I think a lot of this depends on age. I have heard from several people in early childhood education that before age 5, hitting has absolutely no effect on a child except to make them angry. They don't yet have the ability to distinguish cause and effect. So in this case I would call it abuse simply because the child really doesn't have the ability to think "because I did this, I got spanked".

And you can't do the same 'punishment' every time either because it will put those patterns into them without teaching them. I feel that the best way is to give the child options on how to do it correctly. Spanking them or hitting them just says "you're wrong" without any real way to do it the right way. I feel that this kind of punishment all too often makes the kid more rebellious and more angry than if the parent talked to them and gave them options.