Understanding Corporal Punishment Policy in Mississippi and Alabama: A Critical Discourse Analysis

• In Event: Unforgetting Punishment: How Safety Policies Reproduce—or Resist—Inequity in Schools

Abstract

Today, CP remains legal in seventeen states, predominantly located in the South. Mississippi and Alabama are the top two states that practice corporal punishment the most (Office of Civil Rights, 2021). This comparative study uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyze the current corporal punishment state policies of Mississippi and Alabama as they are the top two states that practice CP. The findings are a descriptive analysis of the similarities and differences.

Author

• Gariel Pierce, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign