No, spank you.
Tonight on Which Way, L.A.? the discussion centered around legislation proposed by a California state representative (or senator, not sure) that would criminalize spanking children ages 3 and younger. The punishment would include a hefty fine and possibly up to a year in prison.
The legislator argued that parents often spank their children for doing something wrong, but because they still lack fully developed communication skills (can anyone claim having achieved that?) they can’t understand what they’re doing wrong or why they’re being hit. And we all know this leads to crying, which she says often results in more spankings.
Another guest on the program was a police chief. Can’t recall his name. He said it would be a waste to involve the criminal justice system for something like spanking a child, arguing that the point at which it becomes child abuse is vague at best. He made a good point: If what these parents are doing is abuse, then there are already laws governing their actions that carry much tougher consequences.
Even if this became law, what judge or jury would sentence a parent to prison time for spanking their child in a non-abusive manner? If the spanking merited prison time, seems like it would have to have been more abusive in nature, and again, there are tougher laws against abuse.
I don’t really know if I’m for or against spanking. But it seems like what this legislator wants to do is punish bad parenting, not abuse. Maybe she should work toward educating parents (or future parents) instead. Seems like a better response to me.
Anyone got any thoughts on this?
January 23, 2007 at 8:14 am
I pretty much agree with your view and don’t see much point in legislating something like this - mostly due to the high number of “false positives” that would be reported by Sally Spank-not at the mall who saw Diana Discipline swatting her 2-yr-old terror.
January 23, 2007 at 8:39 am
Look at you go with the alliteration.
January 24, 2007 at 5:43 am
I think it’s had to legislate. But I will say that I have seen some frightening video clips of rage-like, zero-compassion, excessive-force spanking. Definitely bad parenting.. sometimes maybe child abuse.. so hopefully that could be dealt with at that level. A mother’s hand is the next police baton in our excessiveness monitoring.
January 25, 2007 at 11:29 pm
i’m all for spanking. in fact, sometimes i wish it were legal to spank other peoples’ children. count me in.
January 26, 2007 at 8:54 am
I hereby deputize you to spank other people’s children.
January 27, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Who wasn’t ever spanked as a kid? I want to know.