Dr. Eve Brank, CCFL Director and Aaron Douglas Professor of psychology, was a guest on WBUR’s “On Point” program on April 1, where the topic was whether holding parents criminally responsible for their children’s actions could curb gun violence in the United States. She outlined the history of parental liability and involvement laws in the country and suggested that some people favor help over punishment to prevent terrible things from happening. “I think that that could be one argument or one proposal would be to really just focus on prevention and services and help rather than on the punishment side.” The program was picked up by several other radio stations.
Brank was also interviewed for an April 9 Al Jazeera article on the topic. Brank said there is a “very large gap” between the punishments for parents in past cases and the Crumbley case. She also cautioned that there has not been research conducted to determine if punishing parents will serve as a deterrent for others. “I think [this case] still begs the question whether this will give us the result we want,” she said. “So I still would advocate for more empirical research on the topic.” Read more...
