Band 6+: Some people believe that if a child commits a crime he or she should be punished, while others think it is the child's parents who should be punished. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

There are different opinions about punishing the true criminal. Some people think that children that commit offences should be punished, whereas others, including me, argue that their parents should be punished instead of them.

On the one hand, punishing children could stop them from committing more crimes. This means that if they see the bad actions have consequences, they might understand that not to do them again and also it may make them to think twice before doing something illegal again. For instance, in the UK, schools used to punish young offenders, who committed a crime, with community service orders, such as cleaning their classroom and this showed that children who received a punishment, realized the real impact of their action. Furthermore, some crimes can be serious, which means that they are not sometimes acceptable even if the person is young or child. For example, if they hurt or steal items from others, they should face consequences of their actions as these kinds of offences could be dangerous. This can help them to learn right from wrong and also improve their behaviour. However, I believe that children are not mature enough to fully understand right and wrong and punishing children can traumatize them, this is why parents must be punished instead of them.

On the other hand, parents are responsible for their child’s behavior. In other words, children can not completely realize what is good and bad in the life, so this is their fathers’ and mothers’ main responsibility to supervise their children. Thus, punishing parents often pushes them to supervise them better. Moreover, punishing children emotionally harms them, making the problem worse than fixing it. For instance, if parents hit their children in order to punish them this usually causes mental health issues for the child later. Therefore, this option is preferable because parents should have a proper supervision on their children and they should give a bit of advice for them in order to teach them to recognize right from wrong.

In conclusion, although punishing children could be beneficial for stopping them from offencing more crimes and improving their behaviour, I believe that due to parents are responsible to supervise their children and as children are emotionally vulnerable, punishing their parents is better.