Legislating to Prevent Violence against Children: Corporal Punishment Bans Are Necessary but Not Enough

Support for and prevalence of corporal punishment is lower in countries with bans Analysis of Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS) data reveals children are less likely to have experienced corporal punishment by teachers1 in the last year in countries with corporal punishment bans in schools, compared to those without bans (Figure 1). [...] 2 The approval of corporal punishment is measured as the percentage of respondents agreeing to “Do you believe that in order to bring up, raise, or educate a child properly, the child needs to be physically punished?” The use of corporal pun- ishment is measured as the percentage of carers using any form of physical violence on the child in the past one month, including spanking with bare hand; hi. [...] Regardless of the type of ban, we observe statistically significant increases in the use of corporal punishment over time both in countries with more comprehensive (Nepal and Mongolia) and less comprehensive bans (Malawi), suggesting that the heterogeneous trends are not necessarily explained by the type of ban. [...] Corporal punishment did not decrease in most countries after the introduction of the ban Approval of Corporal Punishment Use of Corporal Punishment Source: Authors’ analysis from the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS). [...] Parents who have experienced violence are more likely to use and approve of corporal punishment What are some of the other determinants of parents’ attitudes and use of corporal punishment? An important driver relates to the parents’ own experiences of physical violence.