Several days ago, the police in Montgomery County (Texas) arrested Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, and charged him with Injury To A Child. The pictures above show the results of the "spanking" he gave his 4 year-old child (and these pictures were taken a few days after the incident). He admits to using a switch to discipline the child.In my opinion, this is inexcusable behavior -- and Peterson should be severely disciplined himself. Unfortunately, this kind of thing still happens far too often in this country. While I deplore Peterson's action, I am glad this has become so public -- because we need to have a discussion on what is proper in disciplining a child.
This did make me wonder just what most Americans think about corporal punishment for children. And the folks at the YouGov Poll did a survey to answer that question. Their survey was done between September 15th and 17th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of 4.1 points. Without further comment, I give you the results of that survey in the charts below:
