Reply #250: I'm afraid I'm fairly sure the statistics would show you're wrong.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

Children of parents who don't discipline them are significantly more likely to grow up to be criminals, and to lack respect for authority, than children of parents who don't.

I suspect the reverse is true of spanking - my impression is that most parents who hit their children are those who can't discipline them, and use hitting them as a substitute.