Consultation on the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill
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Tystiolaeth i’r Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg ar gyfer craffu Cyfnod 1 Bil Plant (Diddymu Amddiffyniad Cosb Resymol) (Cymru) |
Evidence submitted to the Children, Young People and Education Committee for Stage 1 scrutiny of the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill |
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CADRP-318 |
CADRP-318 |
About you
Individual
— No
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
It will lead to loving and considerate parents getting a criminal record for disciplining their children in a reasonable way. The existing defence of "reasonable punishment" is just what it says - reasonable.
Why would we want to remove a type of discipline (smacking) that may be necessary for some children for whom words or other sanctions simply do not work?
Smacking or other reasonable punishment is NOT child abuse - there are already laws to protect children from violence and unreasonable chastisement.
Most adults were physically disciplined as children and would now say that they were not harmed or damaged by this. My own son (now an adult with his own children) has told me he is glad I occasionally used physical punishment when it was needed, as it helped keep him safe and made him a more rounded and unselfish person.
A large majority of adults in Wales are against criminalising smacking (a 2017 ComRes poll showed 76% of Welsh adults oppose making smacking a crime, while only 11% supported it).
I have seen some examples of children whose parents refuse to (or are unable to) apply any type of physical chastisement and they are uncontrollable, inflicting physical violence on parents without any means of comeback.
Banning smacking will reap a harvest of even more unruly, self-orientated children.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
I simply cannot understand what is the problem that this proposed legislation is trying to solve. If there are children who are suffering physically or psychologically because of physical chastisement, then there are already laws to prevent and punish such parental behaviour,
I can see zero benefit from the proposed Bill but huge dangers and risks.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
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(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
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(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
After smacking was outlawed in Sweden in 1979, the incidence of child-on-child violence actually increased.
At a younger, impressionable age, children cannot be reasoned with like with an adult and a physical expression of censure is all they can easily understand. Without this physical means of punishment, there is a great risk that violence carried out by children - and later in their adulthood - will increase.
There will be a large impact on police and social services, either from incidents where parents feel the need to exercise their right to discipline their children according to their own moral standards, or by malicious accusations against parents by children who resent some action or behaviour by a parent.
Criminalising smacking will drag parents and children who are not at any risk of real harm into the criminal justice system, causing adults to lose jobs, as well as causing mental health issues among parents and children, and causing more family disharmony. Also it would take resources and attention away from those that are actually at real risk of serious harm.
My opinion is that society and family life in Wales will suffer as a direct result of the proposed Bill.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
The additional costs of implementing the proposed bill would be far better spent on higher priorities such as education and health.
The proposed Bill would be 100% waste of public money.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
In the proposed Bill much is made of the rights of the child - but what about the rights of parents to educate and discipline their children as they see fit? Children are NOT adults and are treated differently already in law.