Corporal punishment - Essay Example

Although corporal punishment’s aim is to impose discipline, parents, guardians and the like must carefully re-consider its effects on the child’s emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. In effect, corporal punishment is not an option in disciplining a child, but is basically a threat towards the child’s overall development. By definition, corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain, intended to correct behavior or to punish (Wikipedia, 2006). Various efforts in support of this corporal punishment attest that such form of discipline must be considered as the pains an individual suffer early in life is translated into feelings of emotional wholeness.

Children who underwent corporal punishment strive harder to reach greater goals in life. Proponents of this concept emphasize that fact that it is the most effective form of discipline, particularly for uncontrollable and unmanageable children. Delinquent children are uncontrollable simply because they think their parents do not care about whatever they do. At times, they think their actions are admissible due to their parents’ lack of interest. On the extreme side, their parents do dissuade them against harm’s way, but in effect these types of children are still unthreatened by their parents’ disciplining ways.

As the end justifies the means, corporal punishment becomes the only viable solution to delinquent children or to those children who have uncontrollable behavior. Furthermore, it is the easiest way to impose and manage discipline. In addition, parents’ use of harder forms of physical punishment may have less impact on a child, as opposed to the use of emotional violence. There are children who view corporal punishment as a way to feel the love and respect of their parents. By means of spanking, children are able to perceive that their parents still care for them; hence they still spend time and attention through the discipline they impose. If