Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect in Northern Canada

Author(s):  
Lea Tufford

Canada has a wide expanse of geographic terrain that encompasses urban, sub-urban, rural, and remote areas. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the unique challenges of mandatory reporters living and working in northern parts of provincial and territorial Canada. The chapter opens with a discussion of how the north has been defined historically and by Indigenous and settler perspectives. The chapter proceeds to examine the economic and social context of northern Canada before moving into a review of the challenges facing mandatory reporters. The chapter offers suggestions to mandatory reporters to balance their statutory responsibilities with the contextual reality of living in the community.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Deverson

Child abuse and neglect affects approximately 42 500 children in Australia each year. Parliaments in all Australian states and territories have introduced mandatory reporting into child protection legislation to protect vulnerable children by requiring certain individuals to report suspicions of abuse or neglect. However, lawyers are prevented from reporting because of the rules governing legal professional privilege and confidentiality. This article begins by examining the problem of child abuse and neglect in Australia and outlines the current legislative framework of mandatory reporting laws in Part II. Part III discusses the current rules governing lawyers and examines legal professional privilege and the duty of confidentiality. Part IV provides arguments for and against requiring lawyers to report suspected abuse and also considers the lawyer-client relationship and the special position of domestic violence victims. Part V offers recommendations for the proposed legislative reform. This article concludes that lawyers should be required to report child abuse and neglect.


Author(s):  
Lea Tufford

This chapter presents a discussion of practice, education, policy, and research implications pertaining to the mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect. The first section centres on implications for practice in urban, suburban, rural, and remote environments and includes aspects such as working with colleagues, reporting in the workplace, and discussing the limits of confidentiality. What follows are implications for educators of future mandatory reporters. These implications explore educating students in the typology of child abuse and neglect, working in Northern Canada, and the importance of reflection. This chapter also includes suggestions for training that can be incorporated into the curriculum such as reflection, experiential exercises, case vignette, and simulation. The latter half of the chapter explores policy implications with specific attention to data collection and analysis of reported children and families in an effort to detect and respond to racial disparities in the child welfare system. At a national level, implications also include greater consistency in mandatory reporting legislation between provinces and territories. The chapter concludes with implications for research and focuses specifically on furthering our understanding of decision-making processes and disclosure within child sexual abuse.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-167
Author(s):  
Conor Hanly

Abstract Starting in the early 1990s, reports published over a quarter of a century detailed shocking levels of child abuse and child neglect in Ireland, along with failures by Church and State officials to take effective action. These revelations, supported by international research, made a compelling case for the introduction of some form of mandatory reporting. Yet until 2015, Ireland’s child protection system relied upon the discretion of those who suspected incidents of child abuse. The Children First Act 2015 introduced a new system of mandatory reporting that applies to professionals working in the health, education, childcare and law enforcement fields, a system that became active at the end of 2017. This article reviews the development of the reporting system in Ireland, and analyses the new obligations created by the 2015 Act. The article also analyses some initial figures for 2018, which show a substantial increase in the number of reports of child abuse and neglect made in that year. Additionally, the article argues for the insertion into the new system of some nuance in order that victim autonomy might be better respected.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-186
Author(s):  
Samantha L. Gardner ◽  
Anne Derouin ◽  
Ryan Brown ◽  
A. Diann Johnson

In states with universal mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect (CAN), it is essential that people who work with children and youth in a community be appropriately trained to recognize and report CAN. The primary goal of CAN training is early detection and intervention with a secondary purpose of impacting rates of violence, disease, drug use, and teen pregnancies in the community. The purpose of this project was to implement a standardized, community-tailored CAN training for laypersons and a train-the-trainer program in a rural Oklahoma community. The CAN training was evaluated on knowledge, confidence, training satisfaction, and willingness to participate in the train-the-trainer session. The train-the-trainer session was evaluated on confidence and training satisfaction. Participant knowledge and confidence was measured by comparing pretest scores to immediate and 4 months after the training posttest scores. Posttest scores indicated increase in knowledge at the posttest ( p < .001) and posttest 2 ( p < .001). There was a significant increase in confidence at the posttest ( p < .001) and posttest 2 ( p = .009).


1993 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Goddard ◽  
Max Liddell

A version of this article was presented at the Fourth Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, ‘Rights and Responsibilities: Wrongs and Remedies’, Brisbane, 11th - 15th July, 1993.


Author(s):  
Mildred Bekink

ABSTRACT Mandatory reporting laws are a controversial mechanism that require members of particular occupations to report cases of serious child maltreatment that they encounter in the course of their work to welfare or law enforcement agencies. In April 2019 a video went viral in which a woman filmed her colleague beating toddlers at a crèche in Gauteng. The crèche was closed, and arrests were made, including of the videographer. Given extent of violence and abuse against South African children, this paper investigates whether South African law adequately provides for the liability of those compelled to report child abuse but who fail to do so, why mandated reporters fail to report abuse, and how South Africa's mandatory reporting rules should be amended to better serve their purpose.


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