Comment on Gershoff(2002). Courts frequently consider whether an act of physical discipline is an isolated event or part of a larger pattern of arguably unreasonable discipline.109 If the individual injuries are relatively minor, a pattern, or chronicity, may cause them to be classified as abuse.110 Courts may place importance on a pattern of abuse because they fear that an escalation of violence in the future could put the child at risk. **William McDougall Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and Director of the Center of Child and Family Policy, Duke University, ***J.D., Duke Law School, M.P.P., Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Nonaccidental physical injuries children suffer at the hands of their parents occur along a continuum that ranges from mild to severe. Early Physical Abuse and Later Violent Delinquency: A Prospective Longitudinal Study. In the case of potential child abuse by physical beating, it becomes extremely important that such scholars do resolve these apparent discrepancies. Freisthler B, Price Wolf J, Chadwick C, Renick K. J Fam Violence. This inability to understand cause and effect is significant because children may become functionally impaired as a result of even moderate levels of corporal punishment that they cannot understand as being for their own good.208 Perhaps the most well-known example of the use of science in this context is SBS.209 Without a formal construct in which to argue that discipline is appropriate (reasonable or unreasonable) in the circumstances, the relevance of such evidence may not be apparent to the maltreatment inquiry. This in turn demands that the parents be given a wide sphere of discretion.129 Although the United States Supreme Court has never had occasion to rule on whether corporal punishment is included among parents federal constitutional rights, this disciplinary option is well-established under state law.130 Specifically, states have long provided parents with an exception to tort- and criminal-law prohibitions against physical assaults when they can establish a disciplinary motive for the assault and when the assault itself is reasonable.131 Twentieth-century case law is thus replete with holdings like this one: A parent has the right to punish a child within the bounds of moderation and reason, so long as he or she does it for the welfare of the child.132 The states approach has its origins in the Colonial period, [when] [corporal] punishment was thought to be a desirable and necessary instrument of restraint upon sin and immorality, as well as having a regenerative effect on the childs character.133 This view derived in turn from traditional English doctrine, which holds that a parent may lawfully correct his child, being under age, in a reasonable manner, for this is for the benefit of his education.134 Modern maltreatment law has adopted this common-law exception.135, In general, parental autonomy is viewed as being good for society, good for parents, and good for children. The problem is not only that prediction is probabilistic; but a confident prediction comes also from understanding the meaning of the behaviors rather than the behaviors themselves.191 Here, developmental science can be informative. Lansford Jennifer E, et al. This approach best reflects what history and social science tells us is good for children: a child-rearing model that recognizes and establishes parents as the childrens first[,] best caretakers10 and that intervenes in the family only when necessary to protect the child from harm that would be greater than that inevitably caused by the states own intervention.11 This approach also reflects appropriate respect for parents traditional role and the rights and responsibilities paradigm that has long governed American law in this area. MeSH These two paradigms together should govern the development of the operative legal definitions and process because, separately and at times in combination, they are the approaches currently used by the relevant legal actors.
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