Parental responsibility (criminal)
Encyclopedia
In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the term parental responsibility refers to the potential or actual liability that may be incurred by parents for the behaviour of their child
Child
Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...

ren.

The Canadian law

Parental responsibility legislation has been enacted in three Canadian provinces: Manitoba (1997), Ontario (2000), and British-Columbia (2001).

Under the Parental Responsibility Act, 2000, a "child" is anyone under the age of 18 years, and "parent" means:
  • either the biological, adoptive, or legal guardian
    Legal guardian
    A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...

     parent of the child,
  • or the person who has lawful custody of, or a right of access to, the child.

The Small Claims Court may order such parents to compensate those suffering any loss or damage intentionally caused by their child, unless the parent was exercising reasonable supervision over the child at the time the child engaged in the activity that caused the loss or damage and made reasonable efforts to prevent or discourage the child from engaging in the kind of activity that resulted in the loss or damage. .

The U.S. law

There is a political movement for greater parental accountability following of a number of highly publicised violent crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

s committed by children. While all US states allow parents to be sued for the various actions of their children, the idea of criminal legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...

 to enable the prosecution of adults for “neglectful” parenting is relatively new. For example, a number of states have enacted or proposed laws that will:
  • automatically hold parents financially responsible for all expenses associated with a second false bomb threat or 911 call made by a child;
  • impose a prison
    Prison
    A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

     term of up to 18 months and order payment of restitution to any victims if the child commits a serious crime;
  • imposes a fine and/or a prison term if a child uses a gun owned by the parent to commit a crime
  • fine and/or imprison parents whose children fail to attend school or skip school more than 10 times in a year.

Such legislation is constitutionally problematic in that it is often both broad and vague, and may very well infringe upon the privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...

 of the family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...

. The sponsors of these laws argue that parental delinquency is usually the cause of the juvenile delinquency, but opponents argue that there is little evidence to support the claim that youth crime is caused by “bad parenting” and that there are many other social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

, cultural and economic causes that should be addressed. Opponents argue that the increased work hours and multiple jobs that a growing number of parents must take to provide for their families' basic needs decreases their ability to supervise their child(ren), thus creating an injustice with regard to the parents' culpability in the child's action. In 1988 California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

enacted the Street Terrorism and Prevention Act, which provides for prison sentences of up to one year and fines up to $2,500 for parents who “grossly” or “culpably” deviate from the “normal” standards of supervision. The California Supreme Court later upheld the constitutionality of this Act.
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