Mathews Ben, Kenny Maureen C
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Child Maltreat. 2008 Feb;13(1):50-63. doi: 10.1177/1077559507310613.
Mandatory child abuse reporting laws have developed in particular detail in the United States, Canada, and Australia as a central part of the governments' strategy to detect cases of abuse and neglect at an early stage, protect children, and facilitate the provision of services to children and families. However, the terms of these laws differ in significant ways, both within and between these nations, with the differences tending to broaden or narrow the scope of cases required to be reported and by whom. The purpose of this article is to provide a current and systematic review of mandatory reporting legislation in the 3 countries that have invested most heavily in them to date. A comparison of key elements of these laws is conducted, disclosing significant differences and illuminating the issues facing legislatures and policymaking bodies in countries already having the laws. These findings will also be instructive to those jurisdictions still developing their laws and to those that may, in the future, choose to design a system of mandatory reporting.
在美国、加拿大和澳大利亚，强制报告儿童虐待情况的法律已制定得非常详细，这是政府早期发现虐待和忽视儿童案件、保护儿童以及为儿童和家庭提供服务战略的核心部分。然而，这些法律的条款在这些国家内部以及国家之间存在显著差异，这些差异往往会扩大或缩小需要报告的案件范围以及报告主体。本文的目的是对迄今为止在这方面投入最多的三个国家的强制报告立法进行最新的系统综述。对这些法律的关键要素进行了比较，揭示了显著差异，并阐明了已经制定此类法律的国家的立法机构和决策机构所面临的问题。这些研究结果对于仍在制定法律的司法管辖区以及未来可能选择设计强制报告系统的司法管辖区也将具有指导意义。
