Effect of corporal punishment on later delinquency rate Dissertation

Effect of corporal punishment on later delinquency rate - Dissertation Example Center of discussion in this paper is corporal punishment as use of physical force to elicit pain or discomfort, but not injury, to correct or punish a particular behavior of a child. Strength of physical force may vary from just a light slap to spanking or lashing with some object. In literature spanking, beating, whipping hitting and other euphemisms has been used for corporal punishment. There are basically three different levels at which corporal punishment are instituted. At a domestic level it involves families where children are punished either by their parents or other senior members of family. At a school level children are disciplined using corporal punishment mostly by the principle of that institution or sometimes by the teachers themselves. The third level is the judicial level where court sentence some form of corporal punishment to modify the anti-social behavior of a criminal. Corporal punishment is an ancient trend. It was associated to religious aspects not long ago in the ideology of original sins and possession by devils. After going through much of the literature the author noticed that researchers are of two different opinions when it comes to corporal punishment. Some believes corporal punishment is incorporated in effective parenting and required to prevent any individual to develop anti-social behavior while others believe that corporal punishment leads to negative emotions capable of invoking anti-social behavior.... The exhibition of these boiling emotions may not be immediate but they will become evident in later on and as I mentioned earlier the picture varies depending on many different elements. It gives birth to a volcano dormant initially; giving a false sense that the treatment of corporal punishment is working but dilemma arise when countdown stop and explosions begins. It is possible for child to develop hatred and anger towards the person institutionalizing the punishment. So it is very important to identify those who are directly involved to understand their influence on the child. As discussed earlier the first two levels of corporal punishment involve parents and teachers. These two are the main institutions to provide the basic learning and guidance that can invoke consciousness in a child and make him a good person. Imagine if they both are at fault in the mind of that innocent child. The consequences can be disastrous. Not all parents react in same way when their child misbehaves . Some will punish regularly, some rarely and others may not punish them at all but majority falls under the second category. (Straus et al 1994). When corporal punishment is properly planned, controlled and without overwhelming emotions it is called Instrumental Corporate Punishment. On the contrary if it is sudden, uncontrolled and with the outburst of emotions it is said to be Impulsive Corporate Punishment. It has been analyzed by many researches that those parents using Instrumental type often punish them on regular basis hence their children are more receptive. It follows the principle of negative reinforcement. When parents use corporate punishment and child complies, it negatively reinforces parents to stop such