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ERIC Number: EJ1479391
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1357-5279
EISSN: EISSN-1476-489X
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Mandatory Reporting Laws: A Change in Reporting Behavior?
Joel Vallett1
Child Care in Practice, v31 n3 p505-522 2025
Child abuse reporting policies in the form of mandatory reporting continues to expand both in scope and practice across the United States (U.S.). With this development, it is important to understand whether there is a relationship between mandatory reporting laws and reporting behavior while analyzing how any response differs across professional organizations. Mandatory reporting laws serve as a top-down policy used by legislatures to alter the reporting behavior of practitioners, especially within education, law enforcement, and the social services. The reporting behavior of these professionals are important to analyze because they account for the three largest reporting groups in the U.S. After investigating 18 years of child abuse reporting state data from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, I find that the reporting response to this policy differs across professional organizations. Both law enforcement and social workers reporting of suspected abuse does not change regardless of whether the reporting law is adopted. Education personnel, on the other hand, do alter their reporting behavior when a mandatory reporting law is enacted. Specifically, the decline in reporting is attenuated after the policy is put in place. These findings demonstrate the challenges associated with designing child abuse protection policies that influence multiple professional organizations.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Political Science and Criminal Justice, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT, USA