It seems to me that the demonstration ‘damage’ may be done with any punishment emanates from the fact that small but discrete groups of students exist with certain psychological profiles who are unsuitable for particular punishments. Those who oppose corporal punishment champion this as ‘proving’ the danger of the punishment, whilst failing to address, or in many cases acknowledge the damage inherent in other approaches.
Unless we identify these groups ‘ab initio’ and accept these differences similarly to, say, differences in learning styles, it seems we are bound to hell on a road paved with good intentions.
The problem is unless we invest in this , we pick up the pieces in wrecked educational; careers, and a failure for society to capitalize properly on its stock of human potential, let alone any associated health and work absence costs.