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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (73755)	8/31/2003 2:06:35 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

While I agree with some of your concerns, I disagree with your conclusion that the child support notification laws are to blame. There has to be some discretion in what is actually a sign of potential abuse and some training needs to be given to mandated reporters. As it is now, the incentive is to report anything because there are no negative consequences of a false report, while if you don't report and it turns out that abuse is actually happening there can be major consequences for non-reporting. But overall, the issue of child abuse is very serious, and children have few opportunities to self-report and may be threatened not to report -- or may have been persuaded that what they are suffering is normal and good for them. So if there are legitimate indications of abuse, the obligation to report them must be maintained. The answer is to make the reporting system work better, not to abolish it. And to do a better job of training those who investigate and intervene when necessary.