Children's charity head Sheelagh Cooper says prosecuting parents for the crimes of their children — as floated by Public Safety Minster David Burch last week — would only make matters worse.

But she agreed parents should take more responsibility for what their offspring got up to.

Last week Sen. Burch said he was pushing for law reform, explaining: "If a child is charged with a crime it is my view that the parent should be standing in the dock charged with them and that is what we are exploring."

A parental responsibility act is on the books in several Canadian states including Ontario which makes parents liable for compensation if their child steals or damages property.

To avoid liability the parent must prove they were exercising reasonable supervision of the child and made reasonable efforts to stop such behaviour.

Asked about Sen. Burch's stance, Coalition for the Protection of Children executive director Mrs. Cooper said: "It makes far more sense to explore the various restorative justice models that have been employed far more successfully than the punitive approach.

"I don't think there is any question that parents of juvenile offenders should be held accountable — but the form that the accountability takes will determine whether the intervention is successful."

She voiced support for a family-based therapeutic programme to bring about more positive parenting.

She added: "A closer look at many of the young people who are involved in juvenile crime will illustrate the complexity of the problems faced by the families.

"And it will be very evident to even the most casual observer that hauling parents before the court and extracting punishment as a consequence will only make a bad situation worse.

"The fact is that many if not most of the young people that catch the attention of the court system are drug involved if not already drug addicted."

She said unless Bermuda got serious about drug treatment for adolescents and teenagers, the Island would continue to see effects of this out-of-control behaviour.

"How is it that we can, on the one hand, champion the use of drug treatment for drug addicted adult offenders through the drug court while treating their younger juvenile counterparts with a heavy hand and punishment-based approach?"

Sen. Burch's plan was labelled "nonsense" by Shadow Attorney General Mark Pettingill who instead called for a curfew to ensure teenagers weren't out causing mischief at all hours of the night.

And the story also sparked a lot of response from The Royal Gazette readers.

One 51-year-old parent with a teenage daughter, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I think both Burch and Pettingill are headed in the right direction.

"Bermuda needs some discipline and not only for children. Some will say Burch goes a bit to far, but his idea is spot on.

"Hopefully between both parties and others we can all come up with some legislation which can actually reduce the ignorant behaviour we have right now masquerading as parental supervision."

However, reader Dee Charles who has two children aged 31 and 17, wrote: "Mark Pettingill is right. No child should be on the street at 11 p.m. Other countries have curfews and so should we. Locking up the parents is a stupid, stupid thing to say.

"Some of these parents are frightened of their children. Some of them are single mothers with more than one child.

"Some children are being brought to by grandparents and relatives, do we lock them up too? If we locked them up who is going to look after their other children?

"And where are we going to lock them up? We would have to build more prisons. Once again Sen. Burch does not think before he speaks."

The Family Centre executive director Martha Dismont, whose group works with families with children with behavioural problems, said: "We believe parents should be held responsible for their child's behaviour.

"And we also believe the community needs to invest more in helping parents to be preventive on the 'front end' of raising children, as well as to help parents to figure out where they are going wrong."

But Ms Dismont added that you cannot legislate supportive, nurturing and consistent parenting.

"However, parents have a responsibility to take the time to ensure their children become constructive, contributing members of society.

"It affects the entire community when parents do not take the time to invest in their child's upbringing. However, we know many parents are struggling to have the time to parent well.

"Therefore the community — businesses, Government, agencies all have a role in supporting parents to be better parents."