Mandatory Reporting
Is this abuse?
Read the following materials before answering the questions below.
Delaware Mandatory Reporting Law (Links to an external site.)
Review the crimes of child abuse in the Delaware Code (Links to an external site.) 1103 Child abuse in the third degree; class A misdemeanor, § 1103A Child abuse in the second degree; class G felony, § 1103B Child abuse in the first degree; class B felony
Definitions relating to state of mind (Links to an external site.) at Section 231 “Recklessly, intentionally, negligently”
Chapter 4. Defenses to Criminal Liability (Links to an external site.): Scroll down to 11 Del. C. Section 468 and read “Justification — Use of force by persons with special responsibility for care, discipline or safety of others”
You are a social worker. On your way home from work, you stop at the grocery store to pick up dinner. While shopping you observe a young mother berating her 2 year old for opening a box of cookies and she slaps him across the face. The sobbing child has a red partial outline of a hand on his cheek.
Is this abuse? Why or why not and what law governs? Based on the assigned readings, what, if anything, are you mandated to do and how would you do it?
What are the possible civil and criminal consequences that the mother may face?
Answer preview is this abuse?
418 words