A well made point ...

.... on the question, "Where is the research showing that spanking is
successful?"

http://www.irregulartimes.com/researchsays.html

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IRREGULAR TIMESSpare the Child Asks:
Who Cares What the Research Says?

Here at Spare The Child, you'll see a lot of references to the research
that's been done on the subject on corporal punishment. Some of the
research is qualitative, dealing with ideas, but most of it is
quantitative, dealing with statistics.

In the last 20 years, a great deal of good research on corporal
punishment has been performed, but that doesn't seem to matter to a lot
of Americans, who seem to regard research as nothing more than a tool
for pointy-headed academics to use in their nefarious plot to interfere
with the ability of everyday folks to enjoy their lives without worry.
This anti-intellectual attitude is not just held by working class
stiffs, but by upper class stiffs as well. In the 2000 presidential
debates, future President George W. Bush made fun of rival Al Gore's
criticisms of Bush's budgetary plans by calling them "fuzzy math."
Unable to come up with any statistics to support his own arguments,
Bush simply made fun of the fact that Gore was able to do so. "Why, you
need a calculator to figure out what he's saying," Bush sneered, as if
using a calculator to calculate figures in the nation's budget was a
bad thing. The implicit message was clear: pointy-headed researchers
could vote for Gore, but real Americans who value common sense over
complicated intellectual figuring should vote for Bush.

Such cheap exploitation of Americans' uneasiness about research is as
present in the debate over the legal status of corporal punishment in
schools as it is in electoral politics. Whenever I think about people's
aversion to the very idea of research on corporal punishment, I
remember the time I attended a school board meeting in Memphis,
Tennessee. The school board was asked to consider the abolition of
corporal punishment in the city's public schools, and as a graduate
student engaged in original research into attitudes about corporal
punishment, I came to address the board. When I got up to speak, I gave
a quick summary of the extensive body of research that suggests that
corporal punishment creates much more risk than benefit, and the board
listened respectfully. Of the twelve people who spoke before the school
board that night, only one defended the use of corporal punishment in
the Memphis City Schools, and even that individual admitted that there
are serious problems with the administration of corporal punishment. In
spite of this overwhelming opposition among the citizens in attendance,
the school board voted to preserve the use of corporal punishment in
the Memphis City Schools, without change.

Inevitably, the popular criticisms of research were offered as
justification. One school board member, commenting before the vote was
taken, explained that "It's all well and good what these people say
about the research, but the fact is that you can get research to say
anything. I'm not about to let a bunch of do-gooders ruin a system that
works."

Do-gooders? What was that supposed to mean? If the people who oppose
corporal punishment are do-gooders, what does that make the people who
support corporal punishment? What was the problem with doing good?
Aren't schools and school boards supposed to do good things for the
community? If one does not do good, then one either does bad or does
nothing.

As for the idea that "you can get research to say anything", nothing
could be further from the truth. It is true that unscrupulous
individuals can twist research findings to make them appear to support
their positions, but the great thing about professional research is
there are standards that make such research spin transparent to the
educated eye. Good education is essential to the proper interpretation
of research, so it's no surprise that poorly-educated people tend to
believe that research doesn't make any sense. The answer is not to
ignore research, but to learn about it so that it can be properly
applied.

If research could truly be made to give any message desired by the
researcher, then there would exist plenty of research supporting the
idea that corporal punishment is good for children. After all, a
substantial percentage of Americans support the use of corporal
punishment. If research is nothing more than a tool for popular
opinion, then there ought to be a large number of studies indicating
the positive effects of corporal punishment. There isn't. The plain
fact is that the body of academic research overwhelmingly supports the
that corporal punishment is at best ineffective and at worst extremely
harmful to children and to society at large. Partisan researchers who
attempt to concoct studies supporting the use of corporal punishment
remain for the most part unpublished because their research fails to
meet professional standards.

When it comes down to it, research is the best tool for understanding
that we've got, and it defies common sense to ignore it. Only a fool or
a greedy tobacco executive would ignore medical research about the
links between cigarette smoke and lung cancer, insisting that such
research could be made to say anything. We don't listen to the crank
who goes on about how his Aunt Maude smoked a pack a day and lived to
be 90 years old because we know that his Aunt Maude is an outlier. The
majority of smokers won't be so lucky. Just so, we must not ignore the
huge body of solid research indicating the uselessness and harmfulness
of corporal punishment. To do so is not just to show our lack of
education, but to show a callous indifference to the well-being of our
nation's children.

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