by Tanya Wilson

Created on: July 11, 2008

Parents shoud not be held accountable for the criminal behavior of their children. Children that commit criminal acts, a) know what they are doing is wrong, and choose to do it anyway or b)they do it without regard of punishment. If we look back over the history of the most criminally haneious people, one would find that they came from what society deems to be a normal family up bringing. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy.

Often times the rationale behind wanting to punish the parents is that the fear of punishment will scare the parent into a military style of living with the child, thus having a deterrent effect on the child with regard to criminal behavior and the child will stay out of trouble.This can cause discord between parent and child and could ultimately lead to rebellion or criminal behavior by the child.

Parents have no control over what a child does 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I know alot of parents probably believe they can or do but it is no way to be sure what your child is doing when he or she is not in your prescence. It would be unrealistic for a parent to believe they can monitor their child activities at such a level. We try as parents to instill in our children values that will lead them away from criminal mischief and towards conformity. Children are indivdual thinkers and decision makers so things don't always go as planned because the planner and the planee are two different people.

What about the single parent family, where the child has to be left at home for whatever reason so the sole bread winner can work. Instituting a law that put the responsibility of the childs action may cause parents to quit their jobs and seek assistance from state programs that are already strained.

From a punishment stand point what would you charge the parent with, the crime committed by the child or negligence? Neither would be easy cases to prosecute. Unless politics rears its ugly head and parents are found guilty in order to set the presedence for this type of prosection.

In the long run I believe that the law makers who instituted this new law will see that not only were their effort futile but they created yet another block in the already back logged court systems. Will the juvenile court system be erradicated since we will be punishing the parents for their criminal behavior. That is another ramifications of charging the parent.

I feel like we are caught between a rock and hard place on this issue and that there is no sure fire way to modify your childs behavior, not even with the treat of punishing the parent.

Learn more about this author, Tanya Wilson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.