Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the
main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as
far as possible.
Holding
Parents Responsible—An Unfair Punishment
The rise in teen crime suggests that some parents are
failing at their parental tasks. To correct the problem, lawmakers in some
states require parents to serve jail time. They hope that this punishment will
motivate parents to take their responsibilities seriously.
Despite public support for parental responsibility laws,
many people think that the laws are unfair. They suggest that parents should
not be punished for the criminal acts of their children, unless it can be shown
there is a related fault on the parents' part. For example, if young teenagers
are arrested for drinking alcohol supplied by parents, then parents should be
held responsible because they helped the teenagers break the law. People who
oppose parental responsibility laws also believe that punishing parents is
unlikely to create a change in the kids' behavior. These people argue that
parents may not be at fault. The children of good parents can fall in with the
wrong kids and get into trouble, they say. Worse yet, if mom is in jail, there
may be no one at all to control her kid. That lack of control may then lead to
more crime.
The unfortunate fact is that jailing a mom or dad punishes
the rest of the family. The jailed parent cannot work to help feed the family
or pay the rent. A parent who is sent to jail for the crimes of a teenager may
also be fired from a job for missing too much work. Furthermore, little evidence
exists to support the idea that the threat of punishment improves a parents'
ability to control a teenager. The problem is that some teens cannot be
controlled by their parents, even if the parents try hard to control them.
These struggling parents are not ignoring their parental responsibilities.
Opponents of parental responsibility laws say that parents who are in this
situation need help, not a jail sentence.
