though physical punishment for children remained widespread, the other 12% of parents did not accept it, they believed that hitting children was not justified at all. A the Listener/Heylen poll (1994) showed that abolition of corporal punishment in school helped to change the attitude at home. According to another Listener/Heylen survey of 577 people in 1995, only 53.7% of people agree with corporal punishment at home for boys and 48.7% for girls. On the contrary, people who disagreed with corporal punishment increased sharply, and the percentage was about three folds than it was in 1993. In the 15-24 years age group, 48.4 percent of people disagreed with the corporal punishment for boys, whereas 36 percent agreed. In addition, 50.4 percent of people disagree with the corporal punishment for girl, whereas 34.5% disagreed. This is a potent figure, which means if this generation becomes parents, most people in New Zealand will disagree with corporal punishment. However, despite these tendencies, most parents still use physical punishment now.
             It is generally accepted that corporal punishment is not good, but to what degree is it bad, and how seriously is it affected? First of all, why do parents punish their children by force? Generally, they believe corporal punishment is a kind of discipline, and it is their duty to discipline their children. There are several reasons why parents may smack their children. Firstly, the parents believe they have a right to raise children in their own ways. Secondly, parents believe smacking is an efficient way and it did no harm to the parents themselves. Thirdly, they fear that their children will be spoiled or uncontrollable if they are not punished for bad behaviour.
             Although most reasons are fair, sometimes parents cannot control themselves when they start corporal punishment. As a result, they can unintentionally cause serious physical and mental damage.
             James C. Dobson (1996) in his book The n...