I think your heart is in the right place, but there is no lazier form of discipline a parent can give than hitting thier kid, including spanking. There might be no more counterproductive form to counter bad behaviour either.
The people dumping on "those" kids are hilarious. When i was at Elder, the team i was part of had a day each summer where the sophs through seniors would to Kings Island and more or less cause havock all day and do dumb and bad stuff. Many of the team members had legacy last names, and we were all ultimately "good" kids. Teenagers, especially boys, are by and large dumb, and when left unsupervised will do dumb things.