ABSTRACT
Historically speaking, children have enjoyed very little in terms of court protection from harm. Legally speaking, concepts that supported the nonintervention into family aairs emerged from notions of progeny or chattel (children as the non-real estate property of their parents), combined with religious impositions (“honor thy father and thy mother”) and social mores (“spare the rod, spoil the child”). e conuence of these forces served to condone, even encourage, the use of corporal punishment in the raising of children. Parents were permitted to beat their children as they saw t in the name of imposing discipline (Karmen 2010) and, in fact, enjoyed virtual immunity from prosecution, as long as their actions did not risk permanent injury or death.
