Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 1-7

3. Prevalence of and Attitudes About School Corporal Punishment in the U.S.

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 9-24

4. Gender, Race, and Disability Disparities in Who Is Subject to School Corporal Punishment

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 25-35

5. School Corporal Punishment Effects on Children

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 37-46

6. Policy Analysis: School Corporal Punishment Bans and Juvenile Crime

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 47-59

7. The Legal Basis for School Corporal Punishment

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly. M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 61-68

8. Legal and Public Policy Strategies to Reduce or Ban School Corporal Punishment

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 69-86

9. Education and Advocacy Efforts to Reduce School Corporal Punishment

   • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

   Pages 87-98

10. Conclusion

    • Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Kelly M. Purtell, Igor Holas

    Pages 99-105

11. Back Matter

    Pages 107-109

    PDF

This Brief reviews the past, present, and future use of school corporal punishment in the United States, a practice that remains legal in 19 states as it is constitutionally permitted according to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result of school corporal punishment, nearly 200,000 children are paddled in schools each year. Most Americans are unaware of this fact or the physical injuries sustained by countless school children who are hit with objects by school personnel in the name of discipline. Therefore,  Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools begins by summarizing the legal basis for school corporal punishment and trends in Americans’ attitudes about it. It then presents trends in the use of school corporal punishment in the United States over time to establish its past and current prevalence. It then discusses what is known about the effects of school corporal punishment on children, though with so little research on this topic, much of the relevant literature is focused on parents’ use of corporal punishment with their children. It also provides results from a policy analysis that examines the effect of state-level school corporal punishment bans on trends in juvenile crime. It concludes by discussing potential legal, policy, and advocacy avenues for abolition of school corporal punishment at the state and federal levels as well as summarizing how school corporal punishment is being used and what its potential implications are for thousands of individual students and for the society at large. As school corporal punishment becomes more and more regulated at the state level, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools serves an essential guide for policymakers and advocates across the country as well as for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students.

• Corporal punishment at school
• Disability status and school corporal punishment
• Education policy and corporal punishment
• Gender and school corporal punishment
• Juvenile crime and school corporal punishment
• Legal basis for school corporal punishment
• Office for Civil Rights and school corporal punishment
• Paddling at school
• Parents and school corporal punishment
• Physical abuse at school
• Physical punishment at school
• Race and school corporal punishment
• School violence and corporal punishment
• State education laws and corporal punishment at school
• State education laws and corporal punishment at school
• U.S. Department of Education and school corporal punishment

“What do we know about CP in the schools and its many facets? Arguably, this book is the best resource to answer that. This is not a book that merely reviews a literature in a scholarly fashion. This book is unique in packing a rather amazing amount of material in a very short space. The content is covered in scholarly detail with multiple citations to pertinent literatures. In addition, original research is presented by culling information from available resources, analyzing data, and presenting and discussing the results.”

Alan E. Kazdin
We Have Hit Bottom by Using Corporal Punishment in Schools
PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 60, No. 34, Article 2

• Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

  Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Igor Holas

• Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

  Kelly M. Purtell

Elizabeth Gershoff, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Human Development and Family Sciences and a faculty associate and postdoctoral training director at the Population Research Center, both at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a developmental psychologist who studies child and adolescent development in the context of families, schools, neighborhoods, and public policies. She is an internationally recognized expert in the effects of parents’ use of corporal punishment on children.

Kelly Purtell, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Sciences at The Ohio State University who studies how economic disadvantage influences health and development across the lifespan. In particular, her research focuses on how contextual factors shape development among low-income children and adolescents, and how public policies can enhance the developmental trajectories of these youth.

Igor Holas, M.A., is a graduate student interested in links between education policy generally and state and local education funding in particular on the academic success of children and adolescents. He is the founder of Mentegram, an online tool for therapists and clinicians to track patient progress.

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