should parents be held accountable for the crimes of their children?

Mr Darragh F

If so or if not why?
I am writing a speech for a debate and am looking for some ideas =] thanks

sarahspook

kids are influenced by many people, parents, other relatives, neighbours, friends, teachers but i reckon if theyre older than 13 then they are old enough to know right from wrong so the kid themselves are primarily to blame.

axel rose

Yes. Parents are legally responsible for their childrens safety and welfare-ergo they are legally responsible for any criminal damage too. If a child breaks my window-should I pay to get it repaired? If a child is up to more serious crime then of course the parents have to take some responsibility.

stovelid

axel rose wrote: »

Yes. Parents are legally responsible for their childrens safety and welfare-ergo they are legally responsible for any criminal damage too. If a child breaks my window-should I pay to get it repaired? If a child is up to more serious crime then of course the parents have to take some responsibility.

If my child broke a window, I'd pay for it willingly but I'm not taking 'moral responsibility' for it.

It's a dangerous precedent. You may as well say parents are responsible for the actions of adult children too if you want to postulate that bad parenting is the sole cause of wrongdoing, shorn of other factors. Indeed, you may as well pin crimes like white-collar fraud, drink driving and tax evasion on parents too.

OP: research your own debates.

axel rose

If my child broke a window, I'd pay for it willingly but I'm not taking 'moral responsibility' for it.

As long as damage is paid for that's cool. :cool:

However in response to your moral responsibility argument- Its society that will judge your morality (and parenting ability) not you.

We all do it- one house in the area where the kids are constantly in trouble= bad family and crap parents. Unfortunately many of these types of people don't care what people think of their crappy parenting or their kids.


(I assume that you and your kids are all fine upstanding people )

Billiejo

The age of criminal responsibility:
Europe: Spain 16; France 14; Germany 13; UK 10 years; Ireland 10 years for the most serious crimes and 12 for others.

While young people are held responsible for their own actions parents are innately also responsible for their childrens misbehaviour.

Parental Responsibility
Stems simply from adequate parenting where children are taught and learn right from wrong.
Or where criminal activity occurs due to mismanagement. EG Kids of the above age groups misbehaving out and about away from home unsupervised.

stellarartois

Don't be silly!

twowheelsonly

No, once the child is over the age of criminal responsibility then the Parents should not be held accountable.
What age would the parents stop being accountable? That's the reason that there is a legal age for the aforementioned criminal responsibility. Up to that the parents can/should/would be responsible/accountable.

I don't always go with the 'Bad Parenting' excuse either. We all know of countless examples of one or two kids turning bad whilst the rest of the family work hard, go to college or whatever.
Basically, if I have two kids, one is in Jail and one is a College lecturer - am I a good parent or a bad parent?