In the last few decades, crime rates of young offenders are noticeably high in the majority of the western countries. There are many solutions proposed to tackle this serious social issue and many diverse approaches, one of which claims that teaching parents basic parenting skill is the only sufficient intervention. Even though I strongly believe that the responsibility of the parents is extremely crucial, I do not agree with the view that this is the only way to deal with this problem.
To begin with, the family is the smallest social unit in our communities and undouptedly, everything begins from the environment that parents provide to their children. They have to pass various virtues to their offsprings, like honesty, respect to the laws, and the aversion to committing unethical actions. However, not everyone in this word is suitable to become a parent; that’s why there is a consensus between many people that they should be taught how to handle appropriately the challenging parental life. But, this is not the only way modern societies can tackle the problem of the high crime rates among young people. For example, a teenager may commit a crime mainly due to the influence of his peers, even though his parents have tried their best to nurture him. Also, I do not believe that teaching would be a solution, because most of the parental skills are not transferable and they do not apply to the universe of children; each one is unique and needs a special treatment.
For sure, there are many other more efficient interventions, which policy makers should adopt. For instance, it would be beneficial to adjust the school curricullum in the modern needs of our societies. Namely, courses that emphasize the importance of being a good citizen should be added and extended, like sociology and literature. Moreover, teachers ought to be strict in incidents of bullying or adult violence within the school and offenders needs to be punished harshly, as an illustration of the consequences of deviating from the law guidelines. Furthermore, governments should prioritize the restriction of the usage of social media from young people, as many times they encourage crime committments.
Taking everything under consideration, teaching parents better parenting skills is beneficial for decreasing the crime rates of young offenders, but it is not an adequate policy. It needs to be accompanied by moderations in the school environment and in other social aspects that contribute to crimes from young people, like the unrestricted usage of the social media.