MANDATED REPORTING

MANDATED REPORTING Angie Scott National Child Protection Training Center Winona, MN Adapted from Tom Harbinson

Why are we here? • Child abuse is a crime • Child abuse destroys bodies, hearts, and souls • Love shouldn’t hurt

Child abuse and history • 1865, Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals was founded • 1874, Society to Prevent Cruelty to Children was founded • 1930’s: Passage of Social Security Act • 1962: Kempe authors BCS • 1967: All 50 states mandate reports • 1970’s: All 50 states mandate sexual abuse reports

How common is child abuse? • One out of three girls, one out of seven boys will be sexually abused • 7 million children are victims of physical abuse each year • 1,500 children die from abuse each year

Nationally • 2. 9 Million Referrals concerning 5.5 million children are made to child protections agencies • Approximately two thirds accepted for assessment

Nationally • 63% of child victims experience neglect • 18.9% physical abuse • 9.9% sexual abuse • 4.9% emotionally or psychological abuse

Minnesota in 2004 • 7,800 children abused or neglected • 39 children suffered life threatening injury • 11 children died from maltreatment • Most victims are under 6 • From age 1 to 10 boys were more often victims than girls Source: Minnesota Department of Human Services Welfare Report for April 2004

Minnesota 2004 • 73% of offenders were biological parents • 15% other relatives • 8% parents companion • 3% non relatives • 1% child care providers • Some children where the victim of more than one offender Source: Minnesota Department of Human Services Welfare Report for April 2004

Many fail to protect • Many physically abused children are known to a number of adults • Mandated reporters fail to report 60% of the cases where abuse is suspected

Will reporting do any good? • Mandated reporting laws have reduced child abuse deaths by 50% • 66% of all substantiated child abuse cases come from mandated reporters • Child abuse rarely stops without intervention (Abel study)

What can I do to help? • Mandated reporter training • Understand how kids disclose abuse • Recognize behavioral and physical signs • Help parents on the edge • Preach and teach that abuse is preventable • Spread the word to co-workers

Minn. Stat. 626.556, Reporting of Maltreatment of Minors • Subd. 1, Public Policy • Subd. 2, Definitions • Subd. 3, Persons Mandated to Report

Subd. 3, Persons Mandated to Report: • (a) a person “who knows or has reason to believe…” within the “preceding three years” shall immediately report the information…. • (1) a professional or professionals delegate who is engaged in the practice of healing arts, social services, hospital administration, psychological or psychiatric treatment, child care, education, correctional services, or law enforcement, or…

Persons Mandated to Report • (2) employed as a member of the clergy and received the information while engaged in ministerial duties (excluding privileged information under confession type situations) ….

In a Public place • Divert the parents attention • Shopping with children can try your patience • Start a friendly conversation with the parent • Find Something positive to say • That is a lovely dress, where did you find it • If a child has been left, stay close till a caregiver returns • Avoid negative looks or comments

Fifteen hypotheticals

While a Physical Ed. Teacher in a Junior High School… • at your school a fellow gym teacher hands out towels to each student as the student leaves the showers to prevent the boys from wasting towels. A boy tells you he is uncomfortable taking showers in front of other people as required at the end of gym class. He tells you he is especially uncomfortable because he thinks the teacher handing out towels always stares at the student’s crotch when the boy leaves the showers. You confront your fellow Physical Education Teacher and he denies any staring and states some teenage boys are just uncomfortable because their bodies are changing. • What are your obligations, if any, under the mandatory reporter statute? • What are your moral obligations?

As a Teacher on a Field Trip to a Museum… • you are chaperoning students from other classes in addition to your own class. A student from another class approaches you and tells you while she was alone in the restroom a museum employee grabbed her from behind and fondled her breasts. • What are your obligations, if any, under the Mandatory Reporting Act? • What are your moral obligations, if any?

As a Nurse… • you work for an OBY physician and assist her in providing patient care. When one patient visits, who is six months pregnant, you notice needle marks along the inside of one of her arms while you are putting on a blood pressure cuff. From her patient history you know she is not currently on any prescribed medication. You also know from her patient history that she no longer uses, but once used cocaine on a regular basis. You ask her “what are these?” and she tells you they are mosquito bites. • What obligations, if any, are there under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, are there?

While a High School Student Counselor…. • an eighteen year old former student, who is now graduated, mentions that she wants to tell you something in confidence, but wants you to promise not to tell anyone else. She tells you she thinks she is pregnant and is not sure what to do. She also casually mentions the father of the baby, who is now twenty-two, is her former math teacher and they have had a consensual sexual relationship for the last two years. In fact she tells you she pursued him to have the relationship. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

While a High School Student Counselor… • you talk to a nineteen year old former student who is now graduated. She tells you she is pregnant and the father is her former high school math teacher and they started dating after she graduated from high school two years ago. She tells you she is not sure if she wants to have a baby. She tells you they have had a consensual sexual relationship for the last year and a half. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

As a Teacher…. • you stop by your school to pick up some papers and you find an infant left in a hot car with the windows rolled up on a hot summer day. You find the baby when school is out of session and do not believe the infant belongs to one of your students. • What are your obligations, if any, under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

While on a Home Visit…. • you find an infant who appears to be malnourished. You report the matter to your supervisor. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

You work for a Private Bus Company… • you are substituting for the kindergarten bus driver who is out sick. At the end of the day a five year old girl tells you the other bus driver, who wears shorts, sometimes has his privates showing when she gets on the bus in the morning. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

As an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher’s Volunteer Unpaid Assistant… • you have a five year old boy in your class who is mildly autistic. He tells you that “daddy puts his pee-pee in my butthole.” Your school’s written policy states any suspicions of child abuse are to be reported to the principal. The policy also states that your obligations, under law, are fulfilled once you report to the principal. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

While at a block party in your neighborhood…. • you observe one of your neighbor’s pre-school children has bruises on her inner thighs and behind her knees. When the child reaches up to get a brownie the back of her shirt bunches up and you see bruises along her lower vertebrae. You ask how she got her “owies.” Her mother interrupts you stating, “what are you going to make mountains out of molehills?” and leaves with her child. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

While Visiting a Sick Student’s home to Drop off Homework… • you notice a six year old girl is standing against a corner wall with both palms resting flat on the wall and her nose touching the wall. The child is crying. She is wearing a dunce hat with the words “I am stupid,” written on the hat. You ask the mother “what has happened?” She tells you that this is the “stupid” corner and when the children misbehave they must stand with their noses and hands against the wall, while wearing the “stupid” hat, for at least one hour without moving. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

As a Daycare Provider you are talking to a five year old boy in your daycare. He tells you that his daddy hits his mommy and gives her lots of owies. He tells you this makes him scared. You talk to the boy’s mother and she denies that the boy’s father ever hits her. What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

As a School Nurse…. • you learn from a high school student that an unnamed friend of hers has told her that the friend’s Dad has been having sex with the unnamed friend since the friend was eleven years old. The high school student tells you she cannot give you the name of the unnamed friend because she promised to tell no one. The friend is telling you about it only because she doesn’t know what to do. • What are your obligations, if any, under the mandated reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

As a School Nurse… • the girl decides she is going to tell you the name of her friend. She tells you. You have that student come to your office so you can talk to her. • The girl tells you she was just joking to her friend and nothing like that has ever happened. She doesn’t seem upset and her demeanor is such you believe she is being truthful when she states that nothing happened. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporter statute? • What moral obligations, if any, do you have?

You are a teenage girl and agree to baby-sit your aunt’s kids… • you walk in on your five year old niece and her six year old sister in a bedroom together. You observe the six year old performing cunnilingus on the five year old. • What obligations, if any, do you have under the mandatory reporting law? • What obligations, if any, do you have morally?

In Minnesota can moral obligations create a legal obligation for mandated reporters? • Do we have a “good Samaritan” statute that creates a legal obligation for all citizens including mandated reporters?

Good Samaritan Statute: Minn. Stat. 604A.01: • Subd. 1, Duty to Assist. “A person at the scene of an emergency who knows that another person is exposed to or has suffered grave physical harm, to the extent that the person can do so without danger or peril to self or others, give reasonable assistance to the person exposed. Reasonable assistance may include obtaining or attempting to obtain aid from law enforcement or medical personnel. A person who violates this subdivision is guilty of a petty misdemeanor.”

How do children disclose sexual abuse?

Child Sexual Abuse Accomodation Syndrome • Secrecy • Helplessness • Entrapment and accommodation • Delayed, conflicting and unconvincing disclosure • Retraction

Secrecy • It happens only when child and perpetrator are alone • Secrecy is a “source of fear” (bad things will happen) • Secrecy is a “promise of safety.” (good things will happen)

Helplessness • The child’s size and immaturity breed a feeling of helplessness • Children are taught to obey • Threats of harm or loss of love may make a child feel helpless

Entrapment and accommodation • Since the child is helpless, he or she learns to “accept the situation and survive.” • Multiple personalities • Dissociating • Other coping mechanisms • If the child cannot create a “psychic economy,” feelings of rage may cause suicide, self-mutilation, promiscuity, etc.

Delayed & unconvincing disclosure • Few children voluntarily disclose abuse • Many disclosures are made by “rebellious adolescents or teenagers.”

Retraction • According to Summit, “in the aftermath of disclosure, the child discovers that the bedrock fears and threats underlying the secrecy are true.”

Sorenson and Snow study • 116 cases of documented abuse • 75% of the children initially denied abuse • 78% made a tentative disclosure (“I forgot”) • 96% made an active disclosure • After active disclosure, 22% recanted

Is it easy to get a child to make a false report?

The clown study Pairs of kids, ages 4-7 sent into trailer One child watches and the other interacts with a clown Kids asked leading questions such as “he took your clothes off, didn’t he?

The Clown Study results • Not one of the kids who interacted with the clown made a false report • Only one of the “bystander” kids made a false report of abuse (spanking)

The medical exam study Goodman & colleagues study 100’s of kids having a medical exam (5 & 7 yrs. old) Asked suggestive questions such as “how many times did the doctor kiss you?”

Medical Exam study results • Not one of the seven year old children made a false report • Only 3 out of 215 of the five year old children made a false report

Do children lie to protect perpetrators? • The Barbie doll study

Behaviors • Behaviors are not diagnostic • Most behaviors consistent with abuse are consistent with other causes • Some behaviors, though, strongly suggest abuse

Abnormal Sexual Behavior • Placing child’s mouth on sex part • asking to engage in sex acts • masturbating with object • inserting objects in vagina/anus • imitating intercourse • making sexual sounds • french kissing

Undressing Other people • Asking to watch sexually explicit television • imitating sexual behavior with dolls

MANDATED REPORTING