Is Spanking Your Own Child Considered Child Abuse?

Sometimes. Whether you will be listed on CACI for spanking your own child is not based on facts but on the experience, beliefs and personal opinions of the person making the report. Intentionally causing physical disfigurement or permanent physical injury is always child abuse. People who believe that spanking is always child abuse may report you for the legal spanking of your own child. Do not spank someone else’s child - that is illegal.

In a publication titled Child Abuse Reporting and You (12/06), the California Department of Social Services states, “While this subject is controversial, under California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300(a), reasonable and age appropriate spanking to the buttocks where there is no evidence of serious physical injury does not constitute abuse.”

The California Attorney General has also issued an opinion that Welfare and Institution Code Section 300 does not forbid a parent from spanking his or her own child for disciplinary purposes with an object other than the hand; however, the punishment must be necessary and not excessive in relation to the individual circumstances. The opinion states, “A parent has a right to reasonably discipline by punishing a child and may administer reasonable punishment.” “This includes the right to inflict reasonable corporal punishment.” A parent who willfully inflicts unjustifiable punishment, however, may be prosecuted. “[T]he reasonableness of, and the necessity for, the punishment is to be determined by a jury, under the circumstances of each case.”

Similarly, the California Department of Social Services published an internal informational notice about a Ninth Circuit federal decision interpreting California law. The case involved a parent spanking the family’s children with a 9-inch Lincoln log. The 9-inch Lincoln log was used as a token “rod of correction.” The court relied upon a medical doctor’s report in finding that there was no permanent physical injury or disfigurement. The court found that it was only the “social worker’s opinion that any discipline of a child with an object must be against the law.”

Avoid spanking your child if there is an adequate alternative form of discipline. If you decide that spanking is necessary have another adult present who can testify that the punishment was necessary and not excessive in relation to the circumstances. Never injure your child.