Domestic corporal punishment (also referred to as corporal punishment in the home or parental corporal punishment) typically involves the corporal punishment of a child by a parent or guardian in the home. It may involve the spanking or slapping of a child with the parent's open hand, but may sometimes be with an implement such as a belt, slipper, cane or paddle.

In many cultures, parents have historically been regarded as having the duty of disciplining their children, and the right to spank them when appropriate. However, attitudes and legislation in some countries have changed in recent years, particularly in continental Europe. Domestic corporal punishment has now (2009) been outlawed in 24 countries around the world, beginning with Sweden in 1979. Most of these 24 countries are in Europe or Latin America.

In North America, Britain and much of the rest of the English-speaking world, the practice is highly controversial.

A private organisation called "Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment Of Children" (GITEACPOC) was set up in 2001 to campaign for the worldwide prohibition by law of all corporal punishment of children, even by their parents.

The UN Study on Violence against Children sets a target date of 2009 for universal prohibition, including in the home, an aim described by The Economist as "the latest piece of Utopian dottiness from the UN".

In Africa, the Middle East, and in most parts of Eastern Asia (including China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea), corporal punishment of one's own children is lawful. In Singapore and Hong Kong, punishing one's own child with corporal punishment is legal but not particularly encouraged. Culturally, many people in the region believe a certain amount of corporal punishment for their own children is appropriate and necessary, and thus such practice is accepted by society as a whole.