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Should there be mandatory reporting of child abuse in England?

Nobody wants to believe it, but the truth is that, strictly speaking, there is no legal obligation to report child abuse to a local authority if you know that it is happening. If you are a teacher, and you walk in on another teacher actively abusing a child, you can choose to say nothing to the police and you will not be sanctioned by law.

Now, according to what the child protection policy is at the school you work in, you may be disciplined/lose your job for not referring to your superior... but then they themselves have no obligation to report to the police.

There's this loophole in English child protection law where the government has issued a plethora of non-statutory GUIDANCE, but this is not the same as having a mandated obligation to report.

You would hope that the average moral person would report such a serious crime anyway, whether he has to or not; but cases like the topical Jimmy Saville incident, as well as numerous others in the past, demonstrate that this is often not the case - for whatever reason, normally political/economical or the classic, 'it's none of my business/I don't want to get involved.' There's also the issue of confidentiality, with some Priests and the like openly stating that they would not disclose child abuse if their informant wished to keep it confidential, even in the case of a paedophile making a confession.

Mandatory reporting laws exist in the USA, Australia, Canada, RWANDA... but not here. Northern Ireland have them; but this is by accident, as a result of anti-terrorism legislation stating that ANY arrestable crime, if known of OR suspected, must be reported.

I think the iron is hot now to bring mandatory reporting into this country, not only to send out the strong message that child abuse is unacceptable in our society but also to help ensure that the present and future Jimmy Savilles of the world are reported sooner rather than later.

What do you think?

Reply 1

Fuzzpig

I always thought that as a teacher you had to tell, but apparently not: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/questions/reporting_child_abuse_wda74908.html That's so bad...

There are no specific mandatory laws in the UK that require professionals to report any suspicions they may have of child abuse to the authorities. In Northern Ireland, however, it is an offence not to report an arrestable crime to the police, which by definition, includes crimes against children.1

I think that professionals should have to report definitely.

Whilst I do think that people should have to report crimes like this, I'm not sure how it can be enforced. Some people might be too scared, such as the partner of an abusive parent who is also being abused by them. What should we do in this situation?

Reply 2

Michaelj

Unfortunately in places like schools, the teachers bond well together and form close friendships. So when a friend sees another friend "abusing" a child, there's a possibility that the friend won't report the other friend to the police. He might take him to one side and give him a slap but there's always that possibilty. Of course any person with moral WOULD report it to the police, but hey, we are talking about people here.

Yes, the law should change... But will that cause people like teachers to report it? Maybe not as if nobody grasses up the abuser, then how are the police going to find out? There's always a possibility that you'll be alienated for reporting a well liked individual... It's happened to me before. I reported somebody who was well liked and everyone despised me for it.

I've experienced abusive teachers in the past... Particularly during primary school. One teacher said "you are all little ****s, I wish they'd bring back the cane so I could smack you". Of course being "little ****s", we just hurled abuse at her and laughed.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

boba

obviously going against the majority here but. No I don't think it should be legally required. I think any reasonable person should but I don't think its something the law should tell them they have to.

Reply 4

Psyk

I'd be wary of making a law that says only professionals such as teachers and doctors have to report it. It might put people off teaching if they're taking on the risk of going to jail if they don't report something. Of course if they weren't sure the abuse was happening they wouldn't have actually broken the law, but it still means they could potentially have to go to court to prove they didn't know it was happening.

Reply 5

Guitarded

There's a bit of a grey area though, because it can't always be proven that you knew about it, and it also requires a fine line between child abuse and just inappropriate/dodgy actions. For example, if there are repeated incidents of an teacher verbally abusing a child, where does the point come where it should no longer be in the hands of adults but should be reported to the police? Surely people should be allowed to sort these disputes out themselves without the police and without fear of arrest, and if they want to get the police involved then they can do so when they feel it is appropriate.

Reply 6

fluttershy

One concern is that it might be counter productive. In many cases people see suspicious things but don't say anything as they aren't certain. If later other allegations come out, this then makes people realise that what they saw was something to worry about, and the extra evidence might make the difference between convicting and not. Make reporting mandatory and they are likely to keep their mouths closed for fear of being disciplined or having legal action against them for not reporting at the time, and that might lead to the abuser getting away with it.
I suppose the way to deal with that is to differentiate between situations where someone clearly knows abuse is going on, and situations where they are a little concerned but not enough to say anything.
Then again, I think there is a big difference between the "oh god, I should have realised" and the "oh yes, I thought so ages ago and now I've been proven right" reactions you get with these cases. The former I find I sympathise with, especially as they tend to show remorse, whereas the latter I can't stand and could happily see the book thrown at. I told you so is bad enough, I knew but didn't tell anyone is even worse. That applies to any situation, not just this one.

Reply 7

Yidette

Original post by Guitarded

Well, I imagine such a mandatory requirement would only apply when there is suspected or actual risk of 'significant harm'..... which is the vague test of child abuse that is currently in place when deciding whether the state should intervene in family affairs/give a care order etc.

There are plenty of grey areas unfortunately, but to my mind, mandatory reporting would clear up one of them. There'd be no 'should I, I don't know, who am I, what to do' when it comes to known or suspected abuse... there would only be 'wow, I'd jolly well better refer this!'

Therefore this is less about the neighboring complex issue of what qualifies as child abuse to begin with, and more about those situations where the risk of or actual significant harm is known to others.

The cons are, as far as I see, the inevitable spike in reporting that this would lead to - with perhaps many of those claims unsubstantiated, as the NSPCC predicts. Of course, them being such a captured organisation, it would be easy to join the dots with their government funding and conclude that they have the same take as the government appears to: more reporting = more cases being pushed through an already overstretched legal system, big load of hassle for everybody.

I also agree that it's hard to prove and may only be helpful in a minute number of cases - but that's definitely worth it. I think, in the example given above, of another adult also being abused - the other parent, for example - as much as it would be difficult if one abusive person has controlled the whole family unit... the other adult should still be obliged on behalf of the child. Responsibility has to start somewhere.

I'm glad I've informed people about this gap in our child protection law, which seems more based on legislative rhetoric than anything. Some call it a hologram, because even so called 'trained safeguarding officers' don't know about the lack of hard-line law on this topic!! As I say, most people don't want to believe it/think I must surely have the facts wrong.

Sad.