Child abuse experts disagree about the threshold for mandated reporting
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2026

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime
Published on: May 3, 2016
Benjamin H Levi1, Kathryn Crowell
1Departments of Humanities and Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. bhlevi@psu.edu
Context:
Though reasonable suspicion serves as the standard threshold for when to report suspected child abuse, there is little guidance how to interpret the term.
Objective:
To examine how experts on child abuse interpret reasonable suspicion using 2 probability frameworks.
Participants:
Anonymous survey of clinical and research experts on child abuse.
Main Outcome Measures:
Responses on ordinal and visual analog scales quantifying the probability needed for "suspicion of child abuse" to rise to reasonable suspicion.
Results:
A total of 81 of 117 experts completed the survey (69% response rate, mean age 47 years, 69% female). On both the ordinal probability scale (rank order on a differential diagnosis) and the estimated probability scale (1% to 99% likelihood), experts demonstrated wide variability in defining reasonable suspicion, with no statistically significant differences found for age, race, gender, professional training, seniority, or prior education on reasonable suspicion.
Conclusions:
This study found no consensus in how experts on child abuse interpret reasonable suspicion.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Types of Reports II: Incident or Occurrence Report
Purposes:
In the healthcare industry, reports play a crucial role in documenting incidents within an agency. The primary objective of these reports is to ensure patient safety, uphold the...
Ethical Dilemmas I
Let us explore some examples to understand the potentially complex moral decisions nurses face.
Take the case of caring for minors, particularly in areas related to reproductive...
Milgram's Obedience to Authority
Bullying
Types of Reports III: Telephone and Verbal Reports
Here's an overview of each type:
Telephone Orders
Obedience

