Crime or Culture Difference
『我晕』Is it a crime to slap a child for his/her lying? A Chinese immigrant couple were arrested and then charged with domestic battery for slapping their daughter. This is a case about Culture conflict and other unusual things. For detail information about the case, please read a front page report (May 7, 1998) of Chicago Tribune and a follow-up report (May 9, 1998) by Maurice Possley.
Here is the short version of the story from the Tribune. Last July 16, Hou-Lin Li and his wife, Luying Deng found that their 8-year-old daughter had lied to cover up forging her parents' signatures on a teacher's note and also that she lied to hide the loss of her birthday ring. So he slapped her once in the face, and several times on the legs and arms. Then he took his daughter over to the neighborhood park to look for the lost ring. A police officer noticed the girl's bruised face and intervened. The officer arrested Mr. Li and his wife, and their daughter was put in a DCFS shelter for abused children.
The couple had never been arrested before. They had never been accused in any fashion of abusing their daughter. The situation was so mild by usual DCFS standards that almost as soon as the parents were released on bond, their daughter was allowed to return home. And after the couple successfully completed parenting skills and anger management classes as well as undergoing family counseling, their Juvenile Court case was closed in the rather speedy period of five months.
However, the couple were still charged with domestic battery. If convicted, they face deportation. Fortunately the criminal charge against Deng was dropped and the domestic-battery charge against Li was reduced to simple battery. The resolution came in the face of a deluge of negative public reaction after the report of Chicago Tribune, including scores of telephone calls to the office of State's Atty. Dick Devine from citizens angered over the state's prosecution of the couple.
The family has gone through a lot in the past ten months. "You cannot imagine," Hou-Lin Li said. "These 10 months, to me--I'm (having) a very, very difficult time. . . . I cannot live as a normal person. I always blame myself. We have learned the hard way that physical discipline is not the right way."
In this case, the prosecutor of the Cook County apparently crossed the line. The pain caused by the government to the kid and the family may be far greater than the pain by the slapping. A happy family is nearly destroyed.
Corporal punishment like the type of discipline in this case is not uncommon in China, but usually not on the face. Most parents think some corporal punishment is a necessary discipline for children. Of cause they are not going to get arrested or charged for doing that. I guess the methods used to discipline children are really varied in different countries, especially between developed countries and developing countries. The differences also have a lot to do with their cultures and traditions. Also in China, the legal system in this area is not well established or has never been enforced except for a few extremely severe cases.
Children discipline is a human right issue in Western countries. Most people in China however don't know what is human right. So when you talk human right, they don't know what you are talking about. The word 'human right' was introduced into China only in recently years since China opened the door to the world. Actually I guess most people probably still never heard the word 'human right' or never paid much attention to the word. Those who have just learned the word are probably still wondering: human right, what? Therefor, there is going to be a long way for China to catch up on this issue.
On the other hand, China has been changing rapidly. Such as China has recognized the need to strengthen the rule of law and to ensure a judicial system that is fair to all Chinese. China has made a great effort to reform and develop the legal system and and vastly increased the number of lawyers in recent years. This is a major step forward to a country, which had been ruled by the emperors for thousand years.
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