Spanking a child under 15 years old is a Third Degree Felony if the spanking causes any amount of pain. Of course, the purpose of a spanking is to cause pain, so a child will associate painful consequences with a bad choice. As mentioned above, this is a felony charge. If the police or CPS have the opinion that spanking your older teenager is not reasonable, then you can be charged with the Class A crime of Assaulting a Family Member.
Every parent has an opinion as to when a spanking is necessary and to what degree they should spank. Once again, the law raises more questions. Unfortunately, that is where the answers stop. A person may or may not become a felon based on the opinion of others. First, you have the opinion of the person reporting injury to a child.
This reporting person could be a family member, teacher, friends, counselor, or anyone. Next you have the opinion of the person receiving the information, usually CPS or law enforcement. If you have a case that ends up in trial you need to find an experienced and skilled criminal defense attorney.
The screening process thought CPS, law enforcement, and the prosecutor is often not effective. In many cases, the first opportunity to have a reasonable review of the case is when a parent goes to trial for spanking their child. It is still just a matter of opinion as to whether the spanking was reasonable. A Harris Poll indicates that about 1 in 5 people say that you should never spank your children.
The opinion of whether spanking is appropriate varies greatly based on race, age, and cultural background. If the statistics hold true, a person on trial for injury to a child will have an average of 2. Just because someone has the belief that spanking a child is never reasonable discipline is not a legal basis for keeping them off of a jury. That is even before the jurors hear any evidence as to the degree and circumstances of the spanking.
