Have you ever read Gavin DeBecker's book The Gift of Fear? That's what we're talking about here. DeBecker implores us to listen to that inner voice, and not try to rationalize things away because it's too impolite to think certain things or to be rude to someone who doesn't appear to have our best interest in mind. When dealing with danger, erring on the side of caution is usually the wise choice.harlan wrote: Or the victim of repeated abuse. Injuries document trauma...not necessarily the underlying conditions.
As for the "injuries", well experts very often draw conclusions from injuries that require pattern recognition and deductive reasoning. To your point... child abuse cases often lead to concrete changes because of a *pattern* of injuries.
With this gentleman we see a broken nose and cauliflower ear. The former can happen for any number of reasons, but the latter is the result of a pattern of trauma. Put the two together and one can draw reasonable conclusions that make it important to consider this gentleman quite capable of engaging in a rumble.
Or to put it another way, Occam's Razor applies. When considering competing storylines, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
- Bill