Punishing Parents

To the perils of parenthood, four Detroit-area communities have added the risk of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. Mainly at the insistence of local police, Troy, West Bloomfield Township, Madison Heights and Pontiac have all recently enacted similar ordinances that hold parents responsible for preventing the sins of their children.

"It's a real hammer for our men," beams Police Chief Robert Richardson of Madison Heights. It's also a real headache for many parents. According to some of the new laws, if youngsters under 17 are merely accused of a juvenile offense, let alone convicted, their parents may be charged with "neglect."

No Kid Stuff. Surprisingly few parents have objected. For one thing, no one has yet been prosecuted under the ordinances. For another, the Detroit area is currently undergoing a wave of public frustration at the inability of many parents to control the activities of their offspring. "We're constantly running into kids wandering in the streets after midnight and getting into trouble and raising hell," says Joseph Brennan, the West Bloomfield Township attorney. "Their parents don't know and don't care where they are."

Until the advent of the new laws, town officials had only two ways to jolt lax parents: by applying a Michigan statute holding them civilly liable for a minor's malicious damage up to $1,500, or making their children wards of the court. Neither method worked well, partly because officials were loath to punish middle-class parents. As a result, parents tended to be tolerant about offspring misbehavior. "Their attitude was that it's kid stuff," says Chief Richardson. "Now that attitude changes when the police say 'If it happens again, you're the one in trouble because of the kid stuff.' "

Michigan's Attorney General Frank Kelley thinks that the new laws might be unconstitutional because they hold a parent criminally liable even though he may have no knowledge of his child's offenses. Nevertheless, at least two other Michigan towns are considering similar measures, and Madison Heights Mayor Monte Geralds has already received hundreds of requests for copies of his law from towns all over the country.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.