The Impacts of Banning Corporal Punishment in Europe

This article presents the key results of a European comparative study on the effects of banning “educational” corporal punishment. Five thousand parents from Sweden, Austria, Germany, Spain and France responded to a standardised questionnaire in relation to their “educational” behaviour, their opinions on corporal punishment and their agreement with and knowledge of the legislation in their country on this subject. The central question of the study was to see whether and at what point legislating a ban on corporal punishment would influence parents’ behaviour towards their children, in relation to other factors such as their own punitive experiences from their parents and any domestic violence.