The ongoing struggle between a Woburn minister and the state Department of Social Services is part of a widespread movement against physical disciplining of children. 

In 1997 the Chicago Parent noted that almost all parents surveyed spanked their children, but polls also show a majority opposed to spanking. 

On the other hand the Family Research Council conducted a poll and found that 76% of Americans said that spanking was an effective form of discipline when they were children.  This was true even though half of them had parents who did not spank their children. 

The crucial distinction, the FRC says, is between disciplined, controlled corporal punishment and arbitrary, spontaneous use of force.  "This blurring of distinctions between spanking and physical abuse, and between children of different ages, gives critics the illusion of having data condemning all disciplinary spanking." 

Most of the psychological studies cited by critics, the FRC says, are really "opinion-driven editorials, reviews or commentaries, devoid of new empirical findings." 

There is no proof that "spanking teaches hitting" (that children who receive corporal punishment are prone to violence) or for most of the other claims made about the consequences of spanking.  Most of the arguments made against spanking are distorted by a failure to distinguish controlled from uncontrolled use.  "The critical issue is how spanking is (or, in fact, any punishment) is used than whether it is used." 

This ambivalence prevented the American Academy of Pediatrics from issuing a statement on spanking until last April, when the AAP came out firmly against spanking. 

Corporal punishment is declining in American schools as well. USA Today reported in 1997 a 15% drop in the number of children so disciplined from 1992 to 1994, and a two-thirds drop from 1984, as lawsuits and social workers succeed in their campaign against physical discipline. 

The American Psychological Association, formally opposed to corporal punishment, hails the hard line taken by judges and bureaucrats seen in the Woburn case. 

Religious traditionalists often favor administration of physical discipline, but emphasize its limits.  "Parents who emphasize 'spare the rod and spoil the child' often misunderstand the spirit of god's law and overdo it," says Dr. Kevin Leman for Christian Answers.
 

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