Should parents be held responsible for the criminal acts of their children?
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Should parents be legally held responsible for their children's crimes?
Should parents be held responsible for the crimes of their children? It's a question that shot to the top of the political agenda following tragic events over the last few weeks, with the government now signalling tougher new measures. Junior Justice Minister Catherine Arda has said the next youth justice strategy will contain proposals to hold parents responsible for breaches of the law by minors. Brian O'Connell was in Cork City Centre a little earlier. We are getting reaction to the idea of holding parents more responsible for their children's behaviour.
Well ultimately a few thirteen or fourteen year olds out at three, four o'clock in the morning. As a parent myself, if they were mine, they'd be locked up, as simple children that is. Or at least monitored. I think in every town in Ireland I think you've children running wild. I dunno what the solution is really.
And do you think part of the solution could be holding parents to account?
Uh probably holding parents to account and I suppose do young people have ways out, places to go, basically just wandering around the place. I don't know how they're going to cure it. A lot of it I'd say is economic. Families don't have money. Um okay well I'd have a very personal view on it because I've experienced a little bit of it myself with my own son and I'm a single parent and I think parents have a huge responsibility to know where their children are, to know who they're hanging out with, to know what they're doing at eleven and twelve o'clock two o'clock in the morning. Um but it's not always possible. And I think communication is the key thing with parents and their children. um school if school can become involved as well.
That wasn't an option for me at the
time. Um and you as a parent can do your best. Yeah. But sometimes it can be out of your control. Totally, totally, totally, totally.
What evidence do everyday parents give about the challenges of monitoring teens at night?
And you you need support and it's very, very difficult. By saying maybe we're going to hold parents more responsible, is that a way of passing the buck in a little bit? I think
in a little bit it is, but I do think parents do need to take more responsibility. I think m there are more parents now. I'm a lot older than a lot of younger parents around at the moment. I think a lot of parents just let their kids off out and they don't know where they are and they don't know who they're hanging out with and at one o'clock in the morning they don't seem to care where their children are. It's a very broad complex question I suppose really.
Very easy to make statements. And very, very easy, yeah. And very, very easy, yeah,
yeah. And I think if you've lived it you know what it's like and I thank God I'm out the other side of it, but it got a lot of help and a lot of support from lots of different places. And things worked out? And things have worked out. Yes, he's nineteen now and he's I think we've turned a corner. I think very, very difficult because a sixteen year old thinks they're twenty five, twenty six, they're still only a child, but they're battling that between being a teenager and entering adulthood and even It's very, very difficult. Parents don't exist in a vacuum, parents exist in the conditions in which they live under. If parents do not have the financial support or under financial stress, yeah, they obviously will not have the means.
Punishing parents for the behavior of their kids will just end up punishing poor people for being poor.
That was Brian O'Connell speaking to some people in Cork City Centre earlier. I'm joined now by criminologist Trina O'Connor and by Finegale T D and co chair of the Eroctus Penal Reform Group, Barry Ward. Good morning to you both. Barry, I might start with you. There is already legislation that allows the courts to hold parents responsible for their children's behaviour, isn't there?
How does the Children Act of 2001 allow courts to sanction parents?
There is. In two thousand one we passed the Children Act, which is was actually a very progressive piece of legislation primarily aimed at protecting children and keeping children out of trouble. But it does, as you say, contain a provision that allows the court after a a young person has been found to be guilty of an offence to impose a sanction on the parent.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Should parents be legally held responsible for their children's crimes?
0:00–1:42
2
What evidence do everyday parents give about the challenges of monitoring teens at night?
1:42–3:14
3
How does the Children Act of 2001 allow courts to sanction parents?
3:14–5:37
4
What role should early‑intervention services and family therapy play in preventing youth crime?
5:37–8:45
5
How could fines or sanctions on parents change parental behaviour and community safety?
8:45–11:17
6
Why is restorative justice important for young offenders and their families?
11:17–13:37
7
What practical strategies work best for reaching hard‑to‑engage at‑risk youth?
13:37–16:06
8
Will the proposed parental‑responsibility measures likely become government policy?
16:06–17:57