Parents Should Be Held Responsible For Their Children's Actions

As a parent, I have spent a great deal of time observing the behavior, motivation, and thought processes of my children. As they mature these processes have changed, and it has been fascinating to watch. I have learned a great deal on the limits of self control in the adolescent mind during this time, and I believe that families should be held responsible for crimes committed by their teenagers.

I understand that there is a great deal of opposition to this position, and the opposing viewpoint makes some valid arguments. One concern is that society is coddling today’s youth, and that they are not learning to take responsibility for their own actions enough. (Bradley)

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 child is born with a brain ready to learn. That brain will quickly learn to speak, read, write etc. The child will also learn morals and consequences for his actions, but that is a much slower process. A child doesn’t learn in a vacuum, however. He will learn his behavior from his environment, and his parents are the models he will acquire most of his information from. A parent can tell his child “do as I say, not as I do”, but that will be far less effective than consistently modeling behaviors they want instilled in their child. Certainly there have been children who were raised in homes with overwhelming dysfunction who have broken the mold and do n...

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...ies will work as a team to guide that decision making process.

Works Cited

Bradley, A. (2014, February 6). We Coddle Teens By Not Holding Them Accountable For Their Actions | Acton PowerBlog. Retrieved from http://blog.acton.org/archives/65498-coddle-teens-holding-accountable-actions.html

Loeber, R and Farrington, D (2000). Young children who commit crime: Epidemiology, developmental origins, risk factors, early interventions, and policy implications. Development and Psychopathology, , pp 737-762.

Diller, V. (2012, November 5). Teens Who Commit Crimes: What Can/Should Parents Do? | Vivian Diller, Ph.D. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-diller-phd/teen-crime_b_2035255.html

Brooks, R. B., & Goldstein, S. (2007). Raising a self-disciplined child: Help your child become more responsible, confident, and resilient. New York: McGraw-Hill.