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Comment by SamoyedFurFluff | Hacker News Reader

Dealing with abused children is unfortunately common in pediatric medicine and is a huge reason for burnout in the field, because a doctor will know about neglect happening that’s not “bad enough” to call someone about, or if they do, they know nothing will happen because even the services to get kids out of neglectful situations are themselves rife with abuse.

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The veterinary field is the same way. I saw a TON of abused pets & animals when I was doing vet tech work. I ultimately decided not to pursue vet school.

did you really just compare the two

No they did not. They made an observation about a related field.

That said, animal abuse is correlated with human abuse

We treat animals worse than humans. Even pet animals are often sent to an overcrowded shelter where animals are killed according to the "first in first dead" principle.

If you want to know what cruelties humans are truly capable off I suggest you look at how we treat animals. As long as we declare a certain subgroup of humans "inhuman" we will treat them the same way.

Don't they have mandatory reporting requirements? I know they exist in my jurisdiction.

Even where it exists, doctors have to weigh whether the abuse they receive is worse than they'll receive after going through CPS and foster system. Anecdotally I've heard from medical providers they prefer not to actually report unless the kid is literally imminently going to die, because the foster system is often even worse for these kids.

I find that very hard to believe, because the law doesn't allow it and the penalties for noncompliance with mandatory reporting are severe. In many states, failure to report is a crime. Mandatory reporting is intended to remove that kind of subjective evaluation from the picture.

OK, fine, don't believe it. I'm not here to convince you how it's nigh impossible to prove what a person is thinking at a particular time. Mandatory reporting is basically a thought crime, if you have the wrong thought (thinking someone is abused), you go to jail for having that thought and not telling someone. Thought crimes are basically impossible to prove in anything other than a kangaroo court.

The real risk is civil liability. Particularly if the victim is later injured

Hmm, fair point.

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