Parenting on trial: state wards’ and governments’ accountability in australia
✍ Scribed by Judith Bessant; Richard Hil
- Book ID
- 104269725
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 61 KB
- Volume
- 26
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0047-2352
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In the past few years, growing attention has been given by the state to the role of parents and guardians in preventing juvenile crime. The emergence of legislation enabling courts to penalize parents for neglect or default in respect of their children's offending behaviors contrasts with provisions that exempt the state from the same liability when children in care offend. This article maintains that, despite the arguments mounted in defense of such exemptions and the presence of bodies to adjudicate on such matters, the provisions demonstrate "differential justice" in terms of the way the parental responsibilities are defined and apportioned by state agencies. Further, of the children in care, it is state wards who both commit disproportionate numbers of offenses and who experience the most personal trauma while under the supervision of the state, making it all the more important for the state to be accountable as civil parents.