The authors present main results of their first retrospective study of the occurrence of physical maltreatment and punishment in children in the adult population of the Czech Republic and its correlations. The study is a part of an extensive project, which is mapping, in addition to prevalence of psychological maltreatment (abuse) of children in the Czech society, physical abuse corporal and punishment. In order to detect physical maltreatment it is necessary to strictly differentiate physical abuse from corporal punishment. The authors reflect complexity of the problems and acquaint the readers with their present evolution with the western world. They subsequently present a survey of selected important prevalence and incidence studies of physical maltreatment from world literature and data from the Czech Republic. The presented research was initiated as a sociological study. In order to obtain data a method was created as a special individually administered questionnaire, verified in a pilot study. The field study itself was partly performed by the technique of standardized guided interview and partly by the questionnaire technique. The authors interviewed a cohort o 1104 respondents, constituting a representative sample of population in the Czech Republic at the age of 18 to 44 years from the points of view of sex (50.9% of men, 49.1% of women), age and regional domicile (according to regions valid from January 1st, 2001). The participation of subjects in the research was voluntary, their anonymity was guaranteed. The responders stated in 83.1% (85.9% of men, 80.1% of women) that they experienced in their childhood some form of violence such as corporal punishment and/or physicalmaltreatment. The interviewed individuals admitted in 24.4% (26.7% ofmen and22%of women) that they were subjected to such form of treatment, which corresponds to the definition of physical maltreatment in the sense of endangerment standard and, at the same time, to the definition of maltreatment corresponding to „The Conflict Tactics Scale“ of prof. Straus. In 19.2% (21.7% ofmen, 16.6% of women) the subjects stated that they suffered from physical consequences as a result of the physical maltreatment. It indicated that 19.2% of the interviewed subjects were physically maltreated, provided the harm standard is considered as a criterion of maltreatment.

        Key words: physical abuse, corporal punishment, definition, prevalence, Czech Republic