The New York Times reports that in September, local prosecutors charged Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, of homicide of their 11-year-old adopted daughter, Hana, who had also been beaten with the 15-inch plastic tube as recommended by Pastor Michael Pearl and his wife, Debi, in their book, To Train Up A Child.
Hana was found face-down, naked and emaciated in the backyard, having died of hypothermia and malnutrition. This is one of the examples in which the Williamses took the pastor’s advice (“a little fasting is good”) to the extreme.
“It’s a good spanking instrument,” said Mr. Pearl in the interview about the 15-inch plastic tube, which he believes to be “too light to cause damage to the muscle and the bone.”
In 2010, Lydia Schatz, age 7, was beaten up to death in Paradise, California, by her parents who had adopted her from Liberia when she was 4 years old. Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz owned the Pearl book but ignored its admonition against extended lashing or harm, the New York Times reports. The Schatzes are serving long prison terms. Mr. Schatz had been pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and torture, and Mrs. Schatz to voluntary manslaughter and unlawful corporal punishment.
Recently, a video on YouTube of a Texas judge beating his teenage daughter with his belt has brought up a controversy around the world whether it is considered child abuse or discipline. The video was posted by a woman who had recorded her father’s ‘abuse’ inflicted on her in 2004, when she was 16 years old, with a hidden camera.
Where to Draw the Line
Where does discipline end and child abuse start? The line is hard to draw between ‘reasonable corporal punishment’ and abuse. In the United States, the normative consensus on corporal punishment is “outsiders to the family are appropriately concerned only when the physical injury at issue causes serious harm: any injury short of a serious one is exclusively ‘family business.’” (Coleman, et al, 2010, p. 1) All states’ laws permit the use of ‘reasonable’ corporal punishment, which few of the states have sufficiently defined. Non-accidentally inflicted serious injury is prohibited by all the states’ laws.
According to Coleman, et al, “[i]n general, states define physical abuse of a child to include harm or threatened harm to a child’s health or welfare, non-accidental physical injury, or serious physical injury inflicted by an act or omission of a parent or another adult responsible for the child’s care.” Website of the Center for Effective Discipline has a list of definitions of reasonable punishment by each state.
While state legislatures are responsible for defining abuse, child protective services are the ones responsible for investigations, and supervising the investigations of maltreatment reports. CPS professionals typically consider the nature and degree of the immediate physical harm to the child. One of the common CPS practices is ‘if a bruise lasts for more than 24 hours is sufficient to meet the maltreatment standard.’
Emotional and Developmental Effects on Child
While CPS professionals have increasingly been incorporating the emotional and developmental effects of physical injury on children into the criteria on which they intervene in the cases, the courts appear to reject these cases as unlawful interventions. It is evident, however, that physical harm, as well as mental abuse itself, inflicted on children by their caregivers has lasting influences on their emotional well-being and development. PTSD, or posttraumatic stress disorder, is one of the most common psychological consequences of child abuse. PTSD can develop to be prominent later in life, which makes it difficult for CPS professionals to provide evidence of emotional maltreatment to the courts, which prefer to focus on immediate, physical harm to the victim.
“To Train Up A Child” as a ‘dangerous influence’
The Butte County district attorney, Mike Ramsey, criticized the above mentioned Pearl’s book as a ‘dangerous influence.’ Ultimately, however, what has made it ‘dangerous’ is lack of sound judgment of the caregivers. The Pearl book does contain ‘advocacy’ of what can be considered child abuse, if the caregivers have the grasp of ‘what is enough’ or ‘what is appropriate,’ what they claim to be ‘discipline’ won’t leave the children with devastating physical or emotional consequences.
What is important for caregivers to know is that children are dependent on them for guidance and affection. If corporal punishment appears appropriate for the situation, they need to ensure that the children understand why they are being punished, what has caused corporal punishment rather than more diplomatic approaches, and that they are cared for regardless.
References:
- The New York Times, “Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate”, retrieved on November 7, 2011
- Yahoo.com: the Lookout, “Pastor’s corporal punishment advice scrutinized after child deaths”, retrieved on November 7, 2011
- YouTube, “ Judge William Adams beats daughter for using the Internet ”, retrieved on November 7, 2011,
- Coleman, Dorian, L. et al, "Where and How To Draw the Line Between Reasonable Corporal Punishment And Abuse" ,2010
- The Center for Effective Discipline, “Discipline and the Law”, retrieved on November 7, 2011
- Medscape, “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder”, retrieved on November 7, 2011
Mariko Siegert - Striving for accuracy and excellence. Got feedback? Please email: marikosiegert@gmail.com.
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