Caution is also advisable because society accepts some, but not all, forms of corporeal punishment. Moreover, the enormous variety of variables that affect human interaction and which place the family at the core of a child s social interaction cautions against black letter rules of conduct. One need not look to the Bible, Dickens, or Twain to understand that parental discipline is as necessary as it is varied and that parental discipline has always had a physical component. We need only look to our own experience. Experience also teaches that a finger to the eye, or a slap to the head, can cause as much harm as a closed fist.
Punches can be playful or even affectionate.
For these reasons, we eschew a per se rule. Brown established a test of contextual reasonableness in determining when proper parental motive turns to criminal anger, or necessary force becomes a substantial risk of serious bodily harm. However, human experience also teaches that a single punch to the torso or head can kill or cause serious bodily injury. We expect a lot of our servicemembers, and sometimes we expect more of them than of their civilian counterparts. For instance, because members of the Armed Forces are accountable to their superiors in ways that a civilian is not, this Court has concluded that the probability of truthfulness for a military witness is greater than one would find with a comparable civilian witness.