Unintended Consequences of Expanded Mandatory Reporting Laws.

Abstract

The Penn State child sex abuse case highlighted failures to act among numerous adults in positions of responsibility, as chilling details of football coach Gerald Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children over the course of decades came to light.1 Although it is unclear whether adults who chose to ignore ongoing child sexual abuse and rape would have acted differently had there been a legal requirement in place, it would have at least enabled their prosecution after the fact. In the aftermath, Pennsylvania adopted extensive new legislation to prevent and detect child abuse. In particular, Pennsylvania expanded its definitions of mandatory reporters, requiring child abuse awareness training for any licensed health care professional in the state and significantly expanding mandatory lay reporters to include essentially any individual in contact with children, rather than specifically those in contact with children by virtue of their profession. In Philadelphia, these new reporting requirements have flooded the reporting hotline, contributing to excessive waiting times, unanswered calls, spurious calls, and unnecessary reports, leading to the inability to pursue many of these reports.2 Although the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has acted to address these flaws, few have questioned the wisdom of this expansion of mandatory reporting. There is no indication that the increase in reporting has improved the safety of Philadelphia’s children, and there is reason to believe it may detract. How is it possible that the expansion of mandatory reporting, a step designed to protect vulnerable children from harm, may have had the opposite effect? Mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect has a history of … Address correspondence to Mical Raz, MD, PhD, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program/Philadelphia VA Medical Center, 1310 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Dr, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, E-mail: micalraz{at}mail.med.upenn.edu