People who abuse children are easy to identify and usually have a mental illness or mental retardation. In fact, many offenders are upstanding community citizens. Abuse is more likely to occur in a strange place far from the home of the victim.
Child abuse occurs within every neighborhood and school community across the country.
Many reports of child abuse actually are false reports. Most often these situations are an attempt on the part of the child to receive needed attention or occur as a result of an adult's actions, not the child's. Most sex abuse offenses are committed by homosexual males. Pedophiles are individuals whose sexual orientation is children. Parents can almost always tell if their child has been abused.