Because they aren't afraid to speak the truth!

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'Indulgent' parents linked to youth crime

By Marnie O'Neill
September 17, 2006


INDULGENT parents have been linked to shocking statistics showing one in 10 people born in New South Wales in 1984 were convicted criminals by the age of 21.

In the first study of its kind in Australia, the NSW Bureau of Crime Research and Statistics found some Generation Y delinquents had appeared in court 10 times.

The bureau obtained the birth records of all 81,784 people born in NSW in 1984 and matched them with court-appearance records.

They found almost 10 per cent, mostly males, had appeared in court before they turned 21, and nearly all had been convicted of at least one offence.

Only one in 200 received a prison term, however.

Adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said parents were in danger of creating generations of brats with a criminal bent.

"My view is that this is partly a result of indulgent parenting - the Dr Spock view that we have to preserve self-esteem first and go easy on discipline and structure," he said.

"Many of these kids have been brought up in a culture of entitlement, devoid of limits and boundaries, and we shouldn't be surprised by the result."

US pediatrician Dr Benjamin Spock was dubbed "the father of permissiveness" after writing the best-selling Baby And Child Care, published in 1946. Until the mid-1970s, his book was regarded as a bible for new parents.

Dr Spock believed children should be raised with love and respect rather than harsh discipline.

"What we now know about teenage brains is that they can't self-regulate - they need structure and consequential learning," Dr Carr-Gregg said.

"By that, I mean there are clear consequences if you step over the line."

About 30 per cent of the convictions studied were for traffic offences, particularly drink-driving. Other main categories were theft and acts intended to cause injury.

Bureau director Dr Don Weatherburn said most of those surveyed had appeared in court only once.

But more than 10 per cent were chronic re-offenders, appearing in court between five and 10 times, he said.

"NSW really doesn't have any effective programs aimed at reducing recidivism.

"Sixty per cent of prisoners reoffend; that should send a strong message that we aren't channelling our resources into the right areas."

Dr Weatherburn said youths who had offended only once had likely done so out of rebellion or because they felt invincible, as many teenagers did.

"The re-offenders have probably been subjected to child abuse, drug dependency or extreme poverty."

My two kids were born in 1973 and 1975. Both turned out fine (one is senior bank vp and the other is marketing manager for Rodale Press). I read and admit to relying on Dr. Spock's book, as updated in the early 70's. At the time, I didn't think that he was advocating permissiveness in the sense that you let the kid do anything he wants and never discipline him. To me, he was telling parents that it was OK to pickup and cuddle your baby when it cried (try reading some of the parental advice books of the 30s and 40s!), and that a parent did not have to beat or strike a child in order to discipline him. There are other ways to do the job. Now, I think most parents have, at one time or another, slapped or spanked a child when exasperated beyond words because the kid either did something very dangerous scaring the parent or because nothing else has worked. Not good, but a long way from the old strap beating method common in the old days. Given that, I must admit that many of my generation did manage to raise a bunch of self-indulgent kids, alot of whom seem to feel the world owes them something. Those children are now raising their own children--just wait!

Janette Ansolabehere

Some have seen Spock as the leader in the move toward more permissive parenting in general, and have blamed him for what they saw as the negative results. Norman Vincent Peale claimed in the late 1960's that "the U.S. was paying the price of two generations that followed the Dr. Spock baby plan of instant gratification of needs."[1] Vice President Spiro Agnew denounced him as the "father of permissiveness," claiming that Dr. Spock's child rearing principles encouraged lawlessness among young people in the 1960s. Spock's supporters believed that these criticisms betrayed an ignorance of what Spock had actually written, and/or a political bias against Spock's left-wing political activities. Spock himself, in his autobiography, pointed out that he had never advocated permissiveness; also, that the attacks and claims that he had ruined American youth only arose after his public opposition to the Vietnam war. He regarded these claims as ad hominem attacks, whose political motivation and nature was clear.