Researcher Murray Straus weighs in on spanking kids

Here is an opinion piece by Murray Straus, a longstanding researcher on spanking and its effects on kids/adults later in life.

When a Texas judge this week handed down a sentence of five years' probation to a mother for spanking her child, he set off outrage and ridicule. "You don't spank children today," Judge Jose Longoria lectured Rosalina Gonzales in the courtroom. "You understand?"

The reporting on the case was cursory - it failed to point out that spanking is, in fact, legal in Texas and neglected to mention that Gonzales had a history of abusive behavior - but the cat was out of the bag. A raging debate has been reignited: Traditionalist parents - and millions of people who vividly remember getting spanked or hit with a belt when they stepped out of line as a kid - cannot believe that government may actually try to get inside the home and regulate the way they discipline their children.

Picture by Norman Rockwell, and retrieved from The Committed Parent.