Copy France and punish the parents of child criminals

LONG before I became a mother myself, I read a book that very nearly put me off parenthood. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver may be a work of fiction, but there are some very uncomfortable truths woven throughout.

The most obvious, of course, is the plot, reminding us that humans are capable of the most heinous acts. It also poses a question that society would rather not think about, and that cannot be answered with certainty – and that is how much responsibility parents have for the behaviour of their children, especially if it results in extreme violence and killing?

This perplexing nature/nurture debate is chillingly examined by Shriver with a few modern topics at its core. A mother is resentful at giving up her freedom, there’s a passive father and a child whose mental illness goes unrecognised – all leading to an unthinkable tragedy.

For those who haven’t read the book (or seen the 2011 movie adaptation), it’s based on a fictional high school massacre. But the world has seen such deadly school rampages over and over in real life. At last count there have been 304 fatal school shootings in America since the watershed moment of Columbine High in 1999, when 12th-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves.

Similarly, Kevin – the tortured son of the novel’s protagonist, Eva – goes off on a killing spree, albeit his weapon of choice is a more medieval but just as dangerous crossbow.

And tragically, life (or death) seemed to imitate art 12 years after the book was published – in fact, exactly 16 years to the day after Columbine. A 13-year-old boy armed with a machete and a makeshift crossbow went on a deadly rampage at a school in Spain, killing a substitute teacher and wounding four others.

According to Wikipedia, ‘the boy was admitted and assessed at the Sant Joan de Déu hospital, where he was diagnosed with a psychotic breakdown’. Because he was under 18, the young man was exempt from responsibility.

So where then does the responsibility lie for such gruesome and despicable violence?

The idea that an innocent baby might be born with a genetic disposition towards evil verges on unthinkable. Somehow, it’s easier to imagine that such horror is a result of their upbringing, with abuse, poverty, neglect or learned behaviour all playing a part.

And in cases like the landmark ruling in the US this week, where a mother was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for failing to stop her then 15-year-old son from carrying out a deadly school shooting in Michigan, the argument that it’s the parents’ fault makes sense.

On November 30, 2021, Ethan Crumbley, armed with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun (a gift from his parents), murdered four students and injured seven people at his school in Michigan.

He is serving life in prison and his mother, Jennifer, has also been convicted of involuntary manslaughter, with prosecutors accusing her of being negligent in allowing her son to have a gun, and ignoring warning signs.

ETHAN’S father, James, is facing a separate trial on the same charges. According to a report by the BBC, a neighbour revealed the Crumbleys would ‘frequently leave Ethan home alone when he was nine for hours while they would go into town to drink’.

The case of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey is another shocking example of children killing children.

Last week, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, were sentenced to life in prison in the UK for Brianna’s brutal murder.

Jenkinson, who was described as the ‘driving force’ behind the murder, was obsessed with serial killers, and began to explore the dark web at the tender age of 13. So she was exposed for three years to unimaginable depravity. Surely, you would think, her parents would have spotted something. But then again, being secretive is not unusual in teenagers as they develop their independence. As a parent, how do you navigate that?

Another one of the world’s most heinous crimes proves that you don’t need to have a monstrous upbringing to raise a monster. Former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby appeared to have an idyllic childhood with loving parents, and yet she became one of the most notorious child serial killers in history, murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others.

Maybe we will never truly know whether atrocity – especially when it’s inflicted by a child – happens due to genetic disposition or deficient parenting.

But in France, the consensus seems to be veering towards the latter, with plans in place to punish parents for the criminal behaviour of their children.

The proposed measures, which include fines and community service imposed on parents of delinquent children, are in response to the country’s summer race riots. It’s part of a strategy to reduce hate crime and – as Aurore Bergé, French minister of solidarity and families – revealed in an interview with La Tribune, this includes a commission aimed at helping citizens to ‘meet the challenges of parenthood’.

Far from being draconian or parent-blaming, I think this is a proactive approach to public policy, and more countries, including our own, could take a leaf out of France’s book.

The thought of raising a child who would hurt another human is thankfully an imaginary one for most of us. But for myriad reasons, not every guardian has a strong moral compass, so anything that teaches better guidance in these challenging times has to be welcomed.

The reality is that real darkness can spring from the most unlikely of places, and – tragically – it is often not confined to the pages of a best-seller.