Quotessence
Home / Topics / Child Abuse Quotes

Child Abuse Quotes

Browse 742 quotes about Child Abuse.

Related topics

Abused ChildrenParentThinkingFormPeopleProblemIfsCrimeFactsKnowsShouldStatesViolenceWay

Child Abuse Quotes

“The data on organised abuse has been simplified or distorted in an attempt force it to conform to mechanical psychological models of dissociative obedience or else to the psychiatric framework of ‘paedophilia’. Psychopathology alone is an inadequate explanation for environments in which sexual abuse has a social and symbolic function for groups of adults. Abusive groups do not emerge in a vacuum but rather they are formed within pre-existing social arrangements such as families, churches and schools.”

SexPowerControlChild AbuseSexual AbusePsychiatryRitual AbusePsychiatricSadisticDissociativeCultsPedophileRapistsSex OffendersOrganized AbusePaedophilePedophile NetworkPedophilic
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
Create image

“Like the psychological model outlined above, the psychiatric understanding of ’organised paedophilia’ is a framework that is focused primarily on individual psychological factors and overlooks the role of violence in criminal groups and the contexts in which such groups emerge. The underlying assumption of literature on ‘organised paedophilia’ is that members of sexually abusive groups are motivated by a pathological sexual interest in children but this does not accord with evidence that suggests that abusive groups can simultaneously abuse children and women. It is increasingly recognised that sexual offenders may not specialise in one particular victim category, and a significant proportion of child sexual abusers have also offended against adults (Cann et al. 2007, Heil et al. 2003). Furthermore, many of the behaviours of abusive groups appear to be designed to elicit fear and pain from the victim rather than to generate sexual pleasure for the perpetrator per se., are not mutually exclusive, but there is a sadistic dimension to organised abuse that is not explicable as ‘paedophilic’. A survivor of organised abuse from Belgium, Regina Louf, made this point clearly when she said: I find the expression ‘paedophile network’ misleading. For me paedophiles are those men who go to playgrounds or swimming pools, priests…I certainly don't want to exonerate them, but I would rather have paedophiles than the types we were involved with. There were men who never touched the children. Whether you were five, ten, or fifteen didn’t matter. What mattered to them was sex, power, experience. To do things they would never have tried with their own wives. Among them were some real sadists. (Louf quoted in Bulte and de Conick 1998) A credible theoretical account of organised abuse must necessarily (a) account for the available empirical evidence of organised abuse, (b) address the complex patterns of abuse and violence evident in sexually abusive groups, and (c) explain the ways in which sexually abusive groups form in a range of contexts, including families and institutions.”

SexPowerControlChild AbuseSexual AbusePsychiatryRitual AbuseSadisticPedophileRapistsSex OffendersOrganized AbusePaedophilePedophile NetworkPedophilic
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
Create image

“A refusal on the part of psychiatrists and therapists to validate the horrors of their patients' tortured past implies a refusal to take seriously the unconscious psychological mechanisms that individuals need to use to protect themselves from the unspeakable. Such a denial is, however, no longer ethical, for it is in the human capacity to dissociate that lies part of the secret of both childhood abuse and the horrors of the Nazi genocide, both forms of human violence so often carried out by 'respectable' men and women.”

DenialGenocideChild AbusePtsdPsychiatryDissociative Identity DisorderTherapistsDissociationAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsNazisSociety DenialChildhood AbuseTraumatizedDissociativeUnethicalSurvivors Of AbuseComplex PtsdDissociative DisordersHorror Of WarMpdMisdiagnosisAbuse DeniersInvalidationDenial Of Child AbuseHidden PainPsychiatristsTorture SurvivorsPsychological DefencePsychologistsDissociateIgnore What Is WrongHorror Of IncestRespectable MenNot SeriousRespectable Women
Book:From Pain to Violence: The Traumatic Roots of Destructiveness
Create image

“When a child disappears, the space she’d occupied is immediately filled with dozens of people. And these people—relatives, friends, police officers, reporters from both TV and print—create a lot of energy and noise, a sense of communal intensity, of fierce and shared dedication to a task. “But amid all that noise, nothing is louder than the silence of the missing child. It’s a silence that’s two and a half to three feet tall, and you feel it at your hip and hear it rising up from the floorboards, shouting to you from corners and crevices and the emotionless face of a doll left on the floor by the bed. “It’s a silence that’s different from the one left at funerals and wakes. The silence of the dead carries with it a sense of finality; it’s a silence you know you must get used to. But the silence of a missing child is not something you want to get used to; you refuse to accept it, and so it screams at you. “The silence of the dead says, Goodbye. “The silence of the missing says, Find me.”

CrimeChild AbuseBostonNoirKidnap
Book:Gone, Baby, Gone
Create image

“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).”

RealityPowerIllusionBlameChild AbusePowerlessEscapeDissociative Identity DisorderDissociationPowerlessnessTranceTraumatizedDissociative DisordersMagical ThinkingAbused ChildrenEscape From RealitySelf BlameIllusion Of ControlEscaping From RealityTrance States
Author:Marlene Steinberg
Create image

“No amount of me trying to explain myself was doing any good. I didn't even know what was going on inside of me, so how could I have explained it to them?”

LifeGovernmentTruthAmericaQuotesHopePoliticsGrowthHurtMemoriesJusticeHealingFamilyPowerUnited StatesGrowing UpViolenceCrimeYouthInspireAnxietyLivingSurvivalOvercomingPoliceSafetyQuoteSouthInjusticeCorruptionMemoirFighterHopefulControlSurvivorSouthernChild AbuseUnited States Of AmericaLaw EnforcementPowerlessPtsdDomestic ViolencePoliticiansSexual AbuseFamily RelationshipsRapeFamily DramaSurviveAnxiety DisordersJustice SystemViolence Against WomenArizonaSexual AssaultLawsDomestic AbuseRape CultureSexual ViolenceCrime And PunishmentPhysical AbusePanic AttacksLawmakersSurvivors Of AbuseRed TapePedophileRape SurvivorDomesticPowerful StoryHopeful HeartPanic AttackRape Of A ChildPost Traumatic StressAdvocatesRapedEnable AbuseAnxiety Attack
Book:Debbie.
Create image

“There is healing in telling. There is healing in exposing abuse. There is healing in being truthful. There is healing in knowing you are not to blame. There is healing in standing up for yourself. There is healing in setting boundaries. There is healing in self-love. Hold onto hope that you will recover.”

HealingTraumaChild AbuseSpeak UpVictim BlamingHealthy BoundariesToxic FamilySexual AssaultsRape RecoveryExpose Abuse
Book:Soul Cry: Releasing & Healing the Wounds of Trauma
Create image

“I had a long talk with my dear Fat Mary that night, because I had many questions. Could someone actually be beaten to death by such a nun? Did Mother Rufina, the new Superior, know that Sister Clotilda was so cruel? Who let her work with children? Could nuns go to hell? Fat Mary told me she didn’t know the answers to my questions, but she reminded me that it was her role to take my worries and burdens and keep them for me until a time when I could understand them.”

ReligionInjusticeChild AbuseAutobiographySurvivingCritical ThinkingBrutalitySpirtitual GrowthSystematic Abuse
Book:Africa's Child
Create image

“It’s hard to feel supported when you can’t tell people everything. People haven’t really got a clue what it’s like. It’s hard to trust anyone. It’s hard to believe people won’t let you down. I’m feeling like I want to cry. My body feels hollow. Empty. I don’t feel like I’m 17. I feel young. I’m not sure how old, maybe about 10 yrs. It’s hard to accept that I can’t get all the support I need from one person. From any person. It’s hard that no one can fully understand. It’s hard for me to admit that inside I feel a really lonely person. What do I need to do to take care of myself right now? Well I need to cuddle my teddies — it sounds silly, but I need some comfort... I was still cuddling teddies when I should have been cuddling boys. The sick imagery in my mind, rather than making me sexually active, had closed that door completely.”

AbuseMental HealthTraumaSurvivorChild AbuseSexual AbuseDissociative Identity DisorderDissociationChild Sexual AbuseMultiple Personality DisorderIncestDissociativeSplit PersonalityAlterAlter PersonalityIdentity Alteration
Book:Today I'm Alice: Nine Personalities, One Tortured Mind
Create image

“Another patient, Janet, was repeatedly abused by a grandfather who forced her cousin to sexually molest her and put sticks into her vagina. The patient dissociated at the time into a child alter personality, Susie, who remembered the abuse. Susie decided if she had no body, her cousin would not hurt her. Susie imagined she had no body but only her head. The fantasy she had no body to hurt, led to a dissociation of all perceptions of her body and the belief that she avoided pain and her cousin could not hurt her. This mechanism shows the interplay of reality and fantasy in a dissociative defense. Through fantasy, Susie has no body and no pain. Simultaneously, the reality of her torture was recognized as the source of this adaptation. Dissociative defenses adopted her wishful fantasy to solve a brutal experience and its memory.”

FantasyTraumaChild AbuseDissociative Identity DisorderTraumatic ExperiencesDissociative PartsTrauma MemoryAlter Personality
Author:Walter C. Young
Create image

“As a child abuse and neglect therapist I do battle daily with Christians enamored of the Old Testament phrase "Spare the rod and spoil the child." No matter how far I stretch my imagination, it does not stretch far enough to include the image of a cool dude like Jesus taking a rod to a kid.”

ChildrenReligionJesusChristianityNeglectChild AbuseOld TestamentSpiritual Abuse
Book:King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography – The Riveting, Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Young Adult Coming-of-Age Memoir
Create image

“We seek compensation, true, but we also seek to prevent future abhorrent conduct by this or any other priest. We seek to punish a vicious predator of children and the religious institution that stands idly by and watches while a whole generation of God’s precious children are physically and psychologically raped of their childhood, their faith, and their trust in role models. This is about a hierarchy whose solution to the problem is to send the offending priest packing, quietly pay off victims, and actively cover up crimes. The cover-up is responsible for a vicious cycle of crime upon crime. This lawsuit says we will not go quietly like those who came before us. The vicious cycle stops here and now.”

ReligionChurchJusticeEmotionalChild AbuseSexual AbuseAbuse Of PowerPriestCover UpPeadophilia
Book:Betrayal of Faith
Create image

“Zachary notified the local newspapers and all pertinent radio and television stations. He called a press conference at the home of his client, Jennifer Tracey, to announce the filing of a major multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a major religious institution. The dye had been cast. A long, tough road lay ahead. For Zachary, Jennifer, Kenny, and Jake, there was no turning back.”

ReligionChurchJusticeEmotionalChild AbuseSexual AbuseAbuse Of PowerPriestCover UpPeadophilia
Book:Betrayal of Faith
Create image

“But, is this right for my family? The plan was centered on publicity. Would the boys have to testify? Newspaper reporters would hound them. What would things be like at school? Kids could be so cruel. Would the boys be subjected to cruel jokes about sexual desires and preferences? Was her imagination carrying her away, or were these realistic fears?”

ReligionChurchJusticeEmotionalChild AbuseSexual AbuseAbuse Of PowerPriestCover UpPeadophilia
Book:Betrayal of Faith
Create image

“She was right to be angry. He did violate every condition she placed on the resolution of the case. He never thought she was serious. But she was, and his blunder was going to cost him the case of a lifetime. I can do this her way! If she wants the case to be public, then public it shall be! If she wants to turn down $1.1 million, I'll get her $2 million—whatever she wants! I have to convince her!”

ReligionChurchJusticeEmotionalChild AbuseSexual AbuseAbuse Of PowerPriestCover UpPeadophilia
Book:Betrayal of Faith
Create image

“A plain, brown paper-wrapped package came in the mail recently. Upon opening it, I saw that it was a patchwork quilt about four feet by five feet. Many little scraps of cloth, carefully joined by loving hands. Two squares have suggestions of a black cassock and Roman white collar. The maker of the quilt states, “In its variety, I feel it denotes confusion and the world “mixed” up. There are dark spots for the dark times and bright squares, so, hopefully, some good and brightness will come in the future. The other pieces of cloth were of happy times, mothers and children, peaceful settings, happy things.” A note inside stated that she felt we were “scraps,”—the “scraps” that the abusive priests treated us like. They would use us as a scrap is used and then simply toss us aside. I was moved to tears. Holding it in my hands, I could almost feel others' pain and suffering, as I touched each panel. It is a magnificent work, worthy of a prize. I was deeply humbled by the receipt of the quilt. This woman got it; she really got it. This woman got it; she really got it. She has a deeper understanding of what we have gone through. It is rare.”

PainSufferingHopeUnderstandingAbuseVictimSurvivorChild AbuseSexual AbuseRapeCatholic ChurchRubbishSexual AssaultPriestQuiltClergy AbuseReligious AbusePriest AbuseScraps
Book:In the Shadow of the Cross: The True Account of My Childhood Sexual and Ritual Abuse at the Hands of a Roman Catholic Priest
Create image

“Fawn types seek safety by merging with the wishes, needs and demands of others. They act as if they unconsciously believe that the price of admission to any relationship is the forfeiture of all their needs, rights, preferences and boundaries. They often begin life like the precocious children described in Alice Miler’s 'The Drama Of The Gifted Child', who learn that a modicum of safety and attachment can be gained by becoming the helpful and compliant servants of their parents. They are usually the children of at least one narcissistic parent who uses contempt to press them into service- scaring and shaming them out of developing a healthy sense of self: an egoic locus of self-protection, self-care and self-compassion.”

RelationshipsAbuseTraumaChild AbusePtsdFawn
Author:Pete Walker
Create image

“One of the greatest humans in history ended up being the unintended founder of the world's most wanted crime syndicate - Bible is the downfall of Jesus, catholic church is the original sin, it's the british empire of organized religion, with Uncle Sam as the ideal successor to both cartels.”

ChristianityCatholicismChild AbuseCatholic ChurchChristian TheologyChristian NationalismChurch HistoryReligious TerrorismCatholic HistoryChristian Missionaries
Book:Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot
Create image

“No religion is innocent, Islam has its skeletons, Hinduism has its skeletons, Judaism has a countryful, even Buddhism has a few, but compared to all the skeletons of all the organized religions, the Catholic church is built with human bones as framework, and corpses as edifice, and a huge chunk of them belonged to children.”

ChristianityCatholicismChild AbuseCatholic ChurchComparative ReligionChristian TheologyChurch HistoryReligious TerrorismCatholic HistoryChristian Missionaries
Book:Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot
Create image