Corporal Punishment Against the Law

Corporal Punishment Against the LawCorporal Punishment Against the Law

Corporal punishment of children by individuals - other than their parents - including education officials and teachers, is considered child abuse according to the law, said senior member of the National Child Rights Committee, Mansour Moghareh Abed.

“Unfortunately, corporal punishment and physical and psychological abuse has been institutionalized in our educational practices,” he added. Despite the ban, there are still some teachers who use corporal punishment in schools.

He pointed to the law approved for protection of children and adolescents in 2003, and said according to article 2 of the law, “any action which harms children physically or psychologically is considered a crime and is banned,” he said, quoted by ILNA.

Moghareh Abed said according to the rules, individuals under the age of 18 are considered children and any child corporal punishment should be reported to judicial authorities by the school management; otherwise the school principal will also be deemed to have committed a crime.

“Child abuse is a public-order crime and does not need lawsuits to make prosecution necessary,” he noted. Parents have a right to punish their children, but they are also not allowed “to go beyond fair and sensible disciplinary limits.” As per the law, repeat assault of children beyond reasonable limits is a sign of moral decadence in parents which will be dealt with legally.

However, at present there is no clear definition of ‘conventional disciplinary limit’, for example, is slapping the child in the face considered conventional or not?  “Physical punishment occurs in the schools but there is a significant decline in the trend,” he said.

  Negative Effects

Punishment merely teaches what not to do. Punishment by itself does not develop positive behavior.

Punishment often leads to negative self evaluation. Self-esteem is based on the person’s self-evaluation; and these evaluations are derived, in large part, from others in the person’s environment. A person who is constantly the recipient of punishment is likely to form a negative self-image, and to develop perceptions of low self-efficacy and helplessness.

 Learners who perceive themselves as incompetent are likely to either avoid undertaking activities out of a fear of failure or to engage in undesirable activities which are related to their negative self evaluation.