Michael Slager, an officer with the North Charleston Police Department, has been charged with murder after a highly disturbing video surfaced that shows him shooting an unarmed man who was running away. He could face the death penalty for the alleged crime.
The shooting followed a traffic stop for the ubiquitous reason of having a brake light out on his Mercedes-Benz. We have previously discussed the problem of pretextual stops where traffic violations are used to conduct searches or question drivers. For a prior column, click here.
The video below shows Walter Scott, 50, breaking away from the officer. Something clearly falls to the ground and the officer fires eight shots at the man as he runs away.
Police reports include a statement from Slager that “Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser.”
The video appears to contradict some of what Slager reported. He did report using the taser without effect. The video appears to show wires from the stun gun extending from Scott’s body as the two men struggle. However, Scott then breaks away and is shot roughly 20 feet away from the officer in a hail of bullets.
Under Tennessee v. Garner, a fleeing suspect can be shot under limited circumstances. Deadly force may be used only when “necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others.” Justice White wrote:
A police officer may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead…however…Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force.
The question is likely to be whether the struggle and failed use of the taser created a sufficient basis for Slager to believe that he had probable cause that Scott was posed a serious threat to him or others. Slager could claim that, the fact that Scott allegedly attacked him and tried to take his taser, was enough to satisfy that Garner standard. This is the ultimate jury decision and the image of shooting a fleeing suspect in the back will obviously present a considerable challenge for the defense.
Source: CNN
I think it’s imperative to understand how constant fear of corporal punishment affects the psychological well being of a child and how high levels of stress hormones in childhood affect the child’s brain physiologically.
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/download_file/-/view/469/
@To Whom It May Concern
It is important to remember that when it comes to studies of corporal punishment, most of us here stand in a different position to the research and researchers than we do with persons studying, for example, the sexual mores of Samoans. That is because all of us here have been children at one time or another. IIRC, I myself was a child for a period of almost 18 years.
Therefore, when a researcher comes out with the conclusion that corporal punishment achieves only negative results, it is not as if they are speaking to listeners who are as remote, as say, Samoans were to consumers of Margaret Mead’s research. We all have personal experience with the very subject matter at issue!
Wherefore, I add, with knowledge whereof I speak, that corporal punishment, and the constant fear thereof, had a positive impact on my childhood. I think this is an important point to remember.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@ SFGR
“Well, to repeat myself, YOU put your faith in some stupid studies, while ignoring the wisdom given to you by people who have had actual experience with young people and discipline.”
As a professional educator who has raised three children of his own, your appeal to your and Paul’s personal authority regarding disciplining children is even more ludicrous than it would already have been.
Moreover, your personal recital of your own authoritarian upbringing in combination with your frequently expressed authoritarian views in these blog comments clearly serves as additional evidence in support of the hypothesis that physical punishment of children creates authoritarianism in adults.
“Why do I believe this [non-threatening] study, and distrust the findings of yours??? Mainly, it is neither counter-intuitive nor the opposite of my experience and observations.”
In other words, the cognitive dissonance that would be engendered by objectively looking at the evidence regarding the effects of physical violence against children is simply too painful for you.
@ PCS
“The authors have an agenda and they are driving it forward.”
You must have overlooked this in my last post:
“I think that most objective readers of it, e.g., those who haven’t been too traumatized by their own childhood experiences at the hands of their parents and other authorities, will find persuasive this peer-reviewed article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reproduced below.”
I had both of you in mind when I wrote the above and am hardly surprised, given the consistently punitive, authoritarian positions taken in your posts, that both of you would deny the validity and scope of the evidence regarding the deleterious effects of physically punishing children, as well as denying its personal effects on you, even though the evidence is so massive and compelling that many countries have actually outlawed such violence.
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/defensemech_3.htm
.
Ken Rogers – it is the purpose of the Canadian Government and all their minions to get rid of corporal punishment. As I has said before, I do not think it should be done regularly but it can be successful in modifying behavior when used appropriately. I do not believe in slapping a child, that is just out of bounds for me. I don’t believe in regular corporal punishment. I don’t believe in spanking hands, like the nuns used to do to me. I do believe in paddling with an appropriate amount of strokes for the offense. I also don’t think it should be done in high school.
And do you even know what peer reviewed means? It doesn’t mean everyone else approves of it. Just that they supposedly read it and didn’t see any problems with the process.
Poisoning the well again, are we? Inga?
Ken Rogers – just thought I would leave you this article on plagiarism in scientific articles.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3558294/
Two people with no children, telling others that spanking is a good thing. Priceless.
@Ken Rogers
The money quote from your post:
That will always be the case. That is an inherent problem in this kind of research. The “expert” class of people almost always opt for long, involved processes to handle a problem, and tend to eschew simple answers to problems. Why??? A parent who wallops little Johnny to make him behave usually doesn’t need a $150 per hour therapist and a bunch of psychoactive drugs to address the problem. If there was enough of that attitude, therapists would have to get real jobs, and maybe even end up as plumbers.
I do think there is a need for parents to be more involved in their children’s lives, and maybe that accounts for some of the observations. For example, “studies” show that simply eating meals with your kids helps in behavior:
http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/cff/documents/promoting_meals/spellsuccessfactsheet.pdf
Why do I believe this study, and distrust the findings of yours??? Mainly, it is neither counter-intuitive nor the opposite of my experience and observations. I do think parents need to realize that there are options to spanking, and tanning a little brat’s behind isn’t always the answer. But, sometimes it is. Listen to what people are telling you.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@ PCS
“I also know enough about statistics to know what makes up a viable cohort.”
I note that you have evaded my previous request to be specific with regard to the alleged numerical deficiencies of cohorts in the studies cited, and that you also typically appeal to your own specious authority, in this case as statistician, rather than to the authority of cited evidence.
@ SFGR
“Well, to repeat myself, YOU put your faith in some stupid studies, while ignoring the wisdom given to you by people who have had actual experience with young people and discipline. You also ignore the testimony of people, like me!, who tell you that without the very real threat of a spanking, we would have run even more wild than we did.”
Your personal recital of your own authoritarian upbringing in combination with your frequently expressed authoritarian views in these blog comments serves as additional evidence in support of the hypothesis that physical punishment of children creates authoritarianism in adults.
With respect to your suggestion that I put my faith in your and Herr Schulte’s “wisdom,” rather than in assessing the evidence adduced in peer-reviewed scientific studies, suffice it to say that you seem to have an unusually morbid sense of humor.
I think that most objective readers of it, e.g., those who haven’t been too traumatized by their own childhood experiences at the hands of their parents and other authorities, will find persuasive this peer-reviewed article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reproduced below.
All bolded text is attributable to my emphasis, and the individual studies cited are numbered in parentheses and are listed by name in the original article, to which I’ve provided a link, below.
Physical Punishment of Children: Lessons from 20 Years of Research
Joan Durrant, PhD and Ron Ensom, MSW RSW
“Over the past two decades, we have seen an international shift in perspectives concerning the physical punishment of children. In 1990, research showing an association between physical punishment and negative developmental outcomes was starting to accumulate, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child had just been adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations; however, only four countries had prohibited physical punishment in all settings.
“By 2000, research was proliferating, and the convention had been ratified by 191 of the world’s 196 countries, 11 of which had prohibited all physical punishment. Today, research showing the risks associated with physical punishment is robust, the convention has been integrated into the legal and policy frameworks of many nations, and 31 countries have enacted prohibitions against the physical punishment of children.(1) These three forces — research, the convention and law reform — have altered the landscape of physical punishment.
“The growing weight of evidence and the recognition of children’s rights have brought us to a historical point. Physicians familiar with the research can now confidently encourage parents to adopt constructive approaches to discipline and can comfortably use their unique influence to guide other aspects of children’s healthy development. In doing so, physicians strengthen child well-being and parent–child relationships at the population level. Here, we present an analysis of the research on physical punishment spanning the past two decades to assist physicians in this important role.
“As recently as 20 years ago, the physical punishment of children was generally accepted worldwide and was considered an appropriate method of eliciting behavioural compliance that was conceptually distinct from physical abuse.
“However, this perspective began to change as studies found links between ‘normative’ physical punishment and child aggression, delinquency and spousal assault in later life. Some of these studies involved large representative samples from the United States; (2) some studies controlled for potential confounders, such as parental stress (3) and socioeconomic status; (4) and some studies examined the potential of parental reasoning to moderate the association between physical punishment and child aggression. (5) Virtually without exception, these studies found that physical punishment was associated with higher levels of aggression against parents, siblings, peers and spouses.
“But were physical punishment and childhood aggression statistically associated because more aggressive children elicit higher levels of physical punishment? Although this was a possibility, (6 research was beginning to show that physical punishment elicits aggression. Ea)rly experiments had shown that pain elicits reflexive aggression. (7) In an early modeling study, (8) boys in grade one who had watched a one-minute video of a boy being yelled at, shaken and spanked with a paddle for misbehaving showed more aggression while playing with dolls than boys who had watched a one-minute video of nonviolent responses to misbehaviour.
“In a treatment study, Forgatch showed that a reduction in harsh discipline used by parents of boys at risk for antisocial behaviour was followed by significant reductions in their children’s aggression. (9) These and other findings spurred researchers to identify the mechanisms linking physical punishment and child aggression.
“By the 1990s, it was recognized that the method by which causality is typically shown in scientific studies — the randomized control trial — had limited application for studying the physical punishment of children. Although randomized control trials can be used to study the effect of reducing physical punishment (as in the Forgatch study), they cannot be used to study the effect of imposing such punishment because it would be unethical to assign children to a group receiving painful treatment when research suggests that such pain poses harm not outweighed by potential benefit.
“The few existing randomized control trials showed that physical punishment was no more effective than other methods in eliciting compliance. In one such study, an average of eight spankings in a single session was needed to elicit compliance, and there was “no support for the necessity of the physical punishment.” (10)
“To address the causality question within ethical bounds, researchers designed prospective studies involving children who had equivalent levels of aggression or antisocial behaviour at the beginning of the study. In addition, increasingly sophisticated statistical modeling techniques were applied to correlational studies to aid understanding of the results. These studies changed the way in which physical punishment would be researched over the subsequent decade and redrew the landscape of the debate.
“One of the first large prospective studies (1997, n = 807) controlled for initial levels of child antisocial behaviour and sex, family socioeconomic status and levels of emotional support and cognitive stimulation in the home.(11) Even with these controls, physical punishment between the ages of six and nine years predicted higher levels of antisocial behaviour two years later.
“Subsequent prospective studies yielded similar results, whether they controlled for parental age, child age, race and family structure; (12) poverty, child age, emotional support, cognitive stimulation, sex, race and the interactions among these variables; (13) or other factors.1(4–17) These studies provide the strongest evidence available that physical punishment is a risk factor for child aggression and antisocial behaviour.
“A landmark meta-analysis published in 2002 (18) showed that of 27 studies on physical punishment and child aggression conducted up to that time (that met the criteria of the meta-analysis), all found a significant positive relation, regardless of the size of the sample, location of study, ages of the children or any other variable.
“Almost all adequately designed studies conducted since that meta-analysis have found the same relation.(19–23) In a randomized controlled trial of an intervention designed to reduce difficult child behaviours, (24) parents in more than 500 families were trained to decrease their use of physical punishment.
“The significant parallel decline seen in the difficult behaviours of children in the treatment group was largely explained by the parents’ reduction in their use of physical punishment. Together, results consistently suggest that physical punishment has a direct causal effect on externalizing behaviour, whether through a reflexive response to pain, modeling or coercive family processes.
“By 2000, research on physical punishment had expanded beyond its effect on child aggression. Studies were showing associations between physical punishment and mental health, physical injury, parent–child relationships and family violence in adulthood. One of the first such studies (25) linked slapping and spanking in childhood with psychiatric disorders in adulthood in a large Canadian sample, and its findings have since been supported by an ever-growing number of studies.
“Physical punishment is associated with a range of mental health problems in children, youth and adults, including depression, unhappiness, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, use of drugs and alcohol, and general psychological maladjustment. (26–29) These relationships may be mediated by disruptions in parent–child attachment resulting from pain inflicted by a caregiver, (30,31) by increased levels of cortisol (32) or by chemical disruption of the brain’s mechanism for regulating stress. (33)
Researchers are also finding that physical punishment is linked to slower cognitive development and adversely affects academic achievement. (34) These findings come from large longitudinal studies that control for a wide range of potential confounders. (35)
“Intriguing results are now emerging from neuroimaging studies, which suggest that physical punishment may reduce the volume of the brain’s grey matter in areas associated with performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, third edition (WAIS-III). (36) In addition, physical punishment can cause alterations in the dopaminergic regions associated with vulnerability to the abuse of drugs and alcohol. (37)
“These findings are all consistent with the growing body of literature on the impact of adverse childhood experiences on neurological, cognitive, emotional and social development, as well as physical health.(38) Although some studies have found no relation between physical punishment and negative outcomes, (35) and others have found the relation to be moderated by other factors,(12) no study has found physical punishment to have a long-term positive effect, and most studies have found negative effects. (17)
“Another major change in the landscape was precipitated by research that questioned the traditional punishment–abuse dichotomy. Although research began to accumulate in the 1970s that showed that most physical abuse is physical punishment (in intent, form and effect), studies of child maltreatment have since clarified this finding.
“For example, the first cycle of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect39 (CIS 1998) showed that 75% of substantiated physical abuse of children occurred during episodes of physical punishment. This finding was replicated in the second cycle of the study (CIS 2003).(40)
“Another large Canadian study (41) found that children who were spanked by their parents were seven times more likely to be severely assaulted by their parents (e.g., punched or kicked) than children who were not spanked. In an American study, (42) infants in their first year of life who had been spanked by their parents in the previous month were 2.3 times more likely to suffer an injury requiring medical attention than infants who had not been spanked.
“Studies of the dynamics of child physical abuse have shed light on this process, which involves parents attributing conflict to child willfulness (43) and/or rejection, (44) as well as coercive family dynamics9 and conditioned emotional responses. (45)
The mounting evidence linking negative long-term outcomes to physical punishment has contributed to a global shift in perceptions of the practice. In Canada, more than 400 organizations have endorsed the Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth.(46) A subset of these organizations is listed in Appendix 1 (available at http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1503/cmaj.101314/-/DC1).
“In other countries, legislative reforms have been instituted to better protect children. (47) Accompanying these changes has been a growing emphasis on developing models of positive discipline that rely on nonviolent and effective conflict resolution.
“There is considerable evidence that providing support and education to parents can reduce their use of physical punishment and children’s externalizing behaviours. Most of the programs that have been evaluated are behaviourally based, with origins in the work of Patterson and colleagues. (48)
“In these programs, parents are taught to observe their children’s behaviour, communicate clearly and apply contingent consequences. Meta-analyses of studies evaluating these programs show positive effects on the competence, efficacy and psychological health of the parents, as well as on the behaviour of the children. (49,50) A recent implementation study of a strategy for parenting and family support showed that families in the treatment group had far fewer cases of substantiated child maltreatment, abuse injuries and out-of-home placements. (51)
“The consistency of research findings on physical punishment and positive discipline, along with growing support for the aims of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has had a substantial impact on the views of health care providers.
“The Canadian Paediatric Society, ‘strongly discourages [original emphasis] the use of physical punishment on children, including spanking.’ (52) The American Academy of Pediatrics cautions that ‘corporal punishment is of limited effectiveness and has potentially deleterious side effects,’ and ‘recommends that parents be encouraged and assisted in the development of methods other than spanking for managing undesired behavior.’ (53)
“It is now 20 years since Canada ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which calls for the elimination of all forms of violence against children, including physical punishment. The debate has moved beyond discussions of outcomes and causality to those of ethics and human rights.
“This new context for examining physical punishment has propelled legal, policy and attitudinal changes worldwide. (47) An increasing number of countries are abolishing the use of physical punishment to better protect children and to shift parents’ focus from punishment to guidance and effective discipline. Evidence is emerging that the combination of law reform and public education is more effective than either strategy alone in changing parental attitudes and behaviours. (54)
“Physicians have a primary responsibility for translating research and evidence into guidance for parents and children, and they are credible and influential voices for advancing public education and policy concerning population health.
“For example, physicians can educate parents on child development to reduce angry and punitive responses to normative child behaviours and provide resources on positive discipline.(46) In addition, physicians may refer parents to public health programs, resource centres, positive parenting programs and other clinical professionals for further support.
“Furthermore, physicians can engage with other professionals to send clear, unambiguous messages on a population level. Examples of such messages are ‘Spanking hurts more than you think’ (Toronto Public Health) and ‘Never spank!’ (Public Health Agency of Canada). (55,56)
“Finally, physicians can urge the federal government to remove Section 43 from the Criminal Code, which provides legal justification for the use of physical punishment, thereby undermining public education initiatives.
” ‘The Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth’ finds
[that] the evidence is clear and compelling — physical punishment of children and youth plays no useful role in their upbringing and poses only risks to their development. The conclusion is equally compelling — parents should be strongly encouraged to develop alternative and positive approaches to discipline.(46)
“Effective discipline rests on clear and age-appropriate expectations, effectively communicated within a trusting relationship and a safe environment.” (57)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3447048/
Ken Rogers – the largest group is only 807. Plus/minus is still high at that level. This is a nice article, but when you read the entire article you can see the bias in it. The authors have an agenda and they are driving it forward.
People who have no children, don’t work with children, don’t study children or don’t work with children in any capacity probably shouldn’t hold themselves up to be an expert in child rearing and discipline. When I read how some folks applaud the flogging, imprisonment and even stoning of gay people in Theocratic countries, it’s an indication that spanking perhaps made them more aggressive and abusive.
@Ken Rogers
Well, to repeat myself, YOU put your faith in some stupid studies, while ignoring the wisdom given to you by people who have had actual experience with young people and discipline. You also ignore the testimony of people, like me!, who tell you that without the very real threat of a spanking, we would have run even more wild than we did.
It is one thing to trust an openly scientific study, but quite another to trust a study which contradicts the evidence of our own senses and experiences.
OTOH, if we agreed with your position, then you would be positively lapping up whatever drivel we spewed as additional proof that you were right. I submit that you have probably not read the underlying studies you cite, have no knowledge of how they were put together, or the nature of the data. You probably just read the headlines on them. In fact, I bet that you probably just have some sort of undifferentiated FAITH in those studies. Which is not much different from the Christians you despise, who rely on the collected wisdom of previous ages.
What you have is not so much scientific input, as it is your own faith and prejudices in such things.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@ PCS (4/12, 2:17 am)
As we’re talking about 100 years of research in diverse disciplines, what exactly are the “very small numbers of children” and what makes the reporting “suspect”?
“If you were a third grader, which would you rather have, a paddling by the principal or expulsion from school?”
Is your capacity for empathy with people in general and children in particular so diminished that expulsion from school and physical punishment are the only two options you can come up with for addressing a child’s disruptive behavior?
It also quite apparently hasn’t occurred to you that disruptive behavior in school may be caused by physical abuse in a child’s home, and that while more physical punishment at school may induce immediate compliance on the part of the child, it will, based on the massive weight of evidence for it, only reinforce the child’s disruptive tendencies in the long-run.
“However, from a behaviorist standpoint, one or two physical punishments can straighten a kid up.”
Your implication that your personal, anecdotal experience and minor in behavioral psychology outweighs the evidence of 100 years of research and the clinical experience of therapists like Dr. Alice Miller is, I regret having to say, both risible and pathetic.
Ken Rogers – today that would be your choice. Except that is not your choice. There is only one way to go. Expulsion. I look at studies all the time. I also know enough about statistics to know what makes up a viable cohort. I do not see that in any of these studies. Argumentum ab auctoritate does not make your assertion true, it is still a logical fallacy.
@ SFGR,
“Sooo, Mr. Rogers goes all in on some stupid study and buys into the ‘don’t spank your kid’ foolishness whole hog. The real question is, does some new idea work, or not work. Your testimony, and the testimony of other teachers, is actually better evidence than what is provided by the alleged study.”
I’m confident that you’ve revealed more about your perceptual filter here than you intended to.
“Some stupid study” is a muddled concoction of your own devising.
What I cited was this: “Nearly 30 studies from various countries show that children who are regularly spanked become more aggressive. They are also more likely to be depressed or take drugs, even after correcting for other factors.”
Additionally, I provided this link, http://www.SparetheRod.org, that cited the following synthesis of 100 years of research into the effects of the physical punishment of children:
“The impetus for this summary was a growing frustration among many professionals working with or for children and families that the media and the public at large were not aware of the growing research literature demonstrating few positive and many negative potential impacts of physical punishment on children. The report thus synthesizes one hundred years of social science research and many hundreds of published studies on physical punishment. This body of research has been conducted by professionals in the fields of psychology, medicine, education, social work, and sociology, among other fields. (Emphasis added)
“Are Children Who Are Physically Punished Better Behaved?
“Parents use physical punishment primarily to reduce undesirable child behavior in the present andto increase desirable child behavior in the future. The empirical findings on the short-term effectiveness of physical punishment in achieving child compliance are mixed. A meta-analysis (which is a method of research synthesis that statistically combines existing data to discern the average strength of the findings) of five studies examining children’s immediate compliance (My emphasis) with physical punishment found a positive effect on average.
“However, the findings were highly inconsistent, in that one of the studies found no effect and another found that children were less likely to comply when physically punished. In one of these studies, the authors concluded that ‘there was no support for the necessity of the physical punishment’ to change children’s behavior. The research to date also indicates that physical punishment does not promote long-term, internalized compliance. Most (85 percent) of the studies included in a meta-analysis found physical punishment to be associated with less moral internalization of norms for appropriate behavior and long-term compliance.
“Similarly, the more children receive physical punishment, the more defiant they are and the less likely they are to empathize with others. [I’ll return to this below] Parents often use physical punishment when their children have behaved aggressively, such as hitting a younger sibling, or antisocially, such as stealing money from parents.
“Thus it is particularly important to determine whether physical punishment is effective in achieving one of the parents’ main goals in using it, namely to reduce children’s aggressive and antisocial behaviors over time. In a meta-analysis of 27 studies, every study found physical punishment was associated with more, not less, child aggression.
“A separate meta-analysis of 13 studies found that 12 of them documented a link between physical punishment and more child antisocial behavior. Similarly, in recent studies conducted around the world, including studies in Canada, China, India, Italy, Kenya, Norway, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and the United States, physical punishment has been associated with more physical aggression, verbal aggression, physical fighting and bullying, antisocial behavior, and behavior problems generally.
The conclusion to be drawn from these studies is that, contrary to parents’ goals when using it, the more parents use physical punishment, the more disobedient and aggressive their children will be.” (Emphasis added)
In her clinical experience, Dr. Alice Miller found ample confirmation of the severely deleterious effects of physical punishment on adults who experienced it as children:
“Humiliations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away. However, as adults, most abused children will suffer, and let others suffer, from these injuries.
“This dynamic of violence can deform some victims into hangmen who take revenge even on whole nations and become willing executors to dictators as unutterably appalling as Hitler and other cruel leaders. Beaten children very early on assimilate the violence they endured, which they may glorify and apply later as parents, in believing that they deserved the punishment and were beaten out of love.
“They don’t know that the only reason for the punishments they have ( or in retrospect, had) to endure is the fact that their parents themselves endured and learned violence without being able to question it. Later, the adults, once abused children, beat their own children and often feel grateful to their parents who mistreated them when they were small and defenseless.
“This is why society’s ignorance remains so immovable and parents continue to produce severe pain and destructivity – in all ‘good will’, in every generation.
“Most people tolerate this blindly because the origins of human violence in childhood have been and are still being ignored worldwide. (Emphasis added)
http://alice-miller.com/index_en.php
Dr. Miller persuasively argues that because it is impermissible to express their anger and resentment toward the abusive parents, their anger is directed at surrogates or against themselves, in extreme cases manifesting itself as homicide or suicide, respectively.
I want to suggest that Dr. Robert Altemeyer’s and others’ studies of the authoritarian personality delineate the psychological characteristics of people who have been physically and/or psychologically abused as children, and that their political views reflect in varying degrees repressed anger toward their abusive parents.
Most of these studies are based on very small numbers of children and the reporting is suspect. I would agree that, in the aggregate, children shouldn’t be beaten regularly. However, from a behaviorist standpoint, one or two physical punishments can straighten a kid up.
Now tell me. If you were a third grader, which would you rather have, a paddling by the principal or expulsion from school?
When I saw this on TV I said that’s f-cked up out loud, I was in a doctors office. An African-American woman seated opposite me with her husband agreed with me and pointed out the object falling as he ran away. It does not look like a weapon. Good call Professor. Glad when we can agree.
Max-1,
Thanks for that video, Max-1. For all those who love to say that everything would have been ok if only the citizen had obeyed the officer, this is what can happen when a person immediately lies on the ground and puts his hands behind his back.
It appears that was merely an invitation for every cop in the vicinity to run over and start punching, kicking and clubbing him.
Squeaky,
I get your point that sociological studies are not as “hard” science as medical one’s can be, but it’s still far more scientific that some anecdotes.
Ken Rogers,
Thanks again for the information.
Count the ways…
… To the head
… To the groin
… To the back
… To the ribs
… To the head
the next officer joins in
… To the head
… Skip the groin and go for the ribs, ribs, head
(ok, take break and let the next guy have a round)
Repeat/rinse how many times?
All after being tased and falling face first from horseback.
Sheriff Orders Immediate Internal Investigation Into Arrest Seen on “Disturbing” Video
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Man-on-Stolen-Horse-Stunned-by-Sheriffs-Deputies-in-IE-299250951.html
Disturbing Video Surfaces of Police Beating in California
VIDEO OF SHOOTING CAUGHT POLICE PROPAGANDA MACHINE IN ACTION
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/09/shooting-video-exposes-police-propaganda-in-action/
@PaulCS
Have you ever noticed how liberals and lefties tend to be “study addicted”, which addiction is in itself a form of submission to authority. Supposedly “studies” are oh so scientific, but there is a difference in a study on the effects of Vitamin E on some physical condition, and all these sociological type studies which are usually very difficult to frame and interpret..
Sooo, Mr. Rogers goes all in on some stupid study and buys into the “don’t spank your kid” foolishness whole hog. The real question is, does some new idea work, or not work. Your testimony, and the testimony of other teachers, is actually better evidence than what is provided by the alleged study.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@ fiver
In addition to creating adult authoritarian followers, physically punishing children inhibits their intellectual and emotional growth while they’re still children:
Corporal punishment
Spare the rod
Spanking makes your children stupid
Nov 15th 2014 | NEW YORK |
“GEORGE STEWART’S teacher in Jamaica used to wait by the school door with a switch to punish tardy pupils. His parents whipped him, too. Now he lives in the Bronx and refuses to hit his own children. ‘I don’t think beating works,’ he says. It instils in them a cruelty that they pass down, generation to generation.’
“Ample evidence backs his view, say Richard Reeves and Emily Cuddy of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank. Nearly 30 studies from various countries show that children who are regularly spanked become more aggressive. They are also more likely to be depressed or take drugs, even after correcting for other factors.
“Smacking is effective in the short run: it stops children pulling their sisters’ hair. But in the long run it has all sorts of bad effects. A study in 20 American cities found that young children in homes with little or no spanking showed swifter cognitive development than their peers. Other studies find that children in physically punitive schools perform worse.
“Still, 81% of American parents believe that spanking is sometimes necessary (see table). That is more than in many other rich countries, 20 of which have banned spanking even by parents. In America, Republicans spank more than Democrats; southerners more than north-easterners; blacks more than whites; and born-again Christians more than everyone else.
“American teachers are still allowed to whack children with a paddle (a wooden bat only a little shorter and thinner than a cricket bat) in 19 states, mostly in the South—a practice that is banned in over 100 other countries. More than 216,000 pupils were beaten at school during the 2008-09 school year, according to the Department of Education.
“When Adrian Peterson, a football star, was arrested on charges of child abuse in September, after he allegedly wounded his son with a switch, several black pundits protested that beatings were an essential rite of passage. A whipping from a loving parent keeps kids on the straight and narrow, they argued. ‘A father’s belt hurts a lot less [than] a cop’s bullet!’ tweeted D. L. Hughley, a black comedian. Others defer to the Bible: ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child.’ *
“Mr Stewart retorts that a better rod ‘could be the word of the Lord’.”
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21632521-spanking-makes-your-children-stupid-spare-rod
The Bible says, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” (Proverbs 13:24, KJV)
Those who have been physically beaten by their parents will probably interpret this literally, that is as advocating corporal punishment, rather than as advocating the provision of boundaries guidance or lovingly structured psychological discipline of impulses.
See also, http://www.SparetheRod.org, which lists the countries which have banned corporal punishment and the reduction in crime and other salutary social benefits that have ensued in those countries.
Beaten is rather a loaded word. As a former teacher I have noticed that discipline with students has become more difficult since they stopped using physical punishment.
HAPPY PAPPIES
This time, Mr. Smith didn’t defend a criminal cop. I assume that JT doesn’t defend the alleged Murder 1 either.
Ken Rogers,
Thanks for the link. But, man, what a downer. People can be jerks – even to kids.