ABSTRACT

This chapter compares the spanking of children by adults for punishment with the spanking of adults by adults for pleasure. It examines the irony that the same act may be acceptable when imposed on a protesting child, yet criminal when requested by an enthusiastic adult. English law permits a level of assault on a protesting child which may be criminal when practised on a consenting, and perhaps even paying, adult. The latter is a matter of sex; in practice, it does not generally attract attention when performed between consenting adults. The consent issue is familiar in law. However, as adult spanking is a sexual matter, a comparison with rape may prove instructive. Turning to the upper limit of consent-excused 'violence', it is clear in English law that it must fall short of death: suicide is no longer a crime, but assisting it remains murder or manslaughter.