Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1986 > Select Committee on Criminal Lawlessness and Vandalism > Report No. 13 - Liability of Parents for Contributing to the Delinquency of their Children

APPENDIX C

Extract from U.K. Report on Young Offenders

Responsibility of parents

53. The measures so far described in this paper apply to juvenile offenders themselves. But the Government believes it is important that the courts should also be able more effectively to bring home to parents their responsibilities in relation to juveniles who offend. There are clearly cases in which it is quite wrong that parents should remain unaffected by the fact that their children commit criminal offences. Within the general principles which must of course continue to govern criminal liability the Government will substantially strengthen, simplify and clarify the present provisions under which parents can be involved in the consequences of their children’s offending.

54. At present, a court can order a parent or guardian to pay a financial penalty imposed on a juvenile offender, unless it is satisfied that the parents have not conduced to the commission of the offence by neglecting to exercise due care and control of the child or young person. It is only in the case of a child under 14 that the court must order the parents to pay; in the case of juveniles over 14 it is simply open to the court to do so. There has been no clear judicial interpretation of the scope of these provisions and there is some evidence that the courts have been reluctant to use them because of uncertainty as to their ambit. The Government proposes to strengthen and clarify these provisions, so that parents will be required to pay fines imposed on their children under 17 unless, in the particular circumstances of the case, a court thinks it would be unreasonable to make them pay. The Government considers that this clarification and extension of the law will encourage the courts to assert the duty of parents to act responsibly towards their children and take all steps within their power to prevent them committing criminal offences.

55. The courts also have power, with the consent of the parent or guardian, to make an order requiring the parent or guardian to enter into a recognisance to take proper care of the juvenile and exercise proper control over him. The Government believes that this power to bind parents over to ensure the good behaviour of their children can also be a most effective way of securing the co-operation of parents in the prevention of delinquent behaviour. It therefore proposes to increase the amount of the financial recognisance which parents can be ordered to forfeit if they fail to fulfil the undertaking they make to the court.