Minor criminals and a parents accountability

[SKIP IN7RO]

Should parent(s) be held criminally accountable for their minor child's crime?

[SumJongGuy]

Was the crime committed using resources provided by said parent? Kid in a H1 plowed in to a house.... After already having his license taken away for a similar previous incident. His parents bought the H1, insured it in their own name, and handed the kid the keys..

Even for minor stuff, parents are financially liable for damages for as long as they are getting a tax deduction for claiming responsibility as official guardian of said kid..

[SKIP IN7RO]

It's just a general question pertaining to all crimes by minors. An extreme example from the news today is 4 minors murdered an elderly couple during a home invasion.

Edit: 3 minors, one was 19

[gravitylover]

Seems to me that, if a ~15 year old makes a bad decision and goes and murders someone that kid should be on the hook for it all by himself. If it's giving the family car to the kid after they've already displayed poor decision making or lost their license then yeah the parent should be held partially accountable. I know that as teenagers there were many marginal decisions that my friends and I made when we were out and about that there's no way our parents could have known about or done anything to mitigate so shouldn't have held any liability for and if we got caught we knew we would be solely responsible.

[wooley12]

I guess the only answer to your broad question is it depends on the crime.

[Kenny Satch]

Only if it's the parents brainwash their kid(s) to hate and/or teach them to commit crimes.
Otherwise no.

[SumJongGuy]

If you bring a child in to this world, you're responsible for the actions of that child for as long as you are their legitimate guardian, i.e. as long as they are your tax deduction. That only applies to civil suits though. You can't be sent to jail for their criminal behavior unless you somehow facilitated it or were grossly negligent.

[SKIP IN7RO]

It seems like some of these parents of murderers ie. the 3 teens mentioned above or even Ethan Couch are criminally negligent because of a gross deviation from a reasonable standard of caring.

[old goat]

Seems to me that, if a ~15 year old makes a bad decision and goes and murders someone that kid should be on the hook for it all by himself. If it's giving the family car to the kid after they've already displayed poor decision making or lost their license then yeah the parent should be held partially accountable. I know that as teenagers there were many marginal decisions that my friends and I made when we were out and about that there's no way our parents could have known about or done anything to mitigate so shouldn't have held any liability for and if we got caught we knew we would be solely responsible.

I agree. Good conscientious caring parents can have kids do bad things without their knowledge or help. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive--either they've never had teenagers or they're naive about what their teenagers have been up to. By the time you're a teen your parents are no longer the biggest influence in your life, except in opposition,

However, murdering someone is not a "bad decision", no matter what the age of the killer.

[SkiBall]

If there is money to be had in a lawsuit, they are coming after the parents in some way shape or form I would guess. In that sense, yeah. Criminally, it depends as stated above.

[SKIP IN7RO]

I like this, "Parents are in charge of shaping their child's personality. Much of a humans personality comes from nurture, not nature. Criminal attitudes toward other humans, authority, and the law tend to be a result of nurture, or rather the lack of it."

[XXX-er]

If there was only enough mom/Apple pie n icecream / the American dream, there would be no teen crime ... Some one needs to git sued

[SumJongGuy]

I agree. Good conscientious caring parents can have kids do bad things without their knowledge or help. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive--either they've never had teenagers or they're naive about what their teenagers have been up to. By the time you're a teen your parents are no longer the biggest influence in your life, except in opposition,

However, murdering someone is not a "bad decision", no matter what the age of the killer.

Oh, it can be absolutely NOT the parents fault. Kids can truly be running with that bad crowd and the parents have no real way of knowing how much trouble their kid is getting themselves in to.. However, the parent is still responsible for the actions of their child even if it's 99.9999% not the parent's fault. it's like that if your dog attacks someone without warning too. Having no fault doesn't always absolve you of responsibility for what your kids, or your pets do..

[iceman]

It's just a general question pertaining to all crimes by minors.

It depends.

General answer for a general question.

[old goat]

Oh, it can be absolutely NOT the parents fault. Kids can truly be running with that bad crowd and the parents have no real way of knowing how much trouble their kid is getting themselves in to.. However, the parent is still responsible for the actions of their child even if it's 99.9999% not the parent's fault. it's like that if your dog attacks someone without warning too. Having no fault doesn't always absolve you of responsibility for what your kids, or your pets do..

We're talking about criminal responsibility not civil. If my dog attacks someone I am civilly responsible for the injury. I am not criminally responsible unless the dog had a history of attacking people which I knew about and failed to adequately control the dog, and especially if I trained the dog to attack. Bad analogy though. For the most part dogs are completely under our control, unless we let them run free (which in most places is itself a violation), and are completely dependent on us and can be trained to obey us. None of that is true about children. If we keep our children completely under our direct supervision at all times until they reach age 18, we are likely raising a future mass murderer.

Once your kid starts full day school they are spending more time under the influence of others than of you. Even when they're home they're under the influence of what they read and see on TV, the internet, their phones, even books. While neglectful, abusive parenting certainly increases the risk of criminal behavior, the opposite kind of care is no guarantee against it. It takes a village and frankly our national "village" sucks.

[JongDoe]

If you bring a child in to this world, you're responsible for the actions of that child for as long as you are their legitimate guardian, i.e. as long as they are your tax deduction. That only applies to civil suits though. You can't be sent to jail for their criminal behavior unless you somehow facilitated it or were grossly negligent.

You can claim a 24 year old college student as a dependent/deduction and dependents can also be married. I don't think tax deductions should have anything to do with it.

[old goat]

The one situation I've heard of where parents have been held criminally responsible is truancy--it's not that the school cares whether the kid is getting an education, just that school district funding usually is based on head count. If the kid stabs someone the parents aren't criminally liable, as long as he does it at school so he isn't truant.

[Crusty]

If you bring a child in to this world, you're responsible for the actions of that child for as long as you are their legitimate guardian, i.e. as long as they are your tax deduction. That only applies to civil suits though. You can't be sent to jail for their criminal behavior unless you somehow facilitated it or were grossly negligent.

Cool, now that the Tax Cut & Jobs act eliminated the personal exemption I guess I no longer have civil liability for the actions of my children.

[riser4]

So the OP wants the US to be like North Korea. Why stop at the parents? Send the grandparents to the prison camps as well.

[pepperdawg]

I let my 10 Yo drive my truck across the back yard yesterday....will I be sent to prison camp?

PS - dont tell Mrs P-Dawg - probably worse than the prison camp,.

[detrusor]

Oh shit. I let my kids drive home up the dirt roads at 7 and 8. I hope it’s cushy white collar jail....


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[SKIP IN7RO]

It's about fucking time.
oxford-high-school-michigan-shooting-parents

[MTT]

It's about fucking time.
oxford-high-school-michigan-shooting-parents

Being that kids parents has got to suck now and forever
Criminality stupid doesn’t necessarily mean they broke a law
Should there be a law? What would it look like?
If someone steals your gun from your house or car should you be criminally liable for what they do with it?

It’s tough

That said I am a very pissed of gun nut over this
If daddy had just used the cheap cable lock that came in the box with the gun. This incident didn’t happen!

Or buy a fucking gun safe
One of these costs less than half what that gun costs


Wonder if daddy bought the gun for protection from his phyco kid?

[Benny Profane]

It's about fucking time.
oxford-high-school-michigan-shooting-parents

In the Supreme Court docket sometime in the next decade.

[AdironRider]

As unfortunate as this situation is, I find it hard to see the logic behind a victim of theft (regardless of relationship to the criminal) having to be punished for whatever crime is committed post theft.

Are you going to prosecute any car owner who's vehicle is stolen and then a crime is committed with it? That shit happens all the fucking time. What is the Waukesha massacre was a stolen vehicle?

What if a murderer buys a gun with stolen money? That shit also happens all the time. You holding the person who's cash was stolen responsible? Where does the line end?

What about a person with a prescription, that has those pills stolen and then someone OD's on it. This literally every day in this country. You charging that person with murder?

See how ridiculous those scenarios sound? Don't let your personal hatred of guns bias your thoughts here, because they are ultimately no different than punishing a gun owner who's gun gets stolen.

No one is justifying what this kid did by arguing these points. I'm sure more detail is going to come out but the parents weren't blowing off warning signs, they were literally meeting with professionals about the kid's problem that very day. Showing up is what parents that care do IMO, but is never going to be a guarantee that it prevents a kid from committing a crime.