Violence in American Families

Violence in American families takes many forms. One prevalent form that we often overlook is the physical punishment of children. Perhaps 93 percent of all parents beat their children in order to discipline them. Young children receive the most punishment, but studies reveal that about 50 percent of high school seniors report experiencing or being threatened with physical punishment. Punishment of children varies from a light tap to a brutal beating, but historically we have granted parents the right to use physical force against their children. A law passed in 1696, for example, called for the death penalty for a child of "sufficient understanding" over the age of sixteen who cursed or struck a parent or who was "stubborn and rebellious" in refusing to obey a parent. From interviews with 2 143 married couples constituting a cross-section of American families, sociologists estimate that parents kick, punch, or bite some 1.7 million children a year, beat 460 000 to 750 000 more, and attack 46 000 with guns or knives.

Physical punishment of children that results in injuries requiring medical treatment is now generally considered to be abusive. Most people do not realize, however, that it is the regular use of "ordinary" physical punishment, and the cultural approval it enjoys, that lay the groundwork for child abuse. According to David Gil, "In most accidents of child abuse the caretakers involved are 'normal' individuals exercising their rights of disciplining a child whose behavior they find in need of correction." If one adult were to strike another, most people would regard such behavior as abusive.

Most parents use physical punishment in the belief that it will control the aggression in their children and make them obedient. In fact, violence—whether verbal or physical—sets children a poor example. An adult who yells at or slaps a child unwittingly supplies the child with a model for aggression. Studies have found that the frequent use of physical punishment for aggressive acts by a child results in a marked increase in the child's aggression. Perhaps not surprisingly, abusive parents are themselves likely to have been abused when they were children. The pattern of abuse is unwittingly translated from parent to child and thus from generation to generation.