Adrian Peterson told police the "whoopings" he gave to his 4-year-old son came from a switch similar to the ones used on him when he was an east Texas boy, lessons in discipline that he believes helped carve him into an NFL star.
For a Texas grand jury, Peterson didn't carry out a tradition, but an abuse.
Across the nation, the charges against the Vikings star have elicited sharp divisions over when discipline becomes abuse, with social media flooded by sometimes-biting comments.
"I don't doubt a little bit that Adrian Peterson was hit with a switch. I was too," said Jim Bransford, a longtime chemical dependency and family violence counselor in the Twin Cities. "But I never did that to any of my children."
University of Texas associate Prof. Elizabeth Gershoff said the felony charge facing Peterson is rooted in "intergenerational transmission" — when patterns of child raising are repeated, parents using the same methods of discipline they experienced as children.
"Most of these parents are hitting their kids because they think it's the right thing to do and they don't know any other way," said Gershoff, who has researched how parental discipline affects child development and how poverty, neighborhoods, schools and cultures affect children and families.
Peterson's son had welts a week after the beating, which caused a Minnesota doctor to alert authorities. Photos of the injuries that were leaked after Peterson was indicted Friday turned what was a flood of reaction to the case into a tsunami.
Back and forth
Experts said Saturday that what Peterson did is harmful, and undeniably could result in long-term mental health and developmental problems for the child.