Reading Room Document

Duty to Report Suspected Child Abuse Under 42 U.S.C. § 13031

Under 42 U.S.C. § 13031—a provision of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990—all covered professionals who learn of suspected child abuse while engaged in enumerated activities and professions on federal land or in federal facilities must report that abuse, regardless of where the suspected victim is cared for or resides. The fact that a patient has viewed child pornography may "give reason to suspect that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse" under the statute, and a covered professional is not relieved of an obligation to report the possible abuse simply because neither the covered professional nor the patient knows the identity of the child depicted in the pornography. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/olc/file/2012-05-29-report-child-abuse/download.

May 29, 2012