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Corporal punishment of children.
(Spanking)  --  All points of view

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Two contrasting quotations:

	"Regardless of governmental laws, God's law states that spanking is necessary for the proper development of a child." La Vista Church of Christ, Omaha NE. 5
	"Join other activists in a demonstration at the U.S. Capitol Building for the immediate banning of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, also known as 'corporal punishment,' in U.S. Public Schools." Invitation by "Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education." 6

The stakes over spanking children are extremely high:

The trend in the United States for the past two decades has been to abandon corporal punishment (spanking) in favor of increased use of alternate discipline methods -- e.g. logical consequences, natural consequences, time outs or withdraw of privileges.

If this trend continues, and:

	If corporal punishment advocates are correct, then the abandonment of spanking will significantly increase violence and criminal activity among the next generation of adults. Society will become more violent. More people will be victimized. We will have to build additional jails to hold all of the criminals.
	If corporal punishment opponents are correct, then the abandonment of spanking will greatly decrease youth rage and criminal activity among both teens and adults. Over the longer term, levels of clinical depression, clinical anxiety, alcohol and other drug addiction among adults will also decrease.

Unfortunately, neither side in the conflict trusts each other's studies and data. So we are probably going to have to sit back and simply observe the long-term effects of the reduction in corporal punishment.

This brings to mind the famous Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."

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References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. "Is spanking a thirteen year old child illegal?," La Vista Church of Christ, at: http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/

2. "Announcement," 21 to Go!, at: http://www.thehittingstopshere.com/

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