PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News
By JAN MURPHY, The Patriot-News
on November 27, 2012
A task force charged with examining the state’s child protection law is recommending the state redefine what constitutes child abuse and expand the list of individuals who are required to report child abuse, among numerous other recommendations.
The 11-member Pennsylvania Task Force on Child Protection unanimously today adopted a report that also calls for a complete overhaul of the child protection law, and upgrading some crimes against children and creating several new offenses. The full report will be available later today at www.childprotection.state.pa.us.
The task force formed by the Legislature in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal spent the past year examining the laws and holding 11 public meetings to hear testimony from experts about possible weaknesses in them.
Sandusky is now serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence for sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.
The panel’s chairman, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler, said the recommendations is not a knee-jerk reaction to the Sandusky scandal or the one involving the Catholic Church sex scandal. But a well-reasoned and thorough review of the child protection laws.
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