I'm delighted to be able to pass along this item by Prof. Leider, who is an expert on criminal law:
On Wednesday, an all-too-familiar tragic scene played out, when a student at a Georgia high school opened fire on his teachers and classmates. The student killed four and injured nine others with a semiautomatic rifle. He stands charged with murder. But police also promptly arrested his father and charged him with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children. Police have alleged that the father "knowingly allowed him to possess" the rifle. Although police have not released the full details of the case against the father, this case has the potential to drastically expand criminal liability against parents for the criminal acts of their children.
The law traditionally has not imposed a general duty upon parents to protect third parties against the criminal acts of their children. And for good reasons. Parents are not in a position to control their children's behavior at all times. Although parents may choose to have children, they do not choose the children that they get. Unlike the employer-employee relationship, parents cannot terminate a child who exhibits problematic behavior.
But there are some exceptions where parents may violate duties of their own. A parent can become liable when he fails to exercise control over the child and the child's wrongful act is reasonably foreseeable. Even here, however, courts (usually in the tort context—criminal cases are rare) have imposed a strict standard for what qualifies as reasonably foreseeable. To quote the Alaska Supreme Court:
A plaintiff must show more than a parent's general notice of a child's dangerous propensity. A plaintiff must also show that the parent had reason to know with some specificity of a present opportunity and need to restrain the child to prevent some imminently foreseeable harm.
