Spanking isn’t abuse if there isn’t evidence that a child was harmed, the Utah Supreme Court says.
The court’s ruling, released Wednesday, reversed an earlier finding by a juvenile court, which said that hitting a child with “any object” constituted abuse. A couple — who weren‘t identified in the case — had spanked their four children with belts, and the state put the children into custody of the Division of Child and Family Services in February 2016.
The unanimous opinion, authored by Justice John Pearce, ruled in the parents’ favor, stating that the juvenile court’s finding would stretch the definition of “abuse” too broadly.