59. Juvenile delinquency is clearly a serious social problem. Whether businesses must become more involved in helping to prevent the problem depends, however, on the specific business--whether it is culpable in creating the problem and whether its owners collective conscience calls for such involvement. Although parents and schools have the most direct influence on children, businesses nonetheless exert a strong, and often negative, influence on juveniles by way of their advertisements and of the goods they choose to produce. For example, cigarette advertisements aimed at young people, music and clothing that legitimize gang sub- culture, and toys depicting violence, all sanction juvenile delinquency. In such cases perhaps the business should be obligated to mitigate its own harmful actions―for example, by sponsoring community youth organizations or by producing public-interest ads. In other cases, however, imposing on a business a duty to help solve juvenile delinquency or any other social problem seems impractical and unfair. Some would argue that because business success depends on community support, businesses have an ethical duty to give back to the community―by donating money, facilities, or services |