Back in the states, a debate about corporal punishment – basically, physically punishing children by doing things such as spanking them or hitting them with a belt – has been raging for years.
No countries in North America ban physical punishment of children, but there’s a perennial discussion in the U.S. about the fine line between discipline and abuse. It flared again last week after millions worldwide saw a seven-minute YouTube video from 2004 that showed a Texas judge cursing at his teenage daughter and beating her with a belt.
Shocking as the video may be, the public outcry was not as severe as some would think. Not punishing children physically raises weak children, some argue. If you never spank a child, they say, the child will grow up with a spoiled sense of entitlement and be lazy, unproductive members of society that leech off the government.
Apparently they’ve never been to Sweden.
With an average annual per capita income higher than the U.S. according to some reports, the Swedes must be doing something right. The Human Development Index (HDI) of Sweden is higher than the U.S., and Swedes on average live 2.7 years longer than their American counterparts (81.07 years compared to 78.37 years, according to the CIA World Factbook). If the Swedes were so lazy and unproductive, they would not be making so much money or living so long.
And guess what? Corporal punishment of children in Sweden is illegal.
It’s an idea that’s been gaining a lot of attention lately. On Nov. 9, CNN ran a story lauding the Swedish system, praising it for recognizing the importance of children’s rights.
The praise is well-deserved.
In 1979, Sweden became the first country in the world to ban physical punishment of children. Since then, 30 other countries have passed similar bans on corporal punishment at home and in schools, according to the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children.
The idea of children’s rights is nothing new in Sweden. In the CNN article, it was stated that about half of Swedish children were smacked in the 1970s – before the ban on corporal punishment – Save the Children Sweden reported. In the 2000s, the number fell to “just a few per cent.”
The 1979 was the result of several decades of progressively stricter legislation. The first description of children’s human rights in Sweden appeared in the 1920s, and a ban on smacking in schools was passed in 1958. Public attitudes continued to shift in the 1970s and finally, in 1977, the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) created a committee to examine children’s rights. Before the new law was passed, the ban was explained in pamphlets and in printed information on milk cartons throughout Sweden.
The result of the Riksdag’s work was Chapter 6, Section 1 of the Swedish Children and Parents Code: “Children are entitled to care, security and a good upbringing. Children are to be treated with respect for their person and individuality and may not be subjected to corporal punishment or any other humiliating treatment.”
Although the law technically carries no penalties, adults who hit a child can expect a swift response from Swedish social services.
“The police are not going to say, ‘This parent should be charged,’” Joan Durrant, a family social sciences professor at Canada’s University of Manitoba who has studied the effects of Sweden’s ban for decades, was quoted as saying in the CNN article. “The police will say, ‘What you did is not OK, I understand why it happened, but you need to know that’s against the law, and here are the supports available to you.’”
Those supports might include things such as access to parenting support groups, child development information, or nurses that can help offer advice to parents on alternatives to corporal punishment. In other words, if parents are hitting their children, it might mean they’ve lost control, and could benefit from learning about other options that are available to them that don’t involve physical punishment.
There could be a link between the Texas video and some Americans’ attitudes towards punishing their children. The CNN article pointed out that the U.S. and Somalia are the only two countries that have not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty that recognizes the human rights of people younger than 18. Sweden was one of the first countries to ratify it.
Regardless of cultural predicators, what happened in Texas was shocking, to be sure. But in Sweden, such a horror would be unspeakable.
Sure, the Swedes don’t usually spank their kids. And sure, corporal punishment of children is illegal. But guess what? Given the prosperity and openness of Sweden, they’ve turned out all right.
Tags: beating, Ben Mack, blogs, children, corporal, culture, punishment, rights, Riksdag, spanking, study abroad, Sweden, Texas, The Local, United Nations, United States, YouTube
As usual, only a rose colored glasses view of the swedish smacking ban is presented. How wonderful, swedish kids are not smacked, this must mean they are better off. Instead why isn’t opinion based on an evaluation of the goals stated when the ban was imposed and how well it has achieved those goals. If you want a critical view check out “Sweden’s smacking ban: more harm than good” (www.christian.org.uk/pdfpublications/sweden_smacking.pdf) by Robert E Larzelere PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Excerpt from Foreword:
Those in favour of a ban on smacking often quote Sweden as a role
model. Sweden banned smacking in 1979. A primary aim of the
ban was to decrease rates of child abuse and to promote supportive
approaches for parents rather than coercive state intervention.
Evidence suggests the ban has totally failed to achieve these aims.
Far from any decrease in violence there has been a sharp increase
in child abuse and child-on-child violence. In addition, “supportive
approaches for parents” has, in reality, meant the removal of children
from the home in 46% of new cases receiving “support and care
measures”.
So the Swedish smacking ban has increased child abuse, increased child on child violence, and resulted in more removals of children from families. Sounds wonderful. Let’s all go for it!
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Mark, How wonderful for you to link to a religious website whose approach is cherry picking info relevant to its own agenda, and deleting any contrary evidence. Opinion based on evaluation? in “The Christian Institute” ?! The Professor from who you quoted writes in part of that article, how he finds unacceptable the unrelenting attack on the “right of parents to employ physical correction”. Do we have to ponder about what sort of parent he himself is?
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What is worse from child’s perspective if daddy smack his ass or if daddy fuch his ass?
Both hurts like hell.
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just want to say .. good job brother…. Thanks for sharing it.
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very nice post.
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Ce site semble avoir une bonne dose de lecteurs. Comment pouvez-vous faire la promotion? Il offre un tour agréable distinctifs sur les choses. Je suppose avoir quelque chose d’unique ou de substantiel à dire est la chose la plus importante.
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In the US there is a ban on killing. There is a ban on rape… There is a ban on beating ones spouse. There is no need for the federal government of the US to ban spanking a child. If the US were to implement a ban on spanking a child, it wouldn’t change anything.
According to the Swedish, they sh!t gold! Wait a few years, and see how their govt works out. They are a society of welfare. It’s a pyramid scheme. Eventually the youth will rise up, just like greece and egypt. Bunch of fools… Promising the future with the present.
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The children may not be smacked but they are subjected to incessant Eurovision style pop music. Swedish people are also brought up to believe that their poop don’t stink. Escape the cult-like state!
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But Ben M,
…. lazy, unproductive members of society that leech off the government…..
is what we already have.
Being a Swede, however reluctant, that have worked in the same types of industries in both Sweden and the US, actually even two sister plants doing the exact same thing, I have realized that Swedes are just lazy, unproductive and leach off the gov.,,
It was hard waking up from the dream that everything is so good in Sweden….we are well indoctrinated to belive the Swedish system is so good and the system is also good to present it self as soo good to the rest of the world, without being rooted in any sense of reality. This goes for most of the Swedish systems whether workers rights, childrens rights, health e.t.c.
Take a look without sun shine googles and do a reality check….it isn’t really what it looks like!
God, or whoever, help us if the rest of the world adapts the Swedish way….where shall I move….I’ve already left Sweden!
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@James, you’re so right, it is a cult like state!
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I know a lot of Swedes. I don´t know a single one who wasn´t spanked (most born in 1982-1985). Most of them were even smacked regularly (I am american was spanked and NEVER smacked). So please, spare us all. You live 2 years longer, and have an unenforced law not to spank. This makes you great. Hardly. My sister is a social worker, we take child abuse VERY seriously. So please stop projecting your inferiority complex by constant, unsupported America-bashing.
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A lot of losers and haters here
Look at your own “perfect country” before bashing mine.
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