Unless you are defending yourself or someone else, hitting a stranger is assault and assault is illegal. There is no doubt about it, and there are very good reasons why it is so. People have the right to be treated with respect.
Hitting someone doesn’t just cause physical pain, it’s demeaning. That is also the reason why only a few countries still use inflicting physical pain as punishment.
When we read news articles about countries beating people up for vandalism or theft, most of us react with outrage: “How barbaric and backwards!” We are sick and tired of violence. Mankind has seen too much of this, and almost never done any good. Violence should be a last resort, only to be used when absolutely necessary.
Curiously, there is a group of people for whom this peaceful attitude is very suspended. Children around the world are “whipped”, “beaten” and “beaten” by parents and teachers who face little opposition due to the widespread social acceptance of the practice.
Globally, around one billion children, i.e. six out of 10, between the ages of two and 14 are subjected to physical punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis, making physical punishment the most common most common form of violence against children.
Is it not hypocritical to condemn an adult for beating another adult, and governments for inflicting pain on criminals as punishment, while at the same time tolerating the “spanking,” “hitting,” and “beating” of children at home and at school?
Those words are euphemisms, of course. Spanking is hitting, and children are people (not the property of adults), so spanking a child is hitting a person.
If we think it should be illegal to hit even adults who have committed crimes, why do so many people consider it okay to use physical violence against children? As the most powerless members of society, don’t children deserve more protection than adults, rather than less?
Physical punishment of children comes in many forms. There are the most egregious cases, like the drunken father hitting his son for persistent crying, where the child is just a toddler and too young to even understand.
But there are also cases where parents or teachers hit children with the best intentions. Whenever the subject comes up, someone will inevitably bring up a familiar argument: “I used to get my ass spanked growing up and it went well!” It is true that not all children who are spanked will become damaged adults. However, that does not make it a good argument.
Some pregnant women drink alcohol and give birth to perfectly healthy children. Does it follow that it’s a good idea for pregnant women to drink a bottle of wine once in a while? Hardly. In fact, anecdotes are rarely reliable evidence.
Good decisions are based on science, and we have decades of research showing that children who are spanked are more likely to experience mental health problems and learning difficulties, and are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior as adults, including criminal behavior. . If you did well, it’s not because your parents or teachers hit you, but in spite of it!
A healthy parent-child relationship is based on love and trust. When parents hit their children, they trigger emotions like fear and shame, which are not only toxic to relationships with their children, but also poison their children’s future relationships with others.
Children who learn at home that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict are more likely to become victims or perpetrators of violence when they grow up. Importantly, that includes intimate partner violence, which is terrifyingly common and a serious public health problem in its own right.
Words, when chosen wisely, are just as effective in countering unwanted behavior in children, without any of the devastating long-term effects of physical punishment.
If you’re reading this from one of the many places where beating children remains a widespread and widely accepted social reality, it may be tempting to adopt a fatalistic attitude: “Parents here have always beaten their children, and always will. It is part of our traditional culture and values.”
Cultures and values, however, are not set in stone. They are constantly changing. That change is usually slow so we tend not to notice it, but just go talk to people who are a few decades older than you and they will tell you how much society has changed since they were young.
In 1979, Sweden was the first country to ban all corporal punishment of children, even in the home. Back then, 90% of parents in Sweden beat their children. By 2000, that number had dropped to less than 10% and today it is even lower.
Sometimes it only takes a generation to change a culture! But change does not happen by itself. We need to set things on track now, towards a future where children grow up free of violence.
Rainer Ebert has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Rice University in Texas. His academic career spans four continents and includes work at universities in the United States, South Africa, Tanzania and Canada. From 2017 to 2019, he was a professor of philosophy at the University of Dar es Salaam. He can be contacted at raininerebert.com and you can find it on Twitter @rainer_ebert.
Jackson Juma Coy is an assistant professor of philosophy in the department of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Dar es Salaam, where he is also working on his doctoral dissertation on a topic of medical ethics. He can be contacted at jacksoncoy.wordpress.com and you can find it on Twitter @JacksonCoy2.
The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official policy or the position of the mail and guardian.
