PUERTO RICO

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WHO:        ANY person MUST report if s/he knows or suspects that a minor is a victim of abuse.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 446(b)]

These are mandatory (MUST report): • Professionals or public officials • Public, private, and privatized entities • Professionals in the fields of health, the system of justice, education, social work, or public order • Persons who administer or work in caregiving institutions or centers that provide care services for twenty-four (24) hours a day or part thereof, or in rehabilitation institutions and centers for minors, or in foster homes • All processors of film or photographs.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 446(a)]

·       NOTE: The mandate for professionals, officials, and film & photo processors is for observations at work. The mandate for persons generally lacks that limitation.

·       STANDARD:  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, §§ 444(v); 446(a),(b)]  For reporting purposes, child/minor means under age 18, though the age of majority in Puerto Rico is 21.

(1)      Professionals and Officials: In their professional capacity, and in the performance of their duties, learn or come to suspect that a minor is, has been, or is at risk of becoming a victim of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.

(2)      Film & Photo Processors: know of or observe, in the performance of their professional responsibilities or employment, any motion picture, photograph, videotape, negative, or slide that depicts a minor involved in a sexual activity.

(3)      Other reporters: know or suspect that a minor is a victim of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.

·       PRIVILEGE:  Privileged communications are NOT addressed in the statutes reviewed.

WHEN:      For listed professionals, officials, and film & photo processors: IMMEDIATE oral report; a report on a form must follow within 48 HOURS after the initial report. For other reporters: no timeline is specified and no follow-on is required.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 446(a),(b)] 

WHERE & HOW:  Any of: (1) Dept. of the Family [Departamento de la Familia] (DF) hotline; (2) Puerto Rico police [state police]; or (3) DF local office. The Commonwealth Center for the Protection of Minors (CCPM) runs the hotline.    [Laws Ann. tit. 8, §§ 446(a)(b); 444d(a),(b)]

·       In an emergency:                                    dial 911; report afterward

·       Hotline for abuse of minors (24/7):          787-749-1333             1-800-981-8333

·       Directory of regional and local DF offices:

https://servicios.adsef.pr.gov/docs/pdf/NAP%20STATE%20PLAN%20FIRMADO.pdf

·       Puerto Rico police:                                   787-343-2020       (confidential line)

o   Child Porn: any film, photo, video, negative, or slide of a minor’s sexual activity must be delivered to the nearest Puerto Rico police station.  

o   Directory of regional command centers: https://policia.pr.gov/directorio-telefonico/

·       The follow-on written report from professionals, officials and film & photo processors must be completed on a form from DF and sent to the central register; it is at Directora Centro Estatal, PO Box 194090, San Juan, PR 00919  Phone: 787-625-4900.

·       Death:  A mandatory reporter who knows or suspects a minor has died as a result of abuse, neglect, institutional abuse, or institutional neglect must report it to both the police and the hotline.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 446(c)] 

OTHER ASPECTS

·       REPORT DETAILS: (1) Reports must include concerns; and (2) photo & film processors must deliver to the nearest Puerto Rico police station any film, photo, video, negative, or slide of a minor’s sexual activity.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 446(a)(b)]  (3) DF also asks for the child’s: (a) name; (b) address or location; (c)  type of abuse; (d) approximate age; (e) gender; (f) disability if any; and (g) signs of physical harm. [https://www.adfanpr.com/]

·       REPORTER PROTECTION: (1) The statutes do not specifically require that the reporter’s name be provided in the report. (2) The reporter’s identity is kept in strict confidence, except in the case of non-professional, non-official reporters who submit an unfounded report with knowingly false information.  [Ann. Laws tit. 8, § 446(a),(b)]  (3) A person, official, or institution reporting in good faith is immune from civil and criminal liability.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 446(last para.)]

WHY:        Any person, official, or public or private institution who deliberately: (1) voluntarily fails to make a mandated report or otherwise comply; or (2) prevents another from reasonably doing so; or (3) furnishes false information or advises another to do so commits a misdemeanor punishable by < $5,000 fine and/or < 90 days’ imprisonment. Information that is found to be false and interfering in custody, parental rights and patria potestas [parenthood] is referred for potential prosecution.   [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 450a]

WHAT:      In Puerto Rico child abuse includes: sexual abuse; obscene behavior; allowing another person to put a minor at risk; abandonment; exploitation; allowing exploitation by others; crimes against a minor; and exposure to domestic violence. Child neglect includes: failing to provide; failing to supervise; failing to visit; failing to keep company; and failing to supervise and care under the guardianship of another person. Institutional versions of abuse or neglect are recognized but differ from the non-institutional form only in the settings and in the persons responsible for harms.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444; tit. 31, § 634a(3),(4)]\

Initial Screening Criteria: Sources reviewed do not address this directly but top priorities are implicit: (a) whether allegations concern any of statutorily defined abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect; (b) whether an emergency exists, meaning imminent danger to the minor’s safety, health, physical, mental, or emotional integrity, and/or his or her social well-being (justifying emergency custody); an (c) whether there is an imminent risk to the minor’s health, safety, and physical, emotional integrity, and/or sexual well-being.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444a(para. 2); tit. 8, § 444(m),(e),(ff)]

Reportable: (a) a father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor, for any ABUSE (sexual abuse; obscene behavior; allowing another person to put a minor at risk; abandonment; exploitation; allowing exploitation by others; crimes against a minor; and exposure to domestic violence) or any NEGLECT (failing to provide; failing to supervise; failing to visit; failing to keep company; and failing to supervise and care under the guardianship of another person); and (b) in addition for other persons in charge of the minor (see bullet below for institutions), abuse or neglect occurring at care / education / treatment / detention institutions, programs, or centers (i.e., INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE and INSTITUTIONAL NEGLECT

NOTE: If persons no named here do these things, those may be crimes under other statutes and reportable to police, but not under the abuse / neglect reporting protocol.

·        For institutional abuse / neglect the reportable persons are: (a) a foster parent; or (b) an employee or official who has control or custody of a minor at a public or private institution providing caregiver services, for 24 hours a day or part thereof, for the minor’s care, education, treatment, or detention. [Laws Ann. Tit. 8, § 444(t),(x)]

·        Other person in charge of the minor includes the custodian, employees, or officials of programs, centers, or institutions that provide care, education, treatment, or detention services to minors for twenty-four (24) hours a day or part thereof. [Laws Ann. Tit. 8, § 444(z)].

Child Abuse is an: (a) intentional act or omission by (b) a minor’s father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor that (c) damages, harms, or risks his/her (d) health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity. It includes any of: [Laws Ann. Tit. 8, § 444(s)]

(A)     Sexual abuse.

(1)     SEXUAL ABUSE means sexual conduct in the presence of and/or utilizing a child, consensually or not, to satisfy lewdness or for any of the following crimes: (a) sexual assault; (b) lewd acts; (c) indecent exposure or indecent proposals; (d) child porn (producing; or possessing and distributing; or utilizing a minor); (e) remitting, transporting, selling, distributing, publishing, exhibiting, or possessing obscene materials, and obscene shows [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444(b)].

(2)     LEWD CONDUCT means any (a) physical activity, whether done alone or with others, such as singing, talking, dancing, acting, simulating, or pantomiming, which (b) as a whole is considered by the average person and contemporary community standards, to appeal to lustful interests, such as a morbid interest in nudity, sexuality or physiological functions, and which (c) shows any sexual conduct in an overtly offensive manner and (d) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, religious, scientific or educational value [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444(d)].

(3)     CONTEXT: THE AGE OF CONSENT is 16. There are no close-in-age exceptions. Consent includes absence of: force; violence; intimidation; threat; mental disability or illness; debilitating drugs; unconsciousness; deception as to identity; kinship to the 3^rd degree by blood or marriage or adoption; or relationship under custody or authority. Also, the other person cannot be the child’s educator, medical professional, counselor, or clergy [Laws Ann. tit. 33, §§ 4770; 4772].

(4)     CONTEXT: INCEST is sexual penetration – vaginal, anal, oral-genital, digital or instrumental – with a relative by: (a) ascendancy or descendancy, or consanguinity [common ancestor], adoption or affinity [marriage]; or (b) collateral [common ancestor] by consanguinity or adoption up to the third degree [Laws Ann. tit. 33, § 4770(h)]. [This would seem to include: (a) all ancestors and descendants; (b) stepparent, stepparent’s parent, and grandparent’s spouse; (c) the spouse of a child, stepchild, or grandchild; (c) sibling of whole or half blood, or stepsibling; (d) sibling’s spouse or child; (e) spouse’s parent, stepparent, grandparent, or sibling; and (f) parent’s sibling.]

(B)     Engaging in obscene behavior and or using the minor to carry out obscene acts.

(C)     Allowing another person to cause or put the minor at risk of damage or harm to his or her health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity.

(1)     PHYSICAL HARM means any (a) nonaccidental trauma, injury, or condition, which (b) could result in death, disfigurement, illness, or temporary or permanent disability of any part or function of the body. It may be caused by one or several episodes. It may include inadequate nourishment [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444(i)].

(2)     MENTAL or EMOTIONAL HARM means impairment of a minor’s intellectual or emotional capacity, versus the norm for his/her age or culture. It is presumed from evidence of recurring: (a) fear; (b) aggression towards self or others; (c) feelings of abandonment or hopelessness; (d) frustration and failure; (e) anxiety; (f) insecurity; (g) withdrawal; (h) regression or behavior more appropriate for a younger child; or (i) any other similar behavior [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444(j)].

(E)     Willfully abandoning a minor.

(1)     ABANDONMENT means willful dereliction or being remiss in responsibilities of the minor’s father, mother, or other person in charge, taking into account the minor’s age and need for adult care. Intent to abandon is evidenced by acts such as any of: (a) lack of communication with the minor for at least three (3) months; (b) lack of participation in any plan or program for reuniting the minor with the father, mother, or other person in charge; (c) failure to respond to notices of hearings for the minor’s protection; or (d) allowing the minor to be in circumstances where the father, mother, or other person in charge (i) cannot be identified, or (ii) is known but cannot be located, or (iii) fails to claim the minor within thirty (30) days after s/he is found.

(F)     Exploitation [by persons near to the child]: allowing exploitation by the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor’s well-being.

(G)    Allowing exploitation by others: allowing someone other than the father, mother, or other person in charge to force or allow the minor to perform any act, such as obscene acts for profit or other benefit.

(H)     Participating in any other crime against the minor’s health, or physical, mental, or emotional integrity.

(I)       Engaging in domestic violence in the presence of a minor. [cf. Laws Ann. Tit. 8, §§ 601 et seq.]

(1)     Institutional Child ABUSE is child abuse as above, done by: (a) a foster parent; or (b) an employee or official who has control or custody of a minor at a public or private institution providing caregiving services, for 24 hours a day or part thereof, for the minor’s care, education, treatment, or detention. The abuse is carried out by the person or results from the institution’s policies, practices, and conditions [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444(t)].

(2)     Child Neglect is a type of abuse, and means that one or more of the minor’s needs have not been met because the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor failed to perform the duties and/or failed to exercise the capacity. Neglect includes any of:  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444(w); tit. 31, § 634a(3),(4)]

(A)     Failing to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, or health care.

(1)     CAVEAT: declining to provide healthcare due to legitimate practice of religious beliefs is NOT neglect, but if a child still needs medical care the court will provide remedies, and if necessary will remove him/her or terminate parenthood.

(B)     Failing to exercise supervision (this includes supervising the minor’s education and development).

(C)     Failing to visit the minor or to remain in contact or frequent communication.

(D)     Failing to keep company with the minor.

(1)        BUT having limited physical access due to incarceration, hospitalization, or residing outside Puerto Rico is NOT neglect.

(E)     Failing to supervise and care for the minor under the de jure or de facto guardianship of another person, by any of: (a) failing to assume care and guardianship in one’s home when able to do so; (b) failing to provide a reasonable amount of financial support according to one’s means; or (c) failing to maintain regular communication or contact with the minor or with his/her de jure or de facto guardian.

(1)     CONTEXT: de jure refers to a legally authorized guardian; and de facto refers to an unofficial guardian. This rule concerns someone such as a parent who is not contributing as they should, when someone else (such as a foster parent formally or a grandparent informally) has day-to-day responsibility for the child.

Institutional Child NEGLECT is child neglect as above, done by: (a) a foster parent; or (b) an employee or official who has control or custody of a minor at a public or private institution providing caregiving services, for 24 hours a day or part thereof, for the minor’s care, education, treatment, or detention. The neglect is either carried out by the person or results from the institution’s policies, practices, and conditions.  [Laws Ann. tit. 8, § 444(x)]