Most research on this topic has been done in the field of psychology. There are two problems. The first is a general one with psychology. The replication crisis

Most research on this topic has been done in the field of psychology. There are two problems. The first is a general one with psychology. The replication crisis in psychology started with the discovery that only 36% of studies in reputable journals could be replicated. And unlike psychology studies, that discovery can and has been replicated. What that means is that the wide majority of studies in psychology are, at best, misleading. This is made even worse by the fact that psychology also tends to have evolved into a very homogeneous group of people ideologically, politically, and so on - and that ideology is generally going to be on the opposite ends of topics such as violence as a means of behavior correction. The second is that this is a really hard topic to study well, even if you genuinely wanted to. So for instance one thing you'll find is studies link corporal punishment to increased aggression, violence, and other such behaviors. But what sort of person receives corporal punishment in the first place? This is obviously not some amazing revelation, but there's 'perfect' way to control for these sort of problems. You have to make assumptions and rely on behavioral models and toy experiments. Now enter the quality of science that's ubiquitous in psychology and it's not a good situation. This doesn't mean that corporal punishment is a good idea, but it does mean the 'science' should not be given more weight than it deserves. ---------- Another thing we can do here is look at how the same behavior varies by region. Let's assume that psychology is right and corporal punishment has a causal relationship with violence and other sorts of behavior. In Japan corporal punishment in child rearing is ubiquitous yet violent crime is practically nonexistent. And Japan is not cherry picked, the trend follows throughout most all of Asia. I only mention Japan since I think most people are aware of how incredibly nonviolent the Japanese as individuals are, yet may not be aware of how ubiquitous corporal punishment is. You now suddenly have a problem. You need to explain why corporal punishment on e.g. American children causes violent behavior, yet has no such effect whatsoever on Japanese children.