Gender and corporal punishment policy brief

This policy brief presents findings and recommendations from secondary analyses of the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) exploring the intersection between gender, experiences of and attitudes toward corporal punishment, and its consequences. It provides a series of recommendations for further research and considerations for policy and program development to prevent corporal punishment in schools.

Findings from the secondary analyses revealed that students’ experiences of corporal punishment by teachers varied across countries and based on the sex of both the teacher and the student. Our findings suggest that teacher-perpetrated corporal punishment is often gendered. In most countries with a high prevalence of corporal punishment by teachers, male students report significantly higher levels of violence by male teachers, compared to female students.