The word 'mistreat' is correct and commonly used in written English.
It means to treat someone with cruelty or unkindness. Example: The employees accused their boss of mistreating them by forcing them to work long hours without proper compensation.
Politicians who tell lies such as "she is obviously ill" and mistreat citizens by telling them to "sit down and shut up" will hopefully never make it to the White House.
English football has long had a reputation for mishandling unusual attacking talent but in recent years it has also shown an ability to mistreat the more meat-and-potatoes centre-forward.
Narcissistic personality disorder involves a pervasive grandiosity, an extreme desire for attention, a sense of entitlement, a willingness to exploit or mistreat others, an excessive need for admiration and a lack of empathy.
Western nations risk sacrificing the right to criticise other countries for human-rights abuses if they mistreat detainees or threaten to execute them, argued Chris Patten, the EU's external-relations commissioner.
The party's modernisers may privately despair: its electoral programme talks of a rise in the minimum wage, an end to privatisation and penalties for firms which shift their operations or "mistreat" temporary workers.
Increasing the length of tours in Iraq was found to make soldiers more likely to mistreat people.In this section The craze for maize Insatiable Into the hornets' nest A moral sense The frugal fisherman Contaminated Who's the real left-winger?
Politicians are keen to draw up new rules to ensure that mortgage companies do not mislead or mistreat naive borrowers.
America's Congress is currently deliberating a law to impose sanctions on countries that mistreat their religious minorities, with the Middle East as one of the intended targets.
Matthew Yglesias says coaching college sports in such a system necessarily entails using a position of power to mistreat young people.
In 2004 Peru's Constitutional Court struck down a law that banned members of the armed forces from having homosexual relations, whether on or off base, while the police's human-rights manual instructs officers not to mistreat gays, lesbians or transvestites.
Amid rising criticism at home and abroad, state prosecutors have cracked down on employers who mistreat foreigners.
