The children charged with serious offences, particularly violent...

The children charged with serious offences, particularly violent offences, are more likely to have been ubject to physical violence when young. How anyone thinks that it socially acceptable to hit a defenceless child is beyond me. Having sometimes witnessed it when out, you can see the anger in the parents' faces and they are doing it out of their own needs not to discipline their child. Sickening.

And before anyone suggests I have no experience with children, I have 3, from 3 to 7 years old.

A growing body of research has shown that spanking and other forms of physical discipline can pose serious risks to children, but many parents aren’t hearing the message. It’s a very controversial area even though the research is extremely telling and very clear and consistent about the negative effects on children,” says Sandra Graham-Bermann, PhD, a psychology professor and principal investigator for the Child Violence and Trauma Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “People get frustrated and hit their kids. Maybe they don’t see there are other options.” Many studies have shown that physical punishment — including spanking, hitting and other means of causing pain — can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Americans’ acceptance of physical punishment has declined since the 1960s, yet surveys show that two-thirds of Americans still approve of parents spanking their kids.
But spanking doesn’t work, says Alan Kazdin, PhD, a Yale University psychology professor and director of the Yale Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic. “You cannot punish out these behaviors that you do not want,” says Kazdin, who served as APA president in 2008. “There is no need for corporal punishment based on the research. We are not giving up an effective technique. We are saying this is a horrible thing that does not work.”

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx