SHOULD PARENTS OF DELINQUENT CHILDREN be punished? This question keeps resurfacing in the French political debate. The French have long been overwhelmingly in favour of this idea. In response to this persistent social demand, which could therefore be electorally profitable, we regularly hear one politician or another proposing some form of sanction against the parents of delinquent or “problem” juveniles.
Last summer, following the huge urban riots that shook France for three weeks and in which mainly minors were involved, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, said: “At the first offence, we should be able to punish families financially and easily.” A little later, in the autumn, Aurore Berger, the Minister for Solidarity and Families, put forward the idea of punishing defaulting parents with community service. And very recently, at the beginning of May, Guillaume Kasbarian, the Minister for Housing, declared that he was in favour of evicting delinquent families from their social housing.
Legally, punishing the parents of juvenile delinquents should not be difficult, as
