Victims of serious physical abuse are often too young or too ill to provide a history of their assault, and if older, may be too frightened to do so. (child-encyclopedia.com)
As bullying rarely manifests itself in serious physical abuse, it is not usually covered by the criminal law of assault. (politics.co.uk)
A large - scale survey of young adults by the NSPCC showed that seven per cent had, as children, suffered serious physical abuse, defined as violence causing injury or occurring regularly throughout childhood. (psychology.wikia.com)