State House Passes Much-Needed Update to Child Abuse Laws

Many of the issues we deal with in the State Legislature are driven by politics and ideology, but there are some which are in direct response to real problems we are forced to confront. Sometimes these issues are uncomfortable to discuss, but often times the difficult subjects are the most important ones. This week the House of Representatives passed legislation designed to strengthen child abuse laws in Pennsylvania.

It may not seem very important, but one of the most critical parts of a piece of legislation can be the ‘definitions’ section, which formally defines certain terms and how they should be applied. House Bill 726, which I voted for both in the House Judiciary Committee and on the House Floor, passed by a vote of 191-6. The legislation broadens the definition of “child abuse” and other related terms.

The term “child abuse” is expanded to include knowing or recklessly doing any of the following: causing bodily injury to a child through any recent act or failure to act, causing or substantially contributing to serious mental injury to a child through any act or failure to act or a series of such acts or failures to act, causing sexual or exploitation of a child through any act or failure to act, creating a reasonable likelihood of bodily injury to a child through any recent act or failure to act, creating a likelihood of sexual abuse or exploitation of a child through any recent act or failure to act, or causing serious physical neglect of a child.

The definition of “child abuse” would also include engaging in any of the following recent acts, kicking, biting or throwing, burning, stabbing or cutting a child in a manner that endangers the child, unreasonably physically restraining a child, based on consideration of the method, location or the duration of the restraint, forcefully striking a child under one year of age, interfering with the breathing of a child, causing a child to be present at a location where certain criminal offenses relating to drugs or a DUI conviction occurred, causing the death of the child through any act or failure to act.

The definition of “child abuse” would also include any recent act, failure to act or series of such acts or failures to act by a perpetrator which creates imminent risk of serious physical injury to or sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child under 18 years of age, serious physical neglect by a perpetrator constituting prolonged or repeated lack of supervision or the failure to provide essentials of life, including adequate medical care, which endangers a child’s life or development or impairs the child’s functioning.

The legislation also clarifies certain criteria that would NOT be considered “child abuse”. This would include physical or mental injuries that result solely from environmental factors that are beyond the control of the parent or person responsible for the child’s welfare, such as inadequate housing, furnishings, income, clothing and medical care, a refusal to provide needed medical, psychological or surgical care that is the result of seriously held religious beliefs, consistent with those of a bona fide religion, by the child’s welfare, or the use of force by a parent or guardian or other person similarly responsible for the general care and supervision of a child or a person acting at the request of the parent or guardian.

Anytime we deal with laws designed to protect vulnerable populations such as children, there is a difficult balance involved. On one hand, you don’t want to “over legislate” and make laws which may sound good on paper but prove unworkable in reality. On the other hand, you need to give investigators and law enforcement the tools they need to protect innocent children suffering from abuse. 

Recent history has unfortunately demonstrated the need to strengthen Pennsylvania’s child abuse laws, and hopefully the work done by the House of Representatives can be passed quickly by the State Senate and signed into law to protect the children of Pennsylvania from the unthinkable horrors of child abuse. These may be tough issues to confront, and there is clearly no perfect solution, but the cost of inaction is simply too high to ignore.