Essay Topic: Parents should be held legally responsible for their children’s acts. What is your opinion? Support it with examples.
The Essay: It cannot be gainsaid that parents are responsible for the upbringing of their offspring. There are innumerable lessons a child learns from their parents right from childhood. However, it a moot point whether parents should be held responsible for their children’s doings under law.
Firstly, children spend most of their time with parents and naturally they learn the very basics of personality, such as language, ethics and behavior from their parents. Hence, if parents fail to fulfil their duty in this regard, they should be responsible legally. For instance, in American legal system in some states, government punishes parents for their children’s crimes. Secondly, a child is ignorant of the good and evil acts in society. If a child commits a crime, their parents are responsible, for not guiding and disciplining appropriately. The recent surge in juvenile delinquency is a result of lack of parental guidance.
On the contrary, some people argue that parents should not be held accountable for their child’s acts as every parent puts in their best efforts to teach their child how to behave responsibly in society. Nonetheless, how much of it the child practices is not in their hands. Moreover, there is always a certain age upto which parents can control their son or daughter. After passing that threshold age, children often feel independent and no longer listen to their parents.
In conclusion, according to me, parents should be held responsible to the legal system for the actions of their progeny, albeit only upto a certain age, since their personality is largely moulded by parents’ upbringing.