We've just had a law passed here (NZ) that makes you a criminal if you smack your kids. Officially it is classed as assault. While it makes no difference to me personally, because, as already stated, I don't smack my kids, I am yet to be convinced that it will have a positive impact on the level of physical abuse againsts kids. The arguement behind it when it was passed into law was that abuse would occur due to discipline being taken too far and the law would make a parent stop before smacking their kid. The trouble is that it assumes the abuser is a rational thinker and can see where his/her actions are leading.