Cartogram

Most of the World’s Children Are Not Protected by Corporal Punishment Bans

GIS
corporal punishment
Author

Andy Grogan-Kaylor

Published

January 21, 2025

A cartogram is a map where the area of map polygons are distorted by some feature of the data, while still attempting to preserve some visual intuitive features of the map.

I’ve developed the cartogram below to demonstrate that the majority of the world’s children are not protected by bans on corporal punishment.

Most of the World’s Children Are Not Protected by Corporal Punishment Bans

Most of the World’s Children Are Not Protected by Corporal Punishment Bans

As Stewart-Tufescu (2023) observes:

“The magnitude of violence against children is staggering. Globally, the most pervasive form of violence against children is corporal punishment. Because it often occurs in the confines of homes and other settings where children live, study and play, it is largely hidden and challenging to detect. Worldwide, it is estimated that nearly one billion children are hit, slapped, spanked, pinched, or otherwise physically punished regularly by their parents, caregivers, teachers, or other trusted adults, the same individuals responsible for nurturing, protecting, and educating them (UNICEF, 2017; World Health Organization, 2020).” (Stewart-Tufescu, 2023)

Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor (2016) reviewed 50 years of research on corporal punishment and found that:

“Among the outcomes in childhood, spanking was associated with more aggression, more antisocial behavior, more externalizing problems, more internalizing problems, more mental health problems, and more negative relationships with parents. Spanking was also significantly associated with lower moral internalization, lower cognitive ability, and lower self-esteem. The largest effect size was for physical abuse; the more children are spanked, the greater the risk that they will be physically abused by their parents.” (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016)

References

Gershoff, E. T., & Grogan-Kaylor, A. (2016). Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses. Journal of Family Psychology, 30, 453–469. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000191
Stewart-Tufescu, A. (2023). Corporal punishment: The global picture. The Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights / Revue Canadienne Des Droits Des Enfants, 10. https://doi.org/10.22215/cjcr.v10i1
UNICEF. (2017). A familiar face: Violence in the lives of children and adolescents [Report]. UNICEF.
World Health Organization. (2020). Global status report on preventing violence against children 2020 [Report]. World Health Organization. https://www.unicef.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/Global-status-report-on-preventing-violence-against-children-2020.pdf