| Preface | |
| Acknowledgments | |
| The Conspiracy of Silence | p. 3 |
| What Is Corporal Punishment? | p. 4 |
| The Importance of Corporal Punishment | p. 9 |
| A Conspiracy of Silence | p. 10 |
| Child-Rearing Advice Books | p. 14 |
| Plan of the Book | p. 16 |
| Everyone Does It, But Less Now | p. 19 |
| The Virtuous Violence | p. 19 |
| Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment | p. 20 |
| How Much Corporal Punishment? | p. 22 |
| Corporal Punishment In Two Nationally Representative Samples | p. 22 |
| Trends | p. 25 |
| Differences Between Boys and Girls | p. 29 |
| Cultural Discontinuity in Corporal Punishment | p. 31 |
| Hitting Adolescents | p. 35 |
| Two Measures of Corporal Punishment | p. 36 |
| How Many Are Hit and How Often? | p. 37 |
| The Social Context of Hitting Adolescents | p. 39 |
| Who Spanks the Most? | p. 49 |
| Cultural Norms and Attitudes | p. 51 |
| The Age and Sex of the Child | p. 54 |
| Parents and Family Characteristics | p. 54 |
| Depression and Suicide | p. 67 |
| Depression | p. 67 |
| Corporal Punishment and Depressions | p. 71 |
| Corporal Punishment and Suicidal Thoughts | p. 72 |
| Summary | p. 77 |
| Why Does Corporal Punishment Produce Depression? | p. 78 |
| Physical Abuse | p. 81 |
| Another Conspiracy of Silence | p. 82 |
| The Research Evidence | p. 83 |
| Reasons for Ignoring Corporal Punishment | p. 87 |
| Theories That Might Explain the Link | p. 90 |
| Characteristics of Abusing Parents | p. 91 |
| Corporal Punishment and Physical Abuse | p. 92 |
| Violence and Crime | p. 99 |
| Corporal Punishment and Family Violence | p. 101 |
| Corporal Punishment and Street Crime | p. 107 |
| Corporal Punishment in Schools and Violence | p. 110 |
| Socio-Cultural Context | p. 116 |
| The Fusion of Sex and Violence | p. 121 |
| Lovemaps | p. 124 |
| Sexual Scripts and Other Influences | p. 125 |
| Masochistic Sex Among College Men and Women | p. 126 |
| Corporal Punishment and Masochistic Sex | p. 130 |
| Alienation and Reduced Income | p. 137 |
| Corporal Punishment and Achievement | p. 140 |
| Alienation | p. 142 |
| Ten Myths That Perpetuate Corporal Punishment | p. 149 |
| Myth 1: Spanking Works Better | p. 149 |
| Myth 2: Spanking Is Needed as a Last Resort | p. 152 |
| Myth 3: Spanking Is Harmless | p. 152 |
| Myth 4: One or Two Times Won't Cause Any Damage | p. 155 |
| Myth 5: Parents Can't Stop Without Help | p. 155 |
| Myth 6: If You Don't Spank, Your Children Will Be Spoiled or Run Wild | p. 157 |
| Myth 7: Parents Spank Rarely or Only for Serious Problems | p. 160 |
| Myth 8: By the Time a Child Is a Teenager, Parents Have Stopped | p. 160 |
| Myth 9: If Parents Don't Spank, They Will Verbally Abuse Their Child | p. 161 |
| Myth 10: It Is Unrealistic to Expect Parents to Never Spank | p. 161 |
| Why Do These Myths Persist? | p. 162 |
| Social Evolution and Corporal Punishment | p. 165 |
| How Solid is the Evidence? | p. 165 |
| Corporal Punishment in Historical Perspective | p. 169 |
| A Moral Passage | p. 170 |
| Social Changes Underlying the Moral Passage | p. 173 |
| Lessons from the Swedish No-Spanking Law | p. 179 |
| Obstacles to Ending Corporal Punishment | p. 182 |
| A Society Without Corporal Punishment | p. 186 |
| App. A. A Theoretical Model | p. 189 |
| App. B. Samples and Measures of Corporal Punishment | p. 199 |
| App. C. Statistical Methods and Measures | p. 217 |
| App. D. Books on Child Abuse Searched for Discussions of Corporal Punishment | p. 255 |
| Notes | p. 261 |
| References | p. 267 |
| Index | p. 285 |
| Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved. |