What action would you have taken in this shoplifting case?

In the late 60s. I was working a part-time security job at a huge Farmers Market Store, which was open 24/7. This store had a lot of shoplifters, simply because the store was so big and the store had no security cameras in place. Around 1 am one morning, I observed this woman and her 12 year old daughter come into the store. I followed them for reasons unknown. The mother was looking at bras and her daughter was looking at girdles. Why would a 12 year old be looking at girdles? I have no clue. The mother turned her back on her daughter and her daughter took a girdle from its box, slung her dress over her head and slipped the girdle over her feet, to her mid-section and pulled her dress back down over the girdle, hiding it. She threw the empy box over behind a counter. I retrieved the box and stopped both as they were exiting the store, without paying for the girdle. I identified myself as a Metro Police Officer. The mother had no idea what had occured. A female store empoyee joined us as we went upstairs to continue our conversation. Needless to say, the mother defended her daughter all the way. I said to the mother, “take your daughter in the next room with the female store personnel and search your daughter”. Two minutes went by and out came the mother, her daughter, the female store personnel and the stolen girdle. I had the box to verify the stolen girdle.

I gave the mother a choice of either taking her daughter to juvenile or taking this belt and giving her daughter a whipping in the next room. The moter grabbed the belt and screams could be heard thrughout the store.

Question: was this the correct choice for punishment for the 12 year old girl or should she have been taken to juvenile? Remember, this was in the late 1960s before the juvenile laws were rewritten.