I work as a caregiver in a group home for mentally handicapped adults. Despite being seen in the court of public opinion as this saintly job requiring so much compassion and patience, the reality is that my coworkers and I all physically and psychologically abuse the clients on a daily basis. We keep it a secret from everyone--the administrative staff, the state inspectors, the families of the clients, and any coworker we think is a narc. But most of us assault the clients regularly for minor infractions. Usually we strike them where a mark won't readily show up, like the back of the head, but if a visible mark is left, we know how to sweep it all under the rug. Since mental retardation often comes with behavioral problems, a lot of clients will hit themselves when they're upset, so we can usually just blame any injuries we create on the clients hitting themselves. If not, then it's them tripping over their own two feet or something. Most the clients are so low-functioning that they can't speak, and the few who can speak have too limited a vocabulary to tell anyone what we're doing. Client right to privacy laws forbid security cameras from ever being installed, so it's just paper documentation that serves as evidence of what happens, and that's easily falsified. There's a major circle of confidence we direct care staff have in making sure our abuse of the clients never gets out, and this has been going on for YEARS--long before I started working there myself.