Corporal Punishment
This is a research project on corporal punishment. It will examine how corporal punishment affects children. Sociology Research Papers are Paper Masters specialty and if you need one that focuses on corporal punishment, our writers can custom write you one according to your directions.
Corporal Punishment Research from Paper Masters
Below is a sample on an introduction for a research paper on corporal punishment. The following are some questions you may want to think about when investigating the topic of how corporal punishment affects children:
- Does corporal punishment affect the development of children?
- It is legal in schools?
- To what extremes can and should parents use it?
- Are children of different ages more receptive to corporal punishment?
Looking across the broad scope of research that has been done on the topic of corporal punishment, several facts are clear.
- First, corporal punishment has been correlated to a number of negative behavioral and emotional outcomes in children.
- Second, while these outcomes are often measured quantitatively, the results are often from studies with adults.
- Much of the data that has been collected to this point does not consider the child and his or her immediate response to corporal punishment.
- Finally, there is a paucity of information that considers the short-term effects of corporal punishment on children.
While many researchers have considered what the long-term consequences of corporal punishment are on the adult, few studies consider the immediate impact of the action on the child.
Given these gaps in the research, it seems feasible to suggest that the research on corporal punishment needs to change. Instead of focusing on adults and long-term consequences, researchers need to investigate the phenomenon form the child's point of view. Understanding corporal punishment direct from the child may provide more insight into the long-term effects than studies that involve adults that were subject to the practice in childhood.
Corporal punishment is a highly debated form of punishment that has received a tremendous amount of debate as far back as the evolution of children's rights in the late nineteenth century. To questions over whether the practice promulgates long-term psychological damage to what actually separates corporal punishment from child abuse, the debate over corporal punishment as an effective parenting tool has garnered a considerable amount of public attention. Even though corporal punishment has been around as long as "spare the rod, spoil the child" philosophy has, corporal punishment is an outdated and cruel form of child abuse.
Despite the fact that there is a plethora of research concerning corporal punishment, few authors have worked to develop a uniform definition of the practice. Because many scholars seem to assume that the laymen has an intrinsic grasp of the concept of corporal punishment, many exclude lengthy descriptions of the practice in lieu of what is considered standard knowledge. While it is true that most individuals do indeed have a rudimentary understanding of the term corporal punishment, for the purposes of separating the practice from child abuse and further delineating long-term effects of the practice, it is necessary to distinguish what corporal punishment is within the context of this investigation.
Looking across the broad scope of literature the currently exists on the topic of corporal punishment and working to develop a uniform definition of corporal punishment, the writers of research papers note that corporal punishment is often the choice of punishment for a child because it has the following benefits:
- It is cheap.
- It is an effective deterrent because few individuals actually like physical pain.
- It is effective; often just the threat of corporal punishment is enough to keep a child from re-offending.
- It is adjustable. The amount of pain inflicted can be adjusted per individual and per incident.
- It does no permanent or irreversible physical damage.
Even though this description of corporal punishment does indeed prove elucidating, it fails to describe what behaviors or acts encompass the practice of corporal punishment. While our writers note that the practice is adjustable (number 4 above) you may want to expound on how this can be accomplished.