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The Battalion
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Page 5 • Tuesday, June 1, 1999
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The parent trap
Proposed parental liability laws circumvent justice, punish parents for crimes of children
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R ecent incidents
of school vio
lence have refo
cused political atten
tion on legislative
proposals designed to
prevent and punish
juvenile crime. Some
are now proposing
| laws that would make
parents legally liable
for the crimes of their children.
Although laws already exist to prose-
I cute parents who are obscenely uegligent
I or directly involved in their children’s
I crimes, some are proposing laws that go
I much further. They would automatically
I punish the parents of criminal juveniles,
I even without direct evidence of parental
I neglect or complicity.
While a certain erosion of parental re-
| sponsibility has doubtlessly occurred in
I recent years, the proper remedy for the
I decline will not be found in these kinds
I of legal quick-fix. It would be patently
I unfair and unwise to punish parents for
I the miscreancy of minors.
First and foremost, such measures
I deny that juveniles are rational actors
I who are responsible for their actions. In
I spite of their wrongdoings, criminals are
I human, endowed with rights that are still
I inalienable. While it may at first seem
I paradoxical, humans even have a certain
I right to be punished for violating law.
As Martin Gardner explains in the Ne-
I braska Law Review, “Persons are those
I individuals possessed of the capacity for
I rational choice. Persons are entitled to
I have their choices respected.”
Therefore, when one willingly breaks
I the law, “one also chooses the conse-
I quences of his offense: punishment.”
K But because these laws do not repri-
Imand the juveniles who actually commit-
Ited the crimes, parental liability laws
■ would fail to appropriately respect the ra-
| tional decisions of minors. They regard
■ juvenile delinquency “as emotional im-
I maturity rather than as the actions of re-
I sponsible human agents. [Such] respons-
| es fail to respect th/e rational choices, and
I thus the personhocfd, of the offender,”
■ Gardner said.
If society chooses to hold parents
more accountable for the crimes of their
children rather than punishing the chil
dren themselves, it would treat juvenile
offenders as less than human. Because
they are not adults, we are suggesting to
them that they are hardly even rational,
and that it is not they, but their parents,
who are accountable for their actions.
This is true of young children who are
barely accountable for controlling their
bodily functions, but most juvenile of
fenders are of an older age at which they
can appreciate the moral status of their
actions.
In the William and Mary Law Review,
Robert Batey has argued, “Adolescents
are in most circumstances capable of
making choices themselves. Experimen
tal data support this conclusion.”
Consequently, “the law should treat
the choices of both adults and adoles
cents similarly,” Batey said.
To do anything less than what Batey
suggests would be injudicious. Different
sentencing and trial procedures are in or
der when punishing juveniles, but to
punish parents would convey to
teenagers the dangerous implication that
their delinquency is the fault of circum
stances beyond their control.
Such a dissolution of juvenile respon
sibility not only taints the misdeeds of
young criminals with an accent of nor
malcy, it also fails to give young offend
ers the basic respect they deserve as per
sons capable of choice.
As Herbert Morris concludes in his
book. On Guilt and Innocence, society
has an obligation “to respond to children
in such a way as to maximize the
chances of their becoming persons. This
may well impose upon us the obligation
to treat them as persons from a very early
age, to respect their choices and to place
upon them the responsibility for the
choice to be made.”
Apart from the philosophical pitfalls of
parent liability laws, there is a second,
more practical reason why such legisla
tion should be abandoned. Laws punish
ing parents for the crimes of their kids
would be impossible to aptly define.
Courts and lawmakers cannot hope to
compose an exhaustive list of faults in
dicative of bad parenting, and yet, in the
Gabriel Ruenes/The Battalion
absence of such a list, it would be terri
bly difficult to properly sentence the par
ents of offenders. Many parents of crimi
nals have done everything society could
hope them to do in discharging their
parental duties.
As for the parents who may not have
raised their children well, a legal line
across which no good parent will cross
could never be fairly drawn. Different
parents have different philosophies for
raising their children, but parental liabili
ty laws would ultimately require judging
some philosophies as better than others.
And while certain parenting practices
are better than others, detailing which
ones are best is not the job of the state.
Under the kinds of laws being pro
posed, the government would have to
make such absurd decisions as whether
or not to endorse spanking or grounding
as the right form of punishment. In dar
ing to define what makes a good parent,
the government would become unbear
ably paternalistic itself.
It would simply be impossible for
courts to distinguish bad parenting from
the multitude of other factors contribut
ing to juvenile crime. As Sol Rubin ex
plains in his book Crime and Juvenile
Delinquency, “Of the factors making for
delinquency, parental inadequacy is only
one of many; others are the high cost of
living, poor standards of education, inad
equate recreation and'slums, to name
only a few. ”
“We can no more correct [parents] by
punishment than we can correct the con
tributing social conditions by cursing
them,” he said.
Making parents pay for repairs when
an energetic youth hurls a baseball
through a neighbor’s window is one
thing. But making parents serve sen
tences when their teen steals a car or,
God forbid, goes on a shooting spree is
another thing entirely. In most cases,
both in principle and in practice, it would
be unjust to punish parents.
Hopefully, in America, “The son shall-
not bear the guilt of the father, nor the fa
ther bear the guilt of the son” (Ezekiel
15:20).
Caleb McDaniel is a
junior history major.
Professional sports players, executives
sell out to commercial interests, greed
MAIL CALL
JEFF
BECKER
on
:ency
loward
ery.
R ecently, a plan was
unveiled by Major
League Baseball to
introduce advertisements
Ion the sleeves of the play-
|ers’ jerseys.
At first, some observers
[questioned the validity of
the move, but now people
are starting to see the idea
|is not all that bad.
In fact, people will soon start to see the
[plan for what it is — a hit. This is such a great
idea, it has the possibility of turning into a
jhomerun for the game.
The problem is people are still envisioning
[baseball, and all professional sports for that
[matter, as the pure and simple sports that kids
;still play in parks and yards across America.
They foolishly believe that this inno-
icent game played by children is the
same one that is played by profession-
|al athletes.
The game is no longer played by
Bthe pros for the enjoyment and
■competitiveness of sport.
People must have a more en-
glightened understanding of
iwhat sports are really about.
The fierce competitiveness
iof Michael Jordan and the fiery
I desire to win that burned in
■him helped people to deny ath-
lletes’ obsession with money,
1 even though we see his sweating
■ face every commercial break.
However, his flame has now
:: burned out, its intensity only an af-
Iterglow. His departure will allow
1 people to see more clearly that the
ipros do not play the same game as the
I kids around America.
Instead, all professional sports are mold-
ling themselves into one grotesque giant, all
[striving for the same goal, reaching for the
[same achievement.
The goal is simple, but new and complex
terms are used to describe the new game that
[has taken hold of professional sports.
We hear phrases like corporate profits, net
learnings, salary caps, revenue sharing and
free agency.
These words may seem a bit confusing, but
there is no question what this game is really
about — money.
Certainly all the lockouts and strikes over
the past few years have proven money is the
only thing that matters to these people any
more.
In light of this revelation, the idea about
putting advertisements on sleeves is great;
what better way to make money?
Getting excited about other people making
money may be difficult, but that is what the
game is about nowadays. Why cheer for the
winner of the Super Bowl? We need to learn to
cheer for the big moneymakers.
We have to support this sport of making
money, for we are the ones who finance it.
Without the fans, the players and owners
would not be able to bicker about their $100
million contracts because they would not have
an income.
Their actions have shown they have no re
gard for the fans and they have desecrated the
sports we love by turning them into showcas
es for greed. But we should love them any
way. Why?
Well, how else is Shaq going to be able to
drive those $100,000 cars and live that Holly
wood lifestyle?
Now that everyone knows what the game
is really about, we should all be alarmed by
the trend that has been occurring lately in pro
fessional sports, with big name guys going to
teams for less money.
Someone needs to remind these guys
about the rules of the game: do not go to
better teams for less money. Go to the lousy
teams who can afford to blow a ton of mon
ey on a high salary.
And what are these guys’ excuses for
turning down the top dollar teams? They
want to win a championship.
Well, Charles Barkley needs to know
something: forget about winning the cham
pionship. He should play for some lousy
team like the Clippers for one season and
make some money for his retirement years.
Ah, yes, the retirement years — those
long golf-filled days of wondering if follow
ing the other green was really worth it.
This is when the pro starts to realize
no one is going to remember him or
his money and all he has to show
for his talents is that he was part
of a money grubbing free-for-all
that destroyed sports.
Those are some memories
to have.
But do not tell the younger
players that. They should not
dwell upon how empty their
millions will be when they
realize what could have
been.
They need to think that
money is everything. The
essence of what we know
about sports is gone, but per
haps if someone really wanted to
find it, they could. They would
have to travel far from the extorted
baseball stadiums and football fields
of professional-athletes.
They would have to look for the chil
dren in the playgrounds, alleys and parks of
America who know nothing yet of corporate
gains.
They would have to find the children who
still do not realize that the game is no longer
about enjoyment or even winning.
If you happen to travel to one of these
places, please do not tell the children what
the game is really about.
Jeff Becker is a sophomore
computer science major.
Religion key to
stopping violence
The shooting in Colorado
should not be surprising to a na
tion that has forgotten God and
refuses to obey him.
We are long past due in taking
another look at separation of
church and state, which in actuali
ty has become separation of God
and state, an idea totally alien to
the foundation of our nation.
The solution to youth violence
is in the Bible: ‘‘And all thy chil
dren shall be taught of the Lord;
and great shall be the peace of
thy children” (Isaiah 54:13).
David Muralt
Austin, Texas
NATO bombings
reveal hypocrisy
The United States and NATO
continually claim to be attempt
ing to minimize civilian casualties
in Yugoslavia.
That is pure hogwash.
No country which uses deplet
ed uranium and cluster bombs as
weapons and targets civilian in
frastructure has a concern for the
welfare of civilians.
In Yugoslavia, the targeting of
oil refineries and chemical plants
releases large amounts of toxins
into the air, and the bombing of
bridges over the Danube and
Sava rivers pollutes the water.
An environmental disaster
area is being created in south
eastern Europe.
Tomahawk cruise missiles
contain depleted uranium as bal
last and other missiles contain
this substance in the tip for pierc
ing armor.
Apologists for the use of de
pleted uranium say it is not very
radioactive and therefore harm
less. This ignores the fact that
uranium is toxic chemically with
out even considering radioactivity.
Also, it vaporizes on striking a
target, and small uranium parti
cles blow for miles with the wind.
When inhaled, the radioactivity
is intense enough in the immedi
ate area of the particle to cause
cancer, and if it is transferred by
blood to the gonads, it can cause
birth defects.
Possessing this knowledge, I
absolutely cringe when I hear
Madeline Albright talk about Ser-"
bian war crimes. Hypocrisy of this
magnitude is unbearable.
Gary Sudborough
Bellflower, Calif.
New bill combats
drunken driving
Too many Texans still die in
drunken driving crashes. Sadly, in;
fact, Texas leads the nation in al
cohol-related traffic fatalities.
Texas lawmakers have a
chance to help turn the tide by
adopting Senate Bill 1774, au
thored by state Sen. Judith Zaffiri-
ni of Laredo. The bill lengthens
the suspension period for second
offenders and for those who
refuse a sobriety test.
A wide cross-section of organi
zations has thrown support be
hind the bill including Texas
MADD and The Century Council,
which is funded by America’s lead
ing distillers, and other groups
committed to reducing the num
ber of alcohol-related fatalities in
Texas.
Texans want safer streets, and
public opinion has swung firmly in
favor of tougher laws to achieve
them. Legislators have a great op
portunity in SB 1774. The people
of Texas deserve it.
John C. Lawn
Chairman and CEO,
The Century Council
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