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Published on February 7, 2008

Bangkok's Dusit District Court has broken new ground in dealing with juvenile delinquents by sentencing 140 street racers, most of them in their late teens, to one month in jail. None of the sentences handed down to the youths who were over 18 was suspended, even though many had no prior criminal records. The unruly youths were found guilty of participating in illegal motorcycle racing on public roads, disrupting traffic and endangering themselves and others in the process. They were among about 300 bikers arrested by traffic police late on Sunday night on Rama VI Road.

Among them were 108 minors ranging in age from 13 to 17, including 34 girls, who have been sent to juvenile remand homes pending trial at the Children and Family Court on the same charges. But most of the minors are expected to be released after they are made to undergo some sort of boot-camp punishment designed to improve and instil discipline.

According to police, those youths who did not actually participate in the racing were aiding the illegal racers by blocking traffic to allow their accomplices a free stretch of road. They flouted the traffic laws and disrupted public order.

In a departure from customary leniency for youthful offenders, the court's ruling reflects an apparent consensus among law enforcement and criminal justice agencies that young people who participate in daredevil motorcycle racing on public roads, either as racers or spectators, must be punished to serve as an example to others.

The youths are considered a menace to society, putting themselves and others in danger through their reckless behaviour.

Police investigators are also considering pressing charges against parents of the minors for negligence and dereliction of duty in allowing their children to take part in illegal street racing. Under the Child Protection Act, parents found guilty of negligence face up to three months in jail and/or a maximum fine of Bt30,000.

Many of these youths come from broken families in which either or both parents have failed to provide proper upbringing or to instil in them positive social values.

For far too long, irresponsible parents have been tolerated even as they neglect to carry out their parental duties and allow their children to indulge in criminal activities and in social vices including drinking, drug-taking and sexual promiscuity.

The need for law-enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system to intervene in cases where parents have utterly failed to exercise any control over their children may be debatable. After all, each family observes its own rules and subscribes to different values. Nevertheless, parents should be expected to teach their children to respect social norms and to behave in an acceptable manner.

Many may argue that it is normal for youths to sometimes misbehave, attributing anti-social tendencies to raging hormones, some emotional deprivation or other social cause. They tend to point out that, eventually, problem youths grow up to be responsible, law-abiding citizens.

But a line has to be drawn when the law has been broken by minors. Parents of young offenders must be prosecuted if they are found to have knowingly let their children dabble in illegal activities without any attempt to restrain them. Youths who are allowed to get away with petty crimes are more likely to grow up to lead a life of more serious crime.

It is worth remembering that the parents of unruly youths often grew up in dysfunctional households themselves. As a result of this - and perhaps as a consequence of a lack of emotional support - they became immature, maladjusted adults who not only failed to serve as positive role models to their own children but continued to make their own lives miserable. Many of the youths who join motorcycle racing gangs are believed to come from broken families. It is not so surprising that they want to escape from bad conditions at home and are lured into thrilling and death-defying criminal pursuits.

Society has a duty to protect the young from such domestic deprivations and to deter them from escapist adventure into social vices. In extreme cases where parents are proven to be cruelly abusive and incapable of providing a responsible upbringing, the state must take custody of the children - if only to give them a better chance in life.

The Nation