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Ending Corporal Punishment

Swedish Experience of Efforts
to Prevent All Forms of Violence
Against Children – and the Results

                                     Ending Corporal Punishment   1
2   Ending Corporal Punishment
Ending  Corporal
    CONVENTION   ON
THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
      Punishment
        10 YEARS

               Ending Corporal Punishment   3
Ending Corporal Punishment

Publisher: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden
           Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Author: Barbro Hindberg
Graphical production: Ingmarie Holmegard
Printed by: Graphium Västra Aros, January 2001

This publication can be ordered at
the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Social Services
Division), SE-103 33 Stockholm,
fax +46 8 10 36 33
E-mail adress: registrator@social.ministry.se.

Article. no S2001.015

4     Ending Corporal Punishment
Contents
Preface   7

Corporal punishment and legal history        10

The passing of the law against corporal punishment       11

Not just corporal punishment     13

A provision to create opinion    13

Strong support in Sweden for
the ban on corporal punishment        14

Progressively fewer children beaten         15

Consequences of corporal punishment          17

Child rearing in different cultures    18
       1. Authoritarian upbringing 19
       2. Authoritative pattern 19
       3. Permissive pattern 19
       4. Indifferent pattern 19

Attitudes to corporal punishment in various countries     20

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child      22

Concluding remarks     23

                                                  Ending Corporal Punishment   5
6   Ending Corporal Punishment
Preface                                  the protection of children from
                                         violence expressly: Article 19 requi-
                                         res states to take:

The child’s right                              “all appropriate legislative,
not to be beaten                            administrative, social and educa-
                                            tional measures to protect the
Corporal punishment of children             child from all forms of physical
often becomes inhuman or degra-             or mental violence, injury or
ding, and it always violates their          abuse, neglect or negligent treat-
physical integrity, demonstrates            ment, maltreatment or exploita-
disrespect for human dignity and            tion, including sexual abuse,
undermines self-esteem. The fact            while in the care of parent(s),
that it is seen as permissible to ill-      legal guardian(s) or any other
treat children in manners which             person who has the care of the
would not be allowed in relation            child...”
to adults, breaches the principle of
equal protection under the law.          Given the holistic nature of the
Children have had to wait until last     Convention, various other articles
to be given legal protection which       reinforce the child’s right to physi-
the rest of us take for granted. It is   cal integrity and protection of his or
extraordinary that children, whose       her human dignity. The Preamble
developmental state and small size       recognizes the “inherent dignity and
is acknowledged to make them                equal and inalienable rights of all
particularly vulnerable to physical      members of the human family”. It
and psychological injury, should be      also affirms that precisely because
singled out for less protection from     of their “physical and mental imma-
assaults on their fragile bodies,        turity”, children need “special safe-
minds and dignity.                       guards and care, including appropri-
                                         ate legal protection”. Article 37
These arguments surfaced in the          requires protection from “torture or
late 1970’s in Sweden, in particular     other cruel, inhuman or degrading
after a shocking case became             treatment or punishment”. Also, the
known about a child beaten to            State must ensure that school disci-
death by her own stepfather. They        pline is “administered in a manner
formed the basis for a movement          consistent with the child’s human
for the protection of children           dignity” and in conformity with the
against such assaults. The Parlia-       rest of the Convention (Art. 28).
ment (Riksdag) responded by ban-         States must recognize the right of
ning corporal punishment. This           the child to “the highest attainable
publication is about that discussion     standard of health” and “take all
and what happened after the decisi-      effective and appropriate measures
on.                                      with a view to abolishing traditional
                                         practices prejudicial to the health
The Convention on the Rights of          of children” (Art.24).
the Child deals with this issue. The
Convention is the first international    It is not surprising, therefore, that
human rights instrument to address       the Committee on the Rights of the

                                               Ending Corporal Punishment    7
Child has consistently stated that        ce, they agreed that ‘zero tolerance’
legal and social acceptance of cor-       is the only possible target.
poral punishment of children,
whether in their homes or in insti-       Also other UN human rights moni-
tutions, is not compatible with the       toring bodies have taken up the
Convention. The Committee has             issue. The Committee against Tor-
recommended prohibition of all            ture has stated that corporal pu-
corporal punishment, including in         nishment is inconsistent with the
the family, and has suggested cam-        Convention against Torture and
paigns to raise awareness of the          Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degra-
negative effects of corporal punish-      ding Treatment or Punishment. The
ment and to encourage the deve-           Human Rights Committee, which
lopment of positive, non-violent          oversees implementation of the
child-rearing and educational prac-       International Covenant on Civil
tices.                                    and Political Rights, emphasized in
                                          General Comments issued in 1982
As early as 1993, the Committee           and 1992, that the Covenant’s bar
recognized the importance of the          on inhuman or degrading treatment
issue of corporal punishment in           and punishment (Art. 7) “must
improving the system of promotion         extend to corporal punishment,
and protection of the rights of the       including excessive chastisement
child and decided to continue to          ordered as a punishment for a
devote attention to it in the process     crime or as an educative or discipli-
of examining States Parties reports.      nary measure”.
The Committee’s Guidelines for
Periodic Reports ask “whether legis-      Ten countries, so far, have explicitly
lation (criminal and/or family law)       banned all corporal punishment of
includes a prohibition of all forms       children. In addition, Italy’s Supre-
of physical and mental violence,          me Court has outlawed it, but this
including corporal punishment,            is not yet reflected in statute. In
deliberate humiliation, injury, abu-      Finland, the ban on corporal pu-
se, neglect or exploitation, inter alia   nishment formed part of a compre-
within the family, in foster and          hensive reform of children’s law.
other forms of care, and in public        The Child Custody and Right of
or private institutions, such as penal    Access Act 1983 begins with a sta-
institutions and schools”.                tement of positive principles of care
                                          for children, and continues: “A child
Just as the Committee on the Eli-         shall be brought up in the spirit of
mination of Discrimination against        understanding, security and love.
Women has been preoccupied with           He shall not be subdued, corporally
domestic violence to women, so the        punished or otherwise humiliated.
Committee on the Rights of the            His growth towards independence,
Child is now leading the challenge        responsibility and adulthood shall
to violence to children. When re-         be encouraged, supported and assis-
presentatives of these two Commit-        ted”. Here again, the reform in fa-
tees met in 1998 in Geneva to             mily law puts beyond doubt that
discuss action against family violen-     the criminal law applies equally to

8      Ending Corporal Punishment
assaults committed against children     for their person and individuality
by parents and other carers.            and may not be subjected to corpo-
                                        ral punishment or any other humi-
Norway and Austria implemented          liating treatment”. One intention is
similar reforms in the late 1980s. In   to emphasize beyond doubt that
1997, the Danish Parliament appro-      the criminal code on assault covers
ved an amendment to the Parental        corporal punishment, although
Custody and Care Act which reads:       trivial offences remain unpunished
“A child has the right to care and      just as trivial assaults between
security. He or she shall be treated    adults are not prosecutable.
with respect as an individual and
may not be subjected to corporal        The purpose of criminalizing all
punishment or other degrading           corporal punishment is not, of cour-
treatment”. In 1986, the Danish         se, to prosecute and punish more
Parliament had amended its civil        parents. It satisfies human rights by
law to state that “parental custody     giving children equal protection of
implies the obligation to protect       their physical integrity and human
the child against physical and psy-     dignity. It gives a clear message that
chological violence and against oth-    hitting children is wrong — at least
er harmful treatment”. But this was     as wrong as hitting anyone else.
interpreted as allowing milder          Thus it provides a consistent basis
forms of corporal punishment, and       for child protection and for public
research found that they were still     education promoting positive forms
prevalent; hence the need for           of discipline. As attitudes change, so
further and more explicit reform.       the need for prosecution and for
                                        formal interventions into families to
Cyprus, Croatia, Latvia, Germany        protect children will diminish.
and, most recently, Israel have also
passed laws that prohibit corporal      As this publication spells out, the
punishment and several others have      goals of the ban were to alter public
proposals to do so. In Belgium, the     attitudes towards corporal punish-
government is now considering an        ment, establish a clear framework
explicit ban.                           for parent education and support,
                                        and facilitate earlier and less intru-
Globally, the end of corporal pu-       sive intervention in child-protection
nishment in schools and the penal       cases. Public support for corporal
system is in sight. In addition to      punishment has also declined mar-
reforms led by legal challenges in      kedly since 1979. Public opinion
Namibia and South Africa, recently      surveys show that children them-
Ethiopia, Korea, New Zealand and        selves overwhelmingly oppose cor-
Uganda have banned it in schools        poral punishment.
and care institutions.
                                               THOMAS HAMMARBERG
The legal provision in Sweden                                   Ambassador
forms part of the family (civil) law:          Personal Representative of the
“Children are entitled to care, secu-            Swedish Prime Minister for
rity and a good upbringing. Child-                the UN General Assembly
ren are to be treated with respect               Special Session on Children

                                              Ending Corporal Punishment    9
“Spare the rod and spoil       parents and, accordingly, the strong
     the child,” the saying used to     against the weak. The same basic
     go. Also in Sweden corporal        view was present in the 1864 Cri-
     punishment was previously          minal Justice Act, which laid down
     considered necessary in or-        that if anyone committed
     der for children to grow up        manslaughter against a linear relati-
     into competent, responsible        ve, e.g. a parent or grandparent,
     members of society. Beating        against a guardian or against his or
     children was even regarded         her master, this was to be treated as
     as a parental duty. However,       an exceptionally aggravating cir-
     corporal punishment is no          cumstance.
     longer seen as a necessary or
     a justifiable method of up-        Corporal punishment could be ad-
     bringing.                          ministered not only to children but
                                        to servants as well. The Statute of
                                        Servants entitled the master to re-
                                        sort to corporal punishment. “Do-
Corporal                                mestic flogging” was a means of
                                        maintaining morality and discipline
punishment                              among underaged servant girls and
                                        farm hands, but also of disciplining

and legal                               the wife and children. Following
                                        the repeal of this statute in 1920,
                                        servants no longer needed to acqu-
history                                 iesce in being beaten or hounded at
                                        work, but children could still be
Views on the legality of violence       beaten. The 1920 Children (Legiti-
have varied in Sweden depending         mate) Act entitled parents to chas-
on by whom and on whom it was           tise their children. Since then the
practised. In olden times, the hus-     law has been successively changed,
band/father was entitled to use         and there is no Swedish law today
violence both on his wife and on his    entitling adults to use any form of
children. The man came at the top       violence on children. Mileposts of
of the hierarchy, followed by the       this development include the follo-
woman and, furthest down, the           wing:
children. The children counted for
least, and accordingly, crimes           • The very first ban on corporal
against them were not taken very           punishment in schools was enac-
seriously. A commentary on the             ted in 1918 but only applied to
1734 Law stated that if a father           the senior grades of elementary
chastised his child to death, the          school. The prohibition was
crime must be considered less seve-        later expanded to other types of
re than, for example, if he had bea-       schools until finally, in 1962, it
ten his wife to death. A very serious      applied to the entire school sys-
view was taken, on the other hand,         tem.
of crimes committed by children
against their parents. The law con-      • The right of administering cor-
sistently protected the rights of          poral punishment to children

10      Ending Corporal Punishment
was deleted from the Children
   and Parents Code in 1966, with           The passing of
   the result that the provisions of
   the Penal Code on assault beca-
   me fully applicable to corporal
                                            the law against
   punishment of children as well.
                                            corporal
 • The ban on corporal punish-
   ment became part of the Child-           punishment
   ren and Parents Code in 1979.
                                            A tragic case of child abuse occur-
 • Legislation passed in 1982 equa-         red in Sweden in 1971, when a
   ted assault in private places, e.g.      four-year-old girl was battered to
   in the home, with assault any-           death by her stepfather. The public
   where else. Up till then, assault        reaction was strong and this resul-
   (except in aggravated cases) was         ted among other things in the for-
   a “complainable crime”. The              mation of Children’s Rights in So-
   victim had to personally report          ciety (BRIS). The new organisation
   the offence to the police if the         started a helpline for children in
   assault had occurred in a private        difficulty and campaigned for bet-
   place, as was most often the case        ter conditions for children at risk.
   when women and children were             In 1977 the Government appointed
   assaulted. The change in the law         a committee to investigate in which
   now made it clear that violence          cases and how the needs and rights
   is never a private matter.               of children could be better provi-
                                            ded for. The committee adopted the
                                            name of “The Children’s Rights
 • In 1990 Sweden ratified the UN
                                            Commission” and in 1978 presen-
   Convention on the Rights of the
                                            ted an interim report entitled
   Child.
                                            Children’s Rights. Prohibiting Corpo-
                                            ral Punishment 1. Arguments advan-
From the legal point of view, all           ced by the Committee in favour of
loopholes in the law have now been          a statutory prohibition of corporal
closed, in such a way that nobody           punishment included the following:
can any longer justify the use of
violence by claiming that it was
                                                   At the beginning of the 20th
necessary or reasonable. But the
                                               century it was still implicitly
task of making this known and of
                                               assumed that the child should
conditioning attitudes is a never-
                                               obey its parents and authorities
ending one.
                                               without murmur. Children were
                                               ascribed no independent stan-
                                               ding and as a rule were not allo-
                                               wed to voice their opinions.
                                               Corporal punishment followed
                                               in the wake of this insistence on
  1.       Justitiedepartementet (the          unconditional obedience...
  Swedish Ministry of Justice): The
  Right of the Child . Prohibiting Corpo-         –––
  ral Punishment. (Barnets rätt. Om
  förbud mot aga) (SOU 1978:10)

                                                  Ending Corporal Punishment   11
Gradually society has chan-             Tackling real assault against
     ged. Independent thinking and          children can be difficult so long
     the sense of responsibility, both      as it is not perfectly clear that
     for oneself and for others, have       violence may not be used in any
     come to be seen as increasingly        form in the upbringing of child-
     important prerequisites of the         ren.
     democratic social order. The
     concept of the child as an inde-    For these reasons the Minister of
     pendent individual with rights      Justice took the view that corporal
     of its own has become more          punishment of children should be
     prominent. This calls for a form    expressly prohibited. He stated :
     of child education based on in-
     teraction, care and mutual                 A provision of this kind will
     respect.                               mark the end of a process of
                                            legal development whereby
The report was referred for consi-          society has increasingly turned
deration to a large number of natio-        against corporal punishment as a
nal authorities and NGOs, nearly            means of upbringing. This deve-
all of which seconded the proposed          lopment in turn reflects the now
ban on corporal punishment.                 prevalent view of the child as an
                                            independent individual entitled
As a result of the statutory change         to full respect for his/her per-
in 1966, the Children and Parents           son.
Code no longer contained any wor-
ding that could justify corporal         The Government moved for the
punishment of children. On the           addition of a ban on corporal pu-
other hand there was no provision        nishment to the Children and Pa-
expressly prohibiting such punish-       rents Code. The proposal was car-
ment. The question was whether           ried by a large majority (259 votes
any such provision was needed.           to 6), making Sweden the first
Commenting on the Government’s           country in the world to prohibit
Bill to prohibit corporal punish-        corporal punishment and other
ment 2 the Minister of Justice sta-      degrading treatment of children.
ted partly as follows:                   The Section of the Children and
                                         Parents Code prohibiting corporal
        Child psychiatrists and child    punishment has been enlarged since
     psychologists have long agreed      1979 and now reads as follows:
     that all corporal punishment of
     children is inappropriate. This            Children are entitled to care,
     view has steadily gained ground        security and a good upbringing.
     among the general public as            They shall be treated with re-
     well. Even milder forms of pu-         spect for their person and their
     nishments can jeopardise the           distinctive charactere and may
     child’s harmonic development

        –––
                                           2.     Government Bill Prop.
                                           1978/79:67 to prohibit corporal
                                           punishment

12      Ending Corporal Punishment
not be subjected to corporal        judged sufficient and apply equally
   punishment or any other humi-       to children and adults. So the pur-
   liating treatment.                  pose of the legislation against cor-
                                       poral punishment of children is not
                                       to punish those who beat their
                                       children but, primarily, to mobilise
Not just                               opinion. In the Government Bill,
                                       the Minister of Justice wrote as

corporal                               follows:

punishment                                    Information and education,
                                          to alter the attitudes of parents
                                          and others who deal with child-
The law has come to be known              ren and young persons is prefe-
above all for its prohibition of the      rable to relying on penal sanc-
corporal punishment of children,          tions
but it also includes other humilia-
ting treatment. The Government               –––
Bill states that the ban is directed          A clear prohibition of corpo-
against treatment which endangers         ral punishment in the Children
the child’s personal development.         and Parents Code would prov-
The information brochure about            ide valuable pedagogical support
the new legislation (see below)           for efforts to convince parents
gives the following instances of          and others that no form of vio-
humiliating treatment: locking a          lence may be used in the up-
child up, threatening, frightening,       bringing of children. Like the
ostracising or ridiculing the child.      Commission I consider it impor-
Putting it quite simply, humiliating      tant that the change in the law
treatment means words and actions         is realized by effective, ongoing
threatening the child’s self-esteem.      information about the new pro-
Humiliating treatment can be insi-        vision. If not, it is liable to beco-
dious and is less easily discovered       me a paper product.
than corporal punishment.
                                       The Ministry of Justice did in fact
                                       take vigorous action to publicise

A provision to
                                       the new law. It initiated and funded
                                       an information campaign on televi-
                                       sion and in other mass media. Infor-
create opinion                         mation was printed on milk cartons
                                       and a brochure entitled Can You
The prohibition of corporal punish-    Bring Up Children Successfully with-
ment in the Children and Parents       out Smacking and Spanking? was
Code is unaccompanied by any           distributed to all households with
penal sanctions. Milder forms of       children and translated into English,
physical or mental violence to         German, French, Spanish and vari-
children is not punished under any     ous other languages. This informa-
special provisions. The assault pro-   tion campaign had the effect of
visions of the Penal Code have been    acquainting a large majority of the

                                             Ending Corporal Punishment     13
population with the new legislation     middle school pupils in favour was
and the reasons for it.                 even smaller, 6 per cent.

At the time of its enactment, the       The latest survey of attitudes to
law against corporal punishment         corporal punishment was carried
was considered a radical measure in     out in 2000 by the Committee on
the surrounding world. When com-        Child Abuse and Related Issues, a
mented on internationally, in some      Government Commission 4. The
countries it was ridiculed or viewed    survey included a study of attitudes
as an intrusion on private life and a   among school children. Only 2 per
threat to the liberty of parents in     cent of children in middle school
bringing up their children. Since       found it acceptable for a parent to
then, however, several countries        box or slap a child’s ears in the heat
have followed Sweden’s example.         of the moment. The same response
The other Nordic countries, Aus-        was obtained from 20-year-olds.
tria, Cyprus, Croatia, Latvia, Ger-     The negative attitude of Swedish
many and Israel now have laws           children and youngsters to corporal
banning corporal punishment, and        punishment can probably be put
other countries are in the process to   down to the information supplied
follow.                                 in schools concerning the ban on
                                        corporal punishment and the UN
                                        Convention on the Rights of the
                                        Child. Children today are aware
Strong support                          that adults are not entitled to hit
                                        them.

in Sweden                               Parents are aware of this, too. The

for the ban                             information supplied to the general
                                        public when the law against corpo-
                                        ral punishment was first passed has
on corporal                             since been followed by parental
                                        support/education. Expectant

punishment                              couples and persons who have just
                                        become parents are offered paren-
                                        tal education in groups, the mother
A survey in 1965 showed that 53
per cent of Sweden’s population
regard corporal punishment as an
indispensable part of children’s
upbringing. Since then the percen-         3.      Statistics Sweden, SCB):
tage in favour has fallen steadily.        Children and Corporal Punishment
In a survey by Statistics Sweden           (Barn och aga) 1996:1
(SCB) in 1996 3, only 11 per cent
                                           4.        Socialdepartementet (The
of the adults taking part expressed
                                           Swedish Ministry of Health and Social
themselves in favour of corporal           Affairs): Children and Abuse. Suppor-
punishment of children, at least in        tive Documentation for the Committe
its milder forms. The proportion of        on Child Abuse and Related Issues.
                                           (Barn och misshandel. Ett kunskaps-
                                           underlag för Kommittén mot barn-
                                           misshandel) 2000

14    Ending Corporal Punishment
and child health care clinics. Topics        then, grew up before corporal pu-
 dealt with include aspects of child          nishment was made illegal. Recent-
 education and corporal punish-               ly, as adults, they were interviewed
 ment.                                        about their experiences of corporal
                                              punishment during their formative
 One finds that attitudes to corporal         years 5. The results show, among
 punishment in Sweden have beco-              other things, that all the intervie-
 me increasingly negative since the           wees were subjected to corporal
 1960s and are far more negative              punishment at some time or other
 than in other countries. The ban on          between the ages of one and 16.
 corporal punishment has strong               Corporal punishment was most
 support of the Swedish population;           common between the ages of 18
 among children as well as adults.            months and six years, peaking at
                                              four years. Repeated violence in the
                                              course of upbringing was most
                                              common at the age of 18 months.
 Progressively                                32 per cent of the daughters and 46
                                              per cent of the sons were corporally

 fewer children                               punished by their mothers every
                                              day at this age. Fathers beat their
                                              children far less often.
 beaten                                       Another of the main survey fin-
 Attitudes are one thing. What                dings is that mothers’ experience
 people do in practice may be                 of violence during childhood had
 another. Is there a correspondance           some bearing on the extent to
 between the attitude to corporal             which they themselves hit their
 punishment and the use of it, or do          children. This connection did not
 Swedish parents use physical vio-            apply to fathers. Their corporal
 lence in bringing up their children,         punishment of children was instead
 even though they disapprove of it?           explained as an enlargement of
 Several surveys show that the nega-          corporal punishment by the mo
 tive attitude to corporal punish-            thers. The maternal method of im-
 ment has also had an impact on               posing discipline was infectious, so
 parenting practices.                         to speak. This survey indicates that,
                                              for children living in a Stockholm
 In a longitudinal Swedish study,             suburb during the 1950s and 1960s,
 212 randomly selected children               corporal punishment was a part of
 born between 1955 and 1958 were              everyday life.
 followed up from the age of one
 until they were 36. These children,          Sweden is taking part in an interna-
                                              tional research project aimed at
                                              investigating the connection be-
                                              tween attitudes and corporal pu-
                                              nishment. One Swedish study in
5.      Stattin, Hansson, Klackenberg-        the project includes 272 students
Larsson och Magnusson: Corporal punish-
ment in everyday life: an intergenerational
perspective. In McCord, J: Coercion and
punishment in longterm perspectives.
Cambridge University Press 1998
                                                    Ending Corporal Punishment   15
aged between 18 and 64 (M26) 6.         One year after corporal punishment
Some of these students, then, were      was outlawed, a study was made of
born before corporal punishment         the extent of violence to children in
was outlawed, but the majority of       Sweden 7. A comparison between
them grew up after the law was          this study and the study carried out
passed.                                 by the Committee on Child Abuse
                                        and Related Issues shows that the
35 per cent of the students state       use of corporal punishment has
that they were subjected to corpo-      declined considerably in the past
ral punishment at some time during      20 years. Asked whether the parent
their childhood. This group is do-      had used some form of physical
minated by those who were subjec-       violence in the last year, 8 per cent
ted to slight violence on isolated      answered yes (1980 51 per cent)
occasions. This is a far smaller pro-   and 16 per cent that it had happe-
portion than in the study mentio-       ned more than ten times (1980 40
ned above, and also far smaller than    per cent). Summing up, fewer
in the other countries in the com-      children are being corporally punis-
parative material. In practically all   hed, and those who do experience
the other countries, twice as many      corporal punishment, do so less
students reported being corporally      frequently than used to be the case.
punished during childhood. Those
students (22 per cent) who were         A questionnaire study of school
subjected to severe corporal pu-        children in the survey carried out
nishment at some time or other          by the Committee Against Child
were among the older members of         Abuse and Related Issues (see note
the survey population.                  4) shows:
                                               86 per cent have never been
The results also indicate that corpo-      corporally punished by either
ral punishment is not an isolated          parent,
problem but part of a pattern of               8 per cent have been corpo-
family violence. In almost half the        rally punished by their mothers
families where corporal punish-            and 7 per cent by their fathers
ment was practised, other violence         on some isolated occasion,
occurred as well. The study also
showed a connection between the               1 per cent received frequent
family’s socio-economic status and         corporal punishment from their
the parents’ level of education.           mothers and 2 per cent from
Those who grew up in families with         their fathers.
poor finances and poorly educated
parents received more corporal
punishment than others. Those
subjected to corporal punishment          6.       Fäldt, Johan: Student´s Experience
described their childhood in more         of Corporal Punishment and Violence in the
negative terms and were less con-         Home.(Studenters erfarenheter av kroppslig
                                          bestraffning i barndomen.) Department of
tented than those who had not
                                          Psychology, University of Stockholm. 2000
been corporally punished. 95 per
cent of the students in the survey        7.       Edfeldt, Åke: ”In as much as...” .
population strongly opposed corpo-        Final report of the SUSA Project on Corporal
ral punishment.                           Punishment and Violence in the Home
                                          (”Allt vad i gören ”. Slutrapport från SUSA
16    Ending Corporal Punishment          projektet om aga och våld i hemmet) Propri-
                                          us Stockholm 1985
As regards background factors, the       rise to feelings of guilt and shame.
family’s financial circumstances are     The effects of corporal punishment
the most critical factor deciding        are especially serious and profound
whether or not violence is used in       if it is combined with a frosty atti-
the upbringing of children. Violen-      tude, dissociation or a directly hos-
ce occurs more often in families         tile attitude to the child.
with financial problems.
                                         It is common for children who have
Summing up, this very recent study       been corporally punished to beco-
shows that a large majority of 10-       me aggressive themselves and to
and 12-year olds in Sweden have          have difficulty in feeling empathy.
never been subjected to corporal         Children who bully others and
punishment and that regular corpo-       commit criminal offences from an
ral punishment is very unusual.          early age have often experienced
                                         violence and aggression in their
                                         families. In an article in the newspa-
                                         per Dagens Nyheter (1996-12-21),
                                         the Norwegian child psychologist
                                         Magne Raundalen was interviewed
Consequences                             concerning the importance of child-
                                         hood experiences for “man’s inhu-

of corporal                              manity to man”. The article was
                                         headed: “Discipline is the Root of
                                         Evil”. Among other things, Magne
punishment                               Raundalen had the following to say:

Corporal punishment can cause                   There are always people who
slight corporal injuries. Violence          stand up to evil. What they all
causing more serious corporal inju-         have in common is that they
ry is assault and has to be treated as      grew up in a loving environment
a crime. There is, however, no clear        without too much discipline or
limit between corporal punishment           punishment. Empathy makes
and abuse. One reason for also ta-          people human, and it has to be
king a serious view of slight violen-       encouraged in children. Re-
ce is that corporal punishment              search has shown domination
tends eventually to give way to             and severe punishment to cha-
more serious violence. Accordingly,         racterise the domestic climate
reduction of corporal punishment is         of children who bully others.
one means of preventing abuse
against children. The most serious       The psychological consequences of
consequence of corporal punish-          corporal punishment have been
ment, then, is not of a medical na-      poorly researched. The American
ture but concerns its harmful psyc-      researcher Murray A. Straus puts
hological effects.                       this down to the legal and moral
                                         legitimacy of corporal punishment
Corporal punishment amounts to a         in the USA and the fact of corporal
violation of the child which can         punishment of children being more
undermine its self-esteem and give       or less routine. The lack of empiri-

                                               Ending Corporal Punishment   17
cal research into the connection         showed that the children’s feeling
between corporal punishment and          of rejection was proportional to the
mental problems like depression,         frequency and severity of their pu-
Straus maintains, is probably no         nishment. The more rejected they
coincidence but the result of “selec-    felt, the poorer their mental state of
tive inattention”. Straus has investi-   health. Children regarding corporal
gated the connection between cor-        punishment as an acceptable met-
poral punishment of teenagers and        hod of upbringing were harmed just
depression and thoughts of suicide.      as much as those who did not. Soci-
The findings point to the existence      al acceptance of corporal punish-
of such a connection. The more           ment, then, does not alleviate its
corporal punishment young persons        harmful effects.
had suffered, the more depressive
symptoms they presented and the
more often they contemplated sui-
cide. No difference was found bet-
ween boys and girls and it made no
                                         Child rearing
difference whether the corporal
punishment was inflicted by the          in different
mother or father. 8
                                         cultures
The existence of a relationship be-
tween severe upbringing and beha-        Affection and control are key words
vioural problems, antisocial behavi-     in the bringing up of children. Af-
our and criminal behaviour is            fection means the parent having a
strongly supported by research.          capacity for empathy, being re-
                                         sponsive to the child’s needs and
Do the harmful effects of corporal       responding adequately to its signals.
punishment vary with the prevai-         Control means making demands on
ling attitude to corporal punish-        the child, defining limits and teach-
ment in society? Does corporal           ing the child socially acceptable
punishment in itself cause mental        behaviour. On the basis of combi-
injury or does it only cause harm if     nations of affection and control,
the child feels rejected at the same     various patterns can be distinguis-
time? Do the harmful mental ef-          hed:
fects vary according to the child’s
own attitude to corporal punish-
ment?
                                           8.      Straus, M.A.: Corporal punish-
These questions have been investi-         ment of children and adult depression
gated in St Kitts in the West Indies,      and suicidal ideation i McCord, J (red.):
a former British colony 9. The po-         Coercion and punishment in long-term
                                           perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
pulation studied comprised child-          1998
ren between the ages of nine and
12. The results revealed a faint but       9.        Ronald P. Rohner, Kevin J. Kean,
significant connection between             David E. Cournoyer: Effects of Corporal
corporal punishment and negative           Punishment, Perceived Caretaker
                                           Warmth, and Cultural Beliefs on the
psychological adjustment. They also
                                           Psychological Adjustment of Children in
                                           St. Kitts, West Indies. Journal of Marriage
                                           and the Family 53/1991
18     Ending Corporal Punishment
1. Authoritarian upbringing             tern is most common. Parents have
                                        a close emotional relationship with
This emphasises the importance of
                                        their children and control is exerci-
obedience to authorities. Uncondi-
                                        sed through non-authoritarian met-
tional obedience is required from
                                        hods. This means that parents trust
the child, with no discussions or
                                        that their children not always need
explanations. The authoritarian
                                        supervision and strict limits but are
pattern of child rearing is also dis-
                                        able to cope with a fairly generous
tinguished by lack of affection in
                                        amount of freedom from a relative-
the parent-child relationship.
                                        ly early age.
2. Authoritative pattern
                                        This “Swedish freedom” is some-
The parent has control over the         times viewed by families of foreign
child but exercises that control by     origin as if principles and rules
arguing and explaining to the child.    don´t excist. They do not perceive
He or she is open to discussion and     any exercise of control when the
receptive to the child’s viewpoints.    methods differ from those which
The parent shows affection in rela-     they are accustomed to from their
tion to the child.                      countries of origin. Problems occur
                                        when children and young persons
3. Permissive pattern                   of foreign origin do not understand
                                        the meaning of non-authoritarian
The parent exerts less control, does    attitudes, e.g. in school and pre-
not demand obedience or compli-         school education, but believe that
ance by the child with certain          anything goes. Some parents also
norms. The child is left very much      believe that Swedish schools are
to decide for itself and the parent     completely lacking in order and
avoids confrontation.                   discipline.

4. Indifferent pattern                  Differences in the view taken of
The child is to a great extent aban-    child education can cause certain
doned and left more or less to its      parents to feel powerless. The me-
own educational devices. The pa-         thods that worked at home do not
rent gives priority to his or her own   work in Sweden. The collectivist
needs rather than to the child’s and    system, with its heavy pressure on
does not assume his/her parental        the individual to adapt to the fami-
responsibility.                         ly, its norms and values, is eroded by
                                        Swedish society. This threatens the
The permissive pattern was com-         very foundations of child rearing.
mon in Sweden during the 70s.           Research psychologist Anders Bro-
“Free upbringing” was a reaction        berg writes as follows concerning
against the oppression which many       the consequences of migration for
children had experienced during         parenthood:
the first half of the 20th century
and against the belief in authority            Successful parenthood de-
which had such disastrous conse-           pends on the adults being rooted
quences during the Second World            in a fabric of values, customs
War. Today the authoritative pat-          and habits which support their

                                              Ending Corporal Punishment   19
parental authority and on how         tion 11. 200 families with children
     secure they feel in their parental    between the ages of one and six
     role. A good parent is differently    were included in the survey, which
     defined in every culture, and         revealed a wide variety of methods
     migration can threaten the par-       used by parents to make children
     ental role if the prerequisites for   obey them. Sharp admonitions,
     the maintenance of parental           physically preventing the child
     authority are removed in the          from doing something and redefi-
     new culture.. 10                      ning the situation or problem were
                                           the most common methods. Up-
In many cultures, the right to use         bringing is excercised more by ver-
corporal punishment is a part of           bal than physical methods. Use of
parental authority, but in Sweden          threats or corporal punishment was
that authority has to be maintained        the least common expedient. The
by other means. As a result, many          researcher came to the general con-
parents of foreign origin feel that        clusion that parents who respect
they lack the necessary equipment          the ban on corporal punishment
for child rearing. They ask themsel-       have not abdicated from their par-
ves what they are to do instead of         ental authority but exercise discipli-
hitting their children.                    ne and control by other means.

There are answers to this question,
but they are not that simple. The
use of corporal punishment is not          Attitudes to
primarily a question of methods of
upbringing but is more concerned
with the relationship between pa-
                                           corporal
rents and children, with respecting
the child as an individual and with        punishment
the aims of upbringing. Having a
collectivistic aim in a society where
an individualistic view of human
                                           in various
nature predominates is liable to
lead to confusion, insecurity and
                                           countries
perpetual confrontations with the
                                           Sweden is taking part in a research
community at large on the part of
                                           project, “Patterns of Child Educa-
both parents and children. This is a
                                           tion in Various Countries”, in which
highly complex problem, because
                                           comparisons are being made bet-
fundamentally it is concerned with
                                           ween attitudes to corporal punish-
the formation of identity and the
experience of one’s own ego and its
limits. The view of child rearing has
profound historical and cultural
roots which it takes a long time to          10.    Broberg, Anders: Child rearing in
change.                                      Time and Space. (Barnuppfostran i tid
                                             och rum.) Norges Barnevern nr 3-4 2000

One Swedish study investigated
                                             11.      Palmérus Kerstin: Self-reported
different methods of child educa-            Discipline among Swedish Parents of
                                             Preschool Children. Infant and Child
                                             Development. No. 8/1999
20      Ending Corporal Punishment
ment in various countries. [Fotnot:          ted corporal punishment to lead to
Anders Broberg, Department of                greater obedience, more respect for
Psychology, University of Gothen-            the parent or to the child learning
burg, is responsible for the Swedish         acceptable behaviour. Instead near-
input]. The following are three of           ly half of the Canadian mothers and
the studies which are included in            65% of the Swedish mothers belie-
the project.                                 ved that corporal punishment had
                                             the effect of making the child more
The first concerns maternal views            aggressive. 75% of the Canadian
on corporal punishment in Sweden,            mothers and 85% of the Swedish
where corporal punishment is dis-            mothers believed that the use of
approved of, and in Canada, where            corporal punishment made parents
it is a legal and culturally sanctio-        feel guilty and remorseful.
ned method of upbringing 12.
102 Swedish and 107 Canadian                 One interesting difference between
mothers of children aged between             the two groups was that Swedish
three and six years took part in the         mothers considered corporal pu-
survey.                                      nishment to be excusable or accep-
                                             table if exercised when the parent
A minority of mothers in both                was emotionally upset, while the
countries admitted that corporal             Canadian mothers tended more to
punishment was a normal element              regard corporal punishment as ac-
of their parenting (17% of the               ceptable if the punishing parent
Canadians and 5% of the Swedes).             was calm and collected. From this
Most mothers in both countries               we may conclude that corporal
disapproved of corporal punish-              punishment is not a part of Swedish
ment, the Swedish mothers most of            mothers’ strategy of upbringing. If
all, 80% of them considered corpo-           corporal punishment does occur it
ral punishment unnecessary and               is due to the parent being frustrated
harmful, and nearly 90% regarded it          and losing control.
as an ineffective method in the
upbringing of children. A minority           In another study 13 the same group
of mothers in both countries expec-          of researchers inquired whether the
                                             use of corporal punishment was
                                             predictable from certain maternal
                                             characteristics. This study also took
                                             place in both Sweden and Canada.
                                             The researchers began with four
12.     Durrant, Rose-Krasnor, Broberg:      factors:
Maternal Beliefs about Physical Punish-
ment in Sweden and Canada. Journal of
Comparative Family Studies. In press.         • Attitudes. The results show, not
                                                very surprisingly, that the more
13.       Durrant, J.E., Broberg, A.G. &        parents approve of corporal
Rose-Krasnor, L.: Predicting use of physi-      punishment, the more often
cal punishment during mother-child con-         they use it. Parents’ views of
flicts in Sweden and Canada. In C.C.
Piotrowski & P.D. Hastings, Eds 1999,
                                                their children’s behaviour are
Conflict as a context for understanding         also found to be important. If
maternal beliefs about child-rearing and        parents regard disobedience and
children’s misbehavior. New Directions for
Child and Adolescent Development, No.
86                                                 Ending Corporal Punishment   21
bad behaviour as intentional and     planations and excuses for the child
     as a major problem, they are         being awkward. Mothers in the
     more liable to punish their          other countries found their children
     children physically.                 disobedient more often than Swe-
                                          dish mothers did and considered
 • State of mind. Mothers who are         their disobedience to be deliberate
   not in good mental condition           and serious. It therefore had to be
   and feel irritated and depressed       corrected. The disobedient child
   hit their children more than           must be managed. As Swedish
   women who are in better men-           mothers were patient and did not
   tal shape.                             feel their children were disobedient
                                          very often, they did not see any
 • Violence in the past. Parents          need for authoritarian methods of
   who were themselves hit during         upbringing.
   childhood hit their own children
   more often than other parents.         The study indicates the existence of
                                          a connection between corporal
 • Cultural norms. If the norms           punishment and our perception of
   and legislation of society sup-        children. If children are regarded as
   port the use of corporal punish-       troublesome, deliberately bad and
   ment, it will be used more fre-        disobedient, this augments the risk
   quently than otherwise.                of parents resorting to corporal
                                          punishment as a means of correc-
                                          tion.
On the basis of these four factors,
the researchers were able to predict
corporal punishment by 87 per cent
of the Canadian mothers but not by
any of the Swedish mothers, due           The UN
partly to corporal punishment be-
ing very infrequent in the Swedish
material. One possible interpreta-
                                          Convention on
tion is that corporal punishment,
when it occurs among Swedish-
                                          the Rights of
born parents it is related to difficul-
ties in the parental role while, in       the Child
Canada corporal punishment is a
common ingredient in child rearing.       Although only a few countries have
                                          an explicit regulation against corpo-
A third survey 14 covered Sweden,         ral punishment, all but two (the
Canada, Iran and the Cook Islands         USA and Somalia) have ratified the
in the Pacific. One interesting diffe-    UN Convention on the Rights of
rence emerging from this study
concerned the perception of
children’s “naughtiness”. Swedish
mothers took their children’s diso-
bedience less seriously than mot-           14.     Broberg, Anders: Corporal punish-
                                            ment and other child rearing methods : a
hers in the other countries. Swedish        cross-cultural perspective. (Aga och andra
mothers generally tried to find ex-         uppfostringsmetoder: ett tvärkulturellt
                                            perspektiv.)Föredrag vid Nordiska Barna-
                                            vårdskongressen 1997 )
22      Ending Corporal Punishment
the Child, Article 19 where article
19 states:                              Concluding
       States parties shall take all
   appropriate legislative, adminis-
                                        remarks
   trative, social and educational      Sweden was the first country in the
   measures to protect the child        world to outlaw corporal punish-
   from all forms of corporal and       ment, and various surveys have
   mental violence                      shown this measure to be strongly
                                        supported by the Swedish popula-
The UN Committee set up to mo-          tion. In many countries, forces are
nitor compliance with the Conven-       at work to change attitudes to cor-
tion has taken the provision of Ar-     poral punishment and to introduce
ticle 19 to imply a prohibition of      similar legislation, and so people are
corporal punishment.                    interested to know how Sweden
                                        went about things. Why are attitu-
The Convention on the Rights of         des to corporal punishment so ne-
the Child has done a great deal to      gative in Sweden? Some explana-
change attitudes towards children.      tions can be discerned:
More and more people regard it as
self-evident that children are entit-   •      There is a tradition in Swe-
led to respect for their person and     den of resolving conflicts by discus-
integrity. One of the basic ideas of    sion and agreement. This applies,
the Convention is that children and     for example, in working life.
adults have the same human digni-
ty. Among other things, children are    •       A great deal of progress has
entitled to express their opinions      been made with regard to the equa-
freely and to be listened to. Corpo-    lity of women and men. Women
ral punishment of children is not in    occupy a relatively strong position
correspondence with the values          both at work and in the family. As a
permeating the Convention. An           result, their way of rearing children,
authoritarian upbringing which          which most often implies less
includes corporal punishment and        authoritarian methods, has had a
degrading treatment is out of har-      powerful impact. A stronger posi-
mony both with the article of the       tion for women also means a
Convention on the protection of         stronger position for children.
children from all forms of mental
and physical violence and with the      •      Sweden is a relatively child-
articles concerning the best inte-      centred society. Many people work
rests of the child and the right of     professionally with children, with
the child to be listened to.            the result that the community has a
                                        large fund of knowledge concerning
                                        children’s needs and development.
                                        Great efforts are being made to
                                        offer children the best possible for-
                                        mative conditions, both within the
                                        family and in the community at
                                        large.

                                              Ending Corporal Punishment   23
•       The legislation has been suc-   nishment and other humiliating
cessfully modified to indicate that     treatment of children.
questions of custody and access, for
example, shall be decided according     “If you aren’t allowed to hit your
to the best interests of the child.     children, what are you to do in-
Many changes have also been             stead?” One Swedish study shows
aimed at strengthening the role of      that parents have a whole arsenal of
fathers. Joint custody, for example,    methods for bringing up their child-
is the general rule today, even if      ren. 15 How different educational
parents are not married, and fathers    methods are perceived by and
have been given more scope for          affect the child depend much on
taking parental leave. Greater opp-     the parent-child relationship the
ortunities for men to take care of      researcher concludes. The relation-
very young children probably lead       ship between parents and children,
to stronger emotional bonds bet-        combined with the extent to which
ween fathers and their children,        the child understands the parent’s
which in turn presumably leads to       me-thods of upbringing as legitima-
less reliance on corporal punish-       te, decide the child’s social and
ment.                                   personal development.16

The negative attitude to corporal       Summing up, the essential thing is
punishment in Sweden, then, is          not only to develop new methods
rooted in a variety of favourable       of child rearing but also to trans-
historical and structural factors. Of   form attitudes towards children and
course, not all the problems have       the relationship between adults and
been solved. There are still children   children. Above all, children have
in Sweden who are being maltrea-        to be granted with a fundamental
ted and neglected. But we have          human right – the right of being
made a good deal of progress            spared physical violence.
towards children being treated with
respect for their physical and men-
tal integrity and regarded as full
members of the community.

Modern Sweden makes strong de-
mands on the individual. It is a mat-
ter of community interest that
children should grow up into inde-
pendently minded, socially compe-
tent, mentally strong individuals
with powers of initiative. Such qua-
lities are not promoted by a form of      15       Palmérus Kerstin: Self-reported
                                          Discipline among Swedish Parents of Pre-
upbringing which supresses and
                                          school Children. Infant and Child Develop-
humiliates children. Thus, from           ment. No. 8/1999
both a human and a societal per-
spective, there are good reasons for      16.      Palmérus Kerstin: Patterns of Child
campaigning against corporal pu-          Rearing among Swedish Parents.(Svenska
                                          föräldrars uppfostringsmönster) Nordisk
                                          Psykologi 49/1997

24    Ending Corporal Punishment
Ending Corporal Punishment   25
26   Ending Corporal Punishment
Ending Corporal Punishment   27
Ending Corporal Punishment
Swedish Experience of Efforts
to prevent All Forms of Violence
Against Children – and the Results

International co-operation is important for the true realization of the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child. Each country has something to
learn from experiences in other countries. The UN discussions on child
rights aim largely to facilitate such exchanges. As a contribution to the
preparations for the General Assembly Special Session on Children in
2001, the Swedish Government is publishing three small publications
outlining efforts made to implement the Convention, progress made and
difficulties encountered. They focus on areas which might be of particular
interest to an international audience and are written by independent
experts.

This publication on the Swedish efforts to put an end to all forms of
violence against children describes legal reforms and other measures to
put an end to corporal punishment – in institutions but also in a family
context. It also outlines how attitudes towards children have changed as
a result.

The text is written by Barbro Hindberg, former expert at the National
Board of Health and Welfare. She now freelances in the field of child
abuse and neglect. Preface by Ambassador Thomas Hammarberg.

The other publications are about child impact assessments and
participation of children in decision-making. They can be ordered at
the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Social Services Division),
SE-103 33 Stockholm, fax +46 8 10 36 33.
E-mail adress: registrator@social.ministry.se.

Article no. S 2001.015

                                  CONVENTION ON
                              THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
                                      10 YEARS
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