If you know, should you tell?

A lot of the law around children requires ordinary citizens who know about child abuse or molestation to report it. It is in fact illegal to know about this stuff and not report it — if you don’t report, you are complicit. This makes sense in some respects, and some respects it doesn’t.

Obviously it makes sense because children are often too scared or too little to speak up for themselves, but sometimes it is a difficult decision to make because you might know that the child could end up in a shelter or home that could make things worse for him or her. Reporting could mean removing a family’s breadwinner. In any case, even though we are legally obliged to report, it is not a simple decision to make.

What about for adults? My previous post spoke about the many women who die each year because we sit in our homes and are too scared or polite to go next door and see what the fuss is about. In an email response, I heard that if you were to respond every time you heard a beating, you would spend your life involved in other family’s lives, and could put yourself in serious danger. This makes sense when your proximity could put your life in danger. Ideally you should be able to call the police, but as we know, sometimes they don’t always respond the way we would like them to.

But what about if you aren’t in proximity? In cases of rape, the first person that the survivor tells is known as the first report witness. You may know the survivor, or you may simply have been the first person s/he met after the incident. If you are the first report witness you may be called on in court, especially if you have witnessed the rape as well (for example in cases of Compelled Rape). Do you think you should have the additional requirement of having to report the rape as well?

In this really interesting piece on mandatory reporting a rape survivor argues that they should have to report, because sometimes as the survivor you want to but you are too scared, or too upset or just can’t do it just yet. Of course, if two people reported the incident and were willing to testify in court, it would make the case against the perpetrator stronger. But it is not as simple as that.

There are many complexities including the involvement of children. If you are a child who sees dad repeatedly raping your mum, the legal burden would be on you to report. In addition, what if you are the first report witness and you go to report the crime, but the survivor has not? Do you think you should report it even though s/he doesn’t want you to? What about if the first person who finds out is a doctor? Should hospital staff be required to report?

It’s a complex issue which is dealt with from the perspective of a survivor in the piece mentioned above. But what about from the perspective of the person who’s reporting? If you know, should you tell?