Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Crimes Act 1961

Matters of justification or excuse - Powers of discipline

59: Parental control

You could also call this:

“Parents can use reasonable force to keep kids safe and well-behaved, but not to punish them.”

You can use force on a child if you’re their parent or acting as their parent. But you can only do this if it’s reasonable and for specific reasons. These reasons are: to stop the child or someone else from getting hurt, to stop the child from committing a crime, to stop the child from being rude or disruptive, or to do normal everyday parenting tasks.

However, you can’t use force just to punish or correct a child. This rule is very important and overrides the reasons for using force mentioned earlier.

The police can choose not to charge a parent or someone acting as a parent if they use force against a child. They might do this if they think the incident is too small to worry about and it’s not in the public’s interest to take it to court.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM328291.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Criminal law

Family and relationships > Children and parenting

58: Exercise of right of way, etc, or

“You can go onto someone's land to use a path or take something if you have the right, but if they disagree, they might try to stop you.”

60: Discipline on ship or aircraft, or

“Rules about using force to keep people behaving well on ships and planes”

Part 3 Matters of justification or excuse
Powers of discipline

59Parental control

Every parent of a child and every person in the place of a parent of the child is justified in using force if the force used is reasonable in the circumstances and is for the purpose of—
preventing or minimising harm to the child or another person; or
preventing the child from engaging or continuing to engage in conduct that amounts to a criminal offence; or
preventing the child from engaging or continuing to engage in offensive or disruptive behaviour; or
performing the normal daily tasks that are incidental to good care and parenting.

Nothing in subsection (1) or in any rule of common law justifies the use of force for the purpose of correction.
Subsection (2) prevails over subsection (1).
To avoid doubt, it is affirmed that the Police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against a parent of a child or person in the place of a parent of a child in relation to an offence involving the use of force against a child, where the offence is considered to be so inconsequential that there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution.

Notes

Section 59: replaced, on 21 June 2007, by section 5 of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 (2007 No 18).