[Jimbee (OP)]

I was taking an ethics class at a local community college in Fall of 1996. And our professor brought up an interesting point. There was this genetic syndrome, Jacobs Syndrome (also called XYY syndrome, because the man is born with an extra Y sex chromosome). Here are some brief articles on this syndrome:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557699/

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/47xyy-syndrome/

People in the 1960's and 70's thought it always led to crime. Because there were an unusually high number of men in prison with this genetic disease. Here is the statistical link my teacher was talking about:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10473322/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178915000348

Actually, our teacher pointed out, there are just as many men not in prison. Because morality is all about the choices we make, not what is going on in your mind. Sorry to quote the wisdom of Star Trek again. But as Counsellor Deanna Troi once said, "Data, feelings aren't positive and negative, they simply exist. It's what we do with those feelings that becomes good or bad. For example, feeling angry about an injustice could lead someone to take a positive action to correct it."

Anyways, I was thinking. I have heard people make the argument. That with certain children, boys really (because let's face it, even boys have more Testosterone than girls, even when younger) corporal punishment is the only way to raise certain children. Even in one family, most boys are well-behaved. But some of their boys, maybe just one, needs a firm hand in the way he is raised. Especially in his formative years. Now, corporal punishment is still legal in my country. But if it becomes physical abuse of course, is definitely illegal. (I don't know how that works in other places. I know in 1979 Sweden was the first country in Europe, and the world, to outlaw all forms of physical punishment for children. But I don't know if it's illegal in all W. European countries at this time.)

Anyway, I assume everyone on this message board agrees with me that hitting your child ever for any reason is never justified. But as I said some time back on another message board, being strict isn't the same thing as corporal punishment. In fact, as I pointed out, you can be too strict but still never lay a hand on your child. But there is also the idea of negative reinforcement to deal disciplinary problems. I think most people would agree that is what punishment is for, when you are raising kids. And children growing up are forming their consciences and their personalities in general. How you raise them will affect their moral choices, and their social interactions for the rest of their lives. So what kinds of punishment would be appropriate to deal with children with behavioral problems? More severe ones obviously, but never involving hitting. But which ones would be always inappropriate? Also, I am just going to bring this up once, and please don't misunderstand. With children with very serious behavioral problems, you could just threaten them with physical discipline, but never do it. Would that work, even in very serious cases? And would that be justified for those situations?

[alancalverd]

If you 've never been hit, then the threat is meaningless.

Jacobs Syndrome symptoms are generally described as mild, with a tendency to autism and slow learning. In the absence of social support in adolescence these characteristics may lead to aberrant behavior and criminal associations but it is doubtful whether any form of punishment in childhood would alter that trajectory.

Young males of any species tend to fight. The evolutionary process favours physical dominance and aggression. Problem is that bleeding-heart lefties think that everyone should have equal mating rights (but not insist on exercising them) so there is an inherent conflict between physiological heredity and social acceptability. Acceptable outlets for testoterone used to be contact sports and exploring but nowadays the bleeding-heart lefties demand risk assessments*, politicians and bankers  make their living by concreting over any open space,  and professional soccer players writhe and scream if anyone touches them, so kids sit at home devouring violence in computer "games" and acquiring diabetes.

*Columbus, C: Method - sail westward until finding something profitable. Risk - may fall over the edge of the world. Action - see what happens..