Is it against the law to spank your kids? For many new parents, one of the toughest subjects they have to tackle is how to properly discipline their children when they act up and behave badly.

Sometimes strong or harsh words might not be enough to stop a child from disobeying their parents’ wishes, and that leaves mothers and fathers in a difficult spot, forcing them to choose how to punish and deter their child from being disruptive and defiant. 

Academic research into the use of corporal punishment against children has shown that spanking and any level of violence toward them can stunt their development and lead to greater behavioural problems later in life.

Public attitudes toward spanking have greatly evolved over the last few decades and public debate about the use of spanking rages on in the pages of newspapers and magazines and in the halls of academia.

But many still wonder, is it against the law to spank your child? What level of physical violence is acceptable toward a rebellious child, and where does the line exist between acceptable punishment and criminal child abuse? 

Spanking laws in Canada and the United Kingdom 

It may come as a surprise to many people, but spanking children is actually legal in many countries including Canada and England. The laws around spanking a child are not without limits and narrow the circumstances of when it’s acceptable to hit a child.

Although it may seem vague, courts have held that spanking children must not be intended to be harmful, but rather “reasonable” for the purpose of correcting a child’s insolent behaviour. 

For Canadian parents, spanking their children remains legal under a controversial section of the Criminal Code of Canada. It was back in 2004 when the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Section 43 of the Code, finding it didn’t “offend” the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee of every citizen’s right to “security of the person.”

The court found that the proper application of the Criminal Code in the context was not “unduly vague,” ruling that it created “real boundaries” between acceptable corporal punishment and criminal child abuse.

Any force used by a parent against their child, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling, had to be “educative or corrective” and related to “restraining, controlling or expressing disapproval” with a child’s unacceptable actions. 

But the difference between reasonable force and criminal child abuse is whether the force “results in harm or the prospect of harm.” The Criminal Code of Canada, section 43 in particular which authorizes parents and caregivers to use reasonable force against children, therefore didn’t allow people to use “cruel and unusual” punishment, but rather only “corrective force.” 

Against the law to spank?

In upholding the country’s spanking law, the Supreme Court’s majority differentiated between what is considered abusive or harmful versus the rights of parents and teachers to provide children with both guidance and discipline.

The ruling acknowledged children’s needs to be raised in safe and healthy environments and found that Canada’s parliament intended to strike a balance between children’s rights and parental duties of discipline.  

If parents and teachers tasked with caring for children were subject to assault charges for disciplining them, the court found that it would run the risk of “ruining lives and breaking up families.”

Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that if parents and teachers were under threat of facing criminal charges for reasonable disciplinary measures, children would face greater adverse consequences in the long term. 

Spanking law in Canada divided the Supreme Court 

But the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision was not unanimous, with several justices penning impassioned and disappointed dissents against the majority’s ruling.

Justice Ian Bennie’s dissent states that upholding the Criminal Code’s spanking law was “disrespectful of a child’s dignity,” effectively turning them into second-class citizens subject to physical violence from people unafraid of criminal consequences.

Binnie wrote that it was wrong to deny children the protections of criminal law against assault since any use of physical force against an adult can be considered a crime under the Code. Therefore, Binnie wrote, Section 43 of the Code infringed children’s guaranteed equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

Justice Ian Bennie found there was no reason to extend protections from criminal sanctions to teachers for using corporal punishment since they play “very different roles in a child’s life” versus a parent.

In his dissent, he claimed that extending immunity for “criminal assault of children” to a non-family member was far from “reasonable or proportionate.” 

Violated children’s rights

Justice Ian Bennie wasn’t the only Supreme Court Justice to dissent. Both Madam Justice Louise Arbour and Marie Deschamps penned their own critiques of the majority’s findings that upheld Section 43 of the Criminal Code.

Arbour found the law violated children’s rights to security of the person while also being “unconstitutionally vague.” Moreover, she found that the concept of “reasonableness” was difficult to pin down, since attitudes about disciplining children “vary widely, and often engage cultural and religious beliefs as well as political and ethical ones.” 

Justice Deschamps, in her dissent, did not mince words about her disapproval of the majority’s ruling, writing that the government of Canada’s decision to allow parents to essentially assault children “violates their dignity.”  

Physical force as punishment

Similar exemptions exist for parents under laws in England and Northern Ireland, allowing for “reasonable chastisement” of children using physical force, though Scotland criminalizes the use of corporal punishment against children in 2020.

Regardless of the legality of the practice of spanking wherever one lives, the use of physical force as punishment against children remains controversial. Psychologists are quick to point out that hitting a child can be both traumatic and counterproductive.

Studies show that children subject to physical violence at the hands of their parents become more prone to anti-social behaviour and cognitive impairments, with often devastating effects on their vulnerable, developing brain functions. 

Is it against the law to spank your child conclusion

Given how sharply divided the Supreme Court of Canada was on the issue of the legality of spanking all those years ago, the practice remains both controversial and the subject of vigorous public and academic debate.

For both parents and policymakers alike, deciding whether it’s reasonable and justified to use physical force against a defiant child is no doubt difficult, but the fact remains that just because something is legal under a country’s law does not make it right.