Beyond ‘anti‐smacking’: challenging parental violence and coercion

The anti‐smacking lobby concentrates on persuading parents not to smack and persuading the government to prohibit smacking by law. There is much evidence that smacking children is unnecessary and dangerous, and yet smacking continues to be widely practised and accepted in Britain. Our literature review found two underlying reasons for this contradiction: beliefs that children are ‘human becomings’ rather than full human beings and support for ‘parents’ rights' over children's human rights. We suggest that the anti‐smacking lobby's important work will have limited effect until it tackles these two issues, and make comparisons with debates on domestic violence against women to illustrate our argument. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.