NancyLebovitz comments on Changing Systems is Different than Running Controlled Experiments - Don’t Choose How to Run Your Country That Way! - Less Wrong

3 Post author: ShannonFriedman 11 June 2013 05:37AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (260)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 12 June 2013 11:53:28AM 2 points [-]

Also, the cost of reporting is potentially much higher for children. They risk being left with an angrier abuser, or losing their home.

Comment author: ShannonFriedman 12 June 2013 03:42:41PM *  -1 points [-]

Yes, true. There was one case that I recall when I was in elementary school myself - a boy mentioned to another girl and I that a parent had beaten him. He came back a week later and was enraged at the other girl - apparently she had reported it, and it had landed him in a foster home, which he considered much worse.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 12 June 2013 11:27:12PM *  1 point [-]

There was one case that I recall when I was in elementary school myself - a boy mentioned to another girl and I that a parent had beaten him.

By the way, depending on the circumstances being beaten by parent =/= child abuse.

Comment author: ShannonFriedman 12 June 2013 11:28:55PM -1 points [-]

Interesting. Under what circumstances do you consider beating children to be reasonable?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 13 June 2013 12:05:06AM 0 points [-]

Spanking, i.e., punishing the child for particularly egregious behavior.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 13 June 2013 01:48:47AM -2 points [-]

I've read many arguments in favor of spanking, and they tend to go out of their way to distinguish spanking from beating; for instance by admonishing parents not to administer corporal punishment while angry with the child; and distinguishing measured spanking from lashing out physically at a child.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 13 June 2013 02:23:38AM 2 points [-]

How did we go from "beating" to "lashing out physically"?

Comment author: fubarobfusco 13 June 2013 05:18:14AM -2 points [-]

Well, the folks I'm thinking of make a distinction between physical punishment enacted with forethought, and physical violence enacted out of anger, rage, or the like; and draw a distinction between spanking and beating.

I'm not much convinced, myself.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 13 June 2013 06:12:05AM 2 points [-]

In Shannon's example it's not clear that "beating" was being used in the technical sense you mean as opposed in its more general sense.