When a five-year-old child commits a crime, should the parents be punished for that? In your opinion, at what age should a child start to be responsible for what he/she did?
There seem to be more senseless/unconscious crimes done by young children that appear to lack a motive or even indulge a whim. What a thorny issue to handle for both the parents and the victim involved! Some people may argue that children are products of environment, so the family should be responsible for all delinquency of them. This is absolutely wrong.
In modern society, parents are not the only influence on children. Generally a five-year-old child is sent to attend kindergarten. Obviously the young child spends a great deal of time exposed to other influences such as the teachers, other children, other parents and television. Particularly in many contemporary families, both the parents are required to work, sometimes over time. This situation could possibly result in the little kids falling under more influence of others or media. If this is the case then too many people should be punished whenever young children commit crimes. Undoubtedly this would be too impractical to implement.
