In addition to proving abuse in civil child welfare proceedings aimed at providing services to families and protection to children, the state would also have to show the perpetrator had a "criminal intent" at the time of the abuse.

The bill would heighten the burden of proof to "clear and convincing evidence" to substantiate allegations of abuse and neglect. The standard to remove a child from a home would rise to "beyond a reasonable doubt."

"If you have to bring a case with that burden of proof, it might as well be criminally prosecuted, and frankly I don't know that the proponents of the bill think that's a bad idea," Brewer said. "I think there's some sentiment out there that if something is bad it should be criminally prosecuted; otherwise, the government should stay out of the family's life."

In most of the child abuse cases Anderson has seen over the years, he said, the parent's response was, "I didn't mean to do it.

"This law is saying, well, that sounds unintentional."

Anderson said DCFS doesn't look for intent. "We're looking at what happened to the child, how we protect that child from that happening again, even if it really was unintentional."

If DCFS can't go into a home because the abuse isn't severe enough or intent can't be proven according to the proposed law, "then the next call we get is 'the child's dead, and we're just seeing if we can put it on the database as a fatality created by maltreatment.' "

Harper said changes in the law are needed because families are at a big disadvantage in the courtroom.

"Right now, in many of the courts in this state, parents are in a very deficit situation," he said. "They walk in, they don't know the standards, they don't know what the law is, and they are almost in a position of being guilty until proven innocent."

Assistant Utah Attorney General Craig Barlow, head of the Children's Justice Division, finds troubling the application of a criminal standard to child welfare cases and has grave concerns about the bill overall. But he said he doesn't really want to get into specifics before he sits down with Harper.

"I'm not sure I want to comment on that until we give peace a chance to see if that works," he said.

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Contributing: Richard Piatt, KSL-TV; E-mail: romboy@desnews.com; lucy@desnews.com