I think that the parents are as much to blaim as the children and that society has got it wrong when we are encouraged not to act as community police and be in a strong enough position to tell youngsters off for doing wrong things when we see them do it, if we did we would just get abuse and probably arrested for harrassment and assault of a minor.

And yet what if as a society we all banded together if we saw wrong doings and like Clint Eastwood took a stand?

I think we can see a strong act of bad parenting in the Hannah Bond case (google it)

Although Hannah had nothing to do with crime, she did commit suicide as a "tribute" to an online cult based on My Chemical Romance and other emo bands. So, instead of the parents owning up to the fact that THEIR KID HAS BEEN SLITTING HER WRISTS FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHES AND THEY SHOULD HAVE STOPPED IT, instead they blamed the band themselves.

So, they should have been better parents.

I think something should be done with the parents, because they're kind of to blame for their kid's behavior.

It's definably the parents fault because they are supposed to raise them correctly, so they should be charged with the child's crimes. The children themselves aren't good, but nothing a little bit of care should do. Jail is messed up, it makes good people bad, and bad people worse.

I'm gonna move this to the Debate forum.

(moved)

Psychopaths are born twisted.

There was an adolescent girl from... Sweden I think, who threw a bag of puppies into a river one by one. Sickest video I've ever seen.

There was a boy in Germany who snuck into a zoo and slaughtered any animals he could find. He jumped on some until they stopped twitching, and tossed others into the crocodile habitat.

These kids' parents are in over their heads. There is no reform for people like this, and there was nothing the parents could have done. These kids need to be locked away where they can no longer harm the world.

You can't entirely blame the parents because eventually a kid learns the difference between right and wrong, but as far as what to do with them, I'm not sure what you mean. If they commit a crime, they should be punished. Simple as that.

It's easy to blame the parents. The reason why children/teenagers commit suicide often has to do with boredom, boredom leads to depression, depression can lead to things like this. So yes, the parents should have probably spent more time with the kid, however, the child did this to herself.

Children who commit crimes on the other hand can go in one of many directions. Based on the severity of the crime (misdemeanor or felony), it should be easier to assume the type of punishment. We can't just say that at age__ kids can be tried as adults and be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Kids mature at different ages, grow up in different environments, etc. I think proper counseling is the best remedy for most young people committing crimes but things like rape and first degree murder should definitely be enforced just as much as if it were an adult being tried.

Personally I think that if the kid did something very serious like shoot someone, or kill someone that they should be treated like any other criminal. In my mind if you are old enough to attempt to take another persons life, then you are old enough to go to jail.

Totts : I think it depends on the severity of the crime. For instance, if a child commits a murder..they should be tried as an adult but excluded from the population of the adults because I'm certain pedophiles and other perverts infest prison. The parents are to blame in a sense...but then again, a child is more wiser than we expect them to be. They know right from wrong as we all do...so if you do the crime you do the time!

I think this is BOTH, the parents and the child's fault...

The parent didn't raise the child properly, they could also be punished but not as bad as the main problem is the child.

Most of the kids who do these stupid acts go to school, school teaches them right from wrong so if they did wrong, IT IS THEIR PROBLEM and they should be punished like an adult.

If you put the full blame on the parents then the child won't learn and when he becomes older he will just "blame the parents", and then go to jail wondering why the parents are not arrested.

I mean what child does not know that taking away one's life or doing crimes are wrong if they live in the modern world, unless they parents themselves are criminals, I can't see how this is happening if most kids watch TV and at least watched one "Super Hero" or "Cops and Robbers" show ? They know that the bad guy get's punished, the only crime they could really get from that is when the show is spit and in part 1 it looks as if the bad guys escaped, the children may think that they can escape, another crime they could learn from such shows is that attacking bad people = good, that is why parents must watch they child at all times.

Sometimes it depends on age though, but once a 5 year old knows about "killing" then he needs some guidance, otherwise he will think he can "kill" his problems away, like people in GTA, another reason why SOME M rated games are rated M instead of violence or bad language...

Violent video games are not really the problem either, it is normally the content of the game they are playing, if the content contains someone who is trying to save the world from some evil people and there is blood and gore it will still not promote a child to do serious crimes (see the "super hero" comment I wrote) expect that violence and killing is the way to stop bad people if they grow up without guidance, where if you let the SAME child play GTA instead of this game, they might kill people for fun when they grow older without guidance.

The parents are the also a problem, but most child knows good from bad, parents should be punished too, but the child should be punished more...

Some kids think that "just because they are young" they will be "let off easier". This is due to how the society treats kids differently.

Also the "emo" kid killing herself case is just due to how the people who dealt with her did it wrong, cutting yourself cannot be a fashion, and the karate teacher should inform the parents about how this "fashion" is not as they see it, as I think he knows about the problem more...

The Internet is also an influence as you will never know where kids will end up to... this one is hard to explain so use your common sense to figure out why it is a problem.

P.S: 500 + words, that feels wrong over such a matter, might just be me though.

P.P.S: This post was hard for me to "arrange" the words right, but you should get the main idea of what I am trying to say

I think they should be punished like adults are.,But I dont think they should be housed with adults though.They should make a Prison for underage criminals.

you do the crime you do the time. a parent can teach a kid whats wrong and right but its the kid that has to do whats right if they get into trouble than its all on them and the people they hang out with . if the kid does a crime like murder or rape they should be dealt with like an adult . i have kids and if they where to mess up they would have to deal with the consequences .

Prisons won't help anything.
You put a punch of criminals together and what you get as a result is not them improving but going worse.
Yet, I'd say that depends on the crime.
Wouldn't put an underage murderer to a community work (which for "easier" cases I think is great), and I don't know what to do with them, really.

People are so wrapped up in their own worlds now that the lines between being a parent
and being a child are disappearing.
Why blame anyone, life is as it is.

Depends on the severity of the crime, stealing juvy, Mugging jail, arson jail, murder deathrow.

How is it the parents' fault if their kid kills themself? I understand a certain culpability, but a parent cannot know their child's innermost thoughts and cannot keep an eye on their child one hundred percent of the time.

On the other hand, I thi9nk that underage criminals should be treated just like of-age criminals. Some may make the argument that kids cannot make decisions as well as adults, but there are many children on this site that would argue otherwise.

Parents may have had some contributions for why their kids would become criminals. But let's face it, any kid is surrounded by different other influencing factors which may have contributed to their behaviors too. Any parent would say that they've done the best for their kids, they all have different standards to good parenting so that's really not all to blame. When we say criminals who are underage, even if they're law breakers, they're still underaged. If we treat them like any other criminals who has no chance of changing, then they will continue to do unproductive things because they eventually loose all hope of changing for the better. I mean what's the use if everyone won't give you that opportunity to make up for your mistakes. I think the answer could really be effective rehabilitation from programs which are proven to work. Here's a few related discussion for parents who may have had this dilemma. The family's support and love is also one thing that might help them with trying to reform... 

Well I do agree that parents should own up to there bad parenting but if they tried and nothing could've been done then it happened they get what came to them