Ryan ChartrandIt sure must be interesting to work in the California Assembly. I mean, it must feel gratifying and worthwhile to propose bills designed to tackle the very serious issues facing California. Take, for instance, Democratic assemblywomen Sally Lieber who plans to propose a bill this week to outlaw spanking.
Currently, beating, torturing, abusing, and killing (along with many other things) are all illegal in California, but not spanking. Leiber says the bill would be written broadly and would prohibit in her words “any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that.” Essentially, any physical punishment, even a light slap on the wrist could soon be illegal. Violators of this new law, according to Lieber, would be subject to a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. While many see this bill as an unnecessary intrusion into personal family and nearly impossible to enforce, laws like this have been implemeted in several European countries.
Of course, many psychologists claim that spanking is incredibly harmful to young children, and should never be allowed. However, this claim is somewhat debatable. For instance, in the book “Freakonomics” (one of my favorite books), the authors used the Early Childhood Lingitudinal Study (a massive study measuring the progress of over 20,000 children from kindergarten through fifth grade) to conclude that children who were spanked regularly (according to their parents) had test scores equivalent to their peers. On a side note, the authors hypothesized that, since the study measured the scores of children whose parents actually admitted to spanking their kids to a researcher, it was possible that the qualities of honesty and candor that these parents possess offset the negative qualities of spanking.
Certainly, spanking that goes overboard (i.e. abuse) is horrible and something that is indefensible. On the other hand, effective and disciplined spanking, depending on the situation, seems like it has certain benefits. For instance, if a child attempts to cross a road without holding a parent’s hand, if a child tries to touch a burning stove, or if a child tries to jam a fork into an electrical socket, it seems that a mild spanking might relate that attempting these very dangerous actions will result in some physical discipline. If parents could reason with young children, explaining the logical benefits and drawbacks of touching a hot stove, and instill this knowledge into young children, then perhaps spanking should be outlawed.
In today’s world, I think children need more discipline ,not less. Caring parents who occasionally spank their children are certainly better than the parents who don’t take the time to discipline their kids at all. As it stands, police are already busy enough tracking down actual child abusers who need to be put away. Laws that distract our officers from pursuing real child abusers only hurts future victims of child abuse. If certain Democrats had their way, I guess we could legislate fines and jail time for not reading to your kids every day, feeding them too much junk food, or letting them watch too much TV.
Instead, laws that give our police officers more effective means to catch child abusers would certainly be more effective. Likewise, implementing harsher and longer penalties would deter criminals from committing these crimes and keep them away from the public.
Like many bills proposed by our wonderful assemblypersons, this bill is unnecessary and avoids tackling any serious issue. However, this doesn’t really surprise me, considering this is the California Assembly. Likewise, Democrats proposing bills that rely on the government to solve the everyday and mundane problems people might encounter is certainly something they do. Instead, of relying on good old traditional family values and allowing families to decide how to raise their kids, some Democrats would rather legislate “feel good” bills that accomplish nothing.
Brian Eller is a materials engineering junior and Mustang Daily political columnist.