GERMANYGERMANYA study carried out in 2007 examined five European countries: Sweden, Austria, Germany, France and Spain. Five thousand parents (1,000 in each nation) were interviewed about their use of and attitude towards corporal punishment, their own experiences of violence and their knowledge and beliefs about the law. 43% of German parents said they had “mildly” slapped their child on the face and 68% had slapped their child on the bottom. 13% had given their child a “resounding” slap on the face and 5.2% had beaten their child with an object. 28% of German parents never used corporal punishment. 88% agreed that “one should try to use as little corporal punishment as possible” and 87% agreed that “non-violent child-rearing is the ideal”.
(Bussmann, K. D., 2009, The Effect of Banning Corporal Punishment in Europe: A Five-Nation Comparison, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
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Government research was undertaken in 2001 and published in 2003 into the reception and initial impact of the prohibition of corporal punishment in childrearing, in force since November 2000. Interviews were held nationwide with 3,000 parents of children below 18 years and 2,000 young people aged 12-18 years. Surveys were also done in 1,074 government and non-governmental institutions, with 30 representatives of relevant institutions interviewed in depth. The research found that around 28% of parents rarely resorted to disciplinary sanctions and “as far as possible” did not use corporal punishment; 54% frequently used “minor” but never “serious” corporal punishment and a further 17% frequently used “serious” corporal punishment, including beatings and spankings, as well as psychological punishments. Boys were more commonly hit than girls, and more commonly experienced “serious” corporal punishment. Based on parents’ and young people’s reports, in comparison with previous studies there had been a decrease in corporal punishment at all degrees of severity. For example, in 1996 a third of parents (33.2%) reported they had hit their child’s bottom, compared with just over a quarter (26.4%) in 2001. In 1992, 30% of young people (aged over 11) reported that they had been “thrashed,” while in 2002, 3% of young people reported this. In families where violence was used in childrearing, more severe corporal punishment had declined significantly. For example, in 1992, 98.9% of young people from families who used violence reported that they had been beaten to the point of bruising; by 2002, this had declined to 26.1%. 87% of parents surveyed in 2001 considered that a non-violent upbringing was ideal, and over 80% of parents and 90% of young people thought that parents should talk to their children instead of using corporal punishment. 74% of parents agreed that “Striking any other person is a criminal offence; there is no reason why corporal punishment of a child should be treated differently”. The study also discussed awareness of the new law among professionals, parents and children and how this could be increased.
(Federal Ministry of Justice & Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, 2003, Violence in upbringing: An assessment after the introduction of the right to a non-violent upbringing www.endcorporalpunishment.org/pages/pdfs/Germany%20research.pdf; see also an analysis of the results of this study in Bussmann, K. D., 2004, “Evaluating the subtle impact of a ban on corporal punishment on children in Germany”, Child Abuse Review, 13: 292–311)