Monday, 4 November 2013

Not reporting child abuse ‘should be criminal offence’

Teachers and other professionals who fail to report child abuse suspicions should face prosecution, the former director of public prosecutions says.

Keir Starmer said that under a "mandatory reporting" law, those who failed to act could be sent to jail.

I couldn’t agree more with this idea, because time and time again you see story after story of how abuse didn’t get reported and how it all ended in tragic circumstances and then the soundbite ‘lessons weren’t learned from the last time this happened’ appears everywhere and then the whole thing happens again and the same things are said and then it happens again etc.

If an individual is aware of abuse and fails to do anything about it, and as a result allows that abuse to continue then why shouldn’t they face prosecution?


Clearly a new approach is needed as tragic stories of unreported abuse that led to tragedy continue to happen, so if someone is in a position to do something about it and they know if they don’t they could face prosecution then it might make them focus and more simply do the right thing.  

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