A Cure For Violence and Domestic Violence simple as ABCIf it's a crime to assault children, or adults for that matter, then the punishment is the crime. Punishment, threats and smacking only get short-term results, if any result at all.
Long term results are gained by the following practice:
1) Inviting children or adults in the decision making process means you learn more about them.
2) Allowing children or adults to come up with an idea about how they can help you solve the problem they may be causing you or others.
a) will ensure they are not being judged by you or others
b) will ensure they are not wrongly blamed by you or others
c) If they think of a way they can help you they will also have an obligation to do what it was they suggested because it was their idea.
Simple as ABC!
Crime Prevention: Justice Action believes that we get more support preventing people going to jail than we do trying to get people out of jail.
No-Smacking Day for Children in NSW
Justice Action will discuss "alternatives to physical punishment" and be available for interviews. For the first time in NSW we will have a Statewide No Smacking Day.
Janet Albrechtsen: Justice's lunchtime views smack of bias
WHEN Family Court Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson took off his judicial robes to attend a charity luncheon last Thursday, he may not have looked like a judge. When His Honour called for laws to treat smacking a child as a criminal assault, he may not have sounded like a judge. But Nicholson is a judge.
Parents given OK to smack kids
Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin said yesterday it was okay to smack children. Ms Martin said she had smacked her own children who are now teenagers. "It is very complex about how you manage your children and there are times, I think, when a smack is appropriate,'' Ms Martin said. She said smacking was okay when "children are very small and it is an issue of safety and you want to get the message across very quickly''. "A smack that doesn't injure your child says very clearly there is a dangerous situation `You are not to do this','' she said.
Since I last reported the above link has beeen removed but you can find it in Google under the Cached link if you're curious! Nevertheless try the link below to catch up..
No excuse for Indigenous violence: Quartermaine
Should it be a crime to hit your child?
Now that childminders face a ban on striking their charges, some argue that even parents should lose the right to smack. Kamal Ahmed Sunday May 4, 2003
A child is screaming in the aisle of a supermarket. He is four years old. His mother, laden with groceries at the end of a long day at work, is struggling to get to the check-out before the shop closes. She has tried reason. She has used all the 'positive alternatives' recommended in self-help books.
She doesn't want to give the boy the chocolate he is demanding. She has offered blandishments and threatened 'removal of privileges' as the childcare manuals suggest. The boy carries on screaming, louder and louder. He is throwing food around. As his mother starts to queue, the boy makes a bolt for the door and out into the busy street. His mother dashes out and grabs him just before he steps into the road. 'Don't you ever do that again,' she shouts, delivering a smack, sharp and stinging, across the back of the legs.
The child whimpers. And finally stops crying. Similar scenes take place every day across the country, and we all react in different ways. Whether a father of three or a single woman with no children enjoying a drink in the pub, everyone has an opinion on smacking and, by extension, corporal punishment. This week the Government will gingerly enter one of the most sensitive national debates: who has the right to strike a child? And who has the right to tell parents who that person should be? The Guardian Sunday May 4,2003.
Three Slaps Three Bad Lessons
A Mother became a convicted criminal yesterday, for smacking her three-year-old son at a supermarket. She lost control after her son threw a tantrum in the middle of Coles at Dee Why. By No Smack 2 April, 2004.
Valuing children now!
Partial ban on smacking condones other physical punishment, says experts!
NSW legislation banning parents from hitting their children above the neck in effect condones physical punishment, a child abuse conference will hear today.
The 2001 legislation specified where a child could legally be hit, which only perpetuates the view that physical punishment is normal and a parent's right, Bernadette Saunders, of the Child Abuse and Family Violence Research Unit at Monash University, says.
Raising Good Kids Without Hitting
If we are ever to turn toward a kindlier society and a safer world, a revulsion against the physical punishment of children would be a good place to start. - Dr. Benjamin Spock
Tool Kit pdf for International Participants in SpankOut Day April 30th
JOIN us in raising our voices on behalf of non-violence against children!
What is SpankOut Day?
SpankOut Day was initiated in the US in l998 to give widespread attention to the need to end corporal punishment of children. EPOCH-USA (End Physical Punishment of Children) sponsors SpankOut Day USA.
On SpankOut Day, we commend parents who use non-violent discipline. We ask other parents to refrain from hitting on this day and seek alternative methods of discipline through reading, reflection and through programs which may be available in their communities.
We ask NGO's to conduct informational programs or campaigns on that date to help educate parents and other caretakers of children about the effects of corporal punishment and alternatives. In other countries the April 30th observance might be more appropriately called No-Hitting Day or No-Smacking Day.
In 2001, child advocates in a few countries asked to participate in SpankOut Day. We decided to issue an open invitation to child advocates and organizations in all countries to join us on this April 30th observance so that we can raise our voices on behalf of non-violence against children!
Here's why we need an international no-hitting day for children:
"Spanking, smacking, beating children is a dangerous lesson in bad behaviour.
Children, like the rest of us, have a right not to be hit or humiliated.
Most parents who hit their children deeply regret it.
Smacking hurts children - and not just physically.
The aim of a no-hitting day is to get parents to stop and to think about it; to recognise that there are many positive and non-violent ways to encourage the behaviour they want from their children; and to realise they never need to hit a child again."
Peter Newell, Joint Co-ordinator of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, London, England.
First International No-Smacking Day for Tasmania - The Child Friendly State Launch April 30th
This day has been celebrated overseas and now it is Tasmania's turn to follow international best practice and show our children and young people that we do value them. We would like to invite all children, young people, families, members of the community and workers to celebrate this day Statewide, in whatever way they wish.
International "no corporal punishment" day promoted by EPOCH-USA
"SpankOut Day" April 30 was initiated in the US in 1998 to give widespread attention to the need to end corporal punishment of children. EPOCH-USA (End Physical Punishment of Children) sponsors SpankOut Day USA. Co-Chair Nadine Block says:
"On SpankOut Day, we commend parents who use non-violent discipline. We ask other parents to refrain from hitting on this day and seek alternative methods of discipline through reading, reflection and through programs which may be available in their communities.
"We ask NGO's to conduct informational programs or campaigns on that date to help educate parents and other caretakers of children about the effects of corporal punishment and alternatives. In other countries the April 30th observance might be more appropriately called No-Hitting Day or No-Smacking Day.
"In 2001, child advocates in a few other countries asked to participate in SpankOut Day. So we decided to issue an open invitation to child advocates and organizations in all countries to join us on this April 30th observance so that we can raise our voices on behalf of non-violence against children!".
End Corporal Punishment
"It is mind-boggling that the belief in corporal punishment as a teaching aid has become so entrenched. One cannot but compare people who believe in it with members of the Flat Earth Society.
Evidence indicating the detrimental effects of corporal punishment is as indisputable as that indicating that the earth is round. The continued use of corporal punishment is indicative of a psychological and educational illiteracy of alarming proportions".
Len Holdstock, 'Education for a new nation', Africa Transpersonal Association, 1987.
Minister defends actions to stop Indigenous domestic violence
Indigenous Affairs Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone says the Labor Party should do more than simply attack the Federal Government's attempts to prevent domestic violence in Indigenous communities.
Federal Opposition Senator Trish Crossin accused the Government of ignoring the issue at the last Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting between Prime Minister John Howard and state and territory leaders.
But Senator Vanstone says the Labor leaders stormed out before the issue could be raised.
The Nagle Report 25 years on
In 1976 the New South Wales Government invited Mr Justice Nagle to head the Royal Commission into NSW Prisons. The Royal CommissionÕs Report was tabled in Parliament in March 1978.
Sentencing: Violent crime and practical outcomes
Children can be classically conditioned in violent homes to be violent that's why we need to bring awareness to those families about short term results that don't teach good lessons like smacking children on the run into obedience or for wrong-doing.
A very bad lesson that leads to violence. Someone who loves you belts you so the lesson is deeply conditioned into the child's experience as a way of solving a problem, which it's not.
NSW legislation banning parents from hitting their children above the neck in effect condones physical punishment.
Brett Collins: Speech to Nagle Symposium 25 years on
The first is that we the prisoners and ex-prisoners are and must be part of the dialogue. This is something we insist on because if the people who are directly affected by the prison system are not part of the solution as we seek reform then I suggest we don't have a solution.
By Gregory Kable 19 April 04
Related:
Domestic violence biggest risk factor for Vic women
A new report into the effects of domestic violence on Victorian women shows it is responsible for more ill health and premature deaths than any other risk factor for women aged between 15 and 45.
Three slaps? Three bad lessons!
A MOTHER became a convicted criminal yesterday, for smacking her three-year-old son at a supermarket. She lost control after her son threw a tantrum in the middle of Coles at Dee Why.
Parents face cure for delinquent offspring
There are usually better ways of introducing parents to better Parent Effectiveness Training and not necessarily in an election year or when delinquent offspring have already got into trouble.
No excuse for Indigenous violence: Quartermaine
The acting head of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission says domestic violence in Indigenous communities has reached epidemic proportions.
Jordan's death could have been prevented
His extensive facial injuries and fractured ribs suggested he had been dragged face down over carpet or a sofa and punched hard in the abdomen. It was (alleged) Hoerler then set about crushing Jordan's little toes one by one with a fan clamp but was that true?
But there are Keys!
Charles Dickens said, "Life is a secret and you haven't got the key." "And you never will have." True, that you cannot see or know your future! But there are keys and you may need them in order to survive. Also the skills you have are the resources you have to survive events that occur in your life. Some people don't get through it. Some people do. Some people have better results than others do.
Valuing children now!
The 2001 legislation specified where a child could legally be hit, which only perpetuates the view that physical punishment is normal and a parent's right, Bernadette Saunders, of the Child Abuse and Family Violence Research Unit at Monash University, says.
Development problems hit 1 in 4 kids: study
Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley has described the results of a groundbreaking study into child development as frightening.
WHEN THE PUNISHMENT IS THE CRIME AND PLANTING THE SEED In New South Wales today if you get into trouble with the law you have little or no defence. Unless you're wealthy enough to get yourself a lawyer and even then the odds you will escape justice are minimal because of the infrastructure and resource of the government opposed to your Legal Aid Status. I am not saying Legal Aid cannot help you but I am saying they have become overworked and under resourced.
Zero Tolerance for Families
A three-strikes plan, which uses the threat of fines and jail to (force) parents to meet their parental obligations after divorce, could be introduced under a draft proposal from the parliamentary committee charged with reviewing the Family Law Act.
Australia to tackle child abuse and rescue impoverished children?
A national report on child protection in the Northern Territory has blasted the system, saying it has abandoned the most impoverished children and families in Australia.
ATSIC call to smack kids?
The ATSIC commissioner said the high levels of regulation was not unlike the attention focused on Aboriginal families that led to the creation of a Stolen Generation of Aboriginal people. Mr Hill said he did not condone violence and admitted he did not smack his own children, but he stressed he wanted the issue of child discipline debated among Aboriginal people and community leaders.
No-Smacking Day for Children in NSW
Patmalar Ambikapathy the Children's Commissioner, HOBART Tasmania spoke to Gregory Kable a caseworker at Justice Action at the Controlling Crime Conference at Redfern in Sydney yesterday and we both realised how parallel our ideas about crime prevention were.
States to cooperate on school curriculums but social skills don't rate? State and territory education ministers say Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson's heavy-handed threats to school funding will not assist their ambitious initiative to develop consistent school curriculum’s in key subjects.
NSW education professor warns further commitment needed
The author of a report on the New South Wales education system has urged the major political parties to do more for education in the election campaign.
Fiona Stanley, the children's crusader
It is all about prevention. As Fiona Stanley sees it, with one in five Australian teenagers experiencing significant mental health problems, there are just not enough treatment services to cope with the demand.
Parents call for feedback on social skills
Parents are calling for the same level of feedback on their children's social development as on their academic progress, according to a national survey.
Alcohol is just the beginning
People who start using alcohol by their mid teens are more than twice as likely as others to experiment with different drugs and to become dependent on drugs a major Australian study has found.
The punishment: Is the 'crime'
The punishment is the crime according to retired chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia Justice Alistair Nicholson. "Smacking a child ought to be seen as assault".
RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.
The Seed
Respect, you only get out what you have put in. What about Life Skills, Communication and Conflict Resolution. Evolution, perhaps some children and adults miss the whole or part of the course. I did, and so how surprised do you think I was when I realised my parents missed the course as well. Things like Compromise, Win Win, Empathy, and Love. Invisible energy and other skills like public speaking, how to Relate, Assuming, Blaming, Forgiveness, Freedom and Discrimination. This is how I learned respect. If you don't know what it is then how do you relate?
