The strange endurance of corporal punishment

Abstract

Corporal punishment of children is an issue that transcends cultures and remains extremely loaded, touching on difficult questions of children's autonomy, parental rights and responsibilities, and societal interests. Conversations around the need to discipline children, and the appropriate means and methods of doing so, delve almost immediately into deep cultural and emotional waters. And when questions extend to how organisations outside the home should approach disciplining children, the issues become even murkier.