Beating the devil out of them : corporal punishment in American families and its effects on children / Murray A. Straus with Denise A. Donnelly ; with a new introduction by the author.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Straus, Murray A. (Murray Arnold), 1926-

Contributor:

Donnelly, Denise A.

Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Corporal punishment--United States.

Corporal punishment.

Child abuse--United States.

Child abuse.

United States.

Discipline of children--United States.

Discipline of children.

Physical Description:

xxv, 317 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction, [2001]

Contents:

Part I Spanking

The Virtuous Violence

1 The Conspiracy of Silence 3

The Importance of Corporal Punishment 9

A Conspiracy of Silence 10

Child-Rearing Advice Books 14

2 Everyone Does It, But Less Now 19

The Virtuous Violence 19

Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment 20

How Much Corporal Punishment? 22

Corporal Punishment In Two Nationally Representative Samples 22

Trends 25

Differences Between Boys and Girls 29

Cultural Discontinuity in Corporal Punishment 31

3 Hitting Adolescents 35

Two Measures of Corporal Punishment 36

How Many Are Hit and How Often? 37

The Social Context of Hitting Adolescents 39

4 Who Spanks the Most? 49

Cultural Norms and Attitudes 51

The Age and Sex of the Child 54

Parents and Family Characteristics 54

Part II The Price of Virtue

5 Depression and Suicide 67

Corporal Punishment and Depressions 71

Corporal Punishment and Suicidal Thoughts 72

Why Does Corporal Punishment Produce Depression? 78

6 Physical Abuse 81

Another Conspiracy of Silence 82

The Research Evidence 83

Reasons for Ignoring Corporal Punishment 87

Theories That Might Explain the Link 90

Characteristics of Abusing Parents 91

Corporal Punishment and Physical Abuse 92

7 Violence and Crime 99

Corporal Punishment and Family Violence 101

Corporal Punishment and Street Crime 107

Corporal Punishment in Schools and Violence 110

Socio-Cultural Context 116

8 The Fusion of Sex and Violence 121

Lovemaps 124

Sexual Scripts and Other Influences 125

Masochistic Sex Among College Men and Women 126

Corporal Punishment and Masochistic Sex 130

9 Alienation and Reduced Income 137

Corporal Punishment and Achievement 140

Alienation 142

Part III The Future

10 Ten Myths That Perpetuate Corporal Punishment 149

Myth 1 Spanking Works Better 149

Myth 2 Spanking Is Needed as a Last Resort 152

Myth 3 Spanking Is Harmless 152

Myth 4 One or Two Times Won't Cause Any Damage 155

Myth 5 Parents Can't Stop Without Help 155

Myth 6 If You Don't Spank, Your Children Will Be Spoiled or Run Wild 157

Myth 7 Parents Spank Rarely or Only for Serious Problems 160

Myth 8 By the Time a Child Is a Teenager, Parents Have Stopped 160

Myth 9 If Parents Don't Spank, They Will Verbally Abuse Their Child 161

Myth 10 It Is Unrealistic to Expect Parents to Never Spank 161

Why Do These Myths Persist? 162

11 Social Evolution and Corporal Punishment 165

How Solid is the Evidence? 166

Corporal Punishment in Historical Perspective 174

A Moral Passage 175

Social Changes Underlying the Moral Passage 178

Lessons from the Swedish No-Spanking Law 184

Obstacles to Ending Corporal Punishment 186

A Society Without Corporal Punishment 190

12 The Benefits of Never Spanking: New and More Definitive Evidence 193

The Chicken and Egg Problem with Previous Research on Corporal Punishment 194

Five New Landmark Studies 196

Is There a Backlash? 205

Most Parent Education Inadvertently Perpetuates Corporal Punishment 208

Benefits to Children and Society of Ending Corporal Punishment 212

A. A Theoretical Model 217

B. Samples and Measures of Corporal Punishment 227

C. Statistical Methods and Measures 245.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-303) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

ISBN:

0765807548

OCLC:

44634372