4 - Reorienting Parent–Child Relations

Summary

Chapter 4 provides an overview of how early Republican (1912-28) and Nationalist (1928-49) criminal and civil codes changed the focus of parent–child relations. Republican criminal law maintained some parental privileges in an attenuated manner where children’s physical offense against parents was concerned. At the same time, the Republican court and law enforcement reprimanded and punished abusive or irresponsible parents, and occasionally took away minor children from parents who were deemed disqualified based on neighbors' reports. Republican law also removed the label of filial rebellion from children’s accusation of parents, supporting children’s defense of their interests in defiance of parents. The Republican state’s exercise of parens patriae over minors and its endorsement of adult children’s challenge of parental authority indicate a new understanding of children primarily as rights-bearing citizens whose defining relationship was with the state, not with parents.