\n<\/p>\n
Parents whose children commit crimes could lose their benefits, face fines and even be jailed, a minister has said.<\/p>\n
Jake Richards said the youth justice system \u201cshould hold parents to account in a proportionate way for ensuring that they play their role in keeping communities safe\u201d.<\/p>\n
His comments come after the government set out plans to strengthen and expand parenting orders, which can force parents or guardians to address their child\u2019s behaviour by attending counselling sessions, which can even include residential courses, or face a fine of up to \u00a31,000.<\/p>\n
Richards, the youth justice minster, said parents would only face jail \u201cin the most extreme cases\u201d and sentences would be at judges\u2019 discretion. He described the proposed changes in England and Wales as part of a \u201ccarrot-and-stick\u201d approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cParenting orders are going to make sure that parents are more involved in the process by which we try to turn around young offenders,\u201d he told the Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, that will have some stick. It could be custodial, or docking benefits \u2013 ultimately it will be up to a judge. But we want them to be more involved and that comes with responsibilities as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many experts in the criminal justice system have criticised the proposals and say the orders are not effective and penalise the poor.<\/p>\n
Nikki Rutter, an assistant professor in the department of sociology at Durham University, who specialises in child behaviour, told the BBC in July: \u201cWe have a huge amount of evidence that parenting orders aren\u2019t effective. It\u2019s why we\u2019re seeing the decrease in them. The police know these are not effective measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said increasing fines would have a detrimental effect on communities. \u201cPoverty is inextricably linked to a lot of criminal activity. The more you\u2019re fining parents, the less money they\u2019ve got. The less money the family have, we\u2019re seeing a further dive into poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The then justice secretary, David Lammy, said in May that strengthening parenting orders would mean \u201cthere are real consequences for parents and carers who wilfully fail to support efforts to address their children\u2019s behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
He told BBC Breakfast at the time that if a parent was struggling, then the \u201cjudge can intervene to make sure that the young person is getting the support that they need and the parent is doing the best that they can\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also said he expected the power to jail parents to be used \u201cvery, very rarely\u201d.<\/p>\n
Courts are required to consider issuing a parenting order where a child under 16 has been convicted of an offence. They can also consider an order for 16- and 17-year-olds if they believe this would help prevent further offences.<\/p>\n
The term of the order must not exceed 12 months and breach of a parenting order is a criminal offence with a maximum \u00a31,000 fine, according to the sentencing council.<\/p>\n
Government statistics show the use of parenting orders has declined in recent years, from more than 1,000 orders in 2009\/10 to just 33 in 2022\/23.<\/p>\n
According to a report in the Youth Justice Journal, there is limited research on the impact and effectiveness of parent orders despite the widespread availability of the order since it introduction by New Labour in 1998. The report went on to argue that a parent\u2019s engagement in support should remain voluntary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parents whose children commit crimes could lose their benefits, face fines and even be jailed, a minister has said. Jake Richards said the youth justice system \u201cshould hold parents to account in a proportionate way for ensuring that they play their role in keeping communities safe\u201d. His comments come after the government set out plans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[18301,7411,311,2861,2695,2282,1354,630,123,3904],"class_list":{"0":"post-52303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-childs","9":"tag-crimes","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fined","12":"tag-jailed","13":"tag-justice","14":"tag-minister","15":"tag-parents","16":"tag-wales","17":"tag-youth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}