[lbo-talk] Polanski

heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Thu Oct 1 02:54:48 PDT 2009


I argeed with most of what Joanna said, but I am not so sure about this:

"The sexual abuse of children and adolescents by parents, family members, and friends of family is extremely common."

I know these numbers are much bandied about, and sometimes controversial, but my reading is that sexual abuse of children by anyone is still a pretty rare event (although the other statistic that most abuse that does take place is from family members is sometimes misunderstood to mean the opposite).

What is more, and this is even more complex, because of the definitional issues, I would say abuse (violence, sustained humiliation) of any kind is pretty rare (I don't say instances of abuse don't happen in quite a few families, but that most family relationships are not abusive).

The overwhelming majority of parents work selflessly (well, perhaps with some pride) to feed and care for their children.



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