A sociologist told MSPs in February they are ‘living on another planet’ if they think parental smacking is a form of violence, as the Holyrood committee was taking evidence on the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill.
Dr Waiton warned that a smacking ban would mean cases of genuine abuse being missed because professionals are ‘reporting every smacking incident’. He argued that discipline is different to violence, and to be consistent the Scottish government would have to ban any kind of discipline.
Consistency
‘I would like to ask how you can differentiate the upset a child feels at being grounded for a week, for example, compared to having their bottom or hand smacked’, he said. ‘Because I cannot see how, in the future, if you’re going to be logically consistent, you will not eventually say that that should be banned as well.’
Undermining parents
The academic accused the Scottish government of ‘undermining the autonomy of loving parents’ in how they raise their children. He added that the legislation patronised parents, using language that ‘makes no sense at all to ordinary people’.
Scottish police chiefs told the committee that a ban would mean increased costs for the force as officers spend more time investigating parents. Police Scotland also raised concerns that the ban could be considered state interference in family life, where parents are criminalised for behaviour that has been accepted for ‘generations’.
Polling in Scotland has shown that 74% of Scottish adults do not want parental smacking to be criminalised.
