Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families and Its Effects on Children [Paperback]

Murray A. Straus (Author, Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0765807548 | ISBN-13: 978-0765807540 | Publication Date: September 10, 2001

Murray A Straus, one of the world's leading researchers on family violence, discusses the extent to which parents in the United States use corporal punishment (such as spanking and slapping) and its effects on their children based on studies of over 9,000 families. The question of whether corporal punishment is an effective method of discipline is hotly debated. Straus contends that this believed-to-be-"minor" form of physical violence is precursor to much violence that plagues our world. Children who are spanked quickly learn that love and violence can go hand in hand. Since spanking is generally done by loving, caring parents-for the child's own good-a child can learn that hitting is "morally right." Straus describes what he has learned through two decades of research: children who are spanked are from two to six times more likely to be physically aggressive, to become juvenile delinquents, and later, as adults, to use physical violence against their spouses, to have sadomasochistic tendencies, and to suffer from depression. Straus alerts parents to these risks, and argues that spanking adversely affects not only the children who are subjected to it but society as a whole. This groundbreaking book, now available in paperback with a substantive new introduction and new concluding chapter, is essential reading for parents as well as teachers, lawyers, and judges. Professionals in fields such as social work, child protection, delinquency and criminology, psychology, and politics will find it of critical importance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Murray Straus has exposed 'the best kept secret of American child psychology': hitting kids is the dark force in family life. Just as smoking was accepted a generation ago, corporal punishment is still okay in polite society. However, like smoking, hitting emerges as a destructive anti-social act with serious costs to public health."-James Garbarino, Cornell University

"A comprehensive expos of the corporal punishment controversy by an eminent scholar. Straus provides the long needed scientific evidence linking corporal punishment to subsequent violence and other adult problems. This book gives major new importance and credibility to the uphill effort to end corporal punishment of children."--Adrienne Ahlgren Haeuser, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

About the Author

Murray A. Straus is the founder and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory, and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire. He has been president of the National Council on Family Relations and two other scientific societies. He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including Beating The Devil Out Of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Children; Understanding Partner Violence: Prevalence, Causes, Consequences, and Solutions; and Stress, Culture, and Aggression. In addition he has written over two hundred articles on the sociology of the family, South Asia, and rural sociology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (September 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765807548
• ISBN-13: 978-0765807540
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #707,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Definitive Review of Current Research on Spanking, April 16, 2001

By 

"cddugan" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families and Its Effects on Children (Paperback)

Dr. Murray Straus has updated his 1994 _tour de force_ with new studies and data in a highly readable format for the general public. Professor Straus, of the University of New Hampshire, is one of the world's foremost researchers in the field of family violence, and it was his research on wife-beating in the 60's and 70's which led him to recognize the connectedness of all subtypes of family violence, including the "virtuous violence" against children euphemistically known as "spanking."

Spanking appears to "work" in the short run because the child stops doing whatever provoked the parent's displeasure. But the research Straus summarizes in this important new book clearly shows that in the longer run, spanking has no measurable beneficial effects at all, and is associated with a variety of long term negative effects. The more children are spanked, the more they assault siblings and other children. The more children are spanked, the more their rates of age adjusted antisocial behavior increase over time. Spanking in childhood is associated with higher levels of alcoholism, depression, masochistic fantasy, and suicidal ideation later in life.

As more family violence data accumulates, more evidence accumulates in support of Straus's view of normative forms of violence "spilling over" into criminal forms. Parents who spank their children are significantly more likely to also physically abuse them than parents who don't. Parents who spank their children are more likely to physically abuse each other. And physically abused children are even more likely to grow up to commit crimes against nonfamily members than spanked children, who are in turn more likely to do so than nonspanked children.

The mounting tide of research on spanking resembles the growth of research on the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. In both cases, no single study settled the issue. Every study had its weaknesses and its strengths. But when all of the available studies are viewed as a whole, a grim picture emerges: of a widespread, culturally ingrained habit which causes grave harm, bit by bit, by subtle increments.

The parallels between smoking and spanking extend beyond the similarity of research study designs. Both are addictive practices justified by their practicioners in similar ways. "I've smoked for fifty years and I feel great!" "I was spanked and it never did ME any harm!" Bit by bit, the mounting evidence linking smoking with cancer eroded much of the cultural denial. Straus's book is at once a recognition of a similar trend towards popular identification of spanking as a harmful, injurious act, and an influence furthering that trend.

Every new parent who is planning to spank their child simply because that is how they were raised should read this book and reconsider this thoughtless choice. The data which is emerging today in the social sciences will take years more to penetrate fully into the public consciousness, just as the awareness of the dangers of smoking did. By the time it does, today's spanking-aged children will be teenagers or young adults, coming of age in a world which will view physical punishment of children no more favorably than of forcing children to smoke cigarettes. They will retroactively judge today's parents in light of the cultural norms in which they themselves come of age, rather than the cultural norms of their early twenty-first century childhoods. They will want to know why their parents didn't pay attention to information, of the type summarized in this book, linking spanking with a variety of negative side effects and no long term benefits to children. Their parents will not be able to argue that they didn't know, because the information is already publically available now. They will only be able to say they are sorry, but the damage will have already been done.

Just because *you* don't resent your parents for spanking you doesn't mean your *children* won't. Today's small children will take their place as adults in a non-spanking world. Read this book now, and learn the facts about spanking rather than the myths. In the long run, it will be easier to do so than to explain to one's children, twenty years hence, why one didn't.

Christopher Dugan, M.A. ....

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable Book on Corporal Punishment, December 2, 2005

By 

Stephen C. Simmer (Northampton, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families and Its Effects on Children (Paperback)

This revised edition by Murray Straus is an exceptional addition to the discussion of whether or not to spank. Chapter by chapter, he addresses every rationalization commonly given for spanking, and presents research which debunks each one. For instance, parents might say that they spank in order to prevent their children from becoming antisocial in adulthood. Straus shows that, controlling for other variables, the use of corporal punishment actually increases the likelihood that the child will be violent as an adult, spend time in jail, drop out of school, and experience depression.

One hundred fifty years ago, it was legal for masters to hit lazy apprentices, for teachers to hit unruly students, and for husbands to hit disobedient wives. These behaviors were even approved by the general society. Now, these behaviors are illegal in every state. However, corporal punishment is still legal in every state--which means that the behavior which would get me arrested if I performed it with my co-worker, my neighbor, my wife, or the neighbor's children--is perfectly legal when I do it to my children. It is even regarded as responsible parenting. Straus's book is a tour de force, which should represent a bugle call to every responsible parent who wishes to reduce the level of violence in our families and in our society.

This is an extraordinary book--one which should be studied by any parent who is considering using corporal punishment in parenting

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some day care workers and teachers at faith-based day care centers and schools still spank children., February 20, 2011

By 

Bridgette H. "bridgetokindergarten" (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families and Its Effects on Children (Paperback)

This book is very important. Especially since there are teachers and day care workers who spank and terrorize their students at evangelical faith-based child care facilities and schools. They don't seem to realize that their schools are really just "thug factories" when they spank the kids starting at a very young age. I should know. I used to work for a school that was very open about their pro-spanking policy. The day care workers would terrorize the kids with threats, they'd make the kids stand in the corner with their noses against the wall, they made the children stand holding books in each hand, and quite a few other creative methods of punishment. It's outrageous that corporal punishment in schools and day care centers is still going on in 2011. This book is a very important reference. Every school teacher, day care worker, parent, and child care advocate should read this book.