Do It for the Children

Less than 10% of organizations have a required protection system that 99% of parents want.*

Federal law requires all organizations, regardless of size or type, to have a program to prevent and detect criminal acts, including a reporting system that guarantees anonymity or confidentiality, allowing individuals to report or seek guidance on potential or actual wrongful conduct without fear of retaliation. Other authorities also recognize the importance of reporting systems:

  • Law enforcement experts, supported by National Institute of Justice research, advise that reporting systems prevent wrongful acts in organizations.
  • The American Bar Association recommends that programs to report organizational problems avoid liability and are a best practice.
  • Organizational experts advocate that every entity has a system that facilitates prompt, confidential reports of what leaders “need to know.”

Among 15 organization categories, K-12 institutions lead with 79% reporting they have established reporting systems. They are followed by youth sports organizations (17%) and youth employers (16%). At the opposite end of the spectrum, youth camps and churches report the lowest self-reported implementation of effective reporting systems, with just 1.4% and less than 0.6%, respectively.

Parents’ nightmares seem to be in the news every week when we learn something horrible happened to a child in an organization that they trusted. And for every incident in the news, an unknown number never becomes public knowledge. For all of them, the parents and the organization’s leaders were sure that such an incident couldn’t happen there. But without a reporting system, these horrific and completely preventable incidents can and will continue to occur even in organizations that say, “never here.”

Every US state, territory, and the District of Columbia has mandatory child abuse reporting and separate elder abuse reporting requirements. Although mandatory reporting is ineffective in most jurisdictions, it improves dramatically when integrated with a well-designed reporting system.

Our name, the seals, and GuardianSM, our reporting system, are the product of volunteer parent initiatives enhanced by seminal and significant research and testing. GuardianSM is the reporting system most likely to prevent and the first to detect all wrongful acts and conditions. We operate Look1st.org as a public service to protect children and the elderly by providing systems and resources to prevent and detect organizational abuse and facilitating mandatory reporting for any organization nationwide.

Reporting is the most crucial function in preventing and detecting wrongful acts and conditions, yet it is often the weakest link.

  • Preventing and detecting wrongful acts and conditions requires an effective reporting system.
  • An incident or condition is more likely to be reported through a system that handles all categories rather than one that only processes the specific category of the reported incident or condition.
  • Effective human reporting systems should augment automated fire, safety, security, and other alarm systems to optimize prevention and detection.
  • An effective reporting system is both a deterrent and a first-notice - warning.
  • The more effective the reporting system, the more of a deterrent it is.
  • Reporting system performance metrics are timeliness, quantity, and quality.
  • To optimize reporting timeliness, quantity, and quality, continual Look 1st research and testing include:
    • Why didn't people use existing procedures to report wrongful conduct or conditions?
    • What would optimize reporting of potential or actual wrongful conduct and conditions?
    • Convicted perpetrators' appraisal of reporting procedures when they committed the crime(s).
    • Reporting system features that would have deterred convicted perpetrators from committing the crime(s).

Please get in touch with me for more information about this research and our work. We are seeking partners to offer our applications to organizations. We also offer a special $45-a-year package for nonprofits that work with children and the elderly, but we will waive the fee on request. We don't want cost ever to be a barrier to protecting our precious children and elderly.

*Based on a sample of 8,723 parents with a 99% confidence level and +/-2% margin of error and 6,209 organizations with a 99% confidence level and +/- 2% margin of error.