Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Why parents should be responsible for their children's crimes
Juvenile delinquency and parents
Parent blame on juvenile offenses
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Vicarious liabilities of parents, for crimes committed by their children are like a double edge sword. You get in trouble if you do and you get in trouble if you don’t. In the state of North Carolina a 16 year old, can be tried as an adult. I would like to share a juvenile case in the news this week. Two young juvenile ages 16& 17 was arrested in connection with armed robbery and attempted armed robbery. The victims reported that they approached them on two different occasions and pulled out a gun and asked for money. I just cannot believe that kids this young are committing crimes. It’s not their parents fault, because no one told them to go rob and steal from people but, I do hold the parents responsible a little, because at 10:40 p.m. on a school night they should be at home.
In the state of North Carolina we have a law N.C.G.S.A& 1-538.1: Willful Misconduct
…show more content…
I do think it is wise to make parents accountable for their children actions but not their crimes. Just image having to go to jail for robbery or some other crime you did not commit. If our legal system held parents accountable for all their kid action until they are 18, there would be a lot of parents in jail because of their kids. All states have similar rule, but some have different rules. It is important that we not only know the law, but teach our children about the law, so they know the consequences if they chose to go out here and commit a crime. Vicarious liability “are based on the parent-child relationship” (Samaha, 2014, p.250). If all parents control their kids, there would be less juvenile crimes committed. I know a lot of parent are afraid of discipline their kids because of the Department of Social Service (DSS). I tell them if you “spare the rod, you spoil the child” (NKJV). We need to ensure that I kids know right from
Unfortunately, these two cases are not uncommon in the justice world. As a matter of fact, “by 2010, Florida had sentenced more than a hundred children to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses,” (Stevenson 153). One of the primary reasons for this originated in the idea that harsher punishments will act as a deterrent for kids who want to break the law. However, recent studies have suggested that because the prefrontal lobe of the brain is still in development until the age of twenty, children don’t have the mental capacity to make the best decisions, especially under stress. Additionally, children normally wouldn’t have access to weapons or drugs, which allows the argument that adults should be held responsible for making such objects available to them in the first place (Reaves).
According to the article of “Should Juveniles Be Tried as Adults?” at Buzzle.com, “It is a proven fact that when a child is at the age around nine or ten that they do not have the mental accessibility to think as an adult” (Borkar). Citizens see this statistic as a reason as to why children should not be tried as adults. “Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile facilities” (Equal Justice Initiative). These juveniles are subject to much harsher punishments which includes life sentencing (Michon). These people do not feel that these children should be in a prison for the rest of their life for something they did when they were 13. Broken families can be a reason for a child to rebel and become trouble. “Psychology speaking, it is said that there are no ‘problem children’ but only ‘problem parents’” (Borkar). Parents roles are to guide their kids in the right way. Children will not know what is right or wrong if parents do n...
In the past, there have been many minors who have done numerous of acts in which they are punished in a reasonable manner. Just imagine if the parents of these children were put on trail instead of the minors. Why should a parent have to suffer the consequences for their child’s mistake, in which they probably had no idea what the child was doing.
For decades, we have been made to believe that criminals are people who have done harm to our society, violating the laws of the land, and don 't deserve a second chance. They should be locked away, and the keys should throw away. Unfortunately, today, our world is full of crimes and our system is getting overcrowded with criminals. However, with recent laws like the plea bargain proofs that there is hope and a way out to every situation. A plea bargain can be defined as negotiations during a criminal trial between the prosecutor and the defendant which result in a more lenient sentence than would have been recommended with the original charge (Farlex). Some would say that the use, or abuse, of the plea bargain, allows criminals
One of the fasting growing juvenile treatment and interventions programs are known as teen courts. Teen courts serve as an alternative juvenile justice, to young offenders. Non-violent, and mostly first time offenders are sentenced by their peers’ in teen courts. Teen courts also serve as juvenile justice diversion programs. Teen courts vary from state to state, and sometimes within the same state. With this program, all parties of the judicial setting are juveniles with the exception of the judge. Each teen court, is designed specifically to meet the needs of the community it serves. Teen courts were created to re-educate offenders throughout the judicial process, create a program with sanctions that will allow the youth not to have a juvenile record, and to also instil a sense of responsibility.
once the minor has committed a violent crime, they are no longer a kid. The minor had the ability to know right from wrong, but he still chose to commit the heinous crime anyway. Choosing to commit this violent crime means that the minor chose to act as an adult and must be held accountable. Once the minor has made the decision to act as an adult, they must be treated as an adult. If we do not teach minors that what they did has consequences they will never learn. Arguments can be made that minors should not be treated as adults and while these arguments do have merit, they are not my beliefs. In my opinion, minors who commit violent crimes need to be tried as adults. Justice does not discriminate when it comes to age. Right is right, and wrong is wrong and the wrong should be punished equally.
In earlier years young children were tried for crimes the same way an adult would be, juvenile delinquency wasn’t a thing. For example in the 1700’s girls as young at thirteen were burned at stake for their crimes same as adults. Now a day children under the age of 18 who commit a crime are not tried the same as a person over 18, this is called juvenile delinquency. There are some crimes that only juveniles can commit such as underage drinking, running away from home, or violating curfew. These are not the crimes that bother people about juveniles, the most common crime committed by juveniles is theft, then drugs, and after that is disorderly conduct. Most juveniles commit a crime are not repeat offenders. Some juvenile’s come from a community where committing crimes is the norm. Juveniles that graduated high school are less likely to commit crimes than those who don’t.
Today?s court system is left with many difficult decisions. One of the most controversial being whether to try juveniles as adults or not. With the number of children in adult prisons and jails rising rapidly, questions are being asked as to why children have been committing such heinous crimes and how will they be stopped. The fact of the matter is that it is not always the children's fault for their poor choices and actions; they are merely a victim of their environment or their parents. Another question asked is how young is too young. Children who are too young to see an R rated film unaccompanied are being sent to adult prisons. The only boundaries that seem to matter when it comes to being an adult are laws that restrain kids from things such as alcohol, pornography, and other materials seen as unethical. Children that are sent to adult prison are going to be subjected to even more unprincipled ideas and scenes. When children can be sent to jail for something as minor as a smash and grab burglary, the judicial system has errors. The laws that send juveniles to adult prisons are inhumane, immoral, and unjust. Kids are often incompetent, which leads to unfair trials. Adult prisons are also very dangerous for minors, and in many cases this leads to more juvenile crimes.
The duty of the law is to punish individuals who break the law as well as seek justice for the victims who experience the crime. Those responsible in one way or another are accountable for their actions. The accountability represents a variety of outcomes such as mandatory treatment programs, payment of fines, community service, and incarceration. However, there tends to be a fine line between the management of adults in comparison to juveniles regarding sentencing laws. Therefore, when a juvenile commits a serious crime there is hesitation on whether or not to try them as an adult in court.
Due to the increased recognized differences between adults and juveniles in terms of needs and developmental capabilities, offender’s treatment differ depending on whether they are treated in an adult or juvenile court. In the adult court jurisdiction, public safety and retribution are the most salient tenets while in the juvenile courts the best the intentions are intended towards the best interest of the child focusing on rehabilitation. The best goals and objectives of the juvenile court sanctions aim at ensuring that the youth in trial at the juvenile court desists from delinquent behavior and thus easy to be reintegrated in the society once more. This fact is mainly achieved through offering the youth individualized case management programs
Parental responsibility statutes punish parents for the acts of their children, and ultimately punish them for either their negligence or ignorance. Parental responsibility laws make parents criminally liable because they have not fulfilled their parental duty to keep their kids from breaking the law. When juveniles are placed on probation parents have a duty to corporate with juvenile justice officials (Cook & Gordon, p. 205). If parents fail to enforce the conditions of their children’s probation, and if they fail to meet their parental obligation associated with the probation, they can face criminal consequences (Cook & Gordon, p. 209). Several states impose criminal liability on parents who allow their children to engage in delinquent behavior. Penalties may increase with repeat offenses and can even result in charges for negligent parenting. Punishment varies from state to state, but state and local parental responsibility laws often carry the sanction of punitive and educational. In jurisdictions that enforce parental responsibility laws,...
Usually when a child or a teenager commits a crime, it is never their fault. When a child or a teenager commits a crime, the responsibility never belongs to the parents either. Instead, when a teenager or a child commits a crime, the first thing that the prosecutors or the media wants to place the blame on is video games, the television program that the child had been watching, or the blame is placed on the type of music that the child or teen had been previously listening to.
Parents that do not rear their children should be held responsible. There are parents who do not care what the child does as long as they are not in there way. They are too involved in their careers or in life to care what the child does. Often the child acts out for attention. Most parents believe that by taking the child to counseling will solve the problem, without going to counseling themselves. The parents do not take the disciplinary role. They either had a child by accident or had one for their significant other, when they really did not want children. By holding them responsible it teaches the parent a lesson. The parent learns that even though they tried to ignore the problem that there is a problem and that they need to take time out of there day to listen to the child. The child will also pay for their actions, either by the parent or eventually by the law.
If parents are held accountable for the actions of their children does that send a message that the children themselves are blameless for their actions? My belief is that these two ideas are not mutually exclusive, and that children and parents can both be held liable. I see no reason why the children and the parents and the teens shouldn’t share in the responsibility for criminal behavior on the part of the child.
A lot of teens are seen on the news for being involved in criminal acts such as gun violence and attacking one another. The first thing that comes to mind is, who is responsible for these kids and what exactly are they teaching them? Are the parents really the ones to blame? Many people think because what’s shown on television is the reason why youths act out in such a disastrous manner. Media does sometimes influence teens into thinking a certain way but I honestly think peer pressure is what actually triggers the chaotic behavior of a teen.