If a child commits a heinous crime, should the parent be held responsible?

Hello Kaeli72, I think that is really awful, but I think the morther should be charge and depending on her son age he be charge, if he too young then he needs a lot of help. Yes its the mother to blame. Tamara

I havent seem this episode but from what you say I really think that she should be charged too. Afterall she put all this in the kids head and he would have been thinking he was saving his brother from a bad life. So yes she should be held accountable too.

I saw this same eposide ahile back. to me I felt like the son should have had to go to juvinlle prison. Now the mother was wrong for teaching her son this also. Maybe she does need to learn not to teach her kids this. I think her son was scared something bad was going to happenen to his younger brother so he felt like killing him would be better for him then taking their mother's abuse.

I saw this episode too and I think that she was entirely responsible because she put the idea in the kid's head to do that. He would not have done it on his own and in fact he didn't want to do it. He tried to reach out to his one internet friend but she wasn't available when he needed her. I hope that if it ever comes to a real case, which I hope it doesn't of course, the kid will be sentenced to counseling and juvenile hall rather than real adult prison because he underwent abuse too. The mother I think should be in a real jail in this case.

I love Law and Order too! I didn't see this episode you are talking about. I would think that the mother should have to pay for this act since she was responsible for her child believing that killing his brother was the right thing to do. In a normal crime, I would say no, the parent isn't responsible. I know as a parent it would be my worst nightmare if my child commited any crime. I have tried to teach them right from wrong and guided them, but sometimes their friends have more impact than parents.

yes the mother should be charged with the contribution to the murder of the younger son because when she has conditioned them to believing that the world is an evil place she should have given them the right meaning of what she meant. Children are inquisitive and want answers to everything, when they dont get answers they come to the conclusion on their own on what they think it might be. So, when the mother was so complexed about her sons being seperated from her she should have taught them the right thing and not negative things which hamper the young minds of children. So she is completely responsible for whatever happeed.

I think anytime a parent physically or mentally encourages a child to commit any crime they should be held accountable, I also think that the parent should receive a harsher punishment for encouraging the kid to do wrong in the first place. At the same time, I think that if a kid commits a crime b/c of parent neglect (the parent isn't watching them) then the parent should be held accountable. Here's an example: We've had several of our downspouts and drainage plates wrecked by a group of kids that live in a nearby apartment b/c the mother of the kids sends them out to play and sits inside ignoring them. The kids run wild, tearing things up and no one does anything. The mother should be made to pay for the things her kids tear up b/c she's not watching them. [b]~~MY OWN PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF**[/b]