Failing to report child sexual abuse: two years in prison

It is the criminal consequence of staying silent. The duty to report when you know or suspect a minor is being sexually abused already existed in Act 57-2023; what Act 164-2026 added is that knowingly failing to comply is a felony, with a fixed two-year term. And it punishes with three years anyone who, instead of staying silent, lies.

The article reaches any person or official of a public or private institution obliged to supply information under Article 6 of Act 57-2023. And that Article 6 is broad: it provides that every person shall be obliged to inform. It is not a duty reserved to teachers, doctors or social workers.

• There are no requirements to meet: this is the definition of an offence and its penalty. The duty it punishes is in Article 6 of Act 57-2023.Verified against the official source

• None. This guide reproduces Article 51(a) that Act 164-2026 added to Act 57-2023.

1. 1

   Step 1: Suspicion is enough: certainty is not required

   The article opens with “in cases where there is knowledge or suspicion of sexual abuse against a minor”. Those are two alternatives, and the second is the one most people assume does not apply to them. Waiting for certainty is not what the law asks.

2. 2

   Step 2: Knowingly staying silent is two fixed years

   Anyone obliged to supply information under Article 6 of Act 57-2023 who voluntarily and knowingly fails to comply with that obligation, or fails to perform any other act required by the Act, commits a felony with a fixed two-year term of imprisonment. Note the double intent requirement: voluntarily and knowingly.

3. 3

   Step 3: Preventing someone else from reporting counts the same

   The same paragraph reaches anyone who “knowingly prevents another person acting reasonably from doing so”. You need not be the one directly obliged: blocking someone who is going to report falls within the same offence and the same two-year penalty.

4. 4

   Step 4: Lying is worse: three fixed years

   The second paragraph raises the penalty: where a person knowingly supplies false information or advises another to do so, they commit a felony and shall be punished with a fixed three-year term of imprisonment, as established by the Penal Code of Puerto Rico.

5. 5

   Step 5: Who is obliged: every person

   Article 6 of Act 57-2023, “Citizen Duty to Inform”, is the duty this penalty punishes, and it is broad: every person shall be obliged to inform immediately of cases where abuse, institutional abuse, neglect or institutional neglect of a minor exists or is suspected, or where there is a risk that a minor becomes a victim of such a situation. It is not a duty of professions: it is everyone’s.

6. 6

   Step 6: Where to report: three routes

   That same Article 6 names them: to the Department of the Family through its Línea Directa de Maltrato, to the Police of Puerto Rico, or at an office of the Department. Any of the three satisfies the duty. The law publishes no number for the hotline — the only telephone in the compilation is the OGP library’s own — so we do not print one here: our child-abuse guide carries the verified line.

7. 7

   Step 7: Reporting in good faith protects you

   Subsections (c) and (d) of Article 6 remove the two reasons people stay silent. The information supplied is kept in strict confidentiality, as is the identity of whoever supplied it. And information offered in good faith may not be used against them in any civil or criminal action that might be brought as a consequence of that act.

8. 8

   Step 8: If the material is an image, it goes to the station

   Subsection (b) covers a separate case: anyone who knows of or observes, in the performance of their professional capacity or employment, any film, photograph, videotape, negative or slide showing a minor involved in a sexual act, shall inform immediately through the same three routes. And that material shall be delivered at the nearest Police station.

Article 6 of Act 57-2023 names three routes for reporting: the Department of the Family’s abuse hotline, the Police of Puerto Rico, or an office of the Department. The decision to file charges for this offence belongs to the prosecution.

• Waiting to be certain: the article covers knowledge or suspicion, and suspicion is enough.
• Believing it applies only to teachers or doctors: it reaches any person or official of a public or private institution obliged under Article 6.
• Thinking it is enough not to interfere: knowingly preventing another person acting reasonably from reporting is the same offence.
• Softening what you report: knowingly supplying false information, or advising another to do so, raises the penalty from two to three years.
• Believing there is only one route: Article 6 accepts the Department of the Family hotline, the Police of Puerto Rico, or an office of the Department.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Act 57-2023, OGP compilation

  oslpr

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov