Mandatory reporting of child abuse: is it in the best interest of the child?

Legal and policy issues from the United States and internationally about mandatory reporting of child abuse

Laws that mandate reporting of child abuse have stirred global controversy. Mandatory reporting to authorities for different types of child abuse includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, educational neglect, and emotional neglect. While the definition of child abuse differs from jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction, which covers a wide spectrum of abuse and maltreatment, employees who work in professions required to report child abuse include health care workers, educational employees, social workers, religious leaders, employees of divisions of child protective services, criminal justice and other governmental personnel, and child care professionals. Lack of a uniform definition of what constitutes child abuse causes problems for mandatory reporters, ranging from false arrest and malicious prosecution to failure to investigate ongoing child abuse. This article reviews international norms associated with mandatory reporting of child abuse and assesses court cases within the United States that involve mandatory reporting, identifying important issues and underlying problems with the current mandatory reporting system; it concludes with policy recommendations and suggestions for future research.

Ethics, duty of care and forensic psychiatric assessment: a legal perspective

OBJECTIVE AND METHOD

This article examines some of the ethical and legal issues which confront the psychiatrist who is asked to provide a forensic psychiatric assessment. Theory is explained and illustrated by way of a case study.

RESULTS

Recent cases demonstrate a tendency by some psychiatrists to adopt an advocacy role in legal proceedings, to the potential disadvantage of not only those involved in the proceedings, but also to the wider community.

CONCLUSION

Ideally, there is a need for a greater collaborative effort between the College's Ethics Committee and this Country's Courts and Law Societies to establish and monitor an ethical framework in the area of expert psychiatric evidence.