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Child abuse has plagued our society for centuries. In recent years the United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect Issues (1991) has deemed maltreatment of children a national emergency. This country has a short history of manadatory reporting laws of child maltreatment. In the past thirty years, mandatory reporting laws have helped improve the circumstances for children to receive assistance if they are being abused. However, high numbers of unreported and unsubstantiated cases are being recorded. Clarification and education of these laws is still necessary to increase the amount of accurate child abuse and neglect reports, and to decrease the amount of inappropriate and nonreported incidences.
History of Mandatory Reporting Laws:
It was not until the 1960's that child abuse was formally identified as a social problem with devastating dimensions. The first child abuse reporting statute was explored in 1962 at a conference held by the Department of Health, education, and Welfare's Children's Bureau (Yell, 1998). Shortly after in 1963 through 1965 several models of reporting statutes were created. More concretely, the National Child Abuse and Prevention and Treatment Act became law in 1965. This new federal las "provided funds to states that met it's guidelines for reporting and dealing with child abuse and neglect" (Yell, 1998). This reporting law also supported agencies that worked to prevent child abuse and neglect by offering fudning for services and research in this area. Finally in 1967 all fifty states adopted some form of legislation regarding professionals to report suspected abuse (Meriwether, 1986).
Some Specifics about Reporting Laws:
The first round of reportinglaws was narrow in scope. The laws, from state to state, took ona general similarity to each other. However, some states tended to redefine the statutes by broadening the groups of professionals mandated to report and the specific definitions of reportable conditions. Overall, there are seven basic elemnets in a reporting statute:
Definitions of Abuse
The Level of Proof Required to Make a report
Professional Who are Mandated to Report
Conditions for Immunity form Suits
Sanctions for Failure to Report
Privilege Communication Guidelines
Reporting Procedures
The specifics of these terms were left up to each individual state's discretion.
Child abuse legislation was created, in part, to help professionals identify children who are suspected victims of abuse and to protect such children from experiencing further maltreatment. The National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (1999) reports that since 1988 there has been a forty-one percent increase in the number of reports made nation wide. However, while repoting of child maltreatment has increased, research indicates that "most abused and neglected children are not being identified" (Crenshaw, 1995). Some research that supports claims of underreported instances of child abuse claims that professionals fail to report even "half of the maltreated children they see" Besherov, 1996). Hence underreporting continues to be a strong problem in the war against child abuse. Equally as troubling as underreporting incidences of child abuse is inappropriate reporting of child abuse incidences. For instance, a reporter may identify discipline as abuse in a low income, miority family because of the stereotypical belief that abuse typically occurs in family's with these demographics. Further, in some cases reports may even go untended to because of lack of resources Child Protection Services hass to investigate cases of suspected maltreatment (especially if they are inundated with reports based on stereotypical interpretations of abuse etc.). How is it possible to increase unreported incidences while decreasing the amount of inappropriate reporting? One way to adjust the current problems with reporting may lie in the laws themselves.
Policy Implications of Mandatory Reporting Laws:
Analayzing the current structure of the reporting statutes is one way to begin to explore why underreporting and inappropriate reporting are happening. It also gives us a concrete place to start to make shifts in policies to respond to "real life" social problems. As mentioned before, there are seven major sections in reporting statutes. Here is a summary of the sections and a) what they generally included and b) how they may contribute to either underreporting and/or inappropriate reporting.
Definitions: Defines what abuse is. Presently definitions included in mandatory laws seem vague, broad, and overwhelming making it difficult to identify what exactly abuse is and contributing to underreporting and inappropriate reporting of incidences.
Proof required to Make a Report: Typically the law states that a report must be made where there is "reasonable suspicison" of maltreatment. This terminology can be interpreted in a number of ways and may encourage either underreporting or inappropriate reprting of child abuse becaue of it's subjectivity.
Professionals Who are Mandated to Report: Some states require professionals that work with children and nonprofessionals that may have nothing, directly, to do with children. Requiring nonprofessionals to report may be problematic as"'substantiated reports from nonprofessionals are very low" (Meriwether, 1986). This may increase the amount of inappropriate incidences of child maltreatment and further take up valuable resources with Children's Protective Services.
Reporting procedures: Specifiy how to make a report. These directions can sseem confusing and fused with red tape hence detering people from reporting actual cases of abuse and neglect.
Sanctions: A clause about the penalties that may be incurred because of not reporting suspected maltreatment for those mandated to report generally exists in each statute. Some very strict sanctions have reportedly caused such fear in those mandated to report that it may encourage them to over report perhaps leading to more cases of inappropriate reported incidences.
Privilege Communication and Immunity from Suits: Most states allow for certain privileges regarding communication between a professional and client/patient to assist with the implementation of reporting laws. In the case of mandatory reporting alws it reserves the right to anything that is said from client/patient to professional to be held as confidential. However, there are certain times when a professional's duty to disclose is valued more than the privacy of the patient/client. These are difficult sections of the statues because it is inferred that a professional may be held liable for reporting (and breaking the confidentiality pact) or/and not reporting (and be liable for not protecting a client). This double edged sword may contribute to both underreporting and inappropriate reporting.
Making definitions simple and specific, using and objective standard to define the level of proof necessary to kake a report,a nd allowing privileged communication to acknowledge the need for disclosure in certain cases are some of the areas being cited as possible solutions to alleviate the problems of under reporting and inappropriate reporting for those mandated to report incidences of child maltreatment (Besherov, 1986). Mandatory reporting laws is alegislative enigma. Due to the inherent perplexities mandatory reporting will prove to be a social and legislative puzzle for years to come.
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