The cruelty of child abuse has a long history and through the ages too little has really changed except that these abused children become adults.

The oxymoron is that childhood abuse is a crime, but the status of the crime ceases to exist as soon as the childhood abused is an adult. Ergo, no crime was committed and legally, such groups of traumatized adults do not exist. The childhood abused adult is again abandoned, by law now, ignored by society, belittled, shamed and blamed for what they endured as helpless children.
The mentally, psychologically, physically and sexually abused adult who was abused in childhood must go on with life the best way he/she can, hiding their suffering, pretending and functioning in daily life without revealing their early childhood suffering, to prevent society from shunning them or labeling them as an outcast. How many adults abused as children exist in the world today? How many are there all around the world still suffering?

Who are Adults Abused as Children?
Adults Abused as Children is a group of men and women who endured abuse as children, abuse inflicted by adults, and were not defended or protected by anyone. Legally, the adult abused in childhood does not exist!
In the years of my research, I could find only two counties who partially admitted that here are adults who were abused as children and make amends in small steps.
One is Australia, read Senator Murray’s speech.
The other is Ireland who attempts to recognize the "adult abused as a child". Ireland restricts their recognition of adults who were abused as children, to the individuals who were abused under the care of governmental and/or Catholic facilities. Since their legislation passed in 2002, many problems occurred because the Redress Board has silenced the victims from telling their story.
Nevertheless, there are two countries who are admitting that there are adults abused in childhood. The rest of the world still ignores the fact that adults abused as children do exist.
The world denies their rights and ignores their needs. The childhood-abused adult's basic human rights will remain ignored unless the stigma of shame and guilt is erased and the neglected rights of the early-traumatized adult are publicly acknowledged.
Today these people abused as children are adults who must live with the legacy of trauma inflicted in childhood.
Since Nov. 26, 2008, we can ad to this list the Germen Government who acknowledged the abuse approx. 500,000 institutionalized children in the years from 1949 -1972.

The consequences of experienced trauma are evident but not yet publicly or legally acknowledged in spite of signs, warnings and scientific documentation from leading psychologists and psychiatrist around the world.

Experienced trauma alters identities.
The abused must live with the negative imprint of early life: there is no escape.
If the abused person does not learn alternative ways of living, he/she will repeat/continue the legacy of abuse, according to the abuse experienced in childhood. Very few will not abuse again. The majority do, and because of their legacy of denial, some do not realize they are now abusers themselves. Some, though not actually committing abuse, watch it happening to others and do nothing, are immobilized and helpless in their knowledge. This may be called a kind of passive abuse as when a mother stands by and watches her husband beat their child.

The daily struggle of the abused individual has its roots in repressed trauma, experienced abuse that the mind seems to have forgotten but that still lives in the body's memory. Professional help often results in further depression, anxiety, and/or other psychological disorders and dysfunctions.

Why can such inhuman abuse continue?
The roots of abuse have a long tradition.
Child rearing and children's rights were and still are, in the minds of many, a family affair, and nobody's business. So is their definition of abuse.

Child neglect is excused by the demands of daily life.
Parents do not by accident fall into the goal of making money rather than taking the time to raise their children. It is too easy to blame a failing economy for neglecting what should be our first priority: our children.
The responsibility for children is passed off to babysitters or other part-time care-givers and/or, older siblings who are forced into care-giving, or, the youngsters are simply left alone.

Basic needs for intimacy are unfulfilled.
The time spent with children is too rarely a one-on-one interaction. Very little time is dedicated to the child's needs and rarely is uninterrupted, undivided attention and interaction given the child. Family time is undermined by media or other distractions. Too many parents today do not know what the needs of a child are, and how could they, as their needs were never met. How can they give what they never received and don't know?

Deprived of a mental nurturing and healthy life nutrition.
Instead of providing a healthy, balanced diet, children are too often fed with sweets and junk-food. We are facing new generations of children who suffer obesity at younger and younger ages. Children have no more nest at home, they are transported from an overnight stay in their bed to schools, to after-school-program, to a babysitter and when picked up late their parents stop at a fast food restaurant. While driving from one place to another, the parents have no time to talk to their children, because their communication is limited to the cell-phone. When finally arriving what they call home, any interaction is limited by TV and soon after the day is over. Another day in a child’s life past by without receiving the nurturing bond, that is needed to become a meal healthy and stable human being, by the one who brought them into to this world.


Punishment instead of teaching.
The common statement "my parents hit me for my own good" is very much alive and practiced into the second millennium. In their belief that their own parents and teachers must have done something right by rearing and instructing them, they now repeat the imprint of the abuse they received during childhood, their childhood experience. Now, being parents themselves, not knowing a different way, oblivious to what is true nurture, care and unconditional love, their own children will be reared in the same harmful way they were.
Link to: "Publication/Open Letters" to Dorothy Neddermeyer

Negative mind-infiltration.
Hate, racism and prejudice are deeply rooted in family tradition. With a leisurely racial joke, a derogatory remark towards a neighbor, or a disdainful comment about another person's appearance, parents imprint their children. These lessons are learned in the heart even before the child is school-age.

Improper sexual contact.
Molestation and sexual misuse executed by adults and adolescents is in many cases ignored and denied because of shame and guilt, or excused as an uncontrollable desire or need that must be satisfied. Blatantly sexual interactions among very young children are not seen as molestation and are more likely to be disregarded and conveniently explained as experimenting.

A dysfunctional adult rears a dysfunctional child.
The results of abusive childrearing methods are evident in the maturing adult who lives with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other disorders.
The child is helpless and dependent, has no choice of other living conditions, no other survival resources and must therefore endure everything imposed by the adult.

Religion is one of the main contributors to misguided childrearing practices. The harsh, false interpretation of scriptural discipline and the demand to control a child, is called "love" and leaves no room to respect a child and grant equal rights. We know that religion has condoned and actively initiated child-abuse throughout the ages, even while preaching peace and goodness. Spare the rod and spoil the child is a hateful, abusive saying, yet constantly used by abusers who want excuses to harm others.

The Invisible Abused
An adult abused as a child is today not even a peripheral nuisance to government. These children are not recognized by the law unless the abuse is overt. They simply don't exist according to the law. Nevertheless, we know they suffer and in the future many will let their children suffer as well. The legacy of the invisible abused continues.
In my contact with over 5000 (1994 - 2005) adults abused as children, I have concluded that approximately 80 percent have never mentioned to anyone, specific content of their horrifying childhood abuse. A majority who were physically or mentally abused don't even name their experience as abuse.
There is a frighteningly high number who are unable to see the connection between the experienced violence in their childhoods and its consequences in their dysfunctional adult lives.
Unfortunately, only one-half of one percent even seek private, psychological help.
There are an overwhelming number of adults abused in childhood desperately struggling with their self-worth, trying to get a grasp on depression, anxiety and other disorders, trying to restore their dignity and identity which was taken away by abusers many years ago.
Anger, rage, brutality, feelings of worthlessness, and all other destructive feelings are the consequences of childhood abuse. Such helplessness creates hopelessness and leads to reactions such as chemical dependence, obesity or anorexia, and crime. A complete account of all childhood-abused adults will never be possible since many, like me (for 42 years of my life) have suppressed their traumatic experience. I have lived with denial, [as] many others still must live with it, [in order] to protect our sanity and to defend ourselves against the stigma society brands on those who do not function properly, who do not fit the norm, who are invisible or barely visible in their silent suffering.
Still, they have a need and the right to heal the mental wounds inflicted in childhood, especially since the abused may well abuse again, and only an abused person will continue the age-old legacy of horror by preying on others.

Abuse has psychological, social, economic, and cultural roots.
Without recognizing the root severity of the vicious circle of abuse, no prevention or treatment can ever be successful. The result now and for the future, a psychologically sick culture, society and economy.

History of Child Abuse
Hundreds of books recorded in great detail, a significant amount of the history of abuse. An enormous amount of physiologists point to the long-term-effect childhood abuse has.
The evidence, how the deprived and abused is destroying is self and society, is visible everywhere, - but who cares.

Until a few years ago, child abuse was a peripheral, nuisance-subject for all governments and still is in many countries.
The proof for this statement is that there are no comprehensive, unified laws on child abuse.
" There is very little knowledge and no education available to the public with a clear definition of child abuse. Worldwide, the legal departments and the social workers have different views of the definition of child abuse.
" Very few, incomplete paragraphs and some contradictory definitions in the law express how little a country cares for the well-being of its children. Further, even less is done to fully enforce the few existing laws.

Nevertheless, the pain of being abused feels the same to every child in the world and the effect remains as the imprint of a trauma.
Read about child rights at www.crin.org

The following is another example of how a country regards the little human being, and reveals that many countries have chosen not to join the worldwide call to protect their children...
Excerpt from Childs Rights Information Network:
Since its adoption in 1989 after more than 60 years of advocacy, the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified more quickly and by more governments (all except Somalia and the US) than any other human rights instrument. Its basic premise is that children (all human beings below the age of 18) are born with fundamental freedoms and the inherent rights of all human beings.

Many governments have gone even further, enacting legislation, creating mechanisms and putting into place a range of creative measures to ensure the protection and realization of the rights of those under the age of 18.

Nevertheless, as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said: "The principle of 'all children, all rights' is still much too far from being a reality."
In spite of all the effort division still exist. For example USA
Abuse or not abuse is the question. http://nospank.net/signals.htm
Other Articles are available on our Website Link to Publication/Articles

The plea for not abusing children becomes louder but who cares?
"A Dark Day for Children in Wyoming" Exposes how much power of an adult, senator, has to destroy a child a child's live.

What we know about the effect of abuse
Science now has proof that abuse alters the brain development and function.
We have listed reference points from experts in psychology and psychiatry about the important consequences (physical and mental results) of trauma. It is unfortunate that many need scientific proof that child abuse is damaging. If we were not numbed by our repressed feelings, we could see the effect of early trauma in the lives of men and women crowding our prisons. Link to:
www.aaacworld.org/Information Scientific Research

Dr. James W. Prescott, Ph.D. presents The Origins of Love & Violence
http://ttfuture.org/services/bonding/main.htm
The Website has many significant articles and essays available addressing the varieties of abuse.
We continue searching for material and welcome all articles and will continue to make them available to you. Link to: www.aaacworld.org/Information/ Effects of early trauma

Martin Teicher of Harvard University's McLean Hospital studies how childhood abuse affects the children's neurological development. www.news.harvard.edu

Childhood abuse hurts the brain essay by Ushanda io Elima

Dr. Alice Miller shares her analytical findings in her many books.
www.alice-miller.com

Dr. Arthur Janov published many books on early inflicted wounds and has efficient evidence on his website www.primaltherapy.com
There is sufficient and qualified information available in books and websites link to our Information/ Books and Information/ websites
Just to mention a few. We also listed many qualified therapists link to Information/Where can I find help

The question...
Who are the adults who ignore the facts?
The violent individual and a society in denial.
Now is the time to ask: Who are the ones allowing the continuation of physical, psychological, ritual abuse, molestation, incest, and rape and are ignoring the scientific warnings?

Denial
Those who deny that they were abused are the source for re-abusers. Denial of one's own abuse experience dulls feeling and reduces respect for other human beings. An adult with a repressed memory of a traumatic childhood experience, will of necessity as a child-rearing adult, fail. They cannot grasp the damage they inflict, and feel no need to change their child-rearing approach. Many don't even know what is abuse.

When parents failed, governments did nothing.
For the same reason that governments failed to protect the innocent at the time of abuse, they are failing again.
-- By not providing therapeutic or supportive help for adults who were abused in childhood.
-- By ignoring scientific warnings of the traumatic imprint the child must carry into adulthood and that cause some to become abusive parents, continuing the legacy of suffering.

Only the childhood abused adult in denial, who has never healed its deep psychological wounds will repeat the imprint of its childhood and becomes, knowingly or unknowingly, an abuser.

It is highly likely that an adult who was abused as a child, never received help or equivalent compensation for the inflicted harm. It is the adult with this missing respect for another human being, who allows the mistreatment or misuse of a child. It is the imprint of abuse that hinders the adult in acknowledging the basic rights of a human being, the right to be unharmed in mind, body and spirit.

There are two sources we need to hold responsible: the abuser and the ones who fail to protect.
1. The one who executed the physical, psychological, ritual, neglect, molestation, incest, rape.
2. AND the second, who justifies or denies such action, or fails to protect the innocent from such cruelty.
It was, and still is, always an adult who initiates, supports, or justifies such a crime.

The question is, Who are these adults?
-- They are the individual in denial who is guilty of inflicting mental and/or physical harm.
-- They are the friend, partner, observer who knows of the abuse but does not act in the child's interest.
-- They are also the government made up of individuals in denial who act irresponsibly and fail to protect the helpless child.
There is no law or any mention made anywhere (except in Ireland) that recognizes the millions of adults abused in childhood, and consequently little acknowledgement of the trauma they must live with, which may seriously hinder their daily lives.

Toward the goal of an abuse-free future
Towards the elimination of future abuse in all forms, support must come from
-- the individual adult
-- society at large
-- governmental acknowledgement
-- international Laws united on human rights.

To begin this difficult task we must first be willing to listen and accept the stories of the abused as a reality, providing a foundation that does not blame and shun the childhood victim, but functions as a witness to validate their fears and endured traumas, and offers solutions without disrespecting individual needs.

Governments must recognize and help disseminate the results of scientific research concerning how childhood abuse affects the adult, and how violence is created.

Governments must acknowledge the early inflicted trauma and validate the needs of the abused by providing support in their healing process, (example Ireland)

Governments must erase any statutes of limitation for child abuse, and work towards achieving an international agreement of the definition of abuse and educate society concerning that definition.

Governments must grant judgments for compensation from the abuser(s).

We as abused individuals contribute
- by refusing to hide the crime committed against us
- by speaking out
- by coming forward with our childhood story
- by claiming our fundamental right to be mentally and physically unharmed.

Every story of childhood abuse can help raise awareness by exposing the incomprehensible harm done to children and thereby help prevent one more generation of mentally and physically abused people.

The public needs to be informed so they can support awareness and counseling programs. If the average individual can acknowledge the existence of the abused and display empathy, and allow the provision of qualified psychological help, awareness then we begin to erase denial. Human dignity and respect may be restored and future harm can no longer exist because it comes up against firm awareness instead of denial.

A newly established international law will ensure the full execution of the law to protect the adult who was abused in childhood and aid the abused of any age level in their self-chosen, healing progress.

Sieglinde W. Alexander