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A Little Privacy, Please: Should We Punish Parents For Teenage Sex, Susan S. Kuo

Faculty Publications

This article addresses an alarming new development in the recent trend toward blaming parents for their children's unlawful acts: an Illinois criminal statute that holds parents accountable for the consensual sexual activities of their children. Although laws creating criminal parental responsibility are not new, teenage sexuality is not part of the usual repertoire of juvenile acts that parental responsibility laws have previously sought to deter. The State of Illinois is the sole pioneer in this yet uncharted territory, breaking new ground for the parental responsibility movement and transporting parental liability to new heights.

Other states may view the Illinois statute …