November 2004

Physical punishment research

Save the Children Alliance in South East Asia and the Pacific has recently published How to research the physical and emotional punishment of children which provides guidance and tools for scientific and ethical research on physical punishment. It describes a 12-step process for planning, data collection, analysis and report writing and includes a toolkit with background material.Peter Newell writes in the Preface:

The important purpose of this handbook is to encourage sensitive and ethical research on punishment of children, wherever possible directly involving children themselves ...  The aim is to reveal children's experiences and their views.  The imperative for prohibiting and eliminating all corporal punishment and other humiliating treatment of children is human rights.  The human rights standards are clear, but persuading states to honour their obligations and take the necessary actions - law reform, awareness raising and public education - is not easy.

An electronic version of this publication is available on www.seapa.net.