Parental Entitlement and Corporal Punishment
Date
2010
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Publisher
Law and Contemporary Problems
Abstract
[The] treatment of parents’ normative status differs from that in other childrearing contexts, such as parental opposition to regulation of religious schooling and parental freedom to circumcise boys. Examining that difference might illuminate distinctive features of corporal punishment relative to other childrearing controversies. One aim of this article is therefore to examine the role that parental-entitlement claims play in debates about corporal punishment of children and to explain why they are less prominent and less grandiose than in certain other contexts. In addition, this article explains why parental entitlement should in fact not play any role in these debates and why any normative claims should instead be couched solely in terms of children’s rights. That conclusion as to the proper scope of parental-rights claims does not dictate a particular policy outcome, for it is possible to make plausible arguments for or against corporal punishment in terms of children’s rights, depending on what empirical assumptions one makes. But adhering to proper limits on normative claims can help to clarify whether and to what extent particular empirical issues are crucial to the policy analysis. (From Author Introduction)
Description
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Keywords
child abuse, spanking, corporal punishment, physical abuse, emotional abuse, law, policy
Citation
Dwyer, James G. (2010). Parental Entitlement and Corporal Punishment. Law and Contemporary Problems, 73, 189-210.