Spanking looks to be instantly effective. If a child is misbehaving—if he keeps swearing, or playing with matches—and then you spank that child, the behavior stops immediately. The effect is so apparently obvious that it can drive a sort of delusion. Lived experience tends to be more powerful than facts. One of the few memories that many people retain from early childhood is times they were spanked.

It's important to reflect not only on the horror but also the psychological harm of these crimes. In addition to PTSD, loss of innocence, impaired trust, and possible family turmoil or grief for relationships lost, it's not unusual for victims of sexual abuse to experience feelings of guilt and shame about what happened to them. These feelings can only be made worse by the idea of punishment--which is essential to a spanking, after all. One might literally hear "You should be ashamed! Despite the vindication of having certain spankings reclassified as "bad touch," it won't be simple for a child to cast off the notion that he or she deserved them for being naughty, rebellious, sinful, bratty or whatever.

Sheree L. Toth: Does spanking teach children to behave, or does it encourage violence? Research shows that it offers children a poor example of how to solve problems, Toth says. Toth: Many countries have outlawed spanking, yet most Americans think it's OK.