i think abuse is much more widespread than the statistics lead people to believe. i don't know if we'll ever know just how widespread though.

Abuse gets handed down from generation to generation, leaving all involved hurt & angry. I see it everywhere & it astounds me.

I learned in one of my classes that 2/3 of those who are abused, will go on to abuse. But of course, all statistics have limitiations to them.

I also think that 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 women will be raped in her life. And 1 and 10 men will be raped in his life. But I'm not really sure how that accomidates for those cases that arn't reported or talked about. I mean how can they know about them?

I think the best thing to be done is awarness. The fact that abuse happens needs to be something people can talk about instead of such a taboo topic.

Humiliations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away. However, as adults, most abused children will suffer, and let others suffer, from these injuries. This dynamic of violence can deform some victims into hangmen who take revenge even on whole nations and become willing executors to dictators as unutterably appalling as Hitler and other cruel leaders. Beaten children very early on assimilate the violence they endured, which they may glorify and apply later as parents, in believing that they deserved the punishment and were beaten out of love. They don't know that the only reason for the punishments they have ( or in retrospect, had) to endure is the fact that their parents themselves endured and learned violence without being able to question it. Later, the adults, once abused children, beat their own children and often feel grateful to their parents who mistreated them when they were small and defenseless.

This is why society's ignorance remains so immovable and parents continue to produce severe pain and destructivity - in all "good will", in every generation. Most people tolerate this blindly because the origins of human violence in childhood have been and are still being ignored worldwide. Almost all small children are smacked during the first three years of life when they begin to walk and to touch objects which may not be touched. This happens at exactly the time when the human brain builds up its structure and should thus learn kindness, truthfulness, and love but never, never cruelty and lies. Fortunately, there are many mistreated children who find "helping witnesses" and can feel loved by them.

Alice Miller http://www.alice-miller.com/index_en.php

It could be your neighbor, your aunt, your sister or your mother. Abuse is so commen and people pass it up a just something. Abuse is always in the back pages of the papers, i think people are afraid of it. If you dont address it then you dont have to worry about it. Thats just my opinion, but the next time your at work or walking down the street. There are a lot of people close to you that have been abused... and you dont even know it. They may not even know it...

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this too. Since I've started dealing with my own abuse, it seems like everyone I meet has been abused too. My godfather, new friends, family...I think its far more wide spread then even the most outrageous statistics suggest. Because for every time abuse is reported, think of all the children who didn't or the people that never believed them. I can only imagine...

I think 90% of the people in the world have suffered some kind of abuse.

As I work with my therapy I can really see the suffer and the needs of people. It is great to understand people at that level and be kind.

i guess a lot of people don't understand it at first, then they just don't talk about it and they hide it.

i didn't even realise what had happened for 5 years then it took me a year and a half to open up about it.

i've been thinking about organizing a concert. i have a list of artist and their song that i would like for them to perform.