Don't pull silly questions that aren't relevent and aren't really accurate.
Hitting your child with intent to hurt and harm them isn't the same as giving them a quick lash to teach them a lesson, what you're defending is sadistic abuse of what should be a sound system.
Precisely.
An example [Sorry to repeat myself guys] of when a quick lash is appropriate:
"A small child reaches for a hot pan. A mother smacks the child's hand away. The child cries but leaves the pan alone."
A small child can't comprehend why they can't touch the pan. A 'nono don't touch' here isn't just irrelevant, it's dangerous. If they go for it again after a verbal warning and end up tipping it on themselves, they could be seriously injured. Same with running into a street. Talking back to a parent, coloring on the walls, that stuff isn't life threatening. It's a royal pain in the butt to deal with but it's not life threatening. It can be handled with other means of punishment that aren't as violent.
And just to be clear, I am not saying that smacking a child creates a violent child. In truth, in my experience [which I'm using because my personal experience is a first hand testimony which makes it a primary source of information which you are free to disagree with] it's made me abhor violence, it's made me meek and mild to the point where in certain situations, I can't speak for myself because I associate those things with a spanking. Perhaps to some of you my experience is 'abuse'. In the community I grew up in, I was a 'poster child' on how a child was supposed to be disciplined in the home.
Perspective, it changes based on your own individual culture.
You never dare your parents to spank you again! What power do you have against your parents? Absolutely none. That's something I would spank a kid for, outright defiance like that. Who the hell do they think they are? :| You dare your parent to spank you again, what, you think they'll run away in fear? It only stresses you didn't get the message. And yes! The purpose of spankings is that you WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN. You will never draw on the walls again, steal a cookie again, cheat again, backtalk again...
Or with cases like my sister, you get big enough and you hit the parents back and they don't screw with you anymore because now they're afraid of you.
'WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN' does not mean 'change the behaviour'
A child will make sure they don't ever get caught but they won't always feel sorry for what they've done regardless of what method is used.
And to be honest I think you've hit the nail on the head with that.
Every child is different and not one method, not even the ones I am preferential to, will work every time with every child in every circumstance.