The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and Homes, 1950–2011

• Date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12314
• Published date: 01 March 2018

The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting

Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and

Homes, 1950–2011

Hollie Nyseth Brehm Elizabeth Heger Boyle

With a focus on the relationship between women’s and children’s rights and

theories of globalization, we conduct an event history analysis of more than

150 countries between 1950 and 2011 to assess the factors associated with pol-

icies banning corporal punishment in schools and homes. Our research

reveals that formal condemnation of corporal punishment in schools is

becoming a global norm; policies banning corporal punishment in the home,

in contrast, are being adopted more slowly. We f‌ind that the percentage of

women in parliament is associated with the adoption of anti-corporal punish-

ment policies in both schools and homes, suggesting a nexus between wom-

en’s and children’s issues. Countries with more ethnic diversity are slower to

adopt home policies, however. We propose that minority groups in these

countries may be resistant to laws because of the risk of selective or prejudicial

enforcement. In terms of globalization, more aid is associated with both school

and home policies, and countries that have ratif‌ied the Convention on the

Rights of the Child are more likely to adopt home policies. Surprisingly, inter-

national nongovernmental organizations are not signif‌icantly associated with

either type of policy adoption.

In 2015, an enraged teacher at the Florence Christian Academy

Primary School near Hluti, Swaziland, used a stick “big enough

to kill a snake” to apply hundreds of lashes to a 12-year-old girl

(Mkhonta 2015). The teacher viewed this beating as punishment

for “spreading malicious gossip” about him. The Swazi Observer

reported the child “screamed and asked for forgiveness, but this

seemed to infuriate the teacher more.” The extent of the girl’s

injuries shocked medical personnel.

This brief story provides a powerful reminder that corporal

punishment is still used to abuse children in the contemporary

world. At the same time, this story also reveals a marked shift in

perceptions of corporal punishment. It suggests the practice is

now condemned by Swazi elites, which is clear from the tone

adopted by the local journalist who wrote the story, the response

of the medical personnel who treated the girl, and the presence

Please direct all correspondence to Hollie Nyseth Brehm, The Ohio State University,

238 TownshendHall, Columbus, OH 43210; email: brehm.84@osu.edu.

Law & Society Review, Volume 52, Number 1 (2018)

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of local organizations like the Swaziland Action Group Against

Abuse. This condemnation is also ref‌lected at the global level,

with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

and organizations such as Save the Children using this and other

cases to pressure Swaziland into changing its laws regarding

corporal punishment.

Countries like Swaziland that do not legally prohibit beatings

in schools are increasingly changing their policies. While corporal

punishment was not a priority half a century ago, many countries

have since banned physical reprimands in schools, and some

have also banned such discipline in the home. Yet, no studies (to

our knowledge) have examined the factors associated with poli-

cies restricting violent discipline. Accordingly, in this study, we

draw upon event history analyses of more than 150 countries

between 1950 and 2011 to assess the dynamics of adopting cor-

poral punishment bans in homes and schools, respectively.

We f‌ind that women and children’s interests appear to be

linked, as the percentage of women in parliament is positively

associated with bans on corporal punishment in schools and in

the home. We also f‌ind that public (i.e., school) policies tend to

precede home policies, just as women’s rights policies addressed

the public sphere (e.g., voting, employment rights) before the

private sphere (e.g., domestic violence). Yet, countries with

greater ethnic fractionalization have lower odds of adopting poli-

cies that regulate children’s rights in the home. One possible

explanation for this is that ethnolinguistic minorities may block

such policies because states tend to under-protect and over-police

minority communities (compare Crenshaw 2012).

Our analysis of the adoption of policies banning violent disci-

pline in the home and in schools provides insights on global pro-

cesses of policy diffusion as well. We f‌ind that the ratif‌ication of

the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

(CRC) is associated with the adoption of policies banning corporal

punishment in the home but not in schools. We also f‌ind that

receipt of international aid is associated with the adoption of vio-

lent discipline bans in both schools and homes. Links to interna-

tional nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) are not associated

with either form of policy adoption, however, which is surprising

given earlier studies of diffusion in the world polity literature.

Feminism, Women, and Children

Before 1970, most international human rights organizations

focused on state-instigated human rights abuses, such as torture.

Abuses that occurred in the home were generally viewed as

Nyseth Brehm & Boyle 207