Juni,
You are absolutely right! I'm in college studying sociology which is a study of how groups of people get along and develope over time. In my juvenile delinquency class, it said that girls who grew up abused will most probably abuse their children and become abused by their mates. Boys who are abused grow up to abuse their mates and children. That is modeling theory where the kids copy the same-sex parent's example (girls copy mothers and boys, their fathers) They don't have a basis for comparison to know any different.
It's an evil cycle that I vowed to break. In fact, my sister and I talked about it and promised to break that cycle ourselves when we had kids of our own someday. I had kids but she didn't. Neither of us are harsh. I changed my ways when I just could not bring myself to continue doing something so terrible to my loved ones (spanking with a board or spoon) anymore. I ordered my parents to not spank my kids, but they continued as they thought they had a right as they were in charge of them when I was in school. I almost lost my daughter over it. My mom used a leather belt on them, missing their buts and hitting their legs over and over and over again just as she did to us just as her father did to her. Nazi mentality!