Articles

Background & Research

Sweden's smacking ban: more harm than good [PDF]
Dr. Robert Larzelere shows that the ban on smacking in Sweden, aimed at decreasing rates of child abuse, has totally failed to achieve these aims.
Summer 2004
Is there a link between Physical Punishment of Children and Violence in Society?
Professor H R Schaffer provides an objective assessment of a research project conducted by Dr Murray Straus.
Spring 1998
Who really wants a law against smacking?
Nicola Wells reports on a survey she undertook of organisations which allegedly support a legal ban on all physical discipline.
Spring 1997
"A Blueprint for National Disaster"
A critique of the Report of the Commission on Children and Violence (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 1995) by Fred Naylor.
Spring/Summer 1996
"We can no longer offer our home, our love and our experience to a foster child"
A foster parent relates her family's experience of fostering and of adoption.
Spring/Summer 1996
"How sad it is that conscientious carers should be lost when there is such great need"
Another family relates its experience of fostering.
Spring 1996

Don Foster MP and EPOCH seek to impose unproven ideology against the wishes of parents
In February 1998, Don Foster MP, in a Commons Standing Committee considering the School Standards and Framework Bill, moved an amendment which undermined parental responsibility for the upbringing of their children.
Spring 1998
"Is the state really saying it loves children more than their parents do?"
Don Foster's amendment to the School Standards and Framework Bill poses a serious threat to the responsibilities and liberties of families.
Spring 1998
"Corporal punishment does not breach United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child"
At the Sixteenth Session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child held at Geneva in September 1997, senior Australian government officials defended their country's law which permits the use of 'reasonable chastisement'.
Spring 1998
A Modest and Reasonable Proposal
A brief report on James Pawsey's amendment to allow limited physical discipline in maintained schools with parental consent.
Spring 1997
A Missed Opportunity
Anne Davis offers a personal reflection on the defeat of James Pawsey's amendment to the Education Bill.
Spring 1997
School Exclusions, Public Pronouncements, Court Cases & Solutions - 1996 in review
The discipline of children (or lack of it) was rarely out of the news in 1996. Here we highlight some of the main events.
Spring 1997

Children's Rights Under the Searchlight
Alison Back reviews an important book on the children's rights movement: The Fight for the Family: The Adults Behind Children's Rights by Lynette Burrows, Family Education Trust, 1998
Spring 1998
"A Wealth of Experience and Common Sense"
Gill Berry reviews a new and practical resource for parents: Confident Parenting: A Hands-on Approach to Children by Anne Davis, Souvenir Press, 1997
Spring 1998