I Was Smacked At Primary School

Where is "here"? In the UK teachers could be prosecuted for striking students but, in practice, it's unlikely the authorities would take any action. Even if they did, at worst the teacher might be fined.

Here a teacher would now also be in trouble with the law if he smacked a pupil, but attitudes to corporal punishment have changed rapidly. When I was teaching it was widely accepted and it was only finally abolished in private schools in the late 1990s.

@Lynda70: Argentina. Physical "punishment" was never allowed here...not even from parents. Minors are very well taken care of by laws, same as women who get attacked in any way by any man...thanks God for that, Economics are a disaster but we feel protected in the sense of brutality...the Dark Ages are only studied, not lived.

@Oldmanjimbo: I know...we studied that as well as in other parts of the world...

@LadyHeartnMind: In the UK children are starting to get some protection. A lot of historic abuse is finally being brought to the courts but it's taken so long many of the abusers have died of old age. :(

The law protects women from attacks and the authorities do actually enforce the law. The law also protects men from attack by violent women but, in practice, the police are extremely reluctant to take action in such cases. What is the situation for male victims of violent women in Argentina?

@Lynda70. I agree that many abusers who behaved entirely inappropriately are being brought before the courts, but are you classifying school corporal punishment as abuse?

@Lynda70: The law doesn´t differentiate a male or female attacker, so to say...both go to jail. After being declared guilty of course. But...too many women die here a day, so a law was passed adding years of sentence when a husband, boyfriend, lover, etc hits or attacks or even tries to get sex from a woman against her wil...no obligation for a woman to have sex with her husband here...just her option. But it would take me ages to explain everything that has been achieved, despite the fact that violence of gender still happens...but at least they go to jail and learn their lesson...police are obliged to act or THEY go to jail...and you can imagine what happens to policemen in jail...lol...they become the "girls" of the other prisoners...

@Oldmanjimbo: I'm not saying all school CP was abuse but a lot was. Perhaps it might be better to say a lot of abuse masqueraded as CP.

@Lynda70. I disagree. While there was a small amount of abuse, most school CP was fully justified and was not in any way abusive.

@LadyHeartnMind: The law itself doesn't discriminate here either but those whose duty it is to apply it do. In theory, a woman who attacks her husband can be prosecuted and jailed just the same as if he attacked her (presuming the same level of injury etc.) In practice, the police routinely refuse to take action in such cases. Their usual excuses are that it's "not a police matter" or "there are no witnesses" (even when there are).

There are no sanctions for police who refuse to act. Even if there were, the police "investigate" themselves so we already know what the outcome will be.

@Oldmanjimbo: Consider a school with a policy of only caning girls; where male and female teachers routinely caned girls but never boys, even when they were caught committing identical offences together. Would you say that was abusive?

@Lynda70: It would be wholly unfair and would make we worry about the motivation for that rule.

@Oldmanjimbo: Yes, I agree. The point is, a lot of schools had policies of only caning boys. Surely the same considerations must apply. I would say it's abusive either way.

I believe that both boys and girls benefit from strict discipline

I certainly believe both should be treated equally and benefit from discipline. "Strict" is not a well defined word so we possibly disagree on just how strict it should be.