The abusive parent is extremely protective and jealous of the child, refuses to let the child have any social contact, distrusts the child, often acuses the child of sexual promiscuity. The Three Elements in Abuse Abuse most often occurs in the home. Three elements are usually involved and create the environment for an incident of abuse to occur. Chronicly abusive parents have certain characteristics and a behaviour pattern not representative of good parenting. Many abusers have a history of having been abused themselves or at least brought up in very strict families.
Abusive parents keep to themselves, move from place to place, and usually are young.
They pick a mate who is rather passive. The mate usually knows about the abuse, ignores it, and even may participate in it. Usually only one child in the family is abused. Some children are more vulnerable to abuse than others. Children under six are considered a high-risk population.