By John M. Crisp
What do the spanking of children and capital punishment have in common? Hold that thought; we'll get back to it.
In the meantime, consider the Whipping Judge of Aransas County, Texas, who was caught on tape disciplining his 16-year-old daughter with a belt. Seven years later, the daughter posted a video of the event on YouTube; millions have watched it.
The video is notable for its length ― almost eight minutes ― and for the fact that the man vigorously flogging his daughter is County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, a local magistrate whose jurisdiction involves decisions about the fitness of parents to raise their children.
YouTube labeled the video as "graphic," and you'll probably agree if you find it hard to watch a man beat a pleading, weeping child/woman with a belt. In his own defense, the judge admitted he lost his temper, but he contended "it's not as bad as it looks."
Actually, it's worse than it looks.
The judge would probably say that the beating was all about correction and guidance. His daughter had, against his wishes and perhaps illegally, downloaded games and music from the Internet. But the episode appears to be much more about power and domination than about correction.
The judge threatens to beat his daughter "into submission." As the girl writhes beneath the flogging, the judge fixates on forcing her facedown onto her bed so that he can have ready access to her backside with his belt. The girl's mother steps in and warns her to lie down and "take it like a woman." It goes on and on in this humiliating and painful way.
In short, it's a sorry, ugly scene that generated some short-lived attention. The daughter and her mother were flown to New York for an appearance on the "Today" show and with Anderson Cooper. Dr. Phil came to Aransas County.
But one wonders how much notice this story would have collected if the father had not been a judge charged with presiding over parental fitness cases. Many of my students report that the Judge Adams episode is only a somewhat exaggerated version of what takes place regularly in many American households, including their own.
Plenty of my students report having been whipped by belts and other implements. In fact, with some 80 percent of American families using corporal punishment in some form, we are a nation of committed spankers.
Parents who hit children defend the practice in various ways, and clearly some hitting is more benign than the whipping Judge Adams inflicted on his daughter. But entertain for a moment the assertion that all forms of corporal punishment reside on a spectrum; the difference between them is only quantitative, not qualitative. And everyone who hits children believes, like Judge Adams, that he's doing the right thing.
Now, what does any of this have to do with capital punishment mentioned in the first paragraph?
Connecting capital punishment and spanking may sound like a stretch, but consider that many Americans are enthusiastic supporters of both.
These practices help shape who we are, a nation that regularly kills people in the name of justice and hits children in the name of guidance. Of course, some form of punishment and discipline is necessary, for both criminals and children. But it's a mistake to allow our national self-definition to be driven, as happens so often, by emotions like anger and a thirst for revenge and dominance.
Capital and corporal punishment have the same theoretical goals: deterrence, punishment, correction.
In truth, however, we don't do a very good job of administering either one. We make too many mistakes, and we imagine better motivations than we really have. Both practices can go wrong quickly and easily, and neither can ever be undone. And neither has been shown to be very effective. In fact, often they cause more harm than good.
Just watch Judge Adams in action.
John M. Crisp teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is also a columnist for Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com). Email him at jcrisp@delmar.edu.