Best Abused Children Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“[Refers to 121 children taken into care in Cleveland due to suspected abuse (1987) and later returned to their parents] Sue Richardson, the child abuse consultant at the heart of the crisis, watched as cases began to unravel: “All the focus started to fall on the medical findings; other supportive evidence, mainly which we held in the social services department, started to be screened out. A situation developed where the cases either were proven or fell on the basis of medical evidence alone. Other evidence that was available to the court, very often then, never got put. We would have had statement from the child, the social workers and the child psychologist’s evidence from interviewing. We would have evidence of prior concerns, either from social workers or teachers, about the child’s behaviour or other symptoms that they might have been showing, which were completely aside from the medical findings. (Channel 4 1997) Ten years after the Cleveland crisis, Sue Richardson was adamant that evidence relating to children’s safety was not presented to the courts which subsequently returned those children to their parents: “I am saying that very clearly. In some cases, evidence was not put in the court. In other cases, agreements were made between lawyers not to put the case to the court at all, particularly as the crisis developed. Latterly, that children were sent home subject to informal agreements or agreements between lawyers. The cases never even got as far as the court. (Channel 4, 1997)” Nor is Richardson alone. Jayne Wynne, one of the Leeds paediatricians who had pioneered the use of RAD as an indicator of sexual abuse and who subsequently had detailed knowledge of many of the Cleveland children, remains concerned by the haphazard approach of the courts to their protection. I think the implication is that the children were left unprotected. The children who were being abused unfortunately returned to homes and the abuse may well have been ongoing. (Channel 4 1997)”

Source: Creative Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: Challenges and Dilemmas

“...Cleveland was the first war over the protection of children to be fought not in the courts, but in the media... Given that most of the hearings took place out of sight of the press, the following examples are taken from the recollection of child protection workers present in court. In one case, during a controversy that centred fundamentally around disputes over the meaning of RAD [reflex anal dilatation], a judge refused to allow ‘any evidence about children’s bottoms’ in his courtroom. A second judge — hearing an application to have their children returned by parents about whom social services had grave worries told the assembled lawyers that, as she lived in the area, she could not help but be influenced by what she read in the press. Hardly surprising then that child protection workers soon found courts not hearing their applications, cutting them short, or loosely supervising informal deals which allowed children to be sent back to parents, even in cases where there was explicit evidence of apparent abuse to be explained and dealt with. (p21) [reflex anal dilatation (RAD): a simple clue which is suggestive of anal penetration from outside. It had been recognised as a valuable weapon in the armoury of doctors examining children for many decades and was endorsed by both the British Medical Association and the Association of Police Surgeons. (p18)]”

Source: Creative Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: Challenges and Dilemmas

“But nothing in my previous work had prepared me for the experience of reinvestigating Cleveland. It is worth — given the passage of time — recalling the basic architecture of the Crisis: 121 children from many different and largely unrelated families had been taken into the care of Cleveland County Council in the three short months of the summer of 1987. (p18) The key to resolving the puzzle of Cleveland was the children. What had actually happened to them? Had they been abused - or had the paediatricians and social workers (as public opinion held) been over-zealous and plain wrong? Curiously — particularly given its high profile, year-long sittings and £5 million cost — this was the one central issue never addressed by the Butler-Sloss judicial testimony and sifting of internal evidence, the inquiry's remit did not require it to answer the main question. Ten years after the crisis, my colleagues and I set about reconstructing the records of the 121 children at its heart to determine exactly what had happened to them... (p19) Eventually, though, we did assemble the data given to the Butler-Sloss Inquiry. This divided into two categories: the confidential material, presented in camera, and the transcripts of public sessions of the hearings. Putting the two together we assembled our own database on the children each identified only by the code-letters assigned to them by Butler-Sloss. When it was finished, this database told a startlingly different story from the public myth. In every case there was some prima fade evidence to suggest the possibility of abuse. Far from the media fiction of parents taking their children to Middlesbrough General Hospital for a tummy ache or a sore thumb and suddenly being presented with a diagnosis of child sexual abuse, the true story was of families known to social services for months or years, histories of physical and sexual abuse of siblings and of prior discussions with parents about these concerns. In several of the cases the children themselves had made detailed disclosures of abuse; many of the pre-verbal children displayed severe emotional or behavioural symptoms consistent with sexual abuse. There were even some families in which a convicted sex offender had moved in with mother and children. (p20)”

Source: Creative Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: Challenges and Dilemmas

“When you're little you believe whatever your mother tells you, so I assumed it must be true, that I must be inferior to the others in some way.”

Children Fear Sad Abused Children Abused Child Sadness Quotes Tears

Book:Cry Silent Tears: The Horrific True Story of the Mute Little Boy in the Cellar

Source: Cry Silent Tears: The Horrific True Story of the Mute Little Boy in the Cellar

“I guess to their wide, innocent eyes it all seemed like normal family life because they had never known any different. In fact, I was the only one who had lived with anyone else, the only one that realized that life didn't have to be this terrifying and this painful all the time”

Children Education Sadness Sad Abused Children Abused Child Children Abuse

Book:Cry Silent Tears: The Horrific True Story of the Mute Little Boy in the Cellar

Source: Cry Silent Tears: The Horrific True Story of the Mute Little Boy in the Cellar

“Dissociative identity disorder is conceptualized as a childhood onset, posttraumatic developmental disorder in which the child is unable to consolidate a unified sense of self. Detachment from emotional and physical pain during trauma can result in alterations in memory encoding and storage. In turn, this leads to fragmentation and compartmentalization of memory and impairments in retrieving memory.2,4,19 Exposure to early, usually repeated trauma results in the creation of discrete behavioral states that can persist and, over later development, become elaborated, ultimately developing into the alternate identities of dissociative identity disorder.”

“In this climate of profoundly disrupted relationships the child faces a formidable developmental task. She must find a way to form primary attachments to caretakers who are either dangerous or, from her perspective, negligent. She must find a way to develop a sense of basic trust and safely with caretakers who are untrustworthy and unsafe. She must develop a sense of self in relation to others who are helpless, uncaring or cruel. She must develop a capacity for bodily self-regulation in an environinent in which her body is at the disposal of others' needs as well as a capacity for self-soothing in an environment without solace. She must develop the capacity for initiative in an environment which demands that she bring her will into complete conformity with that of her abuser. And ultimately, she must develop a capacity for intimacy out of an environment where all intimate relationships are corrupt, and an identity out of an environment which defines her as a whore and a slave.”

Child Sexual Abuse Abuse Survivors Traumatic Experiences Traumatized Complex Ptsd Abusive Parents Abused Children Abused Child Double Bind Disorganized Attachment

Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Source: Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“...there is a particular focus of the problem faced only by men. It arises from our culture providing no room for a man as victim.”

Victim Child Sexual Abuse Survivors Victims Victimhood Gender Stereotypes Survivors Of Abuse Gender Bias Childhood Sexual Abuse Abused Children Male Survivor Abused Men

Book:Victims No Longer: Men Recovering from Incest and Other Sexual Child Abuse

Source: Victims No Longer: Men Recovering from Incest and Other Sexual Child Abuse

“Complexly traumatized children need to be helped to engage their attention in pursuits that do not remind them of trauma-related triggers and that give them a sense of pleasure and mastery. Safety, predictability, and "fun" are essential for the establishment of the capacity to observe what is going on, put it into a larger context, and initiate physiological and motoric self-regulation.”

Trauma Childhood Trauma Self Regulation Traumatized Complex Ptsd Healing From Abuse Abused Children Traumatic Stress Attachment Theory Attachment Trauma Traumatization Abused Child Childhood Traumas Sense Of Safety

Book:Trauma and Attachment

Source: Trauma and Attachment

“Escape from reality. In some instances, dissociation induces people to imagine that they have some kind of mastery over intractable environmental difficulties. Dissociation is often implicated in magical thinking or self-induced trance states. This aspect of dissociation is frequently found in abuse survivors. It is not uncommon for abused children to engage in magical thinking to retain an illusion of control over the situation (e.g., believing that they "cause" the perpetrator to act out).”

“Ninety-six per cent of juvenile prostitutes are fugitives from abusive domestic situations; 66 per cent began working before they turned 16. (Prostitution is their only perceived means of survival.) Millions of children work as prostitutes around the world. A third are male. One study revealed that over 50 per cent of prostitutes are the children of alcoholics or substance abusers, and 90 per cent are deflowered through incest or rape. Ninety-one per cent of prostitutes do not speak of the abuse. (The truth of life is told through the language of behavior.) Abused children suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, guilt, self-destructive impulses, suspicion, fear. Seventy-five per cent of prostitutes attempt suicide. (Imagine their scrapbook of memories.)”

Fear Slavery Guilt Suspicion Rape Prostitution Incest Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Prostitutes Abused Children Suicide Attempts Children Of Alcoholics Self Destructive Impulses Juvenile Prostitutes Parasuicide Substance Abusers

Book:The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide

Source: The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide

“We cry as loud as we can, hoping Mum will stop him or the neighbors will hear us and come round and tell him off or have him sent to prison. But no one interferes once you've shut the front door of your home. The house next door could be in a different country for all they care.”

Abuse Survivors Nobody Cares Abused Women Abused Children Neglected But Undefeated Neglected Lessons Others People S Lives

Book:Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys

Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys

“It is a rare person who can cut himself off from mediate and immediate relations with others for long spaces of time without undergoing a deterioration in personality.”

Source: The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry

“Parading around like she owns the place." This would be charged of women and girls who exhibited themselves: their bodies. Particularly if their bodies were imperfect in obvious ways– too fat. Appearing in public when they should be ashamed of how they looked or in any case aware of how they looked. Of how unsparing eyes would latch onto them, assessing. Never was such a charge made of men or boys. There appeared to be no masculine equivalent for "making a spectacle, parading around." As, you'd discover, there was no masculine equivalent for "bitch, slut.”

Life Women Abuse Abuse Survivors Abused Women Abused Children Joyce Carol Oates My Life As A Rat

Author:Joyce Carol Oates

“Bullies do not just wake up and decide to be one. They are people who have or are experiencing emotional or verbal abuse. All you can do is not retaliate but show them love. Doing so, allows them see what they are missing and need. You can let them see the other side of life when you show love not hurt. After all, we are all products of love and we must choose to demonstrate that above all else.”

“I keep wondering how to explain the experience of child abuse from the inside. I'm going to try to explain what my world was like when I was sexually abused. The thing you have to remember is that this was the thinking of a child.”

Thinking World Trying Children Remember Wonder Abuse Child Abuse Sexually Abused Children

Author:Robin Quivers

“In 1977, at age ten, I was cast on the TV sitcom 'Good Times.' My character was Penny, an abused child in desperate need of love. I really didn't want to do the show. I didn't want to be away from my family.”

Want Needs Children Character Shows Age Tvs Ten My Family Casts Desperate Good Times Pennies Sitcom Abused Children

Book:True You

Source: True You

“I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention.”

Believe Children I Believe Attention Deserve Abuse Victim Neglect Divided Child Abuse Devoted Closest Bureaucracy Abandonment Physical Abuse Best Service Government Bureaucracy Abused Children

Author:Kenny Guinn

“Research on child abuse suggests that religious beliefs can foster, encourage, and justify the abuse of children. When contempt for sex underlies teachings, this creates a breeding ground for abuse.”

Children Belief Sex Religious Teaching Research Abuse Justify Contempt Child Abuse Breeding Religious Belief Abused Children

Author:Mary Garden

“When abused children under court protection were studied in California and Massachusetts, it turned out that a disproportionate number of them were unattractive...abused kids had head and face proportions that made them look less infantile and cute.”

Looks Children Made Kids Faces Numbers Court Protection California Cute Proportion Massachusetts Unattractive Infantile Abused Children

Author:Nancy Etcoff

“In my view, there is nothing more vicious and outrageous than the abuse, exploitation and harm of the most vulnerable members of our society, and I firmly believe that our nation's laws and resources need to reflect the seriousness of these terrible crimes.”

Needs Believe Law Nations Views Crime Terrible Members Resources Abuse Harm Vulnerable Our Society Child Abuse Exploitation Vicious Seriousness Outrageous Abused Children

Author:Bob Ney

“Let us be the ones who say we do not accept that a child dies every three seconds simply because he does not have the drugs you and I have. Let us be the ones to say we are not satisfied that your place of birth determines your right for life. Let us be outraged; let us be loud; let us be bold.”

Children Doe Dies Three Accepting Health Birth Drug Determine Satisfied Loud Your Children Seconds Child Abuse Outraged Abused Children Neglected Child

Author:Brad Pitt

“Abortion is defended today as a means of ensuring the equality and independence of women, and as a solution to the problems of single parenting, child abuse, and the feminization of poverty.”

Mean Children Problem Today Poverty Solutions Abuse Independence Parenting Equality Abortion Child Abuse Abused Children

Author:Robert Casey

“There can be no better measure of our governance than the way we treat our children, and no greater failing on our part than to allow them to be subjected to violence, abuse or exploitation.”

Way Children Political Politics Greater Violence Failing Treats Abuse Our Children Exploitation Domestic Violence Governance Abused Children

Author:Jessica Lange

“We know that many boys and girls leave school because of poverty, because they have to work. However, there are an important number of children who abandon their studies because of the abuses they're subject to by teachers and their own parents.”

Knows Children Important School Girl Parent Numbers Education Boys Poverty Study Teacher Subjects Abuse Educational Abandon Boy And Girl Abused Children

Author:Shakira

“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.”

Children Violence Shadow Abuse Lifetime Casts Length Child Abuse Domestic Violence Violence Against Women Domestic Abuse Abusers Abused Children Molestation Abuse And Violence Sex Abuse

Author:Herbert Ward

“No guarantees come with children's liberation. But neither the promise of great benefits to all nor the prediction of great difficulties ahead can serve as the reason for granting or denying rights to children. Rights will be granted because without them children are incapacitated, oppressed, and abused.”

Children Reason Rights Promise Benefits Difficulty Oppression Granted Liberation Guarantees Oppressed Predictions Abused Children

Author:Richard Farson

“You know all that sympathy that you feel for an abused child who suffers without a good mom or dad to love and care for them? Well, they don't stay children forever. No one magically becomes an adult the day they turn eighteen. Some people grow up sooner, many grow up later. Some never really do. But just remember that some people in this world are older versions of those same kids we cry for.”

“It's important to talk about it. You raise awareness. But you can also prevent it (child abuse) by not letting it be a secret.”

Children Important Secret Awareness Abuse Raises Child Abuse Abused Children

Author:Chris Witty

“Everyone is an abused child, if you think about what governments do.”

Ifs Thinking Children Government Abuse Child Abuse Abused Children

Author:Tim Roth

“Child abuse and neglect offend the basic values of our state. We have a responsibility to provide safe settings for at-risk children and facilitate permanent placement for children who cannot return home.”

Children States Home Values Responsibility Risk Return Safe Abuse Setting Settings Permanent Neglect Child Abuse Facilitate Physical Abuse Placement Abused Children Sex Abuse

Author:Matt Blunt

“I was angry about the fact that my father would beat my mother on a daily basis, that my mother would like take it in turn and beat on me. I was an abused child. I was mad about all those things, very bitter and very angry.”

Children Facts Mother Turns Father Beats Abuse Bases Angry Mad Bitter Child Abuse Abused Children

Author:Rick James

“To give a child animal products is a form of child abuse.”

Giving Children Form Animal Products Abuse Vegetarian Animal Rights Child Abuse Vegetarian Health Animal Abuse Abused Children

Author:Neal Barnard

“Many abused children cling to the hope that growing up will bring escape and freedom. But the personality formed in an environment of coercive control is not well adapted to adult life. The survivor is left with fundamental problems in basic trust, autonomy, and initiative. She approaches the tasks of early adulthood-establishing independence and intimacy-burdened by major impairments in self-care, in cognition and memory, in identity, and in the capacity to form stable relationships. She is still a prisoner of her childhood; attempting to create a new life, she reencounters the trauma.”

“The abused child goes on living within those who have survived such torture, a torture that ended with total repression. They live with the darkness of fear, oppression, and threats. When all its attempts to move the adult to heed its story have failed, it resorts to the language of symptoms to make itself heard. Enter addiction, psychosis, criminality.”

Children Stories Moving Language Darkness Heard Goes On Adults Threat Addiction Oppression Torture Survived Symptoms Resorts Repression Heed Psychosis Criminality Abused Children

Author:Alice Miller

“The abused children are alone with their suffering, not only within the family, but also within themselves. They cannot crate a place in their own soul where they could cry their beart out.”

Children Soul Suffering Self Esteem Cry Esteem Abused Children

Author:Alice Miller

Abused Children Quotes

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Abused Children Quotes