Some People Believe That If Children Break The Law, Their Parents Should Be Punished And Not Children | Band 7 IELTS Essay Sample

Some people believe that if children break the law, their parents should be punished and not children.  Do you agree or disagree?

Here is a band 7 IELTS essay on this topic written by one of our students. Need help with IELTS writing? Get your IELTS essays, letters and reports corrected by me.

Band 7 IELTS essay sample

Some people argue that children who commit crimes can be immune to punishments, whereas their parents should receive castigation. I totally agree with them.

On the one hand, it is reasonable that these young offenders should be exempt from punishment. To be more specific, the root cause of their problem is that they do not receive sufficient moral education from their parents and consequently they cannot distinguish the right from wrong. Therefore, it is not uncommon for them to commit crimes, since before the engagement in these crimes, they do not realize that their behaviors are at odds with the law. As a minor, they do not have the ability to learn moral values by themselves, so they should not be penalized.

On the other hand, there are several lines of evidence supporting the opinion that their guardians should be penalized. After bringing a baby into this world, parents have the responsibility to mould them into law-abiding citizens. This can only be achieved by equipping minors with moral values, enabling them to know what can be done, what should not be done. However, in reality, some parents fail to fulfill this responsibility, causing their children to commit crimes. In addition, if these irresponsible adults do not receive punishment which can effectively force them to fulfill their parental responsibility, their children will continue committing crimes. Consequently, these juveniles are more likely to commit crimes in future and then they will have to be sent to a reformatory where their chances of receiving scholastic education are limited. In the end, this hurts their future prospects as they need tertiary education to secure high paying jobs. Meanwhile, repeat offending may harm innocent people and pose a threat to social security, so it is necessary to penalize these adults to avoid these problems.

In conclusion, I agree with the view that if children’s deeds are at odds with laws, their parents are at fault and hence they should be punished instead of the children.

Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.