PUNISHMENT

The Values and lessons of punishment

The Values and lessons of punishment

Introduction

Opponents of the corporal punishment of children are rightly critical of its extensive use and the severity with which it is all too often inflicted. They have been at pains to show that corporal punishment is not used merely as a last resort, but is inflicted regularly and for the smallest of infractions. They have also recorded the extreme harshness of many instances of corporal punishment.

There is no hesitation in joining the opposition to such practices, which are correctly labeled as child abuse(Hymen, Wise, 2006). Where one can believe that opponents of corporal punishment are wrong is in saying that physical punishment should never be inflicted. The popular as well as the educational and psychological debates about corporal punishment are characterized largely by polarization. Those who are opposed want to rule it out entirely. Those who are in favor tend to have a cavalier defense of the practice that is insensitive to many reasonable concerns about the dangers and abuses of this form of punishment.

It is surprising that the moral question of corporal punishment has escaped the attention of philosophers to the extent that it has. The various standard arguments that are advanced against corporal punishment and show why they fail to establish the conclusion in defense of which they are usually advanced--that such punishment should be entirely abandoned. However, in doing so one could show that some of the arguments have some force--sufficient to impose significant moral limitations on the use of corporal punishment--thereby explaining, at least in part, why the abuses are beyond the moral pale.

Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment is, quite literally, the infliction of punishment on the body. Even once it is differentiated from "capital punishment," "corporal punishment" remains a very broad term. It can be used to refer ...