General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: no more, no less. a pediatrician looks at ALL parents as POTENTIAL abusers. [View all]KitSileya
(4,035 posts)Statistically, most child abusers are parents or step-parents, so if there's a suspicion of abuse, they are on the possible suspect list. Abused children don't necessarily have multiple broken bones or big bruises, so doctors have a set of questions they ask the child to see whether suspicion is warranted.
Statistically, most women are murdered by their partners, so when a woman is murdered, her partner is the prime suspect until he or she can be ruled out.
Statistically, most rapists are men, and they don't have any distinguishing marks to separate them from non-rapist men, so women, who make up the majority of the victims except in very special circumstances, in most cases are careful when meeting new men/are in not-completely safe situations. I'm sure that most men in prison, where men make up the majority of rape victims, are also careful and suspicious of other men - since until proven otherwise, they don't know which men are rapists and which ones are not. The same is the case in the military, where a high number of rape victims are men, but I think that most military men think it cannot happen to them, until it does, because of the atmosphere of 'camaraderie' and 'alpha-male toughness' that is so prevalent in much of the military.
It would be interesting if we could manage to have a serious discussion with men who have been to prison and in the military, and see whether their experiences mirror that of most women's everyday life. However, I fear that any such discussion would be derailed very quickly by those who refuse to see that 'Schrödinger's rapist' isn't claiming that all men are rapists. Some take it very personally - to the extent that I almost begin to suspect they may be feeling guilty about something - in a 'the lady doth protest too much' kind of way.