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ippr calls for complete ban on smacking

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19 June 2000

The government should rethink its policy on smacking children and invoke a full ban according to a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research, Britain's leading centre-left think tank.

Loving Smack or Lawful Assault?, by legal expert Professor Christina Lyon, finds that many parents resort to smacking only because they have little idea how else to discipline their children.

A national ban should be complimented by educational campaigns and guidance, teaching parents how to deal with children in times of stress. Similar campaigns have turned around public opinion in other European countries.

Lyon argues that physical punishment is not only ineffective but helps develop violent attitudes and behaviour in childhood and in adult life. Adults slip only too easily from lesser forms of physical punishment into more violent behaviour.

The report uses the government's own statistics to argue that there is overwhelming public support for law reform to ban hitting with implements, hitting on the head and smacking children under two.

The government, in its recent Consultation Paper 'Protecting Children. Supporting Parents' rejected an outright ban. It argued that there was a 'common sense distinction' between a mild physical rebuke and the beating of children. Yet, the European Court of Human Rights has already ruled that current UK law on smacking fails to give children adequate protection.

Uncertainty over the legal phrase 'reasonable chastisement' has in practice resulted in some parents receiving criminal convictions while others have been legally permitted to beat children with belts, riding crops and electrical flex. Such inconsistency has left parents in the dark over what punishment is permitted and what could land them in the criminal courts.

When a ban was enacted in Sweden, parents were given guidance on what to expect at each stage in their child's development, and how to respond in times of stress. Extensive public information on the new law, the reasons behind it and alternative methods of disciplining children were distributed on milk cartons to every home.

Of the European countries where the ban has been in place long enough to be measured (such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark), parental attitudes and practices have substantially shifted towards non-physical means of disciplining their children. There has also been an increase in early detection of children at risk and a decrease in the proportion of parents who are subsequently prosecuted.

The report concludes that there are two tests that law reform must satisfy. It must protect children from harm, and must provide absolute clarity to parents on the forms of punishment that are permitted by law. Only a complete ban on all forms of physical punishment will provide that protection, and that clarity.

Sarah Spencer, Director of the Citizenship and Government programme at the IPPR said:

'There are times when government follows public opinion and there are times when it must take the lead. When child protection is the issue, public opinion cannot be the determining factor. If parental education and support reinforce law reform, public endorsement will follow.'

'The primary intention is to provide parents with the opportunity to improve the upbringing of their children. The aim is not to criminals but to bring about a total change in attitudes.'