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Last year, in England, a child of two was brutally killed by some boys of no more than twelve. Recently, here in Italy, a child was raped and robbed by his schoolmates. Listening to these and other appalling news, I realized the existence of a problem I have never thought of: juvenile crime. The number of young criminals is rising. Parents, politicians and social workers are asking and looking for workable solutions in order to reduce them and take the matter under control. Personally, I do not know the causes of this increasing problem, but I do not think that making parents compensate the victims of their children's offences would be the best way to solve it .
To accept and put into practice this proposal means that we refuse to look carefully at the faults of our own society and hold responsibility totally on parents. In a few words, we think that what we need are better parents, regardless of the complex and confused society they try to bring their children up. Some parents are really unfit for their roles, but most of them are well-aimed mothers and fathers who simply do their best to rear their children. Sometimes they get confused by the too many and heavy expectations placed upon them. For example, working mothers are criticized for spending too many hours far from their children and therefore make them feel lonely and not enough loved. On the contrary, not working mothers are accused of spending too much time with their children and suffocate them with their love. Unfortunately, life is not a situation comedy where every problem is happily solved. Real parents deal with real problems: most of them are lucky and their children are receptive to their efforts, while some others are less lucky. In my opinion, these less fortunate have already paid enough for their sufferings and humiliations .
On the other hand, forcing parents to pay for their children's offences would save a lot of public money, but it would not reduce juvenile crimes. I do not think that children, who do not stop their crimes in front of their parents' efforts to help them, their mothers' decision to disown them and refusal to welcome them in their house, would redeem at the idea that their families were forced to pay for their actions. Furthermore, if one thinks that parents are often the first victims of their criminal children it would be really amusing to make them to compensate themselves .
Young people of today live in a complex society. The more complex it becomes, the more numerous and big the problems are. When one of them becomes too threatening some striking solutions find their way among thinkers and common people. In connection with the rise in juvenile crime making parents pay for their children's offences is one of these solutions. But, in my opinion, it is not workable because it is too simple. Perhaps what we need are not better parents, but a more responsible society capable of looking seriously and sincerely at its own intrinsic contradictions .
