بررسی موفقیت ممنوعیت تنبیه بدنی در سوئد

Objective: In 1979, Sweden became the first nation to explicitly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment of children by all caretakers in an effort to: (1) alter public attitudes toward this practice; (2) increase early identification of children at risk for abuse; and (3) promote earlier and more supportive intervention to families. The aim of this study was to examine trends over recent decades in these areas to assess the degree to which these goals have been met. Method: Primary data were collected from official Swedish sources for the following variables: public support for corporal punishment, reporting of child physical assault, child abuse mortality, prosecution rates, and intervention by the social authorities. Lines of best fit were generated and Cox and Stuart tests for trend were conducted. Results: Public support for corporal punishment has declined, identification of children at risk has increased, child abuse mortality is rare, prosecution rates have remained steady, and social service intervention has become increasingly supportive and preventive. Conclusions: The Swedish ban has been highly successful in accomplishing its goals. Spanish abstract not available at time of publication.

IN 1979, SWEDEN became the first nation to abolish all types of corporal punishment of children by all caretakers. This law represents the end of a series of legislative reforms spanning 50 years which were aimed at making the rejection of corporal punishment increasingly explicit in law. While the history of this law has been described in detail elsewhere Durrant 1996, Durrant and Olsen 1997, Newell 1989, Ziegert 1983 and Ziegert 1987, it will be summarized here to provide a context for the analyses to follow.

It is important to note that direct causal relationships between the passage of the corporal punishment ban and the trends reported here cannot be drawn. Many social changes have occurred in Sweden over the past 25 years, including ongoing legislative reform, demographic shifts, and modifications to social policies. These forces have likely interacted with the attitudinal shifts engendered by the corporal punishment ban to produce the trends reported here. However direct or indirect the route from the ban to these outcomes, it is clear that the original goals of the Swedish corporal punishment ban have been met.SCB 1975 and SCB 1979b