Mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse: Issues and insights in clinical practice

Objectives: The objective of the paper is to highlight the difficulties faced by mental health professionals in reporting cases of child sexual abuse to the judiciary system and insights built for the interventions to deal... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives: The objective of the paper is to highlight the difficulties faced by mental health professionals in reporting cases of child sexual abuse to the judiciary system and insights built for the interventions to deal with these difficulties. Protection of children against sexual offences Act, 2012 (INDIA) makes it mandatory for all the systems including Dept of child and adolescent psychiatry, NIMHANS – a tertiary mental health care centre in India to report the incidence of known or informed child sexual abuse either to child welfare committee (quasi judicial committee) or to Special Juvenile Police Units. Despite the counselling, most of the caregivers refuse the consent for reporting these incidences fearing stigma and other psychosocial issues. The paper will discuss these difficulties related to mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse cases.
Method: case analysis of child and adolescent cases who have disclosed incidence of sexual abuse to the treating team.
Results: The analysis indicated that most of the caregivers (parents) refused to consent for reporting due to 1) their fear of stigma to the child and the family,2) their lack of faith on judiciary system, 3) anxiety over the judicial procedures and 4) anxieties related to impact of reporting on development of the child. The result will also highlight some of the judicial procedural difficulties faced by mental health professionals and parents in reporting incidence of child sexual abuse.
Conclusion: The psychosocial difficulties and lacunas in judicial systems prevents caregivers from reporting the incidences of child sexual abuse. As a result, children continue to suffer in silence. To enhance the reporting of CSA, it is important to bring in best practices in psychosocial and judicial interventions