DISCRECIONALIDAD EN LA DETECCION Y EL REPORTE DEL MALTRATO INFANTIL EN INSTITUCIONES DE SALUD EN MEXICO

Two-hundred and sixty-nine workers (physicians, nurses and social workers) of the public health system in a Mexican city were interviewed. The aim of this research was to determine variables explaining the use of discretion in detecting and reporting child abuse cases. The most important predictors of discretion were a young age, the lack of training in detecting and handling child abuse cases, and having reasons for being discretional. Those who reported most reasons for being discretional were the youngest, the ones with least training and those with the lowest educational level, but also those with a higher occupational status within the hospital. It was detected a high level of incongruence between the reporting of child abuse cases indicated by the hospitals' personnel and that detailed by child protection agencies. This lack of correspondence could be explained by a discretionary detection and reporting practiced in both institutional systems.