Parental Responsibility

In the wake of rising juvenile crime like the killing of Columbine High School students and other school shootings, legislators and others have advocated the origination of what are known as parental responsibility laws. While Governor Bill Owens, Colorado, argued that if the parents had any hint of the plans of their children and failed to take actions, they might be criminally responsible. Others argue against this line of reasoning, believing that such cases would be extremely difficult to prove in a court of law because "American law generally holds people responsible for crimes only if they actively participate, aid, or abet in them" (Glaberson 1). This analysis will argue against holding parents responsible for the actions of their children, primarily because for the past few decades American law and the American education system have conspired to undermine parental authority and the ability to discipline unruly children.

The fear, anxiety, and tragedy manifested by incidents like the Columbine High School shootings cause irrational ideas to be promoted by many individuals. One such preposterous idea is that parents be held legally accountable for the actions of their children. Reckless proposals like this are ludicrous in the face of that face that parents have had their authority so undermined by the American education and legal systems that many of them are afraid to even spank a recalcitrant child due to fears of bei

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parental responsibility "States continue to refine and pass measures that hold parents accountable for their children's delinquent behavior and require them to pay fines or attend court or classes" (Turpin 1). Laws to hold parents responsible for the actions of their children are preposterous in the face of numerous attempts by schools and social agencies to drive a wedge between parental and family values and those learned outside the home. Schools attempt to empower the youth of today through allowing them abortions without informing their parents, passing out condoms even if parents are against sexual activity for their child, and numerous other efforts that give children more control via the educational system but that same system wants to hold parents totally accountable from a responsibility perspective. As Sowell (1-2) maintains "There are nationwide networks�some of them government sponsored�which have disseminated programs designed to wean schoolchildren away from the values with which they have been raised and mold them to the values of self-anointed agents of change�What all these efforts have in common, aside from an arrogant presumption of superiority, is a drive for power without responsibility." As juvenile crim

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