I don't have anything to cite; I don't read social science literature for fun, and I'm very poor at literature research. However, I don't think we should need a large body of scientific papers to realize that people who hit their kids a lot are doing something wrong. Is there actual science that claims to compare the outcomes of parenting where spanking is used very rarely, but the family understands that it is an option in some cases, to parenting where it is genuinely never used?

I don't hit my dogs, but I will, under certain circumstances, dominate them physically (flip them over on their back and growl in their face), and I'll treat them roughly if I have to to break up a fight. It's not a moral question; hitting dogs doesn't *work*, and it creates psychological problems because the dog doesn't get why he's being hit.