Child Abuse Reporting and Failure to Report among Mandated Reporters

Laws in every state require specified groups of professionals who work with children (e.g., physicians, psychologists, school staff) to report suspected child abuse to child protective agencies. These child abuse reporting laws were designed to provide child protective services (CPS) agencies with high quality information about possible abuse for their investigation. But these laws are frequently violated. This article presents data from a national survey of mandated reporters about their reporting behavior. Reasons for failure to report were factor analyzed and formed three clusters. Most commonly, respondents chose reasons from the “not reportable” cluster, (e.g., lacked sufficient evidence). A substantial number failed to report because of perceived problems with CPS. These latter reasons have potentially important implications for child protection.