Americans have long tried to hold parents responsible for their children’s misdeeds. Coloradans passed the first “punish the parents” law in 1903, reasoning that parents had an obligation to keep their children out of trouble. “What could be simpler than to make this moral duty of parents a legal responsibility, punishable by fine or imprisonment?” asked Colorado juvenile court judge Ben Lindsey in 1906.
When anxieties about juvenile delinquency spiked in the late 1940s and 1950s, support for parental responsibility laws really took off. At PTA meetings, juvenile court proceedings, and congressional hearings, experts testified that “there are no delinquent children, only delinquent parents.” Police officers campaigned for parental responsibility laws, even pressing cities to establish Delinquent Parent Courts. In 1956, no less than FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover promised in Newsweek that such laws would meaningfully reduce juvenile crime. Policymakers took note.
Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, communities across the nation routinely passed laws punishing parents for their children’s misdeeds. Penalties varied as widely as the crimes, from $25 fines to years in prison. The laws themselves could be shockingly broad: one 1948 Louisiana statute penalized parents for enticing, aiding, or permitting a minor to perform an “immoral act.”
These laws provoked debate almost immediately. In 1947, after weeks of sleeping outdoors, 14-year-old Frankie Rivera stole a gun and shot three passersby. A judge sentenced his obviously troubled mother to prison for a year for failing in the “sacred privilege of being a mother” and “developing in him a pattern of delinquent behavior.”
A firestorm of controversy followed. The Welfare Council of New York City and the Salvation Army denounced the sentence as disproportionate to the crime. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children called the case “outrageous” and arranged for an appeal. Meanwhile, judges and cops cheered. “I hope the police will arrest more such parents,” declared Domestic Relations Court chief John Warren. Police Commissioner Arthur W. Wallander described the case as a “ray of hope” and predicted “a salutary effect on parents and guardians.”
Debates surrounding “punish the parents” laws spread beyond the Rivera incident. A 1957 survey asked Chicago adults from a wide range of income and education levels whether parents should be liable for their children’s crimes. Nine out of 10 maintained that parents should be held at least partially responsible. Support for parental punishment laws crisscrossed racial and geographic lines, too.