NFL Star Accused of Child Abuse
CAMEROTA: Here's some breaking news. Adrian Peterson through his attorney is vehemently denying a report from KHOU in Houston of allegations of abuse of a second child. The station reports the alleged incident happened last June while the child was visiting Adrian, his father. CNN cannot confirm this affiliate's reporting. Meanwhile, in the case in which he has been charged, Peterson says he's not a perfect parent, but he's also not a child abuser. CNN's Jean Casarez has his explanation.</s>JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Do the pictures of Adrian Peterson's 4-year-old son, welt marks and bruises, tell a different story than his explanation?</s>KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, there are many people in our country who believe it is a justified form of discipline. They learned it from their parents. They feel like they turned out OK. They don't necessarily believe the research, which shows that it leads to negative consequences.</s>CASAREZ: In a statement released Monday by Adrian Peterson, the NFL player states: "I disciplined my son the way I was disciplined as a child," going on to admit he caused an unintentional injury. "But deep in my heart, I have always believed I could have been one of those kids that was lost in the streets without the discipline instilled in me by my parents and by other relatives." The emotional issue was addressed by Whoopi Goldberg in ABC's season premiere of "The View."</s>WHOOPI GOLDBERG, ACTRESS: I don't want every Tom, Dick, and Harry to be able to tell me -- if I decided to take a</s>CASAREZ: Forty-nine of the 50 states allow for reasonable physical punishment in the home. But Peterson has been charged with felony child abuse. The always outspoken Charles Barkley says parents should be able to discipline their children.</s>CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER NBA PLAYER: I'm from the South. Whipping is -- we do that all the time. Every black parent in the South is going to be in jail under those circumstances.</s>CASAREZ: Peterson says he has met with a psychologist to learn other forms of discipline.</s>DR. JONATHAN FADER, SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST: If my job every day is to run as fast as I can and knock someone over, when I come off the field, well, is that going to be different than working in an office? Absolutely. So we really need to teach athletes methods of cooling down, practical methods that they won't slough off and say is a bunch of crap, but real things that are helpful to them to help them kind of change their outlook and change the way they feel so that they're not acting on a whim. They're acting on a well-thought-out, planned way of either parenting or dealing with their significant other.</s>CASAREZ: To former Minnesota Vikings player Cris Carter, corporal punishment to a child, it's just wrong.</s>CARTER: You can't beat a kid to make them do what they want to do.</s>TOM JACKSON, ESPN: That's correct.</s>CARTER: The only thing I'm proud about is the team that I played for. They did the right thing.</s>JACKSON: Yes.</s>CARTER: Take them off the field.</s>CASAREZ: But the Vikings have not changed course, saying he will be a part of practices this week and most likely will play next weekend.</s>CARTER: Take him off the daggone field, because you know what? As a man, that's the only thing we really respect.</s>WALLACE: People just have such a strong feeling about it. People bring the emotions to it, and they bring their own background and their own sense of right and wrong in parenting to that conversation.</s>CASAREZ: A conversation going on across America on the age-old debate whether sparing the rod spoils the child or helps the child. Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, let's debate this more with Dr. Janet Taylor. She's a psychiatrist. And back with us are Van Jones and Judge Glenda Hatchett. Glad to have all of you. Judge, I want to start with you. What is the line between discipline and abuse? Is the law clear on this?</s>HATCHETT: The law -- there's a lot of discretion. I will be the first to say that, Alisyn. And I want to also say that I think a parent has the right to decide how to discipline a child. It gets to be a problem, though, when that discipline then becomes abuse, where the child is injured, where people end up in my courtroom because the child has been abused.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. So is that the criterion, is that the criterion? If a child is injured, that's the line where it crosses over into a crime?</s>HATCHETT: Well, yes. And the thing, though, is that it depends on who's looking at that. In the Peterson case, he's been indicted. If it doesn't get resolved, it will go before a jury, it will go before a jury, and the standard in Texas is that what is reasonable based on those community standards as to whether it's abuse.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. I'm glad you're bringing that. And I want to bring you in, Dr. Taylor, because Adrian Peterson says that what he did was reasonable. I'm just going to read you his statement again. "Deep in my heart, I have always believed I could have been one of those kids that was lost in the streets without the discipline instilled in me by my parents and other relatives." He's arguing, Doctor, that this is what was used on him and it was successful.</s>DR. JANET TAYLOR, PSYCHIATRIST: Well, you know, there's a saying that when you know better you do better. And discipline is meant to be instructive. And discipline does not have to involve physically abusing or the intent to inflict harm. With -- the marks that were left on Adrian Peterson's child clearly were child abuse based on the fact that they created an injury and they showed harm. But parents do have the right to discipline their child, but what they need to understand is it crosses over to an abuse when there's an intent, when you leave marks, and there's also psychological abuse that happens verbally.</s>CAMEROTA: Right. But you say when there's an intent. He didn't intend -- he says over and over he didn't intend to hurt his child.</s>HATCHETT: It doesn't have to cross intent legally, though. If he injured that child, whether he intended it or not under these circumstances, it still can be...</s>CAMEROTA: But I want to get Van in. Hold on, because Van I know is going to make an interesting point, because, Van, we have heard from Charles Barkley, you heard just there in the piece, and from Whoopi Goldberg who basically have said that this -- in the South, everybody would be in jail because this is how people, this is -- their families have disciplined them and they see nothing wrong with taking a switch to a child.</s>JONES: Well, if first of all, a lot of Northerners or Yankees may not even know what a switch is. This is a switch. I brought this to show. If you're -- not just black kids, white kids know what a switch is. Your grandma tells me you go get me a switch. And you pull this twig off of a tree. And they hit you in the legs with it. And whether it's right or wrong, I think people need to understand, this is a part of Southern culture. If you look at the polling data, a majority of all Americans, a majority of white Americans agree with corporal punishment. A majority of Southerners agree, Midwesterners too. This is something that goes on. On the cosmopolitan coasts, this is shocking to people. But there's paddling. There's whipping with belts. There's switching with switches. There's spanking. And this is something that we need to have a debate about. I would say to anybody, because I was corporally punished, kids today, you don't have to do that. Just take their iPods from them. Take their iPad. That's enough. You don't have to do all that stuff anymore.</s>JONES: But you need to understand, this is something that is a major part of especially Southern culture, and to say that this guy is completely -- a complete lunatic, he took it too far, but it does happen.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, Dr. Taylor, go ahead.</s>TAYLOR: But this is a mistake also to characterize it as a black issue. The reality is spanking is an ineffective way to discipline children. And what happens is, yes, you may create fear, but if you keep spanking them, you will always create a lack -- also create a lack of respect. And when you have a teenager who does not fear you nor respect you as they grow up, then you have a problem.</s>CAMEROTA: Dr. Taylor, everything you're saying makes sense except that there are statistics, as Van was just saying, that 80 percent of preschool children in this country, 80 percent have been spanked. So not all of them are growing up to be aggressive or to have mood disorders or any of the things that we have heard come from spanking.</s>TAYLOR: But spanking in and of itself is ineffective as discipline, but we're not talking -- we're talking about abuse that leads to mood disorders and being more aggressive. And some parents do not know the difference between picking up an object to discipline or spank your child vs. a firm pat or removing their hand. When you pick up objects, that's abuse. When you intend and want to inflict harm or pain to teach your child, that is abuse.</s>CAMEROTA: Very quickly, Judge, do you think that there is a cultural divide here, North-South, black-white?</s>HATCHETT: I think that it's generational, Alisyn.</s>HATCHETT: I think people do what they have learned. I think they do what they have learned. I don't think it's necessary. I know white families who have been in my courtroom. I know rich families. I know poor families. My point is, I think it's whatever you have been taught...</s>CAMEROTA: Right.</s>HATCHETT: ... is what you continue to do.</s>CAMEROTA: Great point.</s>HATCHETT: But let me say this.</s>HATCHETT: It's very important...</s>JONES: Let me just point out the polling data is very clear that the majority of all racial groups in this country believe in corporal punishment. African-Americans are about five to six points higher. It's not just an African-American issue. It's an American issue.</s>HATCHETT: I agree. And that was exactly -- and that was exactly the point I wanted to make. But let me just say -- and I think that -- Doc, who I love and know, I think that this is a teachable moment. And I am sorry that this has come to this. But I think it's a teachable moment in this nation.</s>CAMEROTA: What's the lesson?</s>HATCHETT: We have got to have this conversation, and you can't discipline a child when you're angry. I have said that to thousands of parents. Do not discipline when you're angry.</s>CAMEROTA: All right. Everyone is nodding in unison. Van Jones, Judge...</s>JONES: Just take their iPod from them. Just take the iPod. That's enough.</s>CAMEROTA: Glenda Hatchett. That's the solution. There you go. That would inflict pain. Dr. Janet Taylor, thanks so much for talking about all of this. It is important to have this conversation.</s>HATCHETT: It is.</s>CAMEROTA: And we have breaking news. U.S. fighter jets target ISIS positions in Iraq, including an airstrike against a target near Baghdad. So, up next, a full report.