Violence on children - Essay Example

However, the other perspective is that corporal punishment is nothing more than violence against children masked as discipline. It is a crucial debate, and a complex issue that affects everyone. Although there are well-developed arguments for both sides of this topic, corporal punishment is sometimes necessary for children to become well developed, and it is not a form of behavior that should be considered the same as violence against children or physical abuse. Using corporal punishment on a child is often considered to be a form of violence, and some consider it to be a particularly bad form of punishment.

This consideration comes from the fact that the offender is the person that the child looks to for protection, and as such, the act of violence directly breaks the trust the child has. The use of corporal punishment on children has been the subject of substantial research, as people attempt to determine whether this type of discipline has negative repercussions on children. A study published in Pediatrics provides persuasive evidence that shows the short-term benefits of using corporal punishment on children does not outweigh the long-term negative consequences.

The authors found that children who were physically punished more often at the age of three was likely to be more violent than other children of his or her age by the time the child reached five years old. Not only were the five-year-olds who had been physically punished more violent and aggressive towards people, animals and objects, they were also more demanding, rebellious and become frustrated easier than children who were physically punished less often or not at all (Taylor 1057-65). It can be argued that this occurs because hitting a child results in fear, which does not help the child to understand the proper methods of behavior.

It also has the potential to teach children that violence is the solution to the problems of adult life, leading them to turn to violence themselves