If you are going to have children ... it's your job to raise them and make upstanding , honest , law-abiding Citizens out of them ... not turn them into criminals ...
That is what parents are supposed to do. Now, tell us what you think the law ought to do when parents don't do that, or try to do that, and fail??
Should it be the same punishment?
And what gives you, or I, though the law, the right and the authority to determine what is "proper parenting", and punish parents who fail to meet the standards chosen??
And, is it fair to ignore the fact that children DO have free will, can, and will do what ever they want, when there is no direct supervision???
Are you proposing that we have/make laws to arbitrarily determine (and punish) based on ideas and concepts no one in history has yet been able to identify, let alone prove??
Is it Nature or Nurture?? Perhaps, both, or neither?? And is it the proper role for the law to determine that???
The classic example used during discussion of who/what is responsible for behavior is the family with three sons, one grows up to become a priest, another to become a cop, and the last to become a career criminal.
Same DNA (nature) raised in the same home by the same people (nurture) and yet, drastically different outcomes. I think free will, including the "bad choices" plays the biggest part, and the free will choices of individuals are theirs, and theirs alone, no matter if they are 11 or 21.
This is not a defective product situation where one can morally and legally hold the maker responsible for the quality of the product. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
