Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-303) and index.

Spanking--The Virtuous Violence -- The Conspiracy of Silence -- The Importance of Corporal Punishment -- A Conspiracy of Silence -- Child-Rearing Advice Books -- Everyone Does It, But Less Now -- The Virtuous Violence -- Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment -- How Much Corporal Punishment? -- Corporal Punishment In Two Nationally Representative Samples -- Trends -- Differences Between Boys and Girls -- Cultural Discontinuity in Corporal Punishment -- Hitting Adolescents -- Two Measures of Corporal Punishment -- How Many Are Hit and How Often? -- The Social Context of Hitting Adolescents -- Who Spanks the Most? -- Cultural Norms and Attitudes -- The Age and Sex of the Child -- Parents and Family Characteristics -- The Price of Virtue -- Depression and Suicide -- Corporal Punishment and Depressions -- Corporal Punishment and Suicidal Thoughts -- Why Does Corporal Punishment Produce Depression? -- Physical Abuse -- Another Conspiracy of Silence -- The Research Evidence -- Reasons for Ignoring Corporal Punishment -- Theories That Might Explain the Link -- Characteristics of Abusing Parents -- Corporal Punishment and Physical Abuse -- Violence and Crime -- Corporal Punishment and Family Violence -- Corporal Punishment and Street Crime -- Corporal Punishment in Schools and Violence -- Socio-Cultural Context -- The Fusion of Sex and Violence -- Lovemaps -- Sexual Scripts and Other Influences -- Masochistic Sex Among College Men and Women -- Corporal Punishment and Masochistic Sex -- Alienation and Reduced Income -- Corporal Punishment and Achievement -- Alienation -- The Future -- Ten Myths That Perpetuate Corporal Punishment -- Spanking Works Better -- Spanking Is Needed as a Last Resort -- Spanking Is Harmless -- One or Two Times Won't Cause Any Damage -- Parents Can't Stop Without Help -- If You Don't Spank, Your Children Will Be Spoiled or Run Wild -- Parents Spank Rarely or Only for Serious Problems -- By the Time a Child Is a Teenager, Parents Have Stopped -- If Parents Don't Spank, They Will Verbally Abuse Their Child -- It Is Unrealistic to Expect Parents to Never Spank -- Why Do These Myths Persist? -- Social Evolution and Corporal Punishment -- How Solid is the Evidence? -- Corporal Punishment in Historical Perspective -- A Moral Passage -- Social Changes Underlying the Moral Passage -- Lessons from the Swedish No-Spanking Law -- Obstacles to Ending Corporal Punishment -- A Society Without Corporal Punishment -- The Benefits of Never Spanking: New and More Definitive Evidence -- The Chicken and Egg Problem with Previous Research on Corporal Punishment -- Five New Landmark Studies -- Is There a Backlash? -- Most Parent Education Inadvertently Perpetuates Corporal Punishment -- Benefits to Children and Society of Ending Corporal Punishment -- A Theoretical Model -- Samples and Measures of Corporal Punishment -- Statistical Methods and Measures.