Should parents be charged for their children’s crimes?

Residents say that youth crime is out of control, and many are looking for answers that the justice system just can’t provide.

Maybe the answer is at home...

This poses an interesting question – should they be?

And if that were the case, would we have less youth crime as a result?

So where can the blame be placed when they commit these often horrendous crimes?

Social media? Their friends? Or their parents?

Teens especially can’t just be governed by helicopter parenting. They need a certain degree of privacy and freedom to grow into adults, and adults can’t be watching over them all the time.

Local MP Bruce Saunders said that often it’s the parents who need to step up their game.

“We know there are good parents out there, with kids that have gone bad, despite their best attempts.” he said.

“But there are also a lot that just don’t care where their kids are or what they’re doing.”

“Parents need to start taking control and start taking responsability."

At ten o’clock on a week night, do you know where your kids are?

There are a couple of laws in Australia regarding prosecuting parents for their children’s crimes such as this - Section 11 of the Children (Parental Responsibility) Act which provides that:

(1) A parent who, by wilful default, has contributed directly or in a material respect to the commission of an offence of which the child has been found guilty, is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units (@$110 each).

(2) The court may require a parent convicted of an offence under subsection (1) to undergo counselling or do such other things that would in the opinion of the court advance the welfare and best interests of the child instead of, or in addition to, imposing a penalty.

There are others, but little information on how many parents have been prosecuted under them. Tougher measures against hard core youth offenders has been passed in Parliament just this week, and experts say it may only be a matter of time before lawyers start to look at how parents can be made to recompense victims of their children’s crimes.

With discipline, parenting/ family, employment and housing difficulties affecting our youth more every year, lawyers are saying that there is a very strong, clear link between the maltreatment of children at home, and youth offending.

None of this is new.

Experts who work with juvenile offenders generally attest to the fact that there is almost always a reason that good kids turn ‘bad’.

Often it can be as simple as being influenced heavily by their peers.

But in all too many cases it can be the influence of their parents, the very people who should be teaching them how to take responsibility for their lives, and be positive, contributing members of society.

Research shows that young people don’t have fully developed cognitive functions, including sound judgement and impulse control.

This can impact the decisions they make, because they’re not always fully aware of the risks of their behaviour, nor do they consider the consequences when committing a crime.

In recent years, poverty and homelessness have also become increasing factors behind the reasons why adolescents are behind bars.

And if you can’t successfully prosecute a minor who ‘doesn’t know any better’, maybe the prosecution will then turn to the parents, who do.

Each year, many adolescents are locked up for minor offences such as fare evasion of theft, and that then creates a Governmental

CRAIG WINTER

THE parents of 15-year old Ethan Crumbley, who allegedly opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan, USA in 2021 were surprised when they were charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Their defence argued that they couldn’t have known what their son was allegedly planning.

However, prosecutors have shown that they supplied the weapon and were aware of him buying the ammunition that their son then used to kill 4 and wound 6.

Closer to home, a 17 year old was last week charged with the murder of popular Uber driver Scotty Cambrie, and his alleged crime is just one on a growing list of youth charges including vandalism, theft, assault and worse.

Lawyers both in the US and Australia agree that this is a rare case and that parents are rarely brought to account for the crimes of their children.