| It is a default rule of behaviour to avoid intentionally causing distress to others, which is why parental punishment of children requires justification. I consider how various theories that have been offered as justification for state criminal punishment might apply in the case of parental punishment of children. I argue that none of those theories is successful, usually largely on empirical grounds. While retributivism is unsuccessful in justifying parental punishment of children, it nevertheless gets some significant things right: the importance of censure, and the appropriateness of wrongdoers feeling bad. However, the correct kind of "feeling bad" is guilt for one's wrongdoing and sympathy for one's victim (if there is one), not the self-oriented distress that is induced by a punishment.;As a matter of empirical fact, feelings of guilt and sympathy tend to motivate human beings to make amends, which is why it's appropriate for parents to encourage their children to have those feelings (or at least not interfere with them). I argue that punishing children is not an effective way to induce feelings of guilt and sympathy (indeed, punishment tends to interfere with them). Parents should use non-punitive discipline that encourages children to recognize their own wrongdoing as such, to feel sympathy for anyone they may have harmed, and they should help children to make amends. Parents ought not to punish their children. |
