Some hold the notion that juvenile delinquency should be penalized while others would claim that it is the responsibility of their parents. There is indeed a strong case needed to be made on both sides of the debate.
Granted, one might argue that parents should shoulder their children’s criminal acts because children are not mature enough to fully aware of the far-reaching consequences of their illegal activities and that their behaviors must be arguably imitated from their parents. To illustrate, it is true that children who are bred in a dysfunctional family often suffer from a great deal of abuse and negligence on a daily basis, thus, they might grow up having psychological issues on their own, increasing the risk of committing crimes. Therefore, since children’s cognitive functions are possibly shaped by their parents, they should be held responsible for their children misbehaving.
However, to convict parents of crimes their children perpetrate would be to indict them for acts they have not done even though these children are still being raised perfectly well. The reason for this is that some children are born with an aggressive nature and low empathy, meaning that they are predisposed to have violent behavior such as bullying or fighting to resolve conflicts. Additionally, some children also watch inappropriate and sensitive content on the internet such as pornography or violence, which they might mimic and are more likely to develop criminal acts, while parents cannot always monitor and manage what their children watch. Consequently, since the children’s unlawful activities cannot be proven that solely because of their parents, it would rather unwise to chastise the parents.
In conclusion, punishing parents for their children’s criminal offenses is to ignore the inborn traits of some children and also the information that they get exposed to. Given these reasons, there should not be illegal punishment on parents of criminal children.