{"id":603,"date":"2015-10-07T17:48:20","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T17:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/razumichlaw.com\/?p=603"},"modified":"2023-08-10T13:42:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T13:42:30","slug":"is-it-a-crime-to-spank-your-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/2015\/10\/07\/is-it-a-crime-to-spank-your-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It a Crime to Spank Your Child?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you&#8217;re a sports fan or not, you probably heard about the case involving NFL running back Adrian Peterson. In September 2014, Peterson was indicted for striking his four-year-old son with a tree branch \u2013 something Peterson referred to as a &#8220;switch.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The case caused significant controversy and discussion, with some people saying it&#8217;s never okay to strike a child and others claiming the law has gone too far in policing parental discipline.<br \/>\nThe case also caused many people to wonder just how is too far when it comes to correcting a child&#8217;s behavior? What exactly does the law say about spanking and other forms of discipline? Is it a crime to spank your child? The short answer is no, but as with most areas of law, the more comprehensive answer is: &#8220;it depends.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>When Does Discipline Cross the Line?<\/h3>\n<p>Time <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3379862\/child-abuse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reports<\/a> that spanking your child is legal in all 50 states. Furthermore, data gathered by market research company Harris Interactive reveals that four out of five Americans believe that spanking a child is an appropriate form of discipline on occasion.<\/p>\n<p>Like many other states, Indiana permits parents to engage in &#8220;reasonable discipline&#8221; of a child. Although the statute itself is somewhat vague, many courts have interpreted this to mean that parental privilege gives a parent authority to use reasonable, appropriate force to correct a child&#8217;s inappropriate or unreasonable behavior.<\/p>\n<p>In Willis v. State (2008), the Indiana Supreme Court used a list of factors from the Restatement (Second) of Torts to determine whether a parent&#8217;s discipline crossed the line from reasonable to unreasonable. The factors include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Whether the adult doling out the discipline is the child&#8217;s parent<\/li>\n<li>The child&#8217;s age, gender, and physical and mental condition<\/li>\n<li>The child&#8217;s offense<\/li>\n<li>The influence of the disciplining moment as an example for other children in the family<\/li>\n<li>Whether the discipline is reasonably necessary and appropriate to compel the child&#8217;s obedience<\/li>\n<li>Whether the discipline is disproportionate to the offense<\/li>\n<li>Whether the discipline is unnecessarily degrading or likely to cause the child serious or permanent harm<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Clearly, these factors are subject to interpretation depending on the unique circumstances involved in a case. Every family and every child is different. In some cases, schools, health care workers, and others are quick to report suspected cases of abuse. If this happens to you, don&#8217;t wait to speak to an attorney. Protect your rights by getting help right away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you&#8217;re a sports fan or not, you probably heard about the case involving NFL running back Adrian Peterson. In September 2014, Peterson was indicted for striking his four-year-old son with a tree branch \u2013 something Peterson referred to as a &#8220;switch.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[18,24,103],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2940,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603\/revisions\/2940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawyersreadytofight.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}