Ken wrote:These questions are answerable. No, you don't have to report speeders. Yes, you might have to report child abuse:
https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/crim ... lying.html
Most of the time, ordinary citizens are not legally required to report a crime or to do anything to stop it. In other words, there is no general duty to be a “good Samaritan.” But the exceptions are surprisingly widespread.
A few states, for example, require witnesses at the scene of a violent crime to make reports to law enforcement when they can safely do so. Many states require all persons to report suspected child abuse. Further, depending on your job, you may, as an employee, have an obligation to report certain work-related suspicious activity to a government agency or the police. These duties are commonly called “mandatory reporting requirements.”
Mandatory reporting requirements are frequently accompanied by provisions that make failing to file a report a crime itself. That failure is usually a misdemeanor, but it can be a felony. Prosecutions for failure to report are very rare, and usually involve strong evidence of a serious harm that could have been prevented if a person with a duty to make a report had done so.
If you make a report, whether mandatory or not, what are your responsibilities? Let’s first look more closely at the times when you have no duty, and then at the times when you might.
And further into the article
Work-related Obligations to Report
When you are at work, you may be subject to state and federal laws that impose certain reporting obligations that do not apply to the general public. If you work in a field covered by extensive government regulation, such as health care and education, it’s highly likely that you have some mandatory reporting duties. Governments typically enact such laws to protect persons who may be particularly vulnerable, such as children, the disabled, and the elderly. And some professionals have mandatory reporting requirements even where no vulnerable victims are involved. For example, environmental crimes like mishandling hazardous waste and financial crimes like money-laundering typically require witnesses to report what they know.
Non-Obvious Reporters
Some categories of mandatory reporters are less obvious. To detect child pornography and abuse, many states require photo and video processors and computer technicians to report suspected cases. In some states, veterinarians have a duty to report instances of animal cruelty.
Each state, and the federal government, has its own definitions of who is a protected person, which events trigger a duty to report, and who is a mandatory reporter. If you think you might be covered, it is important to understand the details in the applicable regulations
Child Abuse
Every state requires certain groups of professionals to report child abuse. Most commonly, people who work in health care, education, and child care are among those required to make a report of suspected child abuse to local authorities. Some states require all citizens to report cases of suspected child abuse.
Vulnerable Adults
As with child abuse, many laws impose mandatory duties to report abuse of the elderly and persons unable to care for themselves because of illness or disability. Nursing home employees, mental health and health care workers, and other professionals responsible for the care and oversight of such vulnerable adults have mandatory reporting requirements in a majority of states.
And from another article of particular relevance for those who may be involved in covering up crimes of abuse
https://www.wklaw.com/knowing-about-a-c ... -anything/
In California, you can be charged with the crime that was committed if you aided or abetted in its commission, but did not actually commit the crime yourself. Penal Code section 31 describes the phrase “aiding and abetting” as meaning that you assisted another person to commit a crime. Prosecutors can charge you as an aider and abettor whenever you:
- Know the perpetrator’s illegal plan,
Intentionally encourage and/or facilitate that plan, and
Aid, promote, or instigate in the crime’s commission.
You don’t have to be actually present at the scene of the crime to be charged under what is known as “accomplice liability.” If you willfully participated in the planning of a crime prior to its commission, you can be held criminally liable as an “accessory before the fact.”
If you take a passive role during a crime in progress, such as acting as a lookout or disabling a security device, you can be prosecuted as a perpetrator in the second degree (an accomplice).
Finally, if you help to conceal a crime already committed (hiding stolen money or weapons used in the crime’s commission, for example), or give assistance to perpetrators of crime to help them avoid detection, arrest or prosecution, you can be charged as an “accessory after the fact.”
In these situations, you are culpable under the accomplice liability theory because you knew of the illegal plan and willfully did something to cause it to be carried out or concealed.
I find this intriguing on several levels. I know that "ignorance of the law is no excuse", but while this lays out legal requirements to report such things as mishandling toxic chemicals (and work-related dangerous practices?), do you personally think there is a MORAL obligation to report these things?
Years ago I worked in the electro-plating industry, and more recently in power-coating. Both of these industries use toxic chemicals, the former to a greater degree (in my observation). In the plating business, we were sometimes told to dump sludge from the tanks on the drive. I don't know for sure if it contained toxic chemicals, but I would guess that it must have. (This was decades ago, so some laws are different now.) Also, there was a separate building at the back of the plant where (I suspected) all the run-off water went through some type of treatment process before going into the city sewer. (You would need some acquaintance with the electro-plating process to understand the huge amount of water that was used during normal operations, so I won't attempt to explain this further.) Anyway, sometimes an alarm sounded, and the boss would hurry to that building, and then it would stop. I always sort of suspected that they might be bypassing the treatment plant in order to stop the alarm, but during the years I worked there, I don't think I ever saw the inside of that building. If I were working there now, should I report them?
Another type of case. I worked for various construction companies (during about the same time frame - very early 80's) in Oklahoma, Texas, & here in Ohio, and here are some examples of unsafe practices I saw: running a table saw w/o a guard (forbidden by OSHA). "Scaffolding" using two extension ladders and a single plank, up around two stories. A single plank between a high scaffold up on a church sanctuary stage, and another down on the floor. (We were sanding the main beams before staining, somewhere around 35' or more up, on a 12" plank, w/ no hand rails, etc.) This last example I was just told about, as it took place before I started working at this construction site: The contractor lowered a worker down into a 16" diameter bore hole 16' (a hole for an underground pillar-support foundation) HEAD FIRST, so he could check out something at the bottom of the hole.
These are all illegal activities, some very dangerous to the employees, and some to the environment. But other than the pressure brought to bear on an employee to do something that is either illegal or very dangerous, what is the moral stance on these issues? (People say that an employee can always just walk away from a job, but I don't think that people who are either already wealthy, or have people on whom they can depend on to bail them out financially really understand the degree to which modern employment practices can amount to a near-slavery type of arrangement. This then provides the moral element to some things which on the bold face do not appear to have any moral dimension.)
