By David Joel Miller.
When might a counselor report a rape?
Do counselors report rape?
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If the victim is an adult – counselors do not report rape. Rape is a crime. We do not report crimes unless there is a legal exception to confidentiality that requires us to report something. As far as I know, rape is not one of those crimes that get reported.
If the victim is an adult they should report it. We will try to help them, walk them through the process.
After seeing how rape and abuse survivors can be treated and the way reporting trauma can re-traumatize them, I can understand why they may not want their rape or abuse reported.
If the client is the perpetrator we do not report that either. It is up to the victim to report. What we should do is tell this client to stop doing that. They are ruining their lives and the life of their victim. That is if we even chose to continue to work with a rapist.
What if the victim is a child? You report the rape then, don’t you? No, not really. Not the way I understand my reporting responsibility. I do not report crimes. I do not report rape.
Wait a minute – the victim was a Child? What we do report is abuse. This is child sexual abuse. See the rape part is not what triggers the report. It is the abuse of someone with power and control over a weaker person that makes this reportable as abuse.
This sexual abuse does not need to be rape or intercourse. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction all sorts of inappropriate sexual contact between an adult and a child might be reportable.
But the victim does not need to be a child to make this a reportable occurrence. If the victim is a senior citizen that is reportable in lots of places. Or if they are disabled, that abuse gets reported.
Financial abuse of the elderly, that gets reported most of the time. There are rules about when but remember it is the abuse, not the financial crime that is getting reported.
So while counselors do not report crimes, yes we do have a responsibility to protect those who can’t protect themselves by reporting abuse.
I am sure this will not be the last time a question about when a counselor will report something will turn up in the comments or my email.
The basic rule is – crimes – no report.
Abuse of a disabled person, senior citizen, or child – report.
A person intending to kill themselves or others – report.
At least that is the way things work here in California and most other places I know about. If in doubt consult a lawyer or ask your counselor about the way it works in your jurisdiction or situation.
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Hey there I was wondering if when a minor tells the therapist that she or he was sexually assaulted 7-8ish years ago, would the therapist legally have to report it?
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From what you said my take is – yes. The victim is a minor, the therapist has reason to suspect abuse they are a mandated reporter and must make the report. In fact they could lose their license for not making that report. While I am not a lawyer and my answers are confined to the way it works here in California. I would believe that would be true almost anywhere. Just a side note here. Therapist have to maintain their clients secrets unless it’s a mandated report. Schoolteachers would have an even higher duty to report. Anyone who works with children on a regular basis is likely to be a mandated reporter and they would not have a confidential relationship so anything the minor had said could be reported. How long ago it happened is not a factor as long as the victim is still a minor it him is reportable by the mandated reporter. Once the victim becomes an adult it’s up to them to make that report.
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Is this how it works in Washington state because I want to get couples counseling with a partner that crossed my boundaries honestly I’m not even sure if it counts as sexual assault but if it dose I rather just get help alone from my own therapist because I don’t want to get him in trouble btw this happened like several months or maybe even a year ago idk if that helps
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Hi Kelly. I’m not a lawyer, and I certainly can’t tell you what the laws are in your state. But I think the principle is pretty uniform across the United States. Licensed mental health professionals, marriage and family therapists, and professional clinical counselors, sometimes called mental health counselors, do not report crimes. What you tell a counselor is confidential unless it falls under one of several legal exceptions. The principal one of those exceptions is “mandated reports.” Those only relate to who the victim is. So, if you are not under eighteen, there’s no child abuse report permitted. It doesn’t matter if the abuse happened when you were under eighteen. Once the victim turns eighteen, the ability to make that report ends. The other exception would be if you are a disabled adult, someone who could not provide for their own care, that could potentially be a mandated report. But if you can walk around and clothe yourself and feed yourself and you are over eighteen, the counselor is not going to report that. They might encourage you to make that report for your safety. If you have concerns about that, I would cover this issue with the counselor or therapist before you give them the details.
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Hello, thanks for sharing this. What if your adult client was a child when this “crime” was committed and they told you about it? As I understand it, we still should report it IF the perpetrator is involved with children presently. Another question is, what if your adult client tells you that they were raped as a “child” (teenager) by another teenager?
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These rules can vary depending on the profession and the location or state. However, my understanding of the exception to the confidential rule only allows for mandated reports if the victim is currently a minor, a dependent person, or an elderly person. So regardless of the victim’s age when the crime happened, once they turn eighteen and until they turn sixty-five, only they can make that report. That rule about access to children isn’t a rule and isn’t in the law anywhere I can find. We have no penal colonies or islands where we can send perpetrators, so in one sense, everyone who’s ever been convicted of abusing a child has access to children somewhere sometime. The law doesn’t say anything about access. It says if you reasonably believe that a child is being abused, you must report it. Just because the person lives on the same street where children live doesn’t make it reportable. I know not everybody agrees with the idea of rehabilitation. But I think counselors have to hold onto the belief that people can and do change.
Again on your other question, rape of one teenager by another would only be reportable if the victim is currently under the age of eighteen or is a dependent or disabled adult. Once the victim becomes an adult and is capable of taking care of themselves, it is their responsibility to report it or not.
Remember that what I’m saying here relates only to counselors and therapists. Social workers, in the course of their job working for a government agency, schoolteachers, and law enforcement officers, may have a different set of rules to follow.
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I raped someone and he’s doing fine now. Should I still get help?
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I would very much recommend you get counseling for this issue.
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These are the same rules in Virginia, as I understand them, and part of confidentiality discussions with clients. Thank you for this post because this is important information for people to know.
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Thanks fro reading and for your comment.
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