18 U.S.C. § 2258
Section 2258 · Failure to report child abuse
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case United States v. Nelson (1995)
Most recently applied in United States v. Moore (June 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
A person who, while engaged in a professional capacity or activity described in subsection (b) of section 226 of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 on Federal land or in a federally operated (or contracted) facility, or a covered individual as described in subsection (a)(2) of such section 226 who, learns of facts that give reason to suspect that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse, as defined in subsection (c) of that section, and fails to make a timely report as required by subsection (a) of that section, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Section 226 of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, referred to in text, is classified to section 20341 of Title 34, Crime Control and Law Enforcement.
Codification
Another section 2258 was renumbered section 2260 of this title.
Amendments
2018—Pub. L. 115–126 inserted "or a covered individual as described in subsection (a)(2) of such section 226 who," after "facility,".
2006—Pub. L. 109–248 substituted "fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year or both" for "guilty of a Class B misdemeanor".