High Court legalizes leaving bruises on your kids

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Um. Duchess arguments actually convinced me of the application of corporal punishment on adult criminals.

Have you changed your mind on that too, Duchess? :?

:roll: Her argument regarding adult criminals is that long-term imprisonment is actually more cruel and less effective than corporal punishment. Since it is already illegal to lock children in a cage as a form of parental discipline, this is a totally irrelevant form of logic when applied to parenting.

That is somewhat informative, isn't it? If we have people standing up and defending corporal punishment while at the same time freaking out at stories we get so often of lines of foster kids locked in cages, where is the mental disconnect which makes them think that the ideal method of punishment is reversed in adults? Is something inhumane for kids humane for adults?

[Singular Intellect]

Um. Duchess arguments actually convinced me of the application of corporal punishment on adult criminals.

Have you changed your mind on that too, Duchess?

Her argument regarding adult criminals is that long-term imprisonment is actually more cruel and less effective than corporal punishment. Since it is already illegal to lock children in a cage as a form of parental discipline, this is a totally irrelevant form of logic when applied to parenting.

That is somewhat informative, isn't it? If we have people standing up and defending corporal punishment while at the same time freaking out at stories we get so often of lines of foster kids locked in cages, where is the mental disconnect which makes them think that the ideal method of punishment is reversed in adults? Is something inhumane for kids humane for adults?

I suspect the mentality is that we have higher expectations for behavior and accoutability from adults. It's considered that adults are much more set in their ways and less likely to respond to mild corrective measures.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I suspect the mentality is that we have higher expectations for behavior and accoutability from adults. It's considered that adults are much more set in their ways and less likely to respond to mild corrective measures.

So we throw them in prison and leave them to rot by themselves, with their only influence being a pack of drug-dealing rapist prison gangers? How humane...

[Shroom Man 777]

Her argument regarding adult criminals is that long-term imprisonment is actually more cruel and less effective than corporal punishment. Since it is already illegal to lock children in a cage as a form of parental discipline, this is a totally irrelevant form of logic when applied to parenting.

Her argument about long-term imprisonment being more cruel and less effective than corporal punishment convinced me and I was just wondering if her change of heart regarding corporal punishment also included using CP to deal with criminals (as opposed to long-term imprisonment) and not just parenting.

Most of us already agree that both spanking and locking kids up are really lousy ways of discipline, anyway.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

:roll: Her argument regarding adult criminals is that long-term imprisonment is actually more cruel and less effective than corporal punishment. Since it is already illegal to lock children in a cage as a form of parental discipline, this is a totally irrelevant form of logic when applied to parenting.

Her argument about long-term imprisonment being more cruel and less effective than corporal punishment convinced me and I was just wondering if her change of heart regarding corporal punishment also included using CP to deal with criminals (as opposed to long-term imprisonment) and not just parenting.

Most of us already agree that both spanking and locking kids up are really lousy ways of discipline, anyway.

No. Prison is still infinitely more savage, and with plenty of proof it doesn't work based on redicivism rates.

[Adrian Laguna]

I have one experience with corporeal punishment back in third or fouth grade. Desperation led my mother to try it, after 6-9 times she stopped, because it didn't work, and because it was driving her to the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Children should be continuously watched over and guided and coddled into obedience--made to want to do what their guardians want them to do, in short--but all of this requires enormous skill and wisdom and compassion

The greatest parents are the ones who need inflict no greater punishment than the words, "I am disappointed in you."

No. Prison is still infinitely more savage, and with plenty of proof it doesn't work based on redicivism rates.

Originallly, prisons were either temporary holding areas for suspects awaiting trial or convicts awaiting punishment, and a convenient way to get rid of people without killing them. If I recall correctly, the idea of prisons as a place to keep common criminals was to correct their behaviour by making them adopt a monastic lifestyle. Variations on that is why many a big house is called a "correctional facility". Theoretically this would be more humane and effective than corporeal punishment, that's why it has been largely outlawed. In practice, the correctional programs either don't work, or are too much work, so they have long been dropped by the wayside, but the imprisonment kept.

The Mexico has been exploring going back to the original idea, but substituting the monastic lifestyle with isolated self-sufficient communities, and not forcing anyone to do anything. They hope to reduce recidivism rates by actively encouraging people to work an honest living before being released back to the general population, instead of simply locking them up and hoping they've reformed when the sentence is over. I don't have much hope of something similar being implemented in the US, even if the Mexicans unequivocally show that their new approach works.