yes, most of the parents on this site are responsible (or they wouldn't be on this site) but there are so many parents that AREN'T.
I could tell you a lot of stories from my doing Citizens on Patrol, etc. - but I'll just detail one that was in the news here recently. A 14 year old was killed (shot) when he attemped to steal a car at 6am on a Monday morning. He had already been in front of juvenile court 14 times, he had been in several foster homes, he was on house arrest at the time of his death. His mother stated he went to go see his friend in a football game on Friday night, and she expected him home "before school".
While it's horrible the young person died (by the way, the man who shot him will not be prosecuted - he was found to be defending his life because the kid was trying to run him down with the car) but surely the parent must have SOME responsibility in this case. The kid was on house arrest and she "allowed" him to leave - she saw nothing wrong with it. She saw nothing wrong with having him running around town for 3 days as long as he was home "before" school started. She's also attempting to sue the man who shot her son in civil court.
I'm sure in the cases where these fines are imposed, if one could show attempts that the parent HAS asked for help, etc. the judge will have the option of not imposing them. Unless your state has manditory sentencing (ours doesn't).