Corporal Punishment in Colleges
Students Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Code
Instructor
Date
Corporal Punishment in Colleges
Corporal punishment is an act by a guardian, a parent, or a person of authority to inflict physical bodily pain without causing injury to correct behavior. This practice’s exercise exists predominantly in some societies as an accepted form of correcting behavior even though it has attracted criticism and backlash from human rights activists and reformists. This paper seeks to justify reasons not to have corporal punishment in colleges. According to Font and Gershoff (2017), 19 states in America permit public schools to administer corporal punishment (Font & Gershoff, 2017). However, most households and public schools in the United States have indicated non-tolerance to corporal punishment based on the negative impacts such practices on children and young adults.
Physical abuse has been one of the primary reasons for the high demand and activism against corporal punishment. It has been reported that parents and guardians who have in their childhood experienced corporal punishment are more likely to use corporal punishment on their children than those who did not (Waller, 2017). Such use of aggression on children and young adults in colleges has the potential of harming them physically and possibly harm them permanently.
According to WHO (2009), corporal punishment has been associated with mental health problems during childhood and adolescence, like antisocial behavior and depression. In adult life, aggressive and criminal behavior, antisocial behavior, and depression (WHO, 2009), depression, self-isolation, and loneliness are mostly attributed to shame and humiliation of corporal punishment concerning fellow peers and those in their surroundings. Inflicting physical pain on young college students harms the ability to create new relationships or even maintain them.
Conclusively, therefore, given the reports above, it is evident how corporal punishment has detrimental effects on the lives of not only children but also college students. Therefore, to avoid such damage, corporal punishment should not be institutionalized in colleges.
References
Font, S. A., & Gershoff, E. T. (2017). Contextual factors associated with the use of corporal punishment in US public schools. Children and youth services review, 79, 408.
Rush, Z., Policastro, C., Garland, T., & Crittenden, C. (2020). SPARE THE ROD? THE COLLEGE STUDENT PERCEPTION.
Waller, A. O. (2017). College Students’ Opinions on Parenting (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Mississippi).
WHO | Severe physical punishment: risk of mental health problems for poor urban children in Brazil. Who.int. (2020). Retrieved 28 August 2020, from https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/5/07-043125/en/.