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Truancy and the Prosecution of Parents: An Unfair Burden on Mothers?
Author(s) -
Donoghue Jane
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the modern law review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1468-2230
pISSN - 0026-7961
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2230.2011.00844.x
Subject(s) - truancy , context (archaeology) , legislation , punishment (psychology) , criminology , political science , power (physics) , scope (computer science) , law , sociology , psychology , social psychology , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , biology , programming language
This article considers the development and use of the law regulating the prosecution of parents under section 444 of the Education Act 1996, in the broader context of legislation and policy initiatives concerned with the governance of parental responsibility. It explores the ways in which the power to prosecute parents has been used by local educational authorities (LEAs) and interpreted by the courts. The article critically analyses the manner in which the powers emphasise punishment and retribution in the context of the social moralisation of ‘flawed’ parents; pay insufficient regard to the effects of parental responsibility laws on low‐income, single parent families; represent an attempt to impose a simple solution on to a complex socio‐economic problem; and amplify the scope for mothers to be made the subject of criminal justice interventions. It is argued that the prosecution of parents imposes an unfair burden on mothers and, in particular, single parent mothers.