Child Abuse

[mcgillianaire]

A man in Manchester was arrested last night and given an official police caution for slapping his 13-year-old daughter (the first time he had ever physically hit her). He hit her after she banged a neighbour's window. Immediately afterwards the daughter called the police. The father has quit his football coaching and community work because the caution could prevent him working with vulnerable children. The daughter has since apologised for getting her father in trouble and agreed she deserved the slap...

[Poll #1241699]

Comments

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

>For example, I would never suggest that a parent be punished for slapping a child's hand away from a hot stove or broken bottle.
Fair enough.

>However, I would like to see smacking outlawed
Do you think such a law would create a problem when parents are accused of smacking their children when trying to slap a child's/teenager's hand away from a hot stove?

>More than half of EU countries (14 out of 27) now have just such a law
Thanks for that stat. I'm really looking forward to learning such stuff when my course begins next month!

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

Do you think such a law would create a problem when parents are accused of smacking their children when trying to slap a child's/teenager's hand away from a hot stove?

I think there would have to be defences built into the law, but I rather take that as a given. We should study what has happened in countries which have introduced such laws and take lessons from those. There would doubtless be occasional silly court cases, but that happens with most laws.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

True.