Is it common for someone who was abused to become an abuser?

[grit]

Limitations of any statistic of this caliber is you cannt poll every single person... Only those that actually partake a survey or fill a Health form or some other documentation. So you can't know. What is Stat for this in US, Europe, or the world or Kansas.
It does not matter. You will never know for sure.
The question is we are all abused but hardly many admit their behaviour is abuse here.

That says a lot.

If you feel maybe because of your abuse you become one.... Trust me by acknowledging this you are already in healing path. You can recover and find compassion for you or anyone you wronged.
That is the beauty of humanity. We can recover given an opportunity.

 

[Sideways]

Can I ask - can you clarify ‘abuse’?

For example, I’ve been raped. Very low statistical chance of me becoming a rapist.

But ‘abuse’ can be used really loosely these days and encompass things like emotional or verbal abuse. When I’ve been at my most unwell, could the people on the receiving end of my behaviour consider me to be ‘abusive’? I think that’s a question that a lot of us would have to concede that yeah, when I’ve been really unwell? It may have gotten that bad...

 

[Gs172003]

Can I ask - can you clarify ‘abuse’?

I dont know if I can clarify. I don't have a set "one" anything. But you do have a great point.

 

[Justmehere]

Actually, there is a bit of debate in psychology research on this issue.

Vox opinion piece by a researcher going over some of the data: Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, and the myth that all victims of abuse become abusers

Study: Adults physically abused as children not more likely to physically abuse their children

From a non-profit that addresses male sexual abuse:

The best available research suggests that 75% or more of those who commit acts of sexual or physical abuse against others were themselves abused as children. However, the research also indicates that:

The vast majority of children who are sexually abused do not go on to abuse others. As a male survivor, will I become abusive? What if I already have?

Another study:

The data support the notion of a victim-to-victimiser cycle in a minority of male perpetrators but not among the female victims studied. Sexual abuse by a female in childhood may be a risk factor for a cycle of abuse in males.
Cycle of child sexual abuse: Links between being a victim and becoming a perpetrator | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core

There are also other studies that show that victims are more likely to be abusers.

Overall, I’m not sure the science is totally settled on this issue.

 

[Dreaming88]

My mother was abused and groomed when she was in psychiatric care from eh age of 16. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as the result of brain injury. The man that groomed her was schizophrenic also and his father was know as a pervert apparently. My mother then molested my sisters and I. One sister did become abusive physically and sexually. My other sister and I are not. I now have Pure OCD which is extremely challenging as I've never physically or sexually abused anyone nor have I ever wanted to. It's the fear of belongong to such an abusive family.
Yes there's a choice but I don't think it's even part of people's nature. Certainly not apart of mine. I don't have those urgers. It's the fact I'm terrified I'll become what my mother and sister were.

 

[littleoc]

Feel free to ignore this post, but I remember you leaving the forums for a while because you felt that you were abusing someone else (I obviously can't know if you were or weren't) and wanted to work on this rather than other things for a while. So, does this question have to do with that event?

Just in case it does, I wouldn't focus on how many trauma victims become abusers themselves. (Unless you're just curious.) Instead, I would focus on yourself and how you better yourself and your relationships. If that makes sense.

But in answer to the original question, a lot of research shows that preventing the abusive cycle starts with early intervention. That is, finding an abused child (or a child witnessing abuse, etc.) and showing empathy. For a lot of humans, empathy becomes stronger when we go through things like this. If it doesn't, then it probably started as a defense mechanism (which is a hypotheses only at this point, I'm not sure how that would be tested at this time -- but I'm also not a psychologist). But, what that also means is that the percentage of the abused who becomes an abuser is going to be skewed data, no matter what, unless we only looked at situations that were identical. If that makes sense. Different cultures deal with abuse differently, and that also includes the different cultures within one country, whether between classes, ethnicities, or races (and etc). There are just a lot of variables.

But, again, I'm not a psychologist and I have very little data to work with. I only had one good source for this, and it's here: SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research

Edit to add: I think that article might not be as publicly available, but here's a search for it in case you have access to one of these: Dead Link Removed
You could also try requesting a scan of it from Interlibrary Loan offices. That might be available outside of universities?

 

[Changing4Best]

My dad's dad was an abuser who beat his wife and children. My dad was not an abuser, he had a heart.