That's been a big impetus for me to not be a deranged psychopath to my kids. Beyond, y'know....the normal "don't torture children" notion that
most some normal humans develop by the time they reach adulthood. I see the way some people act towards their children...not necessarily physically abusive but just incredibly emotionally destructive, berating them and demeaning them in public...all I can think is that the parent never grew up themselves, and they're just thrilled that they have someone weaker than them to beat up on to feel bigger.
The number of abusive parents of Bay12ers is ridiculous, even allowing for confirmation bias.
I think child abuse is pretty common in general. Most people just don't talk about it much.
There needs to be a crackdown.
*shrug* And how do you propose to do that? A lot of it is hidden, with complicity from the victims even. Hell, I went along with the "he fell out of bed" bullshit lie for two years, until the night I ended up with two black eyes, a broken nose and pneumonia shortly thereafter. Kind of hard to blame that on the floor.
There's also still some unease over telling parents how they can and cannot discipline their children. A big part of the reason it was treated so lightly in my case (early 1980's) was that prosecuting for child abuse was seen by more than a few people as an attack on the family -- it reduced the father's control of his household. A father who couldn't take his kid out behind the woodshed with a thick leather belt or a birch wand, was seen a recipe for teen delinquency.
30 years later, and we ain't changed all that much. You still hear plenty of people saying that the problem with schools these days is that teachers aren't allowed to paddle, and defending it with "Well, when I was a kid my dad would whoop my hide good if I did something bad, and that's why I turned out fine." I love to counter that with, "Well, when I was a kid my stepfather broke my nose for being able to read at age 4, and stabbed me for not eating undercooked liver. What's your point?"
EDIT:
@Bohandas: Oh, and that last part is going to go over like gangbusters with the folks already most opposed to taking child abuse seriously. "Inform on their parents? What is this, East Germany??!? Sounds like another libruhl commie attack on good old-fashioned American values"