If children behave badly should their parents take responsibility and also be punished? State your answer and give your reasons. OR If a five year old commits a crime (any kind), should his/her parents accept responsibility and how should they be punished. What is the age of a child when parents no longer have the responsibility of a child’s behaviour?

The debate on whether parents should be held responsible for their children’s misdeeds has been going on for ages and people are divided on the issue. I believe that parents should be held responsible if their children commit any crime. A number of arguments surround my opinion.

To begin with, if parents know that they will be held responsible for their children’s inappropriate actions, they will see to it that their children are well supervised and well cared for. Parents are responsible for bringing their children on Earth and only they are responsible for raising them in such a way that they act appropriately in society. Everyone knows that juveniles make mistakes but it is the onus of the parents to keep an eye on them so that they do not exceed their limits and commit grave crimes.

Secondly, it has been seen that if parents are held responsible then it would definitely lead to an improvement in family life. Such parental responsibility would become a cultural norm and families will develop closer bonds. Divorces would become rare and broken families would also become less. Finally, children are also less likely to commit a crime if they know that their parents would be held responsible.

There are those who oppose holding the parents responsible. They say that children today are independent and there are many external influences which affect the behaviour of children such as TV and peer pressure. However, I firmly believe that if parents take care of their children and monitor their activities and friends circle, the effect of external influences could never be so overpowering that children commit crimes. Parents could be made to pay fine if children commit petty crime and the punishment could also be more severe such as a heavy fine or imprisonment if the child commits serious crime such as murder.

To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that if we want to reduce the number of such crimes, we need to make parents take more responsibility.