A lot of it depends on the child. If the whole point of punishment is to (a) stop the kid from doing that and (
provide a negative reinforcement to make them really think about what they did, you have to tailor make punishments to the child itself. Corporal punishment is an effective immediate deterrent because it acts on a very basal nature: pain=not good. You have to really think where your kid is going to go with it consciouslly from there.
Counter-intuitively, it's the better adjusted kids that show a deep affection and bond to their family that respond to it better long-term. If you're well-loved, and mommy and daddy get angry and hit you, you must have really done something bad and don't want to do it anymore. If the kid is maladjusted, and doesn't have a good bond or afection, the punishment is less psychological and more just pain=immediate deterrant. The results could be as good as the kid just does it over and over trying not to get caught, or as bad as equating pain to love and thriving on abuse, or worse, pulling a Menendez.
That being said, I don't think corporal punishment is abuse. I do think that only parents should administer it, though (not schools. Send the kid home to get spanked). I also think that like any tool, there's a right and a wrong place to use it and if you over use it, it loses its effectiveness and could have some unintended onsequences.