Guidance on the law about minors:

On April 28, 2016 I attended a conference on minors, conducted by the Department of Family. The conference was hosted by the family attorney in the Justice Department, Wilmary Columbus. The conference was primarily aimed to discuss two very important topics: abuse and negligence. Abuse is defined as a father, mother or guardian of a child that causes or expose risk (intentional omission) and causes any physical, emotional, and mental damage, among others. Negligence is exposing a minor to lack of care, food, and home, among others. However, according to constitutional rights, parents have the right to raise their children as they wish, but this is not absolute as there is a "Parens Patriae" in which the state has the authority or power to intervene when minors or disabled persons cannot defend themselves to provide protection. So, this right yields to the power of the state if a parent is mistreating or neglecting a child. That is where the Law 246 passed in 2011 arises; this law works especially in Puerto Rico with juvenile cases. This brought a new public policy on what is the intervention with cases of abuse of minors. In Puerto Rico, cases of child abuse as cases of domestic violence are the topic of the day; so there is a duty of the citizen; in which it is our responsibility to talk to the authorities if they see or witness any act of violence. Sometimes this does not happen because we fear for the consequences that could happen, but police telephone lines are completely confidential and witness protection programs as well.

As far as I'm concerned, we were born to live and be free, not to be treated like rag dolls. Every human being deserves respect and has rights which must be enforced. This is why it is important in our duty as citizens to have knowledge about the laws because we live in a country in which the crime wave increases every day, more violence and patterns of abuse is generated. Being informed allows us to recognize possible patterns of abuse and what procedures to follow in cases like these because throughout our career as future psychologists this is something that we’ll often witness and must learn to handle.