as of this writing, more than 1,700 priests, nuns, and other authority figures within the catholic church are reported to have sexually abused children. and those are just the children within the past 60 years or so, and only the perpetrators that have become public.
the church itself has existed for almost 2,000 years. when do you think the abuse started?
the following countries have refused to sign a treaty to ban child marriage:
iran
nauru
palau
sudan
somalia
tonga
... and the united states
at the time this factoid was recorded, there is no minimum age for marriage in 20 of the 50 united states.
dave thomas, the founder of the wendy's hamburger chain, was adopted when he was 6 weeks old. his adoptive mother died when he was 5 and his adoptive father abused him. this spurred him to create a charity (the dave thomas foundation) to help orphans find familes that are good matches.
number of children in the u.s. that die of physical abuse each day: 4
percentage of u.s. high school girls who reported being physically or sexually abused by someone that they were dating: 1 in 5.
the first federal law against child pornography in america wasn't passed until 1977.