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I will say that I worked in a Haitian community in Brooklyn many years ago. My students there were the most incredibly polite and well disciplined as a group of any I've ever had the pleasure to work in. Their parents had a "spank you later" culture. These were good kids. I think that it can be effective when it comes with proper communication for why it's necessary, as ironic as they may sound. I'm not saying it would be my method (at least generally - I would give a good slap on the hand or butt to my hypothetical child if they hit another child or were rough with them, so that they could understand being in the other child's shoes), but I can't deny that it worked on my siblings and I, growing up, and it definitely worked on these kids. The students who I had the most trouble getting to follow instruction or taking our time seriously were the ones who walked all over the parents, knowing the parents would not discipline them.

I think the problem with corporal punishment is that, sometimes, parents use it to replace the fact that they cannot properly communicate their disappointments with their children's behavior, or the lesson that needs to be learned, rather than using it in tandem with a proper explanation. The parents who spank and say that the kid needs to do the right thing just because "I said so" seem to be the ones whose kids don't learn the right lessons from corporal punishment, and become bullies or problem people.