Should parents be banned from smacking their children?

Scotland looks set to be the first country in the UK to ban parents from smacking their children under any circumstances.

In practice the law allows parents and carers to smack children as long as they have a justification for it or are using a "reasonable punishment".

The Scottish parliament is expected to remove the defences that could be used for smacking.

Should other UK countries follow Scotland's example and explicitly ban parents from smacking their children or are there other concerns to consider?

The Claim

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, welcomed the smacking ban in Scotland and urged the rest of the UK to follow suit.

He wrote in the Daily Telegraph that there was no justification for hitting children and urged the government to take action to ensure the rest of the UK adopted the ban.

Wanless praised Wales for making significant progress in making progress with a ban of their own but lamented that England and Northern Ireland didn't have similar plans in place. 

He warned that hitting a child could lead to long-term consequences, citing "growing evidence" that physical punishment makes children more aggressive, more anti-social and increases the chances of experiencing depression and anxiety with those behaviours potentially continuing into adult life.

He also stressed that changing the law would not change the way the police investigated cases of assaulting a child, only remove the defences used by parents and carers charged with a crime.

The Counter Claim

However, a campaign in Scotland opposes the smacking ban and argues that it could have "profoundly negative effects" on families.

Jamie Gillies of the Be Reasonable campaign believes there will be more police investigations and more chance of social services getting involved, leading to parents being criminalised when they previously wouldn't have been.

He writes that the campaign believes more investigations and the potential involvement of social services will cause turmoil in families as parents might be forced to take sides in a situation where the accused might previously have made a case they were applying a "reasonable punishment".

Gillies also cited a Ministry of Justice letter on the subject that warned a complete smacking ban without certain defences could be "weaponised by divorcing parents" as false claims could bog down proceedings and be difficult to dismiss. 

He also argued that the ban is very unpopular in both Scotland and Wales, saying over 70 per cent of the public in both countries oppose laws that make it a criminal offence for parents to hit their children.

The Facts

If a parent or carer hits the child in their care they have a defence of "justifiable assault" or "reasonable punishment". The smacking ban in Scotland would remove these defences and mean assault laws applied to everyone regardless of age.

Earlier in the year the Welsh Assembly voted to end the "reasonable punishment" defence in a move described as clearing the first hurdle to a full smacking ban. Similar plans are not underway in England or Northern Ireland.

Sky Data polls taken last year found that 64 per cent of Brits believe "unreasonable" smacking of children should be a crime but polls also say a majority of people are opposed to a smacking ban which removes the remaining defences.

The smacking ban would apply to parents and carers, with physical punishment already completely banned in schools. 

Most countries around the world don't have smacking bans. 57 states have made smacking children illegal under any circumstances with the first one being Sweden in 1979.