I can personally attest to this. I was abused by my mother to the point of attempting suicide and self mutilation, and my father was a cop who was embarrassed and in denial about our home life and the fact that he, too, was being abused, so it was his word against mine. (She also on multiple counts would hurt herself and threaten to blame it on him and cost him his job and life.) My mother was very careful about leaving too many marks on me that others would think anything of, and once my friends, who had found out about the abuse, forced me to report it, she started putting extra efforts into making herself appear like a loving concerned mom who didn't know "why I was acting the way I was," and even went as far as to scratch her own face and say I did it, even though I had never once touched her or fought back in all the years of her physical abuse. She wanted everyone, including my whole family, to think I was just some crazy, rebellious teenager.

Got essentially laughed at by a social worker and asked if I was on crack because my eyes were red (from crying) and told that because I was 17, I was "bottom priority" and they weren't going to be looking into it.

The last few months before I turned 18 were really terrifying. She was the type of mentally ill individual who would kill someone and feel completely okay about it if she thought that her "God" wanted her to do so, kept threatening to have my dog euthanized, was saying I was demon-possessed, and even tried to do an exorcism on me. She had my door removed, so at night I would put crinkly paper in the doorway to hear her coming, had a knife under my pillow, and didn't sleep because I was afraid she might try to kill me and then probably try to set things up to look like she was somehow "defending" herself from me. For the first time, I, a top student at my school, was failing all my classes because I was so exhausted that I would sleep in class.

I have enough details of the things she did to me to write pages and pages, but suffice to say authorities really don't give a damn if the abuse isn't visible enough.