What science says about using physical force to punish a child

There is overwhelming evidence that physical punishment is both ineffective and harmful to child development. Former HuffPost Senior Columnist Lisa Belkin has argued that the word "debate" should be left out of the spanking conversation, because the science against it is so clearly one-sided.

"There aren't two sides. There is a preponderance of fact, and there are people who find it inconvenient to accept those facts," Belkin wrote in a 2012 column.