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Ending Spanking Can Make a Major Contribution to Preventing Physical Abuse

by Murray A. Straus, Ph.D., Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire
Murray Straus, Ph.D.

The idea that ending spanking and other legal corporal punishment by parents can make a major contribution to preventing physical abuse of children seems preposterous to all but a few of the parent educators, child psychologists, pediatricians and other professionals I talk to. Paradoxically, it is rarely because they are in favor of spanking. Even more paradoxical is that most also think that spanking is an undesirable mode of parenting and many advise parents to use alternatives to correct misbehavior.

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