Was a diary blog - philosophy for now

One issue that I am emotionally involved with is physical child abuse - now the number of people that I personally know that have been exposed to it is very high. It is, as far as I know, completely illegal. Yet it may as well be compulsory as far as I can tell, for all that it can be enforced. The psychological scars seem to persist for a lifetime, and I am now starting to notice these before it ever comes up in conversation. Some parents take the line "do not spare thy rod" all too literally, and if they can't find a rod, any stick, ruler, belt etc will do just fine. Some even still try to spoil the child to make up for their guilt. This usually fails as the relationship starts to get dysfunctional in a love/hate kind of way.