I was brought up in a comfortable middle-class home during the 1970s and although corporal punishment was still very commonly in use at that time, my own experience of such sanctions was pretty minimal. I think I had been given the odd ‘smack’ by my mother or father when I was a toddler, but I had was brought up to be a ‘good girl’ and was, I contend, pretty pliant and obedient.
That changed cataclysmically one autumn day, when my 13-year-old self was brought home in a police car. Myself and a couple of friends had been for a Saturday afternoon visit into town. None of us had much money left from our monthly allowances, so it was mostly window-shopping.