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| We’ve looked at a case where a large piece of skin was ripped off from a small boy’s buttocks with a “paddling.” That cause could also be presented here as an example of lifelong scarring and damage. We could certainly consider it as well when considering the transmission of blood-borne pathogens like HIV and Hepatitis when multiple victims are “beaten bloody” somehow. We'll leave it in the "brutality" realm, however, and for a moment ignore disease and “extreme” injuries. Let's consider only the "expected” and "ordinary" beating injuries that often scar children both internally and externally. | | “Caning” (or beating with a “switch”) goes on in the American South and is very adept at cutting, raising welts, and causing lifelong scars, as is the split-leather “Scottish Tawse” that has also been introduced to the American South. Indeed I believe very firmly that these type of European instruments and practices have been introduced through two causes—the promulgation of British spanking erotica in the US in the 70s and its widespread distribution in the 80s on video and, even more widely, on the internet in the 90s. A secondary cause is the immigration into the US of British men who are “into” caning teens but who “can’t get away with it in Britain” anymore. They actually migrate to the US and take up jobs, especially in the South, where they can set up “Christian counseling centers” and beat naked teens or else set up “Christian schools” for the same purpose. There are several examples of this that made the news—and I think they are the “tip of the iceberg.” Most cases of any kind of CP never make the courts, and thus never make the news—especially in the South—no matter how abusive it is. | | But even an “American-style belt beating” can lead to blood and scarring. The Jacksonville Times-Union ran a story on Monday, June 25, 2001, “Man arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse.” A 35-year-old man beat his 11-year-old son and locked him inside a bedroom. The child was discovered by a neighbor who called the police. He had been left with a glass of juice, two pieces of cake, and a bowl to go to the bathroom in. He had numerous bruises on his buttocks and legs—and of special interest to us here—also had “minor cuts.” There are many similar stories where cuts have resulted from being hit with belts, paddles, “switches,” canes, rules, and just about any hitting implement that is thin, or which has an edge, that could cut. This is another area where I could “fill the book up” with news and anecdotal accounts. As usual the court cases are the tip of the iceberg when we are talking about beating children. Most cases never make any news or draw any complaints. Who knows how many times, in fact, this same boy was beaten and left in that very same condition before a “nosy” neighbor noticed? What would have happened if the neighbors just “minded their own business?” Would charges have been filed from the beating alone, even in this case, if the child had not been left locked in the room when the parents left? Would charges from a beating that left “only bruises” and “some cuts” be a chargeable offense in Mississippi, Alabama, or Arkansas if a parent inflicted the damage? What if it happened in a “Christian youth ranch?” What if a paddling caused the same damage in a public school in a state with a 1990s “teacher protection act” in place? | | Many children are carrying external scars from beatings that never were seen in a hospital. Children also suffer internal damage that is never known to the outside world and which the child suffers from for years or decades from “routine discipline.” | |
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