Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 5:02 pm  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24772777 Would this do any good? I think that in this sooper-dooper risk averse day and age, it would just lead to extreme arse-covering, as everyone reports everyone else for being a possible kiddie fiddler, in fear that if they don't report them, they themselves may be accused of failing to report. Those reported will no doubt be subject to the usual witch burning, even if they are found to have done no wrong.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24772777 Would this do any good? I think that in this sooper-dooper risk averse day and age, it would just lead to extreme arse-covering, as everyone reports everyone else for being a possible kiddie fiddler, in fear that if they don't report them, they themselves may be accused of failing to report. Those reported will no doubt be subject to the usual witch burning, even if they are found to have done no wrong.

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 5:09 pm  

I think only in the most extreme and obvious of cases should it even be considered, but in most cases I'm very much against it.

How do you decide if a child is being abused?

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 5:11 pm  

Him wrote:

How do you decide if a child is being abused?

Exactly.

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 6:35 pm  

I always thought, possibly erroneously it seems, that knowing that a crime (any crime) was being committed and failing to report it was tantamount to or possibly even (depending on circumstances) equal to aiding and abetting.
You live and learn.

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 6:45 pm  

Keir Starmer leaves his job as DPP on Friday and comes up with this today. Has he got ADHD?

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 6:59 pm  

The Video Ref wrote:

Exactly.

My 4 year old niece has a nasty cut under her chin at the moment (she slipped and fell at the swimming baths) and is a hyper little sod. Always running around and climbing up things (if she didn't wear a pink Peppa Pig onesie half the time I'd swear she was a boy) and so from time to time falls off things, gets the odd cut or bruise, or just generally looks a bit dishevelled.

If you worded a report properly you could quite easily make a case that she appears to be being abused, yet nothing could be further from the truth. And such a report could create a whole heap of trouble for both her family and the nursery or school that made such a report.

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 7:25 pm  

As Him suggested, I thought that keeping knowledge of a crime secret was already a crime.

As also mentioned by posters here, I'd be very concerned by anything that encouraged even more paranoia and overreaction.

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 9:28 pm  

There is no obligation to report crime to the police, unless you believe that someone is preparing a terrorist act.

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Mon Nov 04, 2013 9:53 pm  

There's a huge difference between reporting known abuse and suspected abuse. I can see the thinking behind charging people who know that abuse is taking place, but how do you define suspected? Should the jury have to decide that given evidence that it was beyond all reasonable doubt that the defendant should have suspected a child was being abused? Does that evidence include the usual bumps and bruises that healthy active kids pick up? Is it dishevelled clothing and a looking of not having had a good meal that may be due to he poverty of the parents? Not something I would report unless I was really sure that a kid was being abused.

[DaveO]

Re: Not reporting suspected child abuse should be a crime : Tue Nov 05, 2013 2:59 pm  

This is idea is just another in the long line of those that force new responsibilities onto people who are already very busy or even overworked.

My wife works in a nursery school as school secretary and the number of things that she is or other members of staff are potentially legally accountable for never seems to stop increasing. All for £12K a year in her case!

They are not detectives nor social workers!

It seems a stupid idea anyway. If a kid told a member of staff they were being sexually abused they would act on it now. If they are not told how is the member of staff supposed to know when often there are no outward signs?

What happens when a case of abuse is found that went undetected? Are all the child's teachers in school going to be slung in the clink for not spotting it? (I saw the suggested punishment did include prison).

In fact if I were a teacher and this law came in I'd have to seriously consider leaving the profession.

I think KS envisaged this applying to sports clubs as well so that is one sure fire way to get people from stopping to volunteer to run the junior RL teams.

Thankfully the government says it has no plans to bring it in. Lets hope it stays that way and Labour isn't daft enough to try and win a few votes on the back of it now the government has rejected the idea.