Would you inform the police if your child committed a serious crime?

[partinor]

This is a hypothetical question. But just wondering what others would do if you knew or suspected your child had committed a serious crime such as rape or murder?
I would inform the police for rape or murder. Not so sure about theft though.

This thread is quite revealing and explains a lot about why society is the way society is...

I would most definitely, without doubt, tell the police if my child raped or murdered someone. The only caveat is if perhaps the murder was of someone who had been abusive to my child... only then would I waver.

Am now trying to think of something illegal yet morally right in the current day and cannot.

I just think...God forbid but what if my child were missing and someone KNEW who had done it but wouldn't tell because it was a loved one? The pain of not knowing...ugh. No. I never could just keep silent.

I don't have kids so maybe I don't know yet, but I think so. I would DP or DSis. He said he'd help me cover it up... I said I'd send him some nice letters in prison (if it was rape I wouldn't though).

Rape 100% turn them in. Murder would depend on the reason why.

OK, some examples of 'illegal' but 'right' (at least according to some people) for the unimaginative...
Your child helps a friend and her DC go into hiding after the courts have awarded custody of the DC to the very abusive, manipulative father who can afford the best lawyers...
Your child is involved in burning down a building where animals are tortured for commercial reasons.
You live in occupied territory and your child is involved in violent direct action against the occupying forces.
Your child takes the law into his/her own hands to deal with a predator who is being protected by the authorities because the predator is wealthy/powerful/well-connected.

None of this is any more silly/preposterous than speculating about what you would do if your actual child, who you know is a gentle, ethical soul, suddenly upped and maimed someone for no reason.

Yeah, it is a lot more preposterous. Not least because some posters are saying on no account would they turn in their child. So for them the child’s character doesn’t come into it.

Some of these comments are why bullies are rife in schools.

Teacher - I've called you in because your DC has been bullying a child over several months

Parent (like Rosemary) - No! My DC would never do that! I don't and won't ever believe it! I will defend my DC to the ends of the Earth.

Teacher - We will do what we need to in school to make sure it doesn't happen again. The child your DC is bullying is refusing to come to school because your DC is making his/her life a living hell and we count on you to work with us.

Parent (like Rosemary) - No. My DC is perfect. I don't want any part in this nonsense. How dare you accuse my child of bullying!

Child - I can do whatever I want. My mother will always defend me.

And he does... In the full knowledge that whatever he does his mother will have a plaster for his every sore.

My DS was bullied, mercilessly, in High School. Parents like Rosemary make me sick!

There are women severely abused murdered their highly abusive OH, or ex, and serving sentence for it, or so destroyed will spend their days in secure units; this is something I would count as an exception to my previous response. Shouldn't be a murder charge anyway.

There is a current case being reviewed under new coercive control laws, plus the D's is older and makes an excellent witness to the offences by his criminal father.

Some of the replies on this thread seriously worry me. A crime has been committed - no matter what it is - and some of you are willing to join in a criminal conspiracy (because that's what it would be) to help the criminal escape justice simply because they are your child!

So much for civic duty. What Ancient Roman mothers would have made of such an attitude, I don't like to think.

Frankly, those of you who wouldn't inform the police are dangerous.

*sooo complicit

Really? That slander about the mccanns is allowed?

FinnegansWhiskers
maybe you could stop make posters said what they haven't because you haven't read properly, or you find it hard to understand, that would be helpful. You would also feel less sick by not talking nonsense.

No one has talked about children being unfairly accused, or denying their guilt, that is not the subject of the thread.
The point was not denying that a crime has been committed, the issue is to call the police on your child if you know about the crime. Can you try to understand the difference, it's a hard one I admit.

Some posters have made very good points, of dealing with something that is illegal, but they don't consider morally wrong. Once again, they are not denying that the crime has been committed, they are questioning what they would do in that case.

Again, the question of the moral compass, would it make a difference when the sentences are different? Jail vs death penalty, jail vs losing a hand?

if you dealt with bullying by completely misreading the situation and making things up as you went along, no wonder you didn't help your poor child. It's not fair on them.

Finnegans...the parent friend of my Ds aged 11 stopped me at the school gates 8 years ago to say his ds had been 'harrassed' or bullied ( similar, sometimes different circumstances call for different definition) by my Ds.I was shocked and extremely upset. But I addressed it with him that night. He admitted he'd tossed round said boy's water bottle, that's all I knew. I said this was incontrovertibly unacceptable. We talked for a while and I insisted we go to boy's house with parent to apologise. I helped him compose an apology he and I felt suitable.
I could no longer have imagined my gentle Ds doing that than going to the moon....but...we all have to be open about what potential poor behaviour can be played out and then be tolerated in the name of love and therefore blindness, we and our children.
As it was, it was fine, horribly uncomfortable, as parents are friends of ours ( and still are, which is a testament to their forgiveness); he had to do full apology in sincerity...
It taught him a sharp lesson and me a lesson too, that unacceptable behaviour, whether it be bullying, rape or murder ( though I have read the caveats on that in this thread) needs to be addressed, whatever the outcome may be.
How can we teach our children moral integrity, responsibility and simple coping mechanisms for life if we do not, as parents endow those values and lie to protect?. We are failing our children and failing society if we do. Shame on us.

Purpleboy
you do realise how offensive the word Moron is? Before trying to give moral lessons to others, maybe take a good hard look at yourself. You are clearly not in a position to judge others at the moment.

I don’t know what I’d do .

Are you in trouble Tiger?

I find some of these responses very weird, many people are saying they want to turn in their child rather than my version where I would persuade the child to confess and take them in with a good lawyer. Your kid isn't getting better if you just turn them in, people only learn responsibility if they take steps to fix or apologise for whatever they've done; if you turn them in then your kid is only learning that you aren't on their team any more. I will always be on my son's team, my first duty is to him in helping him resolve any situation he gets into.

MRex I'm sure most parents would set out to make their adult murderer/Rapist/Child abuser own up to what they have done and turn themselves in.

If they refused to turn themselves in most parents would do it for them. There can't be many who would ignore what they've done and defend them to the hilt, "Because S/he's mine and I love him/her". That's pathetic!