Is abuse far more common than we think?

[Curiousto]

I'm reflecting on a conversation I had with a friend last week. They told me in confidence they were abused as a child. My head started going down a wormhole and realised that my 4 closest friends were all abused by men as a child or an adult, or both. None of it was reported to anyone.

8 of my wider circle of friends have disclosed a form of abuse to me from their lives. None of it was reported to anyone.

I was abused as a child and also by my XH. None of it was reported to anyone.

Every woman my partner has dated had been abused by a man in some way. He is only aware of one incident that was reported due to the violence of the crime.

I know people don't report, due to the appalling rates of conviction and the shame attached. But just how widespread do you think this goes?

Yes. Women /girls/children used as punchbags. Men or women/older children using younger siblings as punchbags. Abused in their own homes. Shame prevents people to talk to anyone about it.

Abuse is very common, but teenager on teenager abuse would be far more common than abuse by older men, and this is because their relationships are largely with fellow teenagers. It is also a fact that only bad news is considered news.. It is not unlikely in my view that for every one thousand positive events relating to older men here that there is just the one negative. The media supports the prejudice, and likely the media is prejudice too...