Judge William Adams beats daughter for using the internet.

[archibaldcrane]

The thing is, you get into such a "correlation vs. causation" argument with the so-called "evidence". I'd bet college educated parents are much less likely to use corporal punishment than those who didn't graduate high school. That alone is going to be a factor in their children's happiness/success/likelihood to commit crime, etc. - and it has nothing to do with whether they hit their kids or not.

There are so many things to control for beyond punishment alone that you can skew a study to look however you like.

Just going "severity of punishment" vs. "quality of life" is faulty as fuck.

[Yugl]

Of course it would be difficult, or even impossible, for studies to maintain absolute control over the experiment (In this age). My point isn't one of absolutes; it's one of relativity. In other words, given competing evidence, which is more reliable? Anecdotes and studies or just anecdotes?

[archibaldcrane]

Depends on whether the studies are worth a shit, quite frankly. Most things I read on the issue are taking a hard slant towards a particular position, and then analyze whatever data they've collected with that in mind.

[Yugl]

It's true that they can, and probably do, have a slant on the position. However, wouldn't you have to submit that any anecdotal evidence does the same and on a much larger scale given the inability to translate events that happened into definitive contributions of outcomes? At least studies are constrained by the data and setup even if they use the data inappropriately.

[archibaldcrane]

Are you making a hard argument against anecdotal evidence for corporal punishment of children?

Because no shit.

I just don't think you're going to get studies to accurately show the difference between kids who were occasionally calmly spanked when young vs. those who were never struck, when controlling for other factors.

[Viq]

The thing is, you get into such a "correlation vs. causation" argument with the so-called "evidence". I'd bet college educated parents are much less likely to use corporal punishment than those who didn't graduate high school. That alone is going to be a factor in their children's happiness/success/likelihood to commit crime, etc. - and it has nothing to do with whether they hit their kids or not.

There are so many things to control for beyond punishment alone that you can skew a study to look however you like.

Just going "severity of punishment" vs. "quality of life" is faulty as fuck.

Someone that agreed with a study like that would suggest that the college educated parents were more likely to have parents that didn't beat them than the parents that didn't graduate high school. Therefore the continuation of the cycle is that parents who hit their children produce future parents that will hit their children, while parents that don't hit their children produce future parents that also don't hit their children. One person could spin it that the correlation might be level of the parents' education. Another could spin it that the level of education is correlated to the severity and frequency of punishment received as a child. Take your own personal history and skew the not-perfectly-scientific data any way you like.

[Lucienne]

Are you making a hard argument against anecdotal evidence for corporal punishment of children?

Because no shit.

I just don't think you're going to get studies to accurately show the difference between kids who were occasionally calmly spanked when young vs. those who were never struck, when controlling for other factors.

Even if those proved that children benefit from moderate spanking, how do you define it and ensure it's not abused? There are far greater risks coming from violence against children than there are from lack of spanking.

[archibaldcrane]

There are far greater risks coming from violence against children than there are from lack of spanking.

Agreed. Because of redneck fucks like everydadintexas, America would be better off if noone hit their kids vs. the current situation.

However

That doesn't mean that it's always wrong, always inappropriate, always damaging. Shit is situational.

That's all I'm saying.

[Yugl]

Are you making a hard argument against anecdotal evidence for corporal punishment of children?

Because no shit.

I just don't think you're going to get studies to accurately show the difference between kids who were occasionally calmly spanked when young vs. those who were never struck, when controlling for other factors.

Yes I am and it should be a "no shit" point, but it's clearly not given the defenses proponents put forth. But more strategically, if anecdotes meet anecdotes at opposing ends, at least opponents of corporal punishment have additional support even if flawed. If it were just anecdote v anecdote, the point would be meaningless. If your argument is a step up from "bias" and goes on to say that studies will never accurately pinpoint distinctions, I would have to put forth the question of how accurate they need to be before they become substantive. Social science, and to a lesser degree, natural science are ultimately inductive, so there's always a degree of offset and even bias to conform to the standing theory. Nevertheless, it is not the case that people outright disregard them.

Edit: Your revised post makes more sense. Not always damaging, sure. There are no social truths (Thus, no real morals), so ideas of universal wrong or appropriateness are inconsequential and false in both directions. Note that such a statement includes abusive behavior as well though.

[Ddz]

I want BG without looking at the youtube comments, to tell me what you would've done in this situation.

Ugh I know this was from two pages ago but my god. I pulled that shit one time when I was a little kid, and my mom grabbed my hand and took me to the middle of the aisle and said "HEY EVERYBODY LOOK, SHE'S MAKING A SCENE, LOOK EVERYONE" and I got so humiliated that I never did it again lol.

[JigglyJam]

I agree with all of the above, with the addition of a small nip with two fingers to the neck to let him know who is in control without giving him attention. something along the lines of a "tsst" sort of noise would help too.

Beat me to it, but yeah I'm definitely going to apply the teachings of the great Cesar Milan for my kids at least until age 3-6.

[Pikarya]

DA: Statute of limitations prevents charges in judge's beating of daughter

A district attorney in Texas said Thursday that the statute of limitations prohibits the filing of charges against a judge shown in a 2004 video repeatedly beating his then-teenage daughter.
The daughter, meanwhile, told CNN's Anderson Cooper she uploaded the graphic video as a way to reconcile with Judge William Adams.
"I wanted to show my father, 'Hey, I think you were in some denial about the way you are treating me and my mother.' And maybe showing him this would make him see something he didn't before," Hillary Adams, now 23, told CNN.

William Adams, a court-at-law judge in Aransas County, Texas, faces a judicial conduct probe over the incident.
Judge responds to allegations Hillary Adams: I finally snapped Texas judge accused of abuse Dr. Drew 'sickened' by Texas beating
Aransas County District Attorney Patrick Flanigan sent a letter to Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe Thursday evening, informing him of his decision on prosecution.
"It is clear that no criminal misdemeanor information nor any criminal felony indictment may be presented for any criminal charge that may be depicted on the subject video," Flanigan wrote. "Limitations prevent prosecution of any applicable criminal charge shown on said video."

Rockport police said they would contact federal authorities to determine whether any criminal charges may be filed in federal court.
Earlier, Flanigan said authorities were looking at numerous factors, including the child's age and the statute of limitations.
The law is complex on which charges could be brought, he said, and which statutes may apply -- all speculation until the video is confirmed to be authentic.
A criminal defense lawyer said it was not likely that Adams could be prosecuted. In an offense involving injury to a child, Texas law defines a child as being 14 years or less, said Houston lawyer Chris Tritico. Hillary Adams was 16 in the video.

Jayroe said the statute of limitations for felony injury to a child is five years.
The video shows the judge whipping his daughter with a belt, cursing at her and berating her.
The 2004 beating occurred when her father was punishing her for using the Internet "to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time," Hillary Adams wrote on the Internet posting. She said she released the video after being harassed by her father.

Hillary Adams' comments to "AC360" came shortly after William Adams said she posted the video after he warned this year he might reduce financial support to her.
"If the public must know, just prior to the YouTube upload, a concerned father shared with his 23-year-old daughter that he was unwilling to continue to work hard and be her primary source of financial support, if she was going to simply 'drop out,' and strive to achieve no more in life than to work part-time at a video game store," the judge said in a statement.
Adams said Hillary told him that if he "reduced her financial support, and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it. The post was then uploaded."
Asked on "AC360" to respond, Hillary Adams said, "I think that's a perfect example of the way he would always twist stories in our community to make him come out as the good guy."
She said her father, while assisting, was not her primary source of financial support.

The father wrote Hillary Adams "inexplicably dropped out" two classes shy of completing her college studies.
Hillary and her mother, Hallie Adams, spoke with Cooper about what they called a dysfunctional home where violence was a regular occurrence. The mother participated in the videotaped beating, but has since apologized. She said her former husband told her to help administer the punishment.

"I thought he was a monster," Hallie Adams said about her review of the video. "I thought that I was a witch."
Hillary Adams said she left her video camera on her dresser recording and covered its light with a scarf in order to capture the video.
The video is punctuated by cracks of the man's belt and the girl's screams and cries.
At one point in the 7 1/2-minute video, the man says to his near-hysterical daughter, "What happened to you, Hillary? Once you were an obedient, nice little girl. Now you lie, cheat and steal."
He yells at her, "You want to put some more computer games on? You want some more?"
"Are you happy?" he asks her. "Disobeying your parents? You don't deserve to f---ing be in this house."
He also berates the girl's mother for allowing a "f---ing computer" in the house.

The older woman also strikes the girl with a belt once, and near the end of the video instructs the girl not to "touch one other thing on the computer besides your schoolwork until you are given notice otherwise."
Asked whether William Adams, who handles family-related and juvenile court issues, should oversee such matters, Hillary Adams said, "I don't think he's fit for the position." But she was worried him losing his job. "I really don't know what the solution for him is," she told Cooper. "Except that I really want him to seek some kind of help."
Her father questioned her motives and timing.

"Perhaps Hillary Adams should explain, if she felt she was raised by a tyrannical father, a claim shared with no one until five years after adulthood, why she insisted on living with her father and not her mother from the time of her parent's divorce, until she moved out on her own," William Adams said. "Hillary Adams has been living on her own for some time, and has been an adult for almost six years, so why post the video in late 2011?"
Meanwhile, the state Commission of Judicial Conduct was inundated with calls, e-mails and faxes, it said in an online statement announcing the start of a probe into the matter.
Aransas County Attorney Richard Bianchi said his office was also overwhelmed with calls and e-mails, including some from overseas, since the video went viral on the Internet.
"Just a sad day. It's unfortunate for all the people in that video. It doesn't bode well for the image of our community or our judiciary or our legal community in Aransas County," Bianchi said.
Adams was temporarily relieved of his duties for the next two weeks, and a visiting judge will take over his caseload while the matter is being investigated, according to the office of Aransas County Administrative Judge Burt Mills.

In an interview with KZTV outside his Rockport, Texas, home Wednesday, Adams confirmed to a reporter that he was the man beating his daughter with a belt and a board on the video.
"She's mad because I've ordered her to bring the car back, in a nutshell, but yeah, that's me. I lost my temper," Adams told the station. "Her mother was there, she wasn't hurt ... it was a long time ago ... I really don't want to get into this right now because as you can see my life's been made very difficult over this child."

Adams continued: "In my mind I have not done anything wrong other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, I've apologized. It looks worse than it is."
William Adams told KRIS that the conduct is "not as bad as it looks on tape." The judge said he had contacted judicial review officials in Austin and "more will come out" in the investigation, KRIS reported.
Whether Adams will face consequences for beating his daughter remains to be seen. But he will have to face the public three years from now, when he is up for re-election.
"I don't want to see my father prosecuted," Hillary Adams told CNN. "I don't want to see him punished by the law because I think he's been punished enough by all this. What I really think needs to happen is that we need to get him help."

[Valisk]

I want BG without looking at the youtube comments, to tell me what you would've done in this situation.

hit him with a water bottle

[Moss]

hit him with a water bottle

Valisks gonna Valisk.

[Valisk]

Valisks gonna Valisk.

Hypocrites gonna hypocrite.

[guartz]

I've never even been yelled at growing up, nevermind being hit, and I come from divorced parents and lived in poverty.

To date I have never been in trouble with the law.

The idea that you need to punish children by using physical force is so primitive.

[Day]

If everyone on this earth were exactly like guartz I would have killed myself by now.

[guartz]

If everyone on this earth were exactly like guartz I would have killed myself by now.

by everyone, you include yourself in that, and I happen to know guartz would never kill himself, therefore you wouldn't kill yourself.

[guartz]

forgot to preface that with: FALSE

[Chun Liroy]

You are fucking retarded.