Mental health professionals in Australia want a ban on hitting children to prevent deaths

From The Courier-Mail in Australia:

An analysis of child killings between 1991 and 2005 has prompted mental health professionals to call for an Australian smacking ban.

The push comes only weeks after the Queensland Government said it would not change laws that allow adults to apply force when disciplining
children.

A study of 165 child killings between 1991 and 2005 in NSW, published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, found more than a third were the result of physical abuse.

Sydney-based psychiatrist Olav Nielssen said fatal child abuse was cut to "very low levels" after corporal punishment of children was outlawed in Sweden.

"Everyone laughed when Sweden introduced it (smacking bans) 30 years ago, but in the 15 years after they did they didn't have a single case of fatal child abuse and a lot of other countries have followed suit," Dr Nielssen said.

He said hitting children created a circle of violence with abused children often becoming bullies at school and involved in anti-social behaviour in the community.

Smacking bans, combined with strong public education about ways to better discipline children, would make the biggest difference in reducing Australia's child homicide rates.

Dr Nielssen and his colleagues also called on colleagues to act on the first signs of mental illness among parents. They found 27 instances where children were killed by someone during psychotic illness.