Marski87 asked this question on 5/4/2000:

hello, Im doing a debate and i need to know what the effects of child neglect is? my topic is Sould parents be punished for their teens voilent acts? well im try to use that to prove my claims, if you could write me back asap. i need to finish my note cards. thank you.

-Mario De Stefano a 7th grade student at Henry Puffer middle school. (tyhey make me write that)

cpiblues gave this response on 5/5/2000:

First I would like to ask a question: Are you presuming that child neglect is later related to teens violent acts? Violence (abuse) and neglect tend to have different outcomes. A child that has been abused - beaten, choked, molested, etc. tends to act out differently than a child who doesn't get enough to eat because the parents are poor or who wanders away from home because they are not being supervised properly. Teens and the related topics are difficult indeed. Teens have so many different factors impinging on them at any given time that it is difficult to ascertain why -at any given moment - that they act or react as they do. The reason that society often wants to punish parents of teens is because they often cannot hold the teenager responsible/or don't want to hold the teen responsible because of their age and want someone to "pay" for whatever they did. If a teen commits a serious violent act - such as armed robbery - home invasion - murder - battery - or things of this nature I would suggest that the problem this child has was visible long before they committed this act. This is the reason society often wants to hold the parent accountable - because they should have known and therefore did something about it before the child acted. They are angry because the belief is that the parent could have prevented whatever happened and didn't. There is no easy answer - having worked with babies up to adults - families of all sizes and types I have seen it from many angles. I believe that you will find some parents who don't care and don't try to help their teen - and these are the ones who should be held accountable. An investigation of their involvement with their child should reveal how much the parent was attempting to help their child. Then of course there are parents who do everything they can do and nothing works - the child is committed to doing as they please - maybe because of peer pressure - money problems or whatever. Having worked at juvenile detention I have met many of these children as well. The problem is that is these children aren't helped early in life there is little one can do later - parent or otherwise. I believe a parent can only be held accountable if it is clear that they are somehow responsible for what the child has done - such as leaving a loaded gun readily accessible to the child - or more directly via there lack of attachment to the child wherein the child comes and goes as they please with no attempt by the parent to provide some guidelines. If I can clarify any of these answers better please let me know.

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