For year parents have been using spanking as a means of disciplining a child. It was always seen as a good method until now. Many have come to question this form of punishment wondering whether this method is too harsh. Some argue that it may lead to abuse, while others say that without it children might not learn from their mistakes. By looking at the several views of people we may later come to understand and go along with one side of the argument.

In the article, "Study: Harm Outweighs Benefits of Spanking, ? Shankar Vedantam questions whether spanking is a greatly harmful or beneficial method of disciplining a child. She does so by comparing the opposite views of Elizabeth Gershoff and Robert Larzelere. Elizabeth believes that spanking is 100% harmful to children, as it makes them temporarily complaint and raises the risk of the child becoming aggressive, antisocial, and chronically defiant. Conversely, Robert Larzelere believes that if a child becomes aggressive after spanking, it is because he or she had problems to begin with, and if it wasn't for the spanking, he or she would have been worse off. The most argued problem with spanking is that it might turn into abuse. On that ground, both researchers agree that spanking delivered in vexation is indeed not effective and could turn into abuse. The great controversy about spanking lies along a societal fault, whereas the rights of parents conflict with those of children. For example, spanking is illegal in most states in the U.S.; however, it is still practiced. Larzelere then argues that the severity and circumstances are more important than whether parents spank their children. This controversy has many baffled, as even the American Psychological Association are undecided about whether spanking in the house is a bad practice.