Corporal punishment is the world’s most prevalent violence against any population group
Evidence
The 2014 report, drawing on Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey data from ninety-five countries, established the epidemiological baseline for the “hidden in plain sight” formulation: corporal punishment of children is the most prevalent form of violence against any population group globally, experienced by approximately fifty-four percent of children aged two to fourteen in their homes and by a large majority of school-age children in non-prohibiting countries’ school systems. The “hidden” element refers to the systematic under-counting of corporal punishment in violence statistics because its legal status in most jurisdictions categorizes it as discipline rather than violence. — , The Rod and the Child, 10917
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: South Asia has the most children experiencing physical punishment of any region — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 5459; India is the single country with the most children experiencing physical punishment — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 5464; Domestic violence against women is continuous with state corporal punishment
Related
- India is the single country with the most children experiencing physical punishment (similarity 0.90)
- Domestic violence against women is continuous with state corporal punishment (similarity 0.89)
- South Asia has the most children experiencing physical punishment of any region (similarity 0.89)
- School corporal punishment remains legal in 17 US states with 66,000 annual instances (similarity 0.85)
- Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest child corporal punishment rate of any world region (similarity 0.85)
- School bans on corporal punishment far exceed household bans in this region (similarity 0.85)
- Corporal punishment is concentrated on society’s least powerful members (similarity 0.83)
- Child corporal punishment persists even among the wealthiest African households (similarity 0.81)
- Children across fifteen countries universally report being hit as painful and unfair (similarity 0.80)
- The high prevalence of corporal punishment in Africa is historically contingent, not fixed destiny. (similarity 0.80)
- Ordinary physical punishment correlates dose-dependently with severe violence (similarity 0.80)
- Domestic violence history predicts violence better than Muslim identity does. (similarity 0.79)
- Any corporal punishment in a year triples a child’s odds of severe physical abuse (similarity 0.79)
- African corporal punishment prohibition has stalled with no new countries since 2019 (similarity 0.79)
- SDG 16.2 creates reputational pressure on states to prohibit corporal punishment (similarity 0.79)