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If you hit a dog, it's animal abuse. If you hit your spouse, it's spousal abuse. If you hit an old person, it's elder abuse. If you hit your child, it's just called parenting. That needs to end Children are not property and have the right not to be beaten.

It’s child abuse, like the rest. All against the law, but also, no enforcement, & it’s very difficult to get any consequences for the behavior. Men owned their women & children until very recently, & it was absolutely lawful for those men to employ whatever mechanisms necessary to get compliance.

“Federal definition of child abuse & neglect- any act or failure to act which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation of a child;”

“or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm to a child including but not limited to physical abuse, verbal or emotional abuse, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, inappropriate sexual behavior, neglect, & medical neglect.”

So if it can be proven that serious harm was done via physical violence (hitting,) it is against the law. The problem is that the law does not prosecute the law as it is written. (I worked in the anti violence field on Illinois for a very long time. The law’s good. The enforcement sucks.)