I'm against the death penalty for any criminal, and to make this as short as possible, the reason why is because the solution to barbaric crimes is not barbaric retribution. It's as simple as that. People have argued that putting murderers in prison for life will be far more expensive than capital punishment, and that's true in many cases, but since when does "saving money" justify violence in any form? Since when does that justify us being as bad as the murderers themselves and then saying that OUR killings are alright just because "they started it"?

If you're so worried about prison being more expensive than the death penalty, that why not advocate giving prisoners less amenities? They may have TV in prisons but they don't need cable TV; they may need bathrooms but they don't need more than one brand of soap or anything fancy; they may want reading material but they don't need a large library; they need healthy food but they don't need expensive food or a diverse choice of foods; et cetera et cetera.

Some idiot once asked me (and this is paraphrased), "If I killed your mother, wouldn't you want to try to prosecute me and get me put through capital punishment?" My reply was: "I would LOVE to kill you, or have you killed, but I wouldn't allow myself to ask the courts to give you capital punishment. Life in prison is a much more profound justice, and it makes me feel better about myself than any moment of revenge, which would only make me as bad as you and which wouldn't bring back my mom in any case."

As you might have guessed, I also think it's wrong for parents to hit children of any age for any reason. You can say whatever you want: you can try to tell me that some kids don't obey anything except a slap on the behind, you can try to tell me that you were raised that way and it didn't affect you adversely (except for the fact that it made you think that it's an okay thing to do to your own kid :P), and you can try to tell me that I'm too wimpy or sensitive, but violence is violence. By hitting your child, even if you do it in an admonitory fashion and not a punitive fashion, you send the message that violence is a way to communicate, that violence is a way to solve problems, and that might makes right.

It's true, there are some kids who are totally out of control and who don't obey till they are slapped on the behind. My little brother is ten years younger than me and very hyper and I spend a lot of timing serving as his surrogate parent, so I used to hit him sometimes. I'm not proud of myself for doing it and I don't do it anymore and never will, but what's done is done, and I'm just saying that when people say to me that sometimes there's no other way to keep your child out of trouble, I can sympathize. On the other hand though, I learned that if your child disobeys you, there are other ways to build their character besides hitting them. For instance, one time my brother started screaming and hitting me, and instead of hitting him back, I recorded his voice onto my computer and made him listen to himself screaming and shouting and sounding like a complete brat, and that shut him up better than any slap could have done.

I'm not saying that I'm a know-it-all or that I know exactly what non-violent actions you should take in every specific situation where your child is disobeying you. I'm just saying that if I could think of some ways and I'm not even a parent myself, the excuse that "there's no other way to make your child obey" is a rather flimsy one. Besides, if your child won't listen, let them make their own mistakes when they disobey you instead of hitting them, and they'll quickly see that a slap in the behind probably would have been more preferable than being allowed to make a mistake. For instance, if your kid climbs up onto the table and knocks over your fifty-dollar vase even after you specifically prohibited climbing onto the table, don't hit your kid. Instead, take away fifty dollars worth of his or her toys. Simple.

In short, child abuse is abuse, no matter what the reason. From an ethical standpoint it is wrong (we are humans and we should know better), from a parenting standpoint you will only be earning the child's fear and not the child's respect, and from a practical standpoint, even a mere teenager like me can come up with better, longer-lasting ways to make children obey than a plain ol' slap.

"Violence is not the answer - sex is." ...But don't sleep with your bratty children, cause that's just wrong. :P Anyway.