‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?

Over the past few decades, child sexual abuse (‘CSA’) has become recognized as a serious and major problem in modern societies. Consequently, a common denominator in modern government policy is that CSA must be criminalized and pro-actively enforced. However, if national authorities are to be able t...

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Autores principales:	Renée Sharon Barbara Kool, Senna Kerssies, Tessa van der Rijst
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Utrecht University School of Law 2021
Materias:	child sexual abuse disclosure (mandatory) duty to report Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence K1-7720
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/22f8fd2e01d24a0fae668e8c690c111f
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:22f8fd2e01d24a0fae668e8c690c111f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:22f8fd2e01d24a0fae668e8c690c111f2021-11-08T08:17:04Z‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?1871-515X10.36633/ulr.589https://doaj.org/article/22f8fd2e01d24a0fae668e8c690c111f2021-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.utrechtlawreview.org/articles/589https://doaj.org/toc/1871-515XOver the past few decades, child sexual abuse (‘CSA’) has become recognized as a serious and major problem in modern societies. Consequently, a common denominator in modern government policy is that CSA must be criminalized and pro-actively enforced. However, if national authorities are to be able to enforce, knowledge about the abuse is essential. Yet the disclosing of information to the authorities is hampered by the hidden nature of the offence. According to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote) and EU Directive 2011/93 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, Member States should ‘encourage any person’ who knows about or suspects CSA to report this to the relevant authorities. To encourage such disclosure, several European governments have introduced mandatory reporting systems imposing a (non-criminal) duty on designated professionals to report information about or suspicions of CSA to the competent authorities. This article examines whether introducing a criminal duty to report CSA could be recommendable for the European Union or the Council of Europe in order to improve Member States’ knowledge of CSA and thus protect children more effectively against this type of violence. Using the outcomes of our recent study into the possibilities and impossibilities of extending the present Dutch criminal duty ('aangifteplicht') to report rape, we argue that a criminal duty to report CSA is not recommendable as a means to encourage CSA disclosure by third parties.Renée Sharon Barbara KoolSenna KerssiesTessa van der RijstUtrecht University School of Lawarticlechild sexual abusedisclosure(mandatory) duty to reportLaw in general. Comparative and uniform law. JurisprudenceK1-7720ENUtrecht Law Review, Vol 17, Iss 1 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	child sexual abuse disclosure (mandatory) duty to report Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence K1-7720
spellingShingle	child sexual abuse disclosure (mandatory) duty to report Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence K1-7720 Renée Sharon Barbara Kool Senna Kerssies Tessa van der Rijst ‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?
description	Over the past few decades, child sexual abuse (‘CSA’) has become recognized as a serious and major problem in modern societies. Consequently, a common denominator in modern government policy is that CSA must be criminalized and pro-actively enforced. However, if national authorities are to be able to enforce, knowledge about the abuse is essential. Yet the disclosing of information to the authorities is hampered by the hidden nature of the offence. According to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote) and EU Directive 2011/93 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, Member States should ‘encourage any person’ who knows about or suspects CSA to report this to the relevant authorities. To encourage such disclosure, several European governments have introduced mandatory reporting systems imposing a (non-criminal) duty on designated professionals to report information about or suspicions of CSA to the competent authorities. This article examines whether introducing a criminal duty to report CSA could be recommendable for the European Union or the Council of Europe in order to improve Member States’ knowledge of CSA and thus protect children more effectively against this type of violence. Using the outcomes of our recent study into the possibilities and impossibilities of extending the present Dutch criminal duty ('aangifteplicht') to report rape, we argue that a criminal duty to report CSA is not recommendable as a means to encourage CSA disclosure by third parties.
format	article
author	Renée Sharon Barbara Kool Senna Kerssies Tessa van der Rijst
author_facet	Renée Sharon Barbara Kool Senna Kerssies Tessa van der Rijst
author_sort	Renée Sharon Barbara Kool
title	‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?
title_short	‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?
title_full	‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?
title_fullStr	‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?
title_full_unstemmed	‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?
title_sort	‘mind the (knowledge) gap’: towards a criminal duty to report child sexual abuse?
publisher	Utrecht University School of Law
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/22f8fd2e01d24a0fae668e8c690c111f
work_keys_str_mv	AT reneesharonbarbarakool mindtheknowledgegaptowardsacriminaldutytoreportchildsexualabuse AT sennakerssies mindtheknowledgegaptowardsacriminaldutytoreportchildsexualabuse AT tessavanderrijst mindtheknowledgegaptowardsacriminaldutytoreportchildsexualabuse
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‘Mind the (Knowledge) Gap’: Towards a Criminal Duty to Report Child Sexual Abuse?

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