Assessing the Causal Effect of Childhood Corporal Punishment on Adult Violent Behavior: Methodological Challenges

Abstract

Professor Straus' article addresses a key scientific question in the debate over the use of corporal punishment: whether the practice has harmful consequences to society. In my discussion I have three goals. First, I want to discuss briefly some of the methodological challenges in testing the hypothesis that child corporal punishment causes societal violence. Second, I would like to set Straus' work into a larger framework so we understand its contribution to the debate about corporal punishment, and how the evidence he provides could be used to help settle the question. Last, I will suggest a scientific approach to the study of corporal punishment that would provide a set of decision rules concerning whether accept or reject corporal punishment of children. METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES The issue of potential short- and long-term harm from corporal punishment is a major theme in the literature, and many studies have been conducted to address this issue. In his article, Straus uses two kinds of evidence: data from studies of societies; and studies comparing children who were spanked and children who were not on rates of violent behavior in adolescence or adulthood. There are several difficulties in using these scientific approaches. Societal Level Studies Straus references societal-level data from Montague1 on eight nonviolent societies, all of which raise children without use of corporal punishment, and anthropological studies of over 300 societies archived in the Human Resources Area File. He uses these data to examine whether corporal punishment is associated with violence such as assault, homicide, or wife-beating.