Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting Laws in Georgia: Strengthening Protection for Georgia's Children
| Jurisdiction | Georgia,United States,Federal |
| Publication year | 2015 |
| Citation | Vol. 31 No. 3 |
Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting Laws in Georgia: Strengthening Protection for Georgia's Children
MatthewJohnson
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Kevin Ricks was a popular and well-liked English teacher at Osbourn High School in Manassas, Virginia.1 He was "universally described by those who know him as intelligent, friendly, generous and convincing," and he created for himself the image of a caring and compassionate teacher and mentor.2 He amassed a long career as a camp counselor, teacher, tutor, and sponsor of foreign exchange students, always working to be near adolescent youth.3 On February 18, 2010, authorities arrested Ricks and charged him with sexually assaulting a sixteen-year-old student at Osbourn High School.4 The resulting investigation uncovered a long trail of abuse that began in the 1970s and stretched for more than thirty years.5 During this period, Kevin Ricks abused at least a half-dozen boys, with
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potentially more unconfirmed victims.6 The first known victim is now forty-six years old.7
Jerry Sandusky was a veteran football coach who created a vaunted and formidable defense for the Penn State Nittany Lion football program.8 For years, he was the defensive right-hand man of iconic collegiate football legend Joe Paterno.9 Sandusky also had a soft spot in his heart for children who came from underprivileged homes, and in 1977, he established a charity called The Second Mile to aid those children and their families.10 Through this charity, disadvantaged youth developed life skills and techniques for conflict resolution through summer camps and other activities.11 Much of the success of The Second Mile was due, at least in part, to its close ties to Penn State University football and its access to Penn State facilities.12 Sandusky and his wife even adopted several children, one
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of whom they met when the boy became involved with The Second Mile.13 Police arrested Sandusky on November 5, 2011, and charged him with abusing eight boys over a fifteen-year time span.14 He allegedly met most of his victims through his charitable organization and used his position and influence as a public figure and Penn State coach to victimize the boys.15 A jury subsequently convicted Sandusky of forty-five counts relating to the abuse of ten different boys.16 The oldest victim to testify at Jerry Sandusky's trial was twenty-seven years old.17
In 2011, an estimated 681,000 children were victims of abuse or neglect in the United States.18 Approximately 120,000 of those children suffered some type of physical abuse, approximately 62,000 suffered sexual abuse, and about 534,600 suffered from neglect.19 Abuse or neglect caused the deaths of 1,570 children.20 In an effort to combat the scourge of child abuse in this country, every state and the District of Columbia have enacted legislation that mandates the reporting of suspected child abuse to designated authorities.21 Each state sets its own standards and guidelines for reporting, including who must report, and when.22
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This Note examines Georgia's mandated reporting law and evaluates its sufficiency for protecting children in the state. Part I discusses the need for reporting laws and the reasoning behind this type of legislation. Part II evaluates Georgia's reporting law in detail and analyzes the approaches and reasoning adopted in several other states and the federal government, focusing on those states that offer the most expansive requirements for reporting. Part III suggests additions to Georgia's mandatory reporting law to expand the protection afforded the state's children.
A. The Evolution of Child Abuse as a Societal Concern
The abuse of children is not a new phenomenon in our nation or our world; in fact, parents, as well as other adults, have mistreated children for centuries.23 With the urbanization of America during the Industrial Revolution, families living in close proximity to one another began to see the struggles of family life among their friends and neighbors.24 The initial reaction of state legislatures was to pass laws that would allow the state to remove children from families, but removal was usually only available if the government felt that the child was at risk of becoming a criminal and endangering society at large.25 Although there were some laws that protected children from abuse, such as those dealing with assault and neglect, states did not enforce these laws in any uniform or systematic way.26 State legal
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systems generally gave wide latitude to parents regarding the disciplining of their children, and were not eager to step into family affairs.27 In 1874, New York changed the status quo.
1. Mary Ellen Wilson
Mary Ellen Wilson was born in 1864 in New York City, and after the death of her father and the resulting hardship on her mother, the city's Department of Charities took custody of her.28 This department placed her, illegally, with Mary and Thomas McCormack after Thomas falsely claimed to be Mary Ellen's father.29 After Thomas's death, Mary McCormack remarried and the family moved into a tenement.30 Mary McCormack (now Mary Connolly) brutally abused Mary Ellen: often beating her, refusing to show any affection towards her, and never letting her leave their apartment.31 Eventually, Mary Ellen came to the attention of Etta Angell Wheeler, a mission worker
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who often cared for families in the tenement.32 Upon learning of Mary Ellen's plight and collecting detailed evidence about her situation, Etta Wheeler convinced Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), to look into her situation.33 Bergh eventually had one of his attorneys represent Mary Ellen, strictly in a personal capacity, before the court.34 The state removed Mary Ellen from the Connolly home and eventually placed her with Etta Wheeler's own mother.35 Mary Ellen Wilson grew up to be the mother of several well-adjusted and loving children.36
Mary Ellen's case caused a furor among New York citizens and spurred the child protection movement's growth,37 including the formation of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) and similar organizations in other cities.38
2. The Battered Child Syndrome and Its After-Effects
The development of public policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an emphasis on removing children from abusive home situations.39 But slowly this emphasis shifted towards
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developing a "system of child protection . . . emphasizing the support of families and recognizing the need for preventing cruelty to children in the familial context."40
In 1962 another shift came, bringing concern for child abuse to the mainstream consciousness of America.41 C. Henry Kempe and a team of colleagues published an article entitled "The Battered Child Syndrome" in the Journal of the American Medical Association.42 This article gave an official, clinical name to child abuse and, because of the journal's prominence, created an air of legitimacy to child abuse as a national problem.43 Kempe and his colleagues shattered the myth that abuse occurred only to children born into families with a low socioeconomic status.44 They further urged legislation encouraging physicians to report suspected cases of child abuse despite physicians' apprehension with pointing a finger at the parents of a child.45
B. Why Mandatory Reporting Laws?
In the years following "The Battered Child Syndrome," a number of states implemented laws designed to strengthen protection for children.46 By 1967, every state had implemented laws requiring the
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reporting of suspected abuse to appropriate authorities.47 However, most of those statutes focused on a narrow group of professionals, primarily physicians and other health workers, and did not generally fulfill the expectations of lawmakers.48 The federal government provided the real impetus, however, for advancing child protection when Congress crafted a wide-ranging law, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).49 Enacted on January 31, 1974, CAPTA established a federal office of Child Abuse and Neglect, created a minimum definition of child abuse, mandated the creation of the Child Welfare Information Gateway (which compiles data related to child abuse), and authorized research into the incidents, causes, and treatments of child abuse.50 The law also authorized the federal government to supply funding and support to state agencies to provide more directly for the care of children at a local level.51 The states, however, had to meet several requirements to qualify for the grants and funding provided for by CAPTA.52 CAPTA's passage led to consistency among state child abuse laws for two reasons. First, the funding eligibility requirements prescribed some elements that were required to be in each state's law. Second, CAPTA energized outside groups, which had begun drafting model legislation in the 1960s, to continue drafting better model legislation to assist states in their efforts.53
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States now have a blueprint for creating child abuse laws that include provisions for the reporting of suspected child abuse.54 Today, all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and most U.S. territories have comprehensive reporting laws.55 Although each state law shares some basic provisions, there are differences between the laws that create stronger protections for children in some states.56
A. The Federal Law: Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
The federal government most recently addressed CAPTA when it reauthorized the legislation in 201057 and continued funding through the 2015 fiscal year.58 CAPTA is an extensive piece of legislation that provides several important tools for protecting...
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