The Never Ending Cycle of Abuse

The horrors of coming from a family where the child is beaten unfortunately is not as uncommon as we would like to think. An incident of child abuse in the United States is reported every ten seconds.  Unfortunately superstar running back Adrian Peterson has joined the unsettling numbers of abusive parents towards their children. He follows the disturbing statistic that 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the appalling cycle of abuse.  Peterson turned himself in early Saturday morning to Montgomery County, Texas, authorities and was released about a half hour later after posting the $15,000 fine.  It was emphasized, "It is important to remember that Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury." Child abuse is a horror that clearly is not right, but can we really blame Peterson if he was brought up with a stiff hand and that is all he knew? 

In the reports the child had cuts and bruises all up and down his legs, allegedly from a tree branch that Peterson had used to discipline his four year-old son. The picture shows the police evidence of the beating of Peterson's son. "He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in East Texas. Adrian has never hidden from what happened." He never knew anything different, and only was carrying on what he learned from childhood.  I am not suggesting that this is right in any way shape or form, no child should have to go through being beaten, but it is a controversial idea that if maybe he had been taught differently, he would not resort to inflicting the beatings upon his own children.  Apparently Peterson sent a text saying, "Never do I go overboard! But all my kids will know, hey daddy has he biggest heart but don't play no games when it comes to acting right." It seems very ironic that Peterson was beating his child when trying to teach him to act right.  Last time I checked, beating a child doesn't qualify as "acting right." Now we create the potential problem that his child will one day continue the vicious cycle of beating his own kids to teach them how to act right. 

The Cuts and Bruises Caused by Peterson's Abuse