the law of the land, a husband who spanks his wife against her will is guilty of Spousal Abuse, Assault and Battery, and/or Domestic Violence. These laws have been designed to deter the violence-prone husband from physically disciplining his wife, and to serve as a means to further safeguard her well being in the future. Let us take yet another step forward by offering children the same level of protection from violence that we provide for adults. After all, such an added protection granted to children would provide us with yet another reason to feel encouraged about our continuing efforts toward social progress, as we become a society possessing a greater degree of social sophistication.

A Note To Spanking Mothers

You want equality in your relationship with your husband, of course. You don't feel it would be acceptable for him to spank you for disobeying him or making repeated mistakes just because he is bigger and stronger than you are.

I totally agree with you. But, given this circumstance, I would like to ask, “What makes you more susceptible to being abused than a child?” You can state that you don't deserve to be hit, but so would any child. That's not much of an argument. You can say that the relationship you have with your husband is “different.” But, no loving relationship is “different” when it comes to treating a loved one in a violent manner. You can say that you are responsible for your kids as a justification for hitting them, just as I can take the position that a man is responsible for his wife and should, therefore, have the right to “keep her in line”; to discourage her from embarrassing him in public; and to teach her to stop making the same mistakes all of the time. For every excuse you can state as a justification for hitting kids, I can counter with the same type of chauvinistic excuses for men hitting their wives as a means of discipline (as many husbands once did and, sadly, some still do).

The difference is that you are 'abused' if you get spanked against your will, while your children are not. I'm simply asking what it is that makes you think that you're better than a child, and therefore deserving of a more respectful treatment. Is it because you think that a spanking would be more harmful to you than it would be to a child?

Just as you moms would like to be legally protected from the threat of physical and emotional harm at the hand of a bullying husband, so should your children be protected in the same manner from the hand of a bullying parent.

A Note To Spanking Fathers

Traditionally, it has been the male species that has been most guilty of denying basic human rights to those viewed as smaller and weaker. We men have practiced the philosophy of “might makes right” from the beginnings of known history. Perhaps we've come a long way from our knuckle dragging, cavemen ancestors. But men, it's time we evolved further beyond such atavistic tendencies. We've already evolved beyond corporal punishment as a routine means of controlling law-breakers and women. Let's take the next step-up in our level of humanity by also putting behind us the corporal punishment of children as well.

We know from countless testimony (which young children are ill-equipped to provide) that all adults are emotionally harmed by threats or acts of violence to varying degrees, regardless of whether physical injury has occurred. The sad irony here is that young children are much more vulnerable to suffering emotional damage as the result of assaultive acts (including threats) than are we adults.

The Ins and Outs of Double Standards and Discriminatory Treatments

For those of you who may not be aware, a double-standard involves holding a different gender, ethnic group, race, religious group, or age group, in lower regard than the one with which an individual identifies themselves as being a part. These societal groups of “less worthy”, “inferior”, “unsavory”, looked-down upon segments of humanity have historically been the victims of unfair and discriminatory practices by the majority, the ruling class, and/or those in power. Our human past is filled with examples of various social groups being treated with a double standard within their particular society at large. And even though we can safely say that the existence of these double-standards have diminished over time, we have not yet evolved to the point of social sophistication that would have us putting an end to all unjust double-standards.

Women, and especially wives, have been the victims of one of the most enduring double standards of all time, and still suffer expressions of this unjust, prejudicial attitude toward them by men in many parts of the world. With the women of our culture now being generally granted the same respect, consideration, and protections that men have traditionally demanded for themselves, children stand as the last remaining segment of our society being acceptably victimized by a double standard in terms of legal protections from the threat of physical and emotional violence. In this regard especially, children are being denied their basic human rights.

We should remain ever mindful that it has been a relatively short time in our history since wives were legally beaten with switches. But, they were not being beaten as far as their husbands were concerned; they were simply being disciplined. The language that was then used as a reflection of a double standard toward wives is the same language parents now use in describing the treatment of their children under a double standard. Men had a different language to describe such a treatment of themselves; they called it Assault and Battery.

It's not quite enough to ask parents to stop spanking their children without them first experiencing a change in attitude toward childrearing. If children were to remain being held to a double-standard, we would see less physical injury occurring to children as the result of eliminating the practice of spanking. However, we would still see the ravages of emotional damage occurring to children as the result of being held to a double-standard of treatment. The continued existence of this double standard would continue to see children being treated with disrespect in the form of disregard, dismissal, insensitivity, and harsh regard.

If we are to consider children a part of humanity, it's time we brought them into the fold by starting to consider the possibility that our young might be even more susceptible to the emotional harm of being treated with disrespect than we adults.

The overriding issue at hand here concerns the fact that all adults, even including the most vicious of incarcerated criminals, are legally protected from physical punishments as a disciplinary practice, while children are left excluded from such legal protections. This discriminatory inequity is the reflection of a prejudice against minor children on a societal level. It is a prejudice known as Ageism.

Ageism is just as difficult a social issue to overcome as the bigotry of Misogyny or Racism because these behaviors represent the same behavioral characteristics (an irrational, misguided, and misinformed prejudice against others). While the targets of prejudicial intolerance might differ, the basis for group prejudices remains the same. The male chauvinist views his wife as a sexually objectified possession who is also seen through an attitude which dictates that the wife is held in lower regard than his male peers. The basis for the problem lies with this type of man possessing a superior attitude toward women. The racist views the targeted group as being inferior and is assigned to a lower social-status, which is rationalized as justifiable.

I should reiterate here that throughout history, the rationalizations used as excuses for physical discipline have been basically the same for slaves, women, and children alike. Typically, these excuses have included striking the offenders for defiance, disobedience or safety issues.

The elimination of the group prejudice presents a formidable challenge. We need to find ways by which we can effectively instill a raised understanding, a higher level of consciousness, and an increased level of empathy. This is difficult because those who harbor these prejudices are seldom individuals who feel a burning desire to change their existing attitudes toward those they regard as inferior human beings. In addition, these prejudices commonly represent deep-seated orientations that were instilled during their early formative years. This is a developmental stage where learned behavior is subject to manifest itself as deeply ingrained beliefs. Such perceptions are also referred to as bigotry. We should strive to progress beyond the inhumanity of socially accepted Ageism in the same way that we've already progressed beyond the inhumanity of socially accepted Racism and Misogyny. Given this, I support the notion that children should be afforded the same societal protections from violence as are enjoyed by the rest of society. After all, it's simply a position calling for basic human rights for all of us.

James C. Talbot (March 2010)

Please visit www.positivedisciplining.com
and www.nospank.net

Current Philosophy About Hitting Children

On Hitting Children:
A Review of Corporal Punishment in the United States

Over a century ago, it was common practice for men to hit their wives as a way of teaching them, gaining compliance, or chastising them. Today, this practice is clearly identified as abuse and is illegal. This cultural change in what was acceptable behavior came about slowly, as part of the concept of protection of human rights and acceptance that women were not the chattel of their husbands. Although both cultural mores and legal behavior in dealing with women have changed, the author of the present article states, "[I]ronically, the only humans it is still legal to hit are the most vulnerable members of our society — those we are charged to protect — children."This article discusses the position of the US government on corporal punishment (CP) of children.

"Spanking," "paddling," and "whupping," terms commonly used to describe punishment of children are, by definition, forms of hitting, either with a hand or with an instrument. Hitting children is at least as cruel and harmful an act as hitting adult women. It is an act of violence and a clear violation of the child's human rights.''

In the United States, it is against the law to hit older adults, prisoners, and criminals, and it is illegal for adults to hit children in school in more than half of US states, However, it is not illegal for parents to hit their children at home, largely "because of strongly held beliefs about parents' rights to discipline as well as a society view of parents as 'owners' of children."

The article by Knox summarizes numerous research studies that demonstrate strong associations between CP of children and later development of maladaptive behavior patterns, such as aggression and delinquency, and concludes that CP is probably more harmful than helpful. A meta-analysis of 80 studies shows that spanking and other forms of CP are associated with increased aggressive and delinquent behavior in children, poorer parent/child relationships, worse mental health in children, increased physical abuse of children, increased adult aggression and criminal behavior, poorer adult mental health, and increased later risk for abusing one's spouse or child. CP is often part of a larger pattern of abuse; it is also often the first behavior in a cycle of abuse of children, and the youngest children tend to suffer the most abuse.

Parents who practice CP are not aware of or fail to use alternatives that are more effective. Research documents that spanking does not have long-term positive effects on a child's adaptive behavior. When children are hurt physically, their brains and bodies become physiologically aroused, causing them to focus almost entirely on themselves and not on what they are supposed to be learning. Thus, researchers argue that children who are hit are, paradoxically, less likely to learn the lessons parents are trying to teach.

Many organizations, including the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and the United Methodist Church, have taken a stand against CP. The article describes professional and international progress on ending CP, citing 24 countries that have enacted legislation to abolish all CP of children. In many countries, the ban on CP in the home is primarily educational and does not include a provision for criminal penalties. What has developed in these countries is a change in the cultural expectations about behavior toward children.

In 2006, the United Nations (UN) adopted a policy banning CP of children, maintaining that "No violence against children is justifiable; all violence against children is preventable."Leading reformers in the UN are outraged that only the United States and Somalia failed to ratify UN documents against CP in children, even though the death rate from maltreatment for US children younger than 15 years is 10 to 15 times higher than the average death rate in other wealthy nations.^[1]

The author makes an appeal for efforts that hold promise for preventing child maltreatment, such as parent education and removal of social sanctions for hitting children. A key step in treating violent individuals is to confront, dispute, and develop alternatives to beliefs that support violence. The author suggests development of programs and campaigns to educate people about how to avoid hitting children. Many parents and caregivers are need help with discipline, and health care providers, such as pediatric nurse practitioners, can be highly effective educators for parents. These clinicians should provide anticipatory guidance as a preventive method of securing nonviolent parenting skills. Nurse practitioners are encouraged to teach parents about the potential adverse outcomes of CP and have parents commit to never hitting, shaking, or spanking their children.

Viewpoint
This article emphasizes a problem that may not be a dominant clinical concern. I like the emphasis on anticipatory guidance for parents, assuming that most parents will experience times when they are frustrated and angry at their children and need to learn another way to respond. Helping parents think in advance about what they must not do and make decisions about alternatives addresses the problem before it happens. Early teaching of parents also has a chance of reaching parents with the message before they have adopted abusive patterns about which to feel guilty.

Changing the cultural behaviors about what was acceptable for men in their relationships with women took a long time. Although we might also accept that it will take a similar length of time to change societal behavior towards children, the first step is to discuss the problem more broadly. I think that awareness of failure of the United States to support the efforts of the UN and other countries in limiting abuse of children should generate some discussion and perhaps create additional positive action.

References
1. UNICEF. A League Table of Child Maltreatment Deaths in Rich Nations. Florence, Italy: Innocenti; 2003

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Marilyn W. Edmunds, PhD, CRNP:

Co-owner, Nurse Practitioner Alternatives, Inc., Ellicott City, Maryland; Adjunct Clinical Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland

Bill in Congress to Ban School Corporal Punishment

U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY 4th District) has introduced H.R. 5628, a bill in Congress to ban school corporal punishment. School children need your support now! Here's how you can help: Call, email or write your U.S. Representative and ask for support of H.R. 5628 and ask your Representative to tell Representative McCarthy that he/she will co-sponsor the bill. Contact information for your Representative can be found at: www.congress.org. On the right side of the page, put your zip code in the section where it says Find Your Lawmakers. What to say: "Please support H.R. 5628 , a bill to ban school corporal punishment. Here are some reasons why: (1) Twenty states still allow corporal punishment in schools and over 223,000 school children are hit each year, (2) Corporal punishment can lead to student injuries and law suits against school boards, (3) Over fifty national organizations including the National Education Association, the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association oppose school corporal punishment. Will you support the bill? Will you co-sponsor the bill? Thank you for your support."

More information about effects of school corporal punishment and alternatives to its use can be found at: www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=atschool-main and www.nospank.net

The April 15th, 2010 testimony and video on banning school corporal punishment in the U.S. House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities is available at: http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/2010/04/corporal-punishment-in-school.shtml Thank you for helping to make our schools safer for children. Please forward this to others who might help protect school children! Nadine Block and Deb Sendek Center for Effective Discipline www.stophitting.com email: info@stophitting.com Telephone: 614-221-8829

Harris County Texas Sends Strong Message to People Who Hit Kids

GOOD NEWS IN the battle against corporal punishment in schools! But not everyone, especially some in Houston’s black community, agrees.

This week two teachers, a principal and a superintendent were charged in connection with an April 29 videotaped beating of a 13 year-old student at Houston’s Jaime’s House Charter School.

The cell phone video shows the teacher, 40 year-old Sheri Lynn Davis, throwing a desk and then attacking a cornered and crouching Isaiah Reagins. Other students can be heard laughing and clapping as Reagins is then dragged across the floor, repeatedly slapped, punched and kicked. The boy’s mother said her son suffered knots, bruises and a black eye from the attack.

[1]Davis was placed on administrative leave on May 5, after the boy’s mother notified the school about the incident. Witnesses said Davis “snapped” after Reagins made fun of a special needs student. Several students told police officers that four or five teachers watched the incident and threatened them if the video ever went public.

Davis was later fired from the school and then issued a public apology during a press conference at her attorney’s office. She has been handed a felony charge for the beating and faces up to 10 years in prison.

But Davis is not alone.

Charges have been filed against teacher Gabriel Hahn Moseley who was in the room at the time but failed to report the incident. She too was fired from Jaime’s House after an investigation. School Superintendent Ollie Hilliard and Principal David Jones were also charged with failure to report child abuse. The misdemeanor charges against the trio carry a maximum punishment of one year in prison.

A spokesperson for Jamie’s House said both Jones and Hilliard were shocked by the charges against them and said they are without merit.

In a surprising turn of events, Isaiah Reagins’s grandmother has said that the incident is being blown out of proportion. She says she agrees with the charges against Davis, but does not approve of the charges against Moseley, Hilliard and Jones.

Now, some of Houston’s black communities, political leaders and activists are criticizing Harris County prosecutors for pursuing criminal charges against the school staff. They fear that the school, which serves 130 at risk teens, will be forced to close.

“These charges against Jones and Hilliard are just overreaching,” said community activist Deric Muhammad. “One child has already been hurt. We don’t want 129 other children to be hurt. We want to learn from what has happened to Isaiah. We don’t want what happened to be exploited.”

Harris County Sheriff’s Office Spokesperson Christina Garza said investigators hope to send a strong message with the charges.

“The message that we want to send to people, regardless of where they work or who they are, is to report any type of incident – especially one involving a student or child being beat or kicked or struck. Failure to do so is a crime,” Garza said.

I applaud Harris County officials for this move. And I understand why Houston’s black community is upset.

The fact that a black teacher had the audacity to beat a child in a classroom, that black teachers stood around and watched, a black superintendent and a black principal tried to cover up the incident, and black students clapped and applauded during the beating speaks volumes about the perverse embrace of violence against children in black communities and throughout the society.

Too many black children are growing up to accept violence as a part of life and too many black people hit children, endorse it or look the other way when it happens. When parents, teachers and childcare providers hit children those acts reinforce that violence serves a normal function in our communities. To tell black parents and guardians to abstain from hitting their children is one battle. But to make an entire community, a village of people, reprogram themselves into thinking that hitting children is a form of violence is another monster!

I see black children being slapped, popped, whipped, yanked, threatened and cussed at in public spaces all the time. Dare I say something to the parent and I will be derided and even threatened. I watch people turn away or look on horrified, helpless and afraid to say something.

Houston’s black community might be outraged at the charges, but maybe their negative reactions speaks to their own fear of losing the power to control defenseless children through their reliance on violent childrearing tactics, ones that have been transmitted through generations of African Americans since slavery. But the fact is, Davis, Moseley, Jones and Williams broke the law and they should be held accountable, just as we would expect if those perpetrators had been whites that attacked a black child.

The law requires teachers and other professionals who interact with children to report incidents or suspicion of child abuse to authorities within 48 hours. But herein lies another problem: this law which is designed to protect the safety of children, exists in states like Texas where corporal punishment is legal.

How can we expect teachers to report incidents or suspicion of abuse when they are also given consent to do the very same thing they are asked to combat? I hope this incident in Houston will be exploited to prove that very point.

Violence should be foreign to children in school, at the grocery store, on the bus, in church — everywhere!

By Stacey Patton, June 25, 2010

Stacey Patton is the Senior Editor of The Defenders Online and a writer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Article printed from The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog: www.thedefendersonline.com

Spanking: A Cruel Retrogressive Habit

A letter to Project NoSpank
from Louise Gordon

---

I BELIEVE THAT peaceful relationships and harmonious ways of life will remain remote and idyllic fantasies as long as corporal punishment remains an acceptable part of child rearing. As dependents, children can be as much "prisoners of their parents as they are of schools."
— Thomas Szasz, M.D.

Are the imaginations of educators, parents and all other adults so impoverished that they cannot arrive at more humane practices than spanking children in order to counter misdeeds and misbehavior? Is it any wonder that children adopt defensive coping mechanisms when they can have their clothes yanked off and their naked buttocks beaten with household weapons such as paddles, belts and whatnot? And this, during a period when young children are being taught modesty and the importance of remaining clothed rather than running around stark naked after a bath or on a hot summer day.

A conflicted message children are given here, when they are also taught that parents can violate their modesty and bodily integrity and human dignity at will. With that violation comes emotional trauma and fear, even terror, over pain that an adult is inflicting while the child remains defenseless against the aggressive "pedagogical" or punitive assault.

Is it any wonder that when treated this way by their "nearest and dearest," that children, wholly dependent on parents not only for love but also survival, develop ambivalent and dysfunctional attitudes towards intimacy and close bonds, both desiring and fearing them? Is it any wonder that they may adopt a spate of maladaptive behaviors, from aggressiveness to timidity and withdrawal, from fear of and misdirected rebellion against "authority" to inordinate approval seeking and desire to please? And is any lesson learned about the behavior that precipitated a spanking?

Or has the child simply learned to avoid getting caught? It seems to me that penalties for wrongdoing are inherent in the misdeed and are thus unavoidable, and one learns through such experience. Piling punishment on top of penalty is a different matter. If it must exist as a means of teaching people to distinguish between good and evil, then can we not, as a society, insist that it be humane? The very combination of words sounds oxymoronic.

The British seem to have had a special cultural flair for caning, flogging and such. A glance at the work of Algernon Swinburne and Ian Gibson's book "The English Vice" gives a clue concerning the grotesque distortions, the "kinky," sado- masochistic or dysfunctional patterns of human sexuality that can result from such childhood abuse. This is an extreme and, one hopes, exceptional, but if spanking is normative, then dysfunction can also become the norm.

How many people cringe, as if to fend off a physical blow, when other people's voices are raised in anger? How many women and children are cowed, walking on egg shells at home, because a male "head of household" threatens violence while shaking a fist and demanding silence, even though that man never actually delivers a blow?

I seriously doubt that a more humane and educated world will be realized if, as a society, we perpetuate customary cruelty such as inflicting physical pain on children as part of our impoverished didactic repertoire, and as long as physical force remains the final arbiter of all human disputes.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, said Lord Acton. Who has more power to abuse other humans than large parents, upon whom small children are dependent?

Like the big taboos of sex and death, this subject can be shame inducing. It may cause cracks in the fragile self-esteem of spankers and spankees alike. Fortunately, Project No Spank is bringing truth to light on this topic, the effects of which are deeply ingrained in attitudes and ways of being and relating to one another. So often people's need to think well of themselves, to salvage fragile "self-esteem"--based on false competitive win-lose, power-over mindsets to start with--overrides the search for truth. Without seeking truth, there is no hope of aligning ourselves, our minds, and our actions more closely with it. When adults inflict pain on children as a means of punishment, coercion and behavior control, clearly, they are not approximating the embodiment of truth and love revealed to humanity through the wisest traditions in philosophy and the world's great spiritual disciplines.

The use of physical pain to control children is not only unloving, but also unreasonable. Children should be reasoned with through language and intellect, not coerced through physical pain and humiliation. Children who are unable to comprehend reasoning, two-year-olds, for example, need to be kept out of harm's way by adults, not punished with spankings if they make a mistake that could cause injury to themselves or others, a mistake that adults call "misbehavior."

The whipping post and slavery were abolished in the United States. It is time to recognize spanking as the cruel retrogressive habit that it is, left over from the era when Americans owned other humans and were free to treat them with less care than inanimate objects.

Whether as part of toxic parenting or poisonous pedagogy, human beings no longer can afford to indulge in inflicting pain as an "efficient" means of modifying behavior. As Alice Miller says, "every smack is a humiliation." Some smacks prove fatal, while all are injurious to human dignity and diminish the human community in which we all must live. If children are human, they have rights that no adult should be able to violate with impunity.

© 2004 by Louise Gordon — May 4, 2004

Shall we bring back the teacher's paddle and the Klansman's noose?

THERE IS A great deal of clamoring in certain quarters lately for restoring corporal punishment as the primary means for classroom disci- pline. Proponents are demand- ing that it's time to "bring unruly kids back into line," that we must "teach them to follow rules and respect authority," that they must "learn to obey their elders or suffer the consequences." This theme is emerging as a new rallying cry heard at school board meetings, in state and local legislatures and, I fear before long, on street corners.
....One has to wonder, where might this yearning for good ol' fashioned discipline lead? Would the next logical step be a call for restoration of the lynch mob's rope? That's not as far-fetched as it might first sound. One has only to compare a list of the top ten paddling states to a list of the top ten lynching states, and the basis for my warning becomes clear — seven states show up on both lists.
....What's behind this mindset that fuels a drive for inflicting violent punishments on the defenseless? Well, it's been around for millennia, and never far out of sight. The treatment of slaves, prisoners, soldiers, the mentally ill and wives is testimony to this deep-rooted, cherished tradition. It's fresh in our collective memory. And for many children, it's here and now.
....Schools systems that allow corporal punishment (a deceptively benign-sounding, clinical-sounding term) act as magnets and safe havens for the dangerously unfit. Put a bully, sadist or sociopath in charge of children, close the classroom door, pull the shade, and it's party time. Pity those children.
....Throughout the modern, civilized world, the teaching profession has largely purged itself of this worst-of-all afflictions. Teachers are held to a standard befitting their training as professionals, and assault and battery of children clearly isn't part of the job description. Many leading organizations that deal with children's issues have stated unequivocally that hitting children is counterproductive and should be prohibited. The list includes:

..• The National Association of School Psychologists
..• The National PTA
..• The American Academy of Pediatrics
..• The American Medical Association
..• The American Psychological Association
..• The American Public Health Association
..• The Child Welfare League of America
..• The National Association of Social Workers
..• The National Committee for the Prevention of Child .....Abuse
..• The National Mental Health Association
..• The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
..• The American Bar Association
..• The American Civil Liberties Union
... . . and more.

....Society will always be burdened with bullies — hopefully in dwindling numbers — and bullies have an equal right to earn a living, but they should be directed into areas of employment which offer them no oppor- tunity to indulge their perverse habits.

— Jordan Riak, May 8, 2010

Parenting Expert Warns Against Physical Punishment

Corporal punishment of children has long been a topic of controversy in the United States. According to some studies, more than half of all U.S. parents condone spanking as a regular form of punishment for small children. Other studies have shown spanking to be harmful to children. So when children misbehave or act out, what should parents do? APA spoke with Alan E. Kazdin, PhD, John M. Musser professor of psychology at Yale University and director of Yale's Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic. He was APA’s 2008 president and is the author of many professional-audience books on child psychology and behavior.

APA: Some parents spank their child not only to punish him or her but to change their child’s behavior. Does spanking have that effect?

Dr. Kazdin: Spanking is not a very effective strategy. It does not teach children new behaviors or what to do in place of the problem behavior. It is also not useful in suppressing the problematic behavior beyond the moment. Research indicates the rate of misbehavior does not decline, in fact, the problem behavior returns, even if the parent escalates the punishment.

APA: What other types of physical punishment do some parents use?

Dr. Kazdin: The task is to help children change their behavior, and physical punishment is not needed to accomplish that. Developing positive opposite behaviors, i.e., the desired behaviors that the parent wants, is much more effective.

APA: What are some of the alternative methods for disciplining children that parents would be well-advised to employ? How do these alternative methods work? Why are they more effective? Where can parents find resources to learn these alternative methods?

Dr. Kazdin: Positive reinforcement for alternative behaviors is extremely effective. This is not just rewards or points but the use of antecedents (what comes before behavior), behavior (shaping and gradually developing, repeated practice), and consequences (e.g., specially delivered praise).There is a whole area of research (applied behavior analysis) devoted to this and some parenting books, too. See www.alankazdin.com

APA: What is the difference between physical punishment and child abuse?

Dr. Kazdin: Child abuse is defined individually by the states in the U.S. and the definitions vary—some focus on where on the body the child is hit; others focus on whether objects are used, and so on. The key issue is that moderate-to-severe physical punishment has all sorts of long-term negative consequences for the child including in the areas of academic performance and mental and physical health. One need not abuse a child to achieve those very unfortunate effects.

APA:. Are there social, environmental or economic stressors that may cause a parent or caregiver to be more likely to use physical punishment with children?

Dr. Kazdin: Yes, stressors can contribute to abuse; parent expectations for what the child can and ought to do can contribute, too. I have worked with parents who abused their infants because they would not stop crying. Another parent beat a 10-year-old boy because he forgot one item on a grocery list when he was sent to the store by himself. Both the crying and forgetting something have a technical name in psychology: They are called “normal.”

APA:. What are the effects on children who are disciplined with physical punishment? For instance, are they more likely to be aggressive with their siblings, peers or others?

Dr. Kazdin:. Research on very mild, infrequent spanking (e.g., one time/month) is inconclusive. When a parent moves beyond that to moderate or severe physical punishment, there are all sorts of untoward consequences—educational delays, psychological disorders and physical disorders, too.

APA: What do you say to the parent who says, “My parents spanked me, and I turned out OK?”

Dr. Kazdin: There are people who smoke cigarettes and live to be 100, but that does not refute the findings that smoking is likely to lead to early death. Exceptions are interesting (some people who contract HIV do not get AIDS) but they do not alter the finding and it would be foolhardy to think that one is an exception.

APA: What kinds of research would provide more conclusive evidence on the effects of physical punishment of children and provide insight into alternative forms of discipline?

Dr. Kazdin:. There is a good deal of research that has already been conducted that shows that anything beyond very mild physical punishment does not work in the long term and has negative consequences. While not all child development experts agree, my advice to parents is to avoid physical punishment altogether; there are simply more effective ways to teach and discipline your child.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 152,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.

Source: American Psychological Association (APA)
May 5, 2010, 11:00 AM EDT

223,190 Kids Legally Beaten in US Schools

For the first time in over 18 years, Congress has held hearings on the use of Corporal Punishment in U.S. Schools. In the coming weeks, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (NY) will introduce a bill to institute a federal ban of corporal punishment in all US Schools. [source: US Congressional Hearing]

Every 20 seconds of the school day, a child is beaten by an educator. Every 4 minutes, an educator beats a child so severely that she seeks medical attention. According to conservative reporting to the U.S. Department of Education 223,190 students were the victims of institutionalized violence at least once in the 2006-2007 school year, of which over 20,000 sought medical attention. [source: Office for Civil Rights at the US Dept. of Education; Congressional Testimony]
....Pre-school age through high school, students are being beaten with boards, belts, paddles, and whips... in public schools... in the United States... and while corporal punishment has been repeatedly shown to be ineffective and has deleterious effects on students, the practice continues and is legal in 20 states.
....The iron age practice of "corporal punishment" is still legal in 20 states and there are no federal laws prohibiting it. The National Association of School Nurses defines corporal punishment as "the intentional infliction of physical pain as a method of changing behavior. It may include methods such as hitting, slapping, punching, kicking, pinching, shaking, use of various objects (paddles, belts, sticks, or others), or painful body postures."
....From infractions as dangerous as forgetting a pencil to prom dress code violations, students are being beaten across the country. All of this, of course is without any due process, court hearing, and often the parents have no say in the matter. Did I mention that corporal punishment is outlawed in the US legal system, and even felons convicted of rape or murder can sleep soundly knowing they will never be subject to the same kinds of beatings we routinely doll out to our children in public schools. Not to mention that 97 out of the 100 largest US School districts have banned corporal punishment. [source: Center for Effective Discipline]
....The United States stands alone in the developed world — Canada, Europe, the UK, Australia and 102 other countries have long since outlawed the practice. [source:] The United Nations, Parent Teacher Association, American Civil Liberties Union, American Association of Pediatrics and countless other organizations have strong positions against the use of corporal punishment. [source:Center for Effective Discipline]
....The American Psychological Association opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools and asserts that corporal punishment is violent and unnecessary, may lower self-esteem, is liable to instill hostility and rage without reducing the undesired behavior and is likely to train children to use physical violence.
....In fact, the majority of research suggests that corporal punishment has little to no positive long term effects, actually decreases the effectiveness of other forms of punishment, and introduces a whole mess of other complications including increased drop out rates. Why then do some schools insist on using an ineffective, outdated practice? Since 30 states currently outlaw corporal punishment, what is so different in the lagging 20? Are the students somehow worse behaved? Are the teachers less capable of non-violent classroom management?
....The United States must join the rest of the developed world and implement a federal ban on corporal punishment. Dodging the issue and leaving it up to the states is irresponsible and neglectful to the hundreds of thousands of kids physically abused by the education system every year. The "States Rights Gambit" didn't work for slavery or segregation, and it won't work for this either.
....As a nation we may be in violation of international law by our non-compliance with the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - which we signed and ratified in 1992. The UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child found that "corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment are forms of violence and States must take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to eliminate them" [source: A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools]
....You can help spread awareness around this issue by sharing this article with friends, blogging about it yourself, and joining the Facebook Group.
....Additionally, contact your state representatives office, and let them know you support a Federal Ban on Corporal Punishment — this is a real chance to leave a human rights legacy you can be proud of.
__________________________________________________________

Appeared in THE HUFFINGTON POST by Anthony Adams
— Posted May 5, 2010 09:00 AM

This article is the first article in a series on Corporal Punishment in the United States by Anthony David Adams, Founder of DetentionSlip.org

Victims of Sociopathic or Sadistic Acts

IF YOU ARE capable of painfully striking your child in the absence of anger, remorse, or guilt, your behavior can be characterized as a sociopathic act ... to cause harm without conscience.

On the other hand, if you are capable of causing emotional or physical harm to another, in conjunction with feelings of pleasure, gratification, and/or sexual arousal, you have committed an act of sadism.

These forms of dysfunctional behavior when perpetrated against adult persons are generally accepted as accurate by definition. But, until children are also included as a viable segment of humanity, they will remain largely exempt from being considered victims of sociopathic and/or sadistic acts according to the double standard definitions as they apply to adults.

As we continue to evolve as a society, our cultural norms and values change, as do the words that define our behavior. In just a period of fifty years, we've seen the terms Spousal Abuse and Domestic Violence spring into our consciousness. A little over one hundred years ago, the term Child Abuse was not a part of the collective conscience in the U.S.

Given these changes reflecting a greater collective humanity, I fully expect to see an expansion of the parameters currently used to describe acts that are consistent with sociopathy and sadism. This will occur when we finally bring children into the fold of humanity by putting behind us our prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes toward our young.

— James C. Talbot (April 24, 2010)

Author of The Road To Positive Discipline: A Parent's Guide.

See www.positivedisciplining.com/author.htm

Alice Miller's Gift to Humanity

THE CONTRIBUTION OF her writing to her readers, as well as to the cause of children and of humanity, is unparalleled.

....The lives of all who have read her books, from The Drama of the Gifted Child to Free from Lies, have been deeply transformed. To read Alice Miller is to be brought back to your own center, to the child you once were. No matter what invalidation or mutilation you have suffered, you regain contact with this child. You are able to sweep away the judgments that have been leveled against children — about their “foolishness,” their “original sin,” their innate “bestiality,” and their “drives — that the culture of contempt for children has stuck onto them. You can dare to declare that as children we were totally innocent. No one before Alice Miller had been so radical. Starting from the certainty that her books communicate to readers, a true resurrection becomes possible, simply because each reader is able to reconnect with the child one was, with the source of life within oneself.

....Alice Miller contributed infinitely to the cause of childhood. She showed, without minimizing as others often tend to do, all the forms of violence to which children are subjected: lack of tenderness, neglect, absence of care, sexual abuse, and, above all, ordinary educational violence, which is the most widespread and is everywhere considered normal and pedagogical. For many people, the profound effect of her work is surely seen in the adoption by 25 countries of legislation prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment and humiliation. Thanks to her and to her studies of the major mass criminals of the 20th century, we have been able to understand how what had happened in the intimacy of the family microcosm led to extremely grave consequences in the macrocosm of the social and political life of adolescents and adults.

....We must hope that in the future all that Alice Miller contributed to the cause of humanity will be understood. In showing that the life of adults — their familial, social, and political life, all their history — revolves around childhood and children, Alice Miller, like her fellow countryman Copernicus four centuries earlier, put the world right-side-up again. Freud had failed to do it. By inventing the theory of drives, after his father’s death and so as not to accuse him, he thereby returned to the old accusation against children as being the agents of the worst drives. Alice Miller, through empathetically listening to her patients, understood that this theory was false and had the courage to denounce it. And courage was certainly needed because she found herself immediately rejected by a number of her former colleagues. However, in shining light on the principal origin of human violence, Alice Miller’s work gives us hope for reducing, in its many forms, this violence stemming from ravaged childhoods.

....Alice Miller is no longer with us, but her books remain for us. Likewise, we still have her website that I hope Brigitte Oriol will continue to take care of. Would it not be possible for Alice Miller’s readers, with the agreement of Brigitte Oriol, to undertake the translation of the articles on this site into the maximum number of languages so that Alice Miller’s thinking becomes accessible to all and is spread even more widely than when she was still here?

— Olivier Maurel

[Translated from the original French
by Mitch Hall, April 24, 2010]

Alice Miller died on April 14, 2010 at the age of 87.