jewish law and thoughts on how it relates in cases of abuse

Lashon Hara (literally bad speech/tongue or gossip)

While I agree wholeheartedly with the overall idea that gossip should be avoided, I know that in my zeal to be an obedient, good girl, I didn't tell people about my situation for years, and I think that for emotionally fragile/unhealthy people, these laws can have an unintended negative effect. If you have unclear boundaries, knowing when to tell can be difficult.

Also, I wonder exactly how unintended this effect is. In cases of clergy abuse of congregants, it helps keep the old boy network safe. Even in the case of clergy inflicted spousal abuse, it helps to not get the work out that it exists, and here we get back to the issue of Kavod Hatorah mentioned earlier, and the issue of respecting rabbis just for being rabbis, which the rabbi old boy network seems to encourage.