Mandatory Reporting in Community Service for Child Abuse: An Ethical and Professional Practice

Running Head: ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
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ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Running Head: ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Mandatory Reporting in Community Service
As per the statistics and data available on the website of Australian Government, it can be
observed that the in the Australia, more than 6 children die because of child abuse and ignorance
around it, daily. This statistic comes from a well-developed nation. With 3.2 million cases being
reported every year from the Australia, one may imagine the actual number of cases, including
the cases which go unnoticed. In Western Australia, the legislation covering mandatory reporting
of child sexual abuse is the Children and Community Services Act 2004. (Lynne, Gifford, Evans
& Rosch, 2015).
In the year 2007, the government decided to introduce the concept of the mandatory child
reporting in the area of sexual abuse towards children. The major sexual abuse has been faced
during the classes or when the professors are in contact with the children and families. Due to the
overload of the system the other systems were not taken into consideration which did not fell
under the category of mandatory reporting (Australian Government, 2018).
Child abuse is not only one of the biggest evils in human society but also one of the most
neglected and ignored the issue of all times. The victims are all juveniles who do not dare to
speak against the abuser in fear of the pre-established trauma. This fear, as a result, develops
distorted and disturbed psyche, which is a common thing to be observed in adults who suffered
child abuse in their childhood (Kenny & Abreu, 2016). According to a study from aifs.gov.in
statistics suggests that the data of the state and territory, with comparisons to previous years have
been jot down below. In 2017-18, about 159,000 children were in contact with child protection
services: a rate of 28.7 per 1,000 children (Australian Government, 2018). And thereafter just
half of the cases has been taken for the purpose of the investigation, which equals to only 7% of
children, not all children received the proper care and protection order, and out-of-home care

Running Head: ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
placement. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children can be observed to be represented
overly under the child protection system, which comes to at 8 times the rate for non-Indigenous
children. Children from very remote areas had the highest rates of substantiations, at 4 times that
of children from major cities. Emotional abuse was the most common type of substantiated
maltreatment that was received by children aging from 10-15 (Walsh & Jones, 2016).
Child abuse is one such issue that needs to be addressed, then neglected, to save children
from a life full of trauma and give better oncoming generations to society. 80% of the youth in
the Australia says while being examined and counseled for psychological disorders that they
have been abused as a child. To keep a check on this evil, the legislation has established several
norms, one being the Mandatory Reporting in community service (Ioannou & Serafeim, 2017). It
is a term used for the practice of a group of people who report child abuse or suspicious activities
around it to the government (Ho, Gross & Bettencourt, 2017).
Any maltreatment with children can affect their contribution towards society negatively,
mandatory reporting is an essential step in community service. Children are the basis of a
community's future, every community must strive to protect them and ensure a safe and sound
environment for them to grow in, free from any kind of abuse. In response to the 'battered child
syndrome', the Australia mandated the reporting of child abuse in 1963. These serious lobbying
efforts on mandatory reporting led to political debates in Australia, as a result of which,
Tasmania introduced mandatory laws in 1974 (Faith-Slaker, 2015).
The application of mandatory reporting was done keeping in mind the regular interaction
of children with responsible adults. As a result, registered health care professionals,
psychologists, social workers, teachers, counselors, residential service professionals, and the law
enforcers were appointed as mandatory reporters. These reporters, when coming into contact