alt Hacker NewsPeople that have been abused are more likely to abuse others.
If we remove this cycle of abuse, what is the natural rate of humans that will hurt others?
An uncomfortable idea, as victims become perpetrators, it may be best to segregate victims to prevent future abuse and victimization.
Replies
Nobody can answer that. Abuse can be low intensity, spread across large period of time or intense 1-off event and resulting damage can be similar. Spread across whole lifetimes till the point of experiment.
Extremely individual reactions, what makes one tougher breaks another completely and permanently, and everything in between.
I'd say everybody experienced some sort and level of abuse, typical school bullies (which were usually also bullied somehow, hence the behavior).
I like how you went from a probabilistic assertion in the first sentence to a categorical one in the last. Perhaps you grew up in a fallacious environment.
> as victims become perpetrators, it may be best to segregate victims to prevent future abuse and victimization
Wonderful idea. Let's not forget to segregate the poors, since they commit violent crimes at higher rates too. We can build a perfect utopia if only we just get rid of all the undesirables!
In practice this just stops victims from coming forward and deepens the cycle
People that have been treated well are more likely to treat other people well.
If we remove this cycle of decency, what is the natural rate of humans that will hurt others?
The premise is flawed, humans learn from their environment and there's really no way to put a human in a coffin until they're 20 and see what they do then.