NICARAGUANICARAGUAAccording to statistics from UNICEF relating to the period 2001-2007, of girls and women aged 15-49, 17% think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances.
(UNICEF, 2009, Progress for Children: A report card on child protection, NY: UNICEF www.childinfo.org/files/Progress_for_Children-No.8_EN.pdf)
Surveys carried out in 2002-2004 examined the attitudes of children and adults in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela towards physical punishment. In Nicaragua, 260 children were surveyed. Nearly a third (33.1%) of the children agreed that children should not be physically punished or that “punishment does not solve anything”, and nearly a quarter (24.6%) agreed that physical punishment is “very bad” or “makes children violent”. Fifty-eight per cent thought that physical punishment is never necessary.
(Save the Children Sweden & Instituto de Encuestas y Sondeos de Opinión, 2005, Sistematización de las Encuestas Sobre la Perceptión del Castigo Físico en Seis Países de America Latina, presentation: Managua, 16 May 2005)