Mandatory reporting

[grum]

It's a conversation that got kind-of started at someone else's LJ, but it was at best tangentially related. So I figured I'd start it here.

What do people think of mandatory reporting laws? Of the intent behind their creation? Of their implementation?

Comments

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Laws about DV reporting differ by state; MA does not currently require *any* reporting of DV, even on a statistical basis. ("On a statistical basis" means collection of data stripped of identifying information for the purposes of public health; this is currently done in MA for gunshot and stab wounds, for instance).

Suicide is another story; suicidal ideation is a potentially fatal problem, frequently caused by an organic thought or mood disorder. (Yeah, DV is also not infrequently fatal; it is not caused by an organic medical problem, at least not one on the part of the victim). As a result, it is the duty of the medical practitioner to protect the suicidal patient from themselves. This is embodied in law in the power to involuntarily commit people to psychiatric care, usually for limited periods (in MA, up to 72 hours). There's no reporting requirement, though; patients who say they're suicidal, or who commit acts of self-harm, are committed without need to inform the state (or, if they present voluntarily, they can be 'voluntarily committed', meaning they sign themselves in for the 72 hour period).