highthief

What are you thoughts on this subject?

Can parents be held responsible for the criminal actions of their children in this fashion?

I'm conflicted over this. On the one hand, if my kid tossed a baseball through the neighbours window, I'd expect to have to cover the damages - that just seems normal to me. But I don't know - a parent can never be 100% responsible for what their kid does, especially once the child is getting near the age of majority like this kid was.


BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | S Korea parents fined over rape

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Psycho Dad

I don't know about this specific instance, but I do think there would be benefits to holding parents accountable for a juvenile's criminal behavior. And while I agree that a parent can't supervise a child 100% of the time, I think that there is more that can be done to raise children than drop them off at the mall on Friday and Saturday nights.

The ADHD crutch needs to be kicked out from under a lot of people as well.

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skizziks

He was 16 at the time, old enough to not need parental supervison all the time. One thing is a baseball through a window, but rape? That takes more than parental supervison. I say not the parents' fault. Kid is 100% to blame and should be treated in the proper manner.

Craven Morehead

What bothers me most about this is that holding the parents responsible excuses the actions of the kid. He gets a pass on this. At some point in this kid's life he should need to confront his own person responsibility for his actions. If not now over this, it may never happen.

ngdawg

If it excuses the kid's actions, then it's not entirely fair. However, had he been raised with respectful values, the knowledge of right from wrong and the consequences of choices, perhaps the crime would not have happened, so I agree with the lawsuit and its outcome.
We live what we know.

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highthief

But that's the challenge isn't it? Who is to say if the boy was raised with "good" values or not. There is one line which suggests he saw some pornography growing up and imitated an act he had seen. OK, if he was sitting there with Ma and Pa watching porn then maybe it was a strange household, but you know, I bought my first porn at 12 and I never turned into a nutjob.

The entireity of his childhood would have to be evaluated - and even then, there are many different ways to raise children successfully. I would find it hard to pass judgment on whether a child - short of a child being raised in very strange, criminal conditions - was raised so poorly as to make the parents responsible.

I like to think I'm a good parent and am raisig my child well - but if she becomes a criminal despite all that, I'm not sure why I should be held to account.

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skizziks

No matter how you are raised, i think you realize rape is wrong. Its not a matter of how you were raised in most instances, you gotta have serious issues to rape someone. Ive seen tons of porn, i looked at porn as a kid, it never made me want to rape someone.

ngdawg

I don't think that is necessarily true. Rape is a crime of power, of taking what you think is rightfully yours to take. It's an anger. People rob, beat, abuse and rape all the time and reasons vary as to why, but I really doubt that someone raised in a loving, openly communicative environment with teaching how making good choices yields good results would violate a child.
Someone dropped the ball there.

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murp0434

I disagree with you there, only b/c the kid also got 10 years in prison. I think the jail time holds the kid responsible.

My thoughts on this are thus: if parents are going to be punished/punishable for the actions of their children while they are minors, the rules need to be set up first instead of deciding on a case by case basis. IE if your kid is underage and rapes someone, junior gets ten years and mom and dad get two. Cut and dry. The whole discussion on the loving environment at home really clouds the issue at hand. All parents attempt to provide a good home for their children and it's very subjective to say that one set of parents is better than another so they shouldn't get in trouble if their kid rapes someone (or whatever). IF the parents are to be punished/punishable, the sentencing structure and guidelines need to be established firmly so that they can be equally applied to every case.

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flat5

We don't know the details. This kid needed special care.
Perhaps it was the parents fault he did not get it.

Craven Morehead

sorry missed that

Anormalguy

Yes.

More details are needed. On one hand maybe the kid actually had serious problems that the parents chose to ignore. Or maybe they did everything that they could, but the kid crossed the line anyway. We don't know.

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skizziks

yes, i agree. i also think someone raised in a loving environment and taught values and morals, if mentally unbalanced, could still rape someone, because they are mentally unbalanced. since the original story had the court saying the kid watched porn and was imitating what he saw, i was arguing against that. if he cant tell the difference between porn and rape at age 18, no matter how loving the parents are, he is mentally handicapped.

i am also wondering about the cultural aspect of this case, since this is in South Korea, where technically porn is illegal (at least it used to be when i lived there many years ago, but you could still get it), and men have different attitudes towards women than us westerners.

Lindy

I think that the topic heading here is misleading, which is no wonder since the original BBC said it as well. What appears to have happened here is that the girls parents were awarded a civil judgment against the parents of the perp. They were not "fined" by the court, as we usually understand that term.
This is just the usual practice of a lawyer "following the money" and apparently the boy's parents were well enough off to make it worthwhile for a lawyer to pursue civil damages.
This is almost exactly the same as what happened when Ronald Goldman's parents sued OJ Simpson and received a civil judgment of I forget how many millions of dollars.
Although the Korean boy was convicted and sent to prison, OJ managed to get a jury that just was not going to convict a black man for murdering a white woman and a Jew, no matter what.
The civil judgement found him responsible for the deaths, even though not "guilty" beyond a reasonable doubt in the minds (perhaps already made up minds) of the jury in the criminal trial.

Lindy

raeanna74

The FIRST put the rapist kid in jail for 10 years. They held in accountable for his actions. I see no problem with taking this a little farther and holding the parents responsible as well. Maybe it will send a message to other parents, to raise their kids to treat others with respect. The fact that ADHD is tagged on to this does in no way excuse the boy's actions but it says that someone, somewhere is trying to use ADHD as an excuse.

ADHD is a LEARNING disorder when it is accurately diagnosed and only applies to a mind that is usually bright but bound by a body that won't allow it to concentrate on one subject at a time. It does not mean that the child is completely out of control or has chronic tantrums. If and when those are the case is when the child has not been properly handled and trained. If they KNEW he was truely ADHD they could have helped prevent this. My Dad is ADHD (Diagnosed by more than one separate specialist) and it does not mean that he cannot behave respectfully toward others. It just means that he does not operate or learn efficiently. Jeez - ADHD did not cause this! He is responsible and so are his parents. (sorry couldn't resist that soapbox)

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Lindy

My Dad claims AADID. That's Adult Attention Deficit with Inactivity Disorder. My Mom says he's scattered and lazy. But attention deficit can certainly exist without hyperactivity.

Lindy

Tully Mars

I agree with you here completely. Well except the part where you never turned into a nutjob.

Seriously, who and how decides this was good parenting and poor parenting.? Do we just enforce this after a behavior occurs? Or do we start rounding up bad parents? If we do that then who raises the kids?

Seems like a box better left unopened.

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highthief

Fair comment, fair comment ...

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highthief

South Korea seems, in some ways, a very odd nation when it comes to court approved behaviour:

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Korean adultery actress sentenced

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Xerxys

I cant emphathise this more.

And also, the parents arent responsioble for this. How many times do kids ... especially teenagers, do stuff just for the lullz???? Nope, Bad kids can result even from the best of parenting. Nature and Nurture work together in ways we cant understand.

Prince

It's completely ridiculous. Unless they can prove that the parents encouraged this behaviour or deliberately enabled it somehow, it's a retarded case and should be dismissed.

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Terrell

I agree with this. The parents aren't responsible for a 16 year old raping someone, absent some direct evidence that the parents had something to do with the rape. A 16 year old, is pretty close to an adult already, don't know about Korea, but here he's old enough to drive, hold a job, and be tried as an adult for such a crime. I don't think that the parents are to blame for this one, the blame rests with the rapist.

Jadast

how you raise your children is only part of the equation. My brother and I were raised in the same house with the same set of rules. He grew up to be a drug user that cheated on his wife. I refrained from drugs and have been my wife 20 years.

The question now becomes which one of us is a reflection of our parents values?

The bottom line is it is hard to penalize the parents.

raeanna74

The one benefit to fineing the parents is that, if there is any relationship between them and the son, then they are more likely to put pressure on him to reform and repent. They may do more to help him change his ways. Also, they may be less likely to enable him in some of the many ways that some parents enable looser kids... letting them live with their parents till they're 30-40 yr olds who do nothing but leach off anyone who'll let them, have no respect for authority or anyone for that matter, and are total drains on society.

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Prince

The guy has ADHD and raped an 8-year-old girl. He needs medical help. This is beyond the scope of half-assed parenting, and it's not up to a government to use fiscal punishment as an incentive for parents to put psychological pressure on their kids to "feel bad and think about what they did" and "never do it again."Looser kids? Loser kids? Granted this happened in South Korea, but it sounds like you're now talking about the U.S. or somewhere else in the western world. We've gone to great lengths to build a society where the government doesn't dictate how we raise our children. Should we fine parents who feed their kids junk food, because they are teaching them poor eating habits? Parents who enable their children to become overweight? Parents who leave the moral and ethical education of their child up to Sesame Street and the Internet? Parents who take their kids to the movies to see violent films with sexually suggestive content? Parents who let their kids play violent video games?

As much as you may personally detest people who live with their parents at 30 or 40, it's not the government's job to tell people how to raise their children and to give them fines to provide "encouragement". Some put more effort into it than others, and sometimes even the kids with the most dutiful and dedicated parents don't live up to their parents' hopes, wishes, and expectations.

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