UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines

School of Criminology

LEGAL BASIS FOR PARENTAL AUTHORITIES

Parental authority Under their parental authority, parents make decisions that affect their children’s
well-being. What is parental authority, and what happens if the parents break up?

Under parental authority, parents have these rights and responsibilities toward their children:

• custody
• supervision
• physical and psychological protection
• health and safety
• education
• providing food
• caring for them

Parental authority gives parents the right to make all decisions necessary to their children’s
wellbeing. For example, parents can make these decisions:

• where the children will live

• agree to or refuse health care (there are limits to this right for children 14 or older)
• pass on their religious beliefs

Parents can also temporarily give to someone else certain parts of their parental authority, such as
custody, supervision or education. For example, this happens when a babysitter looks after the
children.

Who makes decisions about the children after the parents break up?
While they are living together, parents use their parental authority together, whether or not they
are married.

If the parents don’t live together anymore and only one of them has custody of the children, the
other parent still keeps parental authority.
• The parent who does not have custody only loses the right to custody. The parent who has
custody decides where the children will live.
• The parent who does not have custody still has all the other rights and responsibilities of
parental authority (e.g., education, providing food, decisions about health care).

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Being with the children means the parent who has custody exercises parental authority every day,
while the other parent does this from a distance. But the parent who does not have custody must
be consulted on all major decisions concerning the children.

What is a major decision? Here are a few examples:

• choice of school
• health care necessary for a child’s state of health
• some medical treatments, such as braces
• long-term activities and hobbies
As a general rule, the parent who does not have custody of the children has these rights:
• see report cards
• go to parent-teacher meetings
• receive information about the children’s medical care

When Parents Don’t Agree on Decisions about the Children

If parents don’t agree on a major decision concerning the children, then one parent can go to court
to have a judge decide, no matter who has custody.

Here a few situations where a parent can ask for a judge’s opinion:
• The parents don’t agree on a decision they have to take regarding the children.
• One parent is making all the decisions about the children without consulting the other
parent.
• One parent refuses to give the other parent important information about the children.
The judge will make a decision based on the children’s best interests.

New Partners of Parents and Decisions Concerning Children

New partners of a parent, such as boyfriends or girlfriends, do not have parental authority, even if
they are acting like a parent.

Losing Parental Authority

In rare cases, a parent can lose all or part of parental authority and the right to make decisions
concerning the children.

Only a judge can take away parental authority.

RIGHTS, RESPONSIBILITIES, DUTIES AND LIABILITIES OF PARENTS

Parents are the first to have the power to act on behalf of the child and ensure their rights are
respected. The father and mother use their rights and carry out their duties by making decisions in
place of their child. Their objectives are to protect the child and to secure the child an education,
development, security, health and morality.

Children have the right to be safe, to be treated with affection, to be educated, to have medical care
and to be protected against cruelty and abuse. Parents have the duty to protect their children’s
rights until they are old enough to make their own way in the world.

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The authority to make decisions concerning and affecting the care, welfare and proper
development of the child is known as ‘parental responsibility’.

Family law in somewhere of the universe defines the responsibilities that parents have in relation
to bringing up their children. These include:
• to protect your child from harm
• to provide your child with food, clothing and a place to live
• to financially support your child
• to provide safety, supervision and control
• to provide medical care • to provide an education.

Who has parental responsibility?

The Family Law Act states that birth parents, adoptive parents, those who become parents through
artificial conception or surrogacy and those who satisfy presumptions of parentage are the only
people to possess 'innate parental responsibility', which means they are legally authorised to
exercise parental responsibility without a court order.

Although other adults, such as step-parents, may be involved in the care and support of a child,
only these parents, or those recognised as parents by the court, have the ultimate authority for
making decisions about a child.

Your obligations continue until your child has turned 18 and don’t end with divorce or separation.
The government and the court encourage both parents to share in the exercise of their parental
responsibility for a child, even in the case of separation.

Your rights as a parent

As a parent you also have rights. The law allows parents to bring up their children according to
their own values and beliefs. Decisions such as religion, education, discipline, and medical
treatment and where the child lives will not be interfered with unless there are good reasons or the
child’s well-being is at risk - for example, if there is abuse, if the child is not receiving education
or necessary medical treatments.

Working parents have the right to child-care services and to access information on payments and
services for which they are eligible.

However, the concept of parents’ rights does not include the right to have custody or contact with
your children, for example after separation. In situations where parental responsibility may be
altered, the law requires the best interest of the child to be the paramount consideration.

II. PREVENTION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

The most effective way to prevent juvenile delinquency has indisputably been to assist children
and their families early on. Numerous state programs attempt early intervention, and federal
funding for community initiatives has allowed independent groups to tackle the problem in new

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ways. The most effective programs for juvenile delinquency prevention share the following key
components:
 EDUCATION
o Model programs have assisted families and children by providing them with
information. Some programs inform parents on how to raise healthy children; some
teach children about the effects of drugs, gangs, sex, and weapons; and others aim
to express to youth the innate worth they and all others have. All of these programs
provide youths with the awareness that their actions have consequences. This is
particularly important in an era where youth are barraged with sexual and violent
images. Educational programs have the underlying intent of encouraging hope and
opening up opportunities for young people.
 RECREATION
o One of the immediate benefits of recreational activities is that they fill unsupervised
after-school hours. The Department of Education has reported that youths are most
likely to commit crimes between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., with crime rates peaking at 3
p.m. Recreation programs allow youths to connect with other adults and children in
the community. Such positive friendships may assist children in later years. Youth
programs are designed to fit the personalities and skills of different children and
may include sports, dancing, music, rock climbing, drama, karate, bowling, art, and
other activities.
 COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
o Girl scouts, boy scouts, church youth groups, and volunteer groups all involve
youth within a community. Involvement in community groups provide youth with
an opportunity to interact in a safe social environment.
 PRENATAL AND INFANCY HOME VISITATION BY NURSES
o Nurses involved in the "Prenatal and Infancy Home Visitation by Nurses" program
pay visits to low income, single mothers between their third trimester and the
second year of their child's life. During these visits, nurses focus on the health of
the mother and child, the support relationships in the mother's life, and the
enrollment of the mother and child in Health and Human Services programs. A 15-
year follow-up study found that mothers and children involved in the program had
had a 79 percent lower child abuse rate, a 56 percent lower child runaway rate, and
a 56 percent lower child arrest rate. Maternal behavior problems also dropped
significantly in the studied group.
 PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION TRAINING PROGRAM
o The "Parent-Child Integration Training Program" takes parents and children
approximately 12 weeks to complete. It is designed to teach parenting skills to
parents of children ages two to seven who exhibit major behavioral problems. The
program places parents and children in interactive situations. A therapist guides the
parents, educating them on how best to respond to their child's behavior, whether
positive or negative. The program has been shown to reduce hyperactivity, attention
deficit, aggression, and anxious behavior in children.
 BULLYING PREVENTION PROGRAM
o The Bullying Prevention Program is put into place in elementary and junior high
school settings. An anonymous student questionnaire fills teachers and
administrators in as to who is doing the bullying, which kids are most frequently
victimized, and where bullying occurs on campus.

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 PREVENTION PROGRAMS WITHIN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM
o A youth entering the Juvenile Justice System has the opportunity to receive
intervention assistance from the state. In the care of the state, a youth may receive
drug rehabilitation assistance, counselling, and educational opportunities. The
success of the Juvenile Justice System is measured by how well it prepares youth
to re-enter the community without committing further crimes. Optimally, all
juvenile detention facilities would catch youths up on their education, provide them
with job training, give them the experience of living in a safe, stable environment,
and provide them with assistance to break harmful habits.
 ENDING REPEAT OFFENSES
o Once out of detention, youths face the challenge of readjusting to "free" life. For
many, youth detainment places a halt in a pattern of destructive behavior. Once out
of prison, the youth must create a pattern of life separate from criminal activity. To
assist in this process, courts have attempted to implement helpful social services for
former inmates and their families. Some of these are job placement; school follow-
up, extended counselling, and extended drug rehab. The Functional Family Therapy
(FFT) program assists youth on parole by helping them and their families
communicate in more effective, positive ways.
 FUNCTIONAL FAMILY THERAPY (FFT)
o The Functional Family Therapy program helps adolescents on probation - and their
families. A family therapist works with the family and helps individual family
members see how they can positively motivate change in their home. The program
works in three phases. During the first phase, the therapist attempts to break down
resistance to therapy and encourages the family to believe that negative
communication and interaction patterns can be changed. In the second phase,
family members are taught new ways to approach day-to-day situations; they are
shown how to change their behaviors and responses to situations. During the third
phase, family members are encouraged to move new relational skills into other
social situations (school, or the workplace, for instance). FFT reduces recidivism
rates and juvenile delinquency at a low cost. Twelve FFT sessions cost
approximately one-sixth the cost of detaining a youth for one month. Another
positive effect of the program is that the siblings of the youth on parole are less
likely to commit crimes because of the help their family has received.

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 INEFFECTIVE PREVENTION STRATEGIES
 SCARE TACTICS
Currently, Americans are steering away from this tactic, as it has proven rather
ineffective, but during the 1990s it was a technique that politicians and the greater
community put much confidence in. Slogans such as "get tough on crime" and
"adult time for adult crime" spoke to the common-sense core of many people who
worried about rising juvenile crime rates. The basic ideology cantered on the idea
that crime rates were high because youth were not afraid of facing juvenile
detention. General opinion held that the system had become too soft; the threat of
confinement was not deterring youth from criminal activity.

Several major shifts occurred during this time:

• Juvenile courts gave increased jurisdiction to adult, criminal courts. Courts authorized
easier transfers of juveniles into the adult criminal court and, in some states, waived their
authority over specified crimes.
• Youths were issued longer prison sentences in the adult system than they would have been
given in the juvenile justice system. Most of those sentenced, however, were not required
to serve the full length of their prison terms.
• Youths were sent to adult prisons in increased numbers. Younger offenders were sent to
adult prisons as states tightened their definition of who was a child, and more court
decisions placed youth in adult confinement.

The harsher penalties that came with the era of hard-time scare tactics were intended to lower
crime rates and to express to youth that crime would not be tolerated. These penalties, however,
did not achieve their intended effects. The approach was grounded in the idea that youth could
be managed through fear. But fear was not a forceful impetus to motivate youth toward positive
behavior. No direct correlation was witnessed between harsher sentencing and fewer first-time
arrests, and youth that had been placed in the adult system actually had a higher recidivism rate
than similar juveniles placed in juvenile detention facilities.

"JUVENILE BOOT CAMP" AND "SCARED STRAIGHT"

In the years that "get tough on crime" policies were being established, various new programs
were also attempted. One such program, Juvenile Boot Camp, received high publicity but had
little success. "At risk" youth were placed into intense, structured, severe environments that
were modelled after military boot camps. The Juvenile Boot Camps were intended to teach
youth about structure and discipline but their success rates, which were measured based on
their ability to prevent kids from committing future crimes, were low. For some youth, the
programs were actually counter-productive. Another program, "Scared Straight," brought
parole/probation youth into interactions with adult prisoners through meetings or short-term
incarcerations. The program was designed to make young offenders frightened of the violent
adult prison system. According to the Surgeon General at the time, the program was not
effective.

The Role of Family in Dealing with Juvenile Delinquency

The family has been seen to be a critical element for child development and as a determining
factor for children’s subsequent involvement in crime. The family is the key social institution
that provides the nurturing socialization of young children (Glueck, 1967). The assumed

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 relationship between delinquency and family life is critical today because the traditional
Filipino family is rapidly changing. It has become a thing of the past. Today, it seems much
more of child-rearing is delegated to nannies, baby-sitters, and day care providers. Despite
these changes, many families are able to adapt and continue functioning as healthy and caring
units. But some families crumble under the chaotic stress, severely damaging the present and
future of their children.

It is obvious that the family cannot totally control outside influences upon its members, but it
can have a significant impact on shaping the extent to which children are exposed to other
major agents of socialization. The connection seems self-evident because a child is first
socialized at home and from the beginning learns values, beliefs, and behaviors from parents
and other family members. Any disjunction in an orderly family structure could have a
significant, negative impact on a child’s life. Despite good intentions, it is simply more difficult
for one parent to provide the same degree of control, discipline, and support as two. Therefore,
a broken home can be a strong determinant of a child’s law-violating behavior.

The Role of Education in Preventing Delinquency

Since so much of children’s time is spent in school, it seems logical that some relationship
exists between delinquent behavior and what is happening, or not happening, in classrooms
throughout the country. Numerous studies have confirmed that delinquency is related to
academic achievement, and experts have concluded that many of the underlying problems of
delinquency are intimately connected with the nature and quality of children’s experiences at
school (Smithmyer, Hubbard, & Simmons, 2000).

Schools are a basic channel through which the community and adult influences enter into the
lives of adolescents. The general path towards occupational prestige is education, and when
juveniles are deprived of this avenue of success through poor academic performance, there is
a greater likelihood of deviant behavior. Students who show signs of hyperactivity and
aggression tend to deliberately disobey authority figures, and thus, are more likely to be labeled
as “bad students”, which can have a lasting impact on a student’s entire educational career.
“According to the Labelling Approach, this negative label has impact upon the juvenile’s self-
concept and very well may influence future behavior which culminates in the self-fulfilling
prophecy” (Siegel, 2000). In other words, students who are labelled early in their educational
career may engage in types of behavior which are expected to accompany those labels.

In order to make effective school related prevention programs, we must first understand what
risk factors lead to juvenile delinquency. There are many school related risk factors that can
lead to delinquency. Academic failure is often associated with the beginning of delinquency
and the escalation of serious offending, and interventions that improve a child’s academic
performance have been shown to reduce delinquency. Other school related risk factors include
“social alienation, low commitment to school, association with violent and delinquent peers
and aggressive behavior”. Factors such as truancy, untreated learning disabilities and even drug
use are school related risk factors that can lead to juvenile delinquency.

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Collaboration between the Home and Community
Partnerships are essential for helping students achieve at their maximum potential and, while
parent and community involvement has always been a cornerstone of public schools, greater
recognition and support of the importance of these collaborative efforts are needed.

Family-school-community partnerships are a shared responsibility and reciprocal process

whereby schools and other community agencies and organizations engage families in
meaningful and culturally appropriate ways, and families take initiative to actively supporting
their children’s development and learning. Schools and community organizations also make
efforts to listen to parents, support them, and ensure that they have the tools to be active
partners in their children’s school experience.

The Role of Mass Media against Delinquency

The role of Mass Media in facilitating various delinquent acts among the kids is undoubtedly
there. The forms and facets are growing day by day. Juvenile Delinquency is a serious issue
the society is facing. The traditional forms of committing crimes have surpassed and now
Internet has created a whirl of change and brought a revolution. Also socialization of Mass
Media has become a problem and this issue is something which needs to be addressed.

In some cases, education may be enough; most young people don't know the intricacies of the
law nor understand the severity of the possible consequences. For some less serious juvenile
offenders, the behaviour might change simply in the course of growing up. Teaching children
ethics and morality in general will go a long way toward alleviating problems such as cyber
bullying and cyber vandalism; they need to learn empathy and how to put themselves in the
place of the victims.

Also moral science education, parental discussions, counselling, child lock safety, are some
remedial measures. Juvenile cyber delinquency can only be explained by integrated theory of
criminology. Juvenile with strong social bonds and part of conventional peer groups are less
probable to commit cyber related offences. On the other hand, the juveniles with weak social
bonds are more probable to commit cyber delinquency because of the social isolation and
connection to delinquent peers.

We should not brand children as criminals for their relatively minor deviant behaviour. If we
do so, we will create generation where criminality will become the norm. We need widespread
educational initiatives to reduce drastically increasing juvenile crimes. It is easier to build
strong children than to repair broken men. Thus from various researches and findings a definite
correlation and impact between mass media and juvenile delinquency is established.

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