Parental responsibility for the illicit acts of their children Nancy A White School of Psychology The University of Adelaide This Thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction to Parental Responsibility legislation .......... 14 1.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................14 1.2 Aims and Structural aspects of the thesis .............................................................15 Chapter 2: Parental Responsibility legislation in practice.................... 28 2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................28 2.2 The impact of Parental Responsibility legislation ................................................29 2.3 Historical View.....................................................................................................31 2.4 Parental Responsibility legislation in North America ..........................................32 2.4.1 Summary...............................................................................................................33 2.5 Australian Legislation...........................................................................................34 2.5.1 What is a parent?...................................................................................................35 2.5.2 Child Responsibility in legislation........................................................................36 2.5.3 The Family Law Act.............................................................................................37 2.5.4 Juvenile Justice in each Australian State and Territory........................................38 2.5.4.1 State similarities and differences .......................................................................38 2.5.4.2 New South Wales...............................................................................................39 2.5.4.3 Summary............................................................................................................40 2.6 Review of the NSW Children (Protection And Parental Responsibility) Act 1997 ......................................................................................................................41 2.6.1 Summary...............................................................................................................42 2.7 Family/youth Conferences....................................................................................43 2.7.1 Summary...............................................................................................................48 2.8 Conclusions...........................................................................................................49 Chapter 3: Psychological Aspects Relevant to an understanding of Parental Responsibility............................................................................. 50 3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................50 3.2 Social Learning Theory .........................................................................................51 3.2.1 Summary...............................................................................................................56 3.3 Nature versus Nurture...........................................................................................57 3.2.1 Nature....................................................................................................................57 3.2.2 Nurture..................................................................................................................61 3.2.3 Summary...............................................................................................................64 3.4 Attribution Theory ................................................................................................65 3.4.1 Heider....................................................................................................................66 3.4.2 Fundamental attribution error ...............................................................................68 3.4.3 Can and ought of responsibility............................................................................69 3.4.4 The family unit......................................................................................................71 3.4.5 Causal Relation.....................................................................................................73 3.4.6 Summary...............................................................................................................74 3.5 Conclusions...........................................................................................................75 Chapter 4: Representations of Parental Responsibility in the Media...................................................................................... 78 4.1 Introduction............................................................................................................78 3 4.2 The Data ................................................................................................................ 80 4.3 Frequency description of the data ......................................................................... 82 4.4 Qualitative Findings .............................................................................................. 84 4.4.1 Parental Influence.............................................................................................. 85 4.4.1.1 Deficit theme: The parent.................................................................................. 86 4.4.4.2 Deficit Theme: The parenting ........................................................................... 89 4.4.1.2 Summary ........................................................................................................... 92 4.4.2 The ‘Us versus Them’ theme ............................................................................ 92 4.4.3 Educational Benefits ......................................................................................... 97 4.4.4 The sanctioning of parents .............................................................................. 101 4.4.5 The Last Resort ............................................................................................... 103 4.4.6 Stakeholders .................................................................................................... 105 4.5 Conclusion........................................................................................................ 113 Chapter 5: Parent and child responsibility: Effects of age, type and severity of offence ........................................................ 117 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 117 5.2 The minimum age of criminal responsibility ..................................................... 119 5.2.1 Legal Considerations: Doli Incapax and the irrebuttable presumption.............. 119 5.2.2 Psychological Aspects........................................................................................ 122 5.2.3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 124 5.3 The ‘middle ages’ of criminal responsibility ..................................................... 125 5.3.1 Legal Considerations: Doli In capax and the rebuttable presumption ............... 125 5.3.2 Psychological Aspects........................................................................................ 127 5.3.3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 128 5.4 Responsibility and the Type and Severity of offence ........................................ 129 5.5 Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 130 5.6 Method ............................................................................................................... 132 5.6.1 Participants......................................................................................................... 132 5.6.2 Materials............................................................................................................. 133 5.6.2.1 Scenarios: ........................................................................................................ 133 5.6.2.2.Parental Locus of Control Scale:..................................................................... 134 5.6.3 Procedure............................................................................................................ 135 5.7 Results ................................................................................................................ 135 5.7.1 What is the effect of age on child and parent attributions?................................ 136 5.7.2 What is the effect of the severity of the offence on child and parent attributions?........................................................................................................ 137 5.7.3 What is the effect of the type of the offence on child and parent attributions? . 138 5.7.4 What is the effect of the parents’ locus of control?............................................ 138 5.7.5 Gender Effects...................................................................................................