Parents who confuse fear with respect can feel a sense of accomplishment. Children cringing in fearful subservience serve to provide parents with a sense of power and control. After all, a parent can never know if the child may grow-up to one day find themselves in a job where the boss physically beats them for their mistakes. Violence towards children causes a degree of trauma which carries with it a high risk of the development of psychopathology. The ranks of the mentally ill, substance addicted, and violent criminals are filled with individuals who were the victims of violent parents.
Children learn to strike-out when their sensibilities are offended.
The nurturing role of the parent is put at risk. If the parent does not compensate for the hateful acts of violence toward their children with copius amounts of love and caring the children stand a very good chance of becoming alienated from the parent. Spanking runs the risk of becoming criminal behavior. Parents who employ corporal punishment as a means of 'discipline' take the risk of crossing the line into 'legal' child-abuse when under high levels of stress. This is how most cases of child-abuse occur.