I agree with LittleRhino, who said we are all individuals and no two paths are the same. It isn't a given at all that we would all react the same.

There is no law of nature that says all people who were abused will be abusers themselves.

My T and I have spoken several times about why some people who were abused grow up to be abusers and some people don't. He said that as a defense mechanism, some children, while being abused (e.g. physically abused), will identify with the abuser. To protect themselves. They internalize this and when they are adults, the cycle continues. Other children don't identify with the abuser, but use other protective mechanisms. When they grow up, they are not abusers. Others fall somewhere in between.

In my family, one sister vowed never to have children. I don't know if she was worried about re-enacting abuse. I always thought it was because she had a rough time growing up, with our parents, and didn't want to go through that again, even if she would have the parent role. I reacted differently. I so wanted to have children and give them the happy childhood I never had. I wanted to have kids and be to them like I wished my parents had been to me. (I tried hard but was not completely successful in giving them the perfect childhood--ha!--partly because my kids are individuals and do not need or want exactly what would have been ideal for me.) Yet another sister had children, and she is very emotionally abusive to them. Yuck.