What Can You Do If Your Ex Spouse Is Spanking Your Child?
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Although disciplining children by using physical punishment is slowly but surely loosing its social acceptance, there are still plenty of parents who believe that spanking makes a better person.
Is Physical Punishment a Crime?
While it is not in and out itself illegal to spank a child, California law prohibits parents and other adults from willfully causing a child harm or injury. Such harm includes both physical and mental damage. Clearly, in a lot of cases the line between discipline and child abuse is very subtle.
For example, corporal punishment in California is allowed as long as it does not cause a child pain. The Courts held that a parent has a right to reasonably discipline by punishing a child and may administer reasonable punishment without being liable for a battery. (Emery v. Emery (1955) 45 Cal. 2d 421, 429.) This includes the right to inflict reasonable corporal punishment. (People v. Curtiss (1931) 116 Cal. App. Supp. 771, 775.) Furthermore, the Courts ruled that spanking is legal as a physical means of conveying the word no. (People v. Whitehurst (1992) 9 Cal. App. 4th 1045)
However, a parent who willfully inflicts unjustifiable punishment is not immune from either civil liability or criminal prosecution. (People v. Curtiss (1931) 116 Cal. App. Supp. 771, 775.) And spanking becomes illegal when it is not warranted, not necessary or excessive. The Court further held that reasonableness and necessity are the deciding aspects of the parental right to discipline by physical punishment. (People v. Whitehurst (1992) 9 Cal. App. 4th 1045)
How Is Physical Punishment Different From Child Abuse?
Child abuse and physical punishment are not equal in the eyes of California law. Child abuse crosses over the above-mentioned limits of the reasonableness and necessity and usually involves unnecessary force.
The Courts have held that striking a child is illegal when it involves unnecessary force, an instrument that causes bruising or methods that cause fear. The Court often used bruising as a benchmark for abuse since it is visible and can be measured. Psychological damage, however, is a lot more difficult to identify and measure, but it is nonetheless included in the definition of child abuse and can be detected by childrens psychiatrists and other mental health experts.
In conclusion, although the parents reserve the right to inflict reasonable physical punishment on a child as a form of discipline, no parent or other adult has a right to abuse a child by using corporal punishment.
Therefore, if one of the parents crosses the line between discipline and abuse, the second parent does have a legal recourse. The Court has the authority to determine that the abusive parent has broken the law and subsequently can terminate their parental rights, custodial rights and the rights to visit the child.
If you want to find out more or need help determining your options when the other parent is using physical punishment on your child, call Womens Divorce Center at (619) 630 4765 today.’