If I were trying to do a study on how corporal punishment towards children is related to adult crime, I would question adult criminals.  I would question them on how they were disciplined as children.  I do not know what I would find, but right now I can form a hypothesis;  I’d guess that most were punished by pain, some by severe abuse.  I would not assume, though, that everyone who gets spanked grows up to be a criminal.  I’d also guess that the fewer corporal punishments there are, adult crime would decrease slightly.  My reasoning for this is based on the study that corporal punishment leads to antisocial, and sometimes violent behavior.  In psychology I learned that spanking is not the best road to take to discipline a child.  There are three types of disciplining a child; positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment.  Punishment refers to corporal punishment (or spanking), and usually spanking a child only makes the situation worse.  Instead of teaching the child what to do, spanking only makes him/her angry at the parent.  This could lead to violence against other children or against the parent himself.  I believe the best types of discipline are positive and negative reinforcement.  Positive reinforcement is where one rewards a child for a favorable deed.  Negative reinforcement is a little harder to understand, and is sometimes confused with punishment.  An example would be “no dessert until the room gets cleaned.”  The dessert is being the reinforcer, while there is still a chance to redeem oneself.  Punishment would be “no dessert because the room was not cleaned,” and in this type there is no redemption.  I also believe though that spanking should be used only as a last resort.  If nothing else works, and the child still won’t pay attention, then corporal punishment should be used, in an attempt to show him or her that taking the positive or negative reinforcement would be beneficial to both the parent and the child.