Sir Frank Peters :
Children damaged by corporal punishment today are the law-breaking, antisocial, broken adults of tomorrow – human time bombs of anger and aggression that can (and do) explode without warning and wreak havoc on society
“No form of violence, including physical, sexual or psychological, can ever be justified as being in the best interest of the child” – Mary Robinson, former Irish President and former High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Corporal punishment beats-in all that society abhors and despises: fear, hatred, violence, disrespect, resentment, physical abuse, vengeance and more. It leads to mental and physical disorders, antisocial behaviour and it’s linked to cancer
An essential ‘wake-up’ report has just been published that should be compulsory reading for every man, woman and child, especially educationalists, not just in Bangladesh, but also worldwide.
The commended report supports the established fact that a nation that turns a blind eye or belittles the horrific effects of corporal punishment upon its children is a nation of fools soliciting misfortune. Every jail, in part, is a monument to this gross ignorance and indifference.
Corporal punishment does not only affect the hapless individual at the moment of impact, but it lingers and rots in the mind of the child throughout his or her lifetime, sometimes showing its anger, revenge, despise and hatred of the wrongdoers and society when the child enters its adult years. And this could affect all of us, although we might be totally innocent of any wrongdoing against that person.
Children damaged by corporal punishment today are the law-breaking, antisocial, broken adults of tomorrow – human time bombs of anger and aggression that can (and do) explode without warning and wreak havoc on society.
We might not be parents or guilty of beating a child, but by allowing corporal punishment through encouragement, indifference or silence, we’re as guilty as the offenders in their eyes. (“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Irish statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797).
There’s no doubt, corporal punishment is evil and the work of the devil. There is not a single scrap of evidence anywhere in the world that shows corporal punishment is good for a child, but there are literally thousands of studies that prove beyond any doubt the exact opposite.
The latest study by End Corporal Punishment.Org (a global initiative to end all corporal punishment of children) has gathered together and neatly packaged all the evidence any caring, loving parent, or professional teacher would ever need to convince themselves that corporal punishment is harmful, evil, and wrong.
The report begins: “The message from research is very clear: corporal punishment carries multiple risks of harm and has no benefits. More than 200 studies show associations between corporal punishment and a wide range of negative outcomes, while no studies have found evidence of any benefits.
“Ending corporal punishment is essential in ending physical ‘child abuse’, and in creating societies that are overall less violent.
“The approval and prevalence of corporal punishment in societies is linked to the use or endorsement of other forms of violence, including fighting, torture, the death penalty, war and murder.”
A 2000 study that examined the impact of the 1979 ban in Sweden found that there had been a decrease in the number of 15 to 17 year olds involved in theft, narcotics crimes, assaults against young children, rape, and a decrease in suicide and use of alcohol and drugs by young people.
Corporal punishment kills thousands of children each year, injures many more and is the direct cause of many children’s life-lasting physical impairments.
Other highlights from the report include:
* ALL physical punishment, however ‘mild’ and ‘light’ and given in good intent, carries an inbuilt risk of escalation. Adults/teachers who inflict physical punishment are often angry: their anger can increase the level of force used beyond what was intended.
* Corporal punishment has been found to be a factor in unacceptable behaviours such as bullying, lying, cheating, running away, truancy, and involvement in crimes as a child and young adult and an increase in delinquent and antisocial behaviour.
* Corporal punishment does not teach children how to behave or help them understand how their behaviour affects others. It teaches them that it is desirable not to get caught.
* Children who have experienced corporal punishment are more likely to be aggressive towards their peers, to approve of the use of violence in, to bully, experience violence from their peers, to use violent methods to resolve conflict and to be aggressive towards their parents. Children learn that violence is an appropriate method of getting what you want and that children copy their parents/teachers’ behaviour.
* Corporal punishment is emotionally as well as physically painful and its links to poor mental health in childhood are clear. It is significantly associated with a decrease in children’s mental health, including behaviour disorders, anxiety disorders, depression, hopelessness, suicide attempts, alcohol and drug dependency, low self-esteem, hostility and emotional instability. Studies have also found associations with developing cancer, asthma, alcohol-related problems, migraine, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and obesity as an adult.
* Corporal punishment can have a negative impact on children’s cognitive development: lower IQ scores, smaller vocabularies and poorer school marks.
* School corporal punishment violates a child’s right to education creating a violent and intimidating environment in which children are less able to learn and is often the reason given by children for not attending school.
* Far from teaching children how to behave, corporal punishment impairs moral internalisation, increases antisocial behaviour, damages family relationships, escalates aggression in children and increases the likelihood of perpetrating and experiencing violence as an adult. It is closely linked to other forms of violence in societies including partner violence.
The report goes on to state many other verifiable sit-up-and-take-notice facts. It concludes the evidence of damage corporal punishment causes to children, adults, and societies is irrefutable, overwhelming, and that corporal punishment has no benefits whatsoever.
When Bangladesh High Court justices Md. Imman Ali and Sheikh Hassan Arif outlawed the barbaric practice of corporal punishment in Bangladesh schools on January 14, 2011, they declared corporal punishment to be “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and a clear violation of a child’s fundamental right to life, liberty and freedom”.
That was a giant step forward for Bangladesh, but the journey is still long, arduous, and fraught with danger for children. For Bangladesh society to repair properly, corporal punishment must stop.
(Sir Frank Peters is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, an award-winning writer, royal goodwill ambassador, humanitarian, human rights activist, and a respected foreign friend of Bangladesh.)
