Does U.S. law require reporting of suspected child abuse by unrelated citizens?

Question

I happened to notice someone commenting that there is a legal requirement to report suspected child abuse for a non-guardian relative of a child suspected of abuse. I obviously would encourage the individual to report abuse no matter what, but I'm curious about the actual law in this regard. My understanding was that responsibility for reporting suspected crimes only belong to those who have a "duty to care", in this case the child's guardians and certain professions that are responsible for working with children.

The statement I'm wondering about was:

Child abuse law in Texas and Florida, where our organization was incorporated, requires any person to report suspected child abuse. This is also specifically true about child abuse in at least 16 other states in the US. And I followed a case in Pennsylvania where, even without such explicit laws, two men were prosecuted for concealment of a crime for failing to report child abuse, even though they did not fall into a mandatory reporter category. They ended up getting slaps on the wrists, but convicted nonetheless

Can anyone tell me if states do require anyone to report abuse? If so I'm curious how that relates to my previous understanding of responsibility to report crimes. Does that mean in general whether or not an individual must report a crime is entirely dependent on whether a specific state passes a law about a specific crime being mandatory to report?

In short I'm less interested in child abuse specifically, as I am on what it means about responsibility to report crime in general.

Answer 1

There is no general liability for omissions. This means liability can typically only arise out of acts, not failures to act. Traditionally, there are five recognised exceptions to this rule. These are where the defendant:

1. Had a (recognised) special relationship with the victim
2. Voluntarily assumed care of the victim
3. Had a contractual duty to act
4. First created a dangerous situation
5. Had a statutory duty to act

The only one of these that could apply to "unrelated citizens" is where there is a statutory duty to act. In england-and-wales, there is no such duty to report suspected child abuse. If one were put in place, then this would, per the above, create a liability for such an omission.

For example: the Road Traffic Act 1988 imposed a new positive duty on car drivers to stop if they are involved in an accident.

These exceptions also apply in the united-states, however unlike E&W, most states do impose a statutory duty for adults to report suspected child abuse under specified conditions

For example: "Kentucky requires all citizens to report [...] suspected abuse and neglect".

You also say:

I'm less interested in child abuse specifically, as I am in what it means about responsibility to report crime in general.

This more general question could apply to any of the 5 exceptions to the rule on omissions outlined above.

For example: In E&W many professionals, such as school teachers, have a contractual duty imposed on them to report a broad range of offences (despite no statutory duty to do so)