Replies

>>While you're right about the consequences of illegitimacy, you have no actual knowledge about any of these offenders.<<

True, which led to my usage of the phrase "it's a safe bet". Inner city black illegitimacy is approximately 90%, so statistically, my assumption has a 10% chance of being incorrect. If not a "safe bet", it's certainly a "good bet".

>>Your assumptions give rise to the kind of stereotyping that plagues Republican efforts to cement their majority.<<

The facts that are known are:
1. Inner city high school
2. Mostly black student body

combined with
3. out-of-wedlock males are significantly more likely to commit violent crime

Making the leap that the perps are black and fatherless is hardly a stereotype, it's more like connecting dots.

Also, the gargantuan effort of the media to avoid any mention of race (for fear of being called racist) is a virtual guarantee that the perps are black.

While I agree whole-heartedly that the culture has indeed changed, the effects of fatherlessness are not in question.

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:bYtgxQTmw_MJ:www.familyfirst.org/capitolwatch/0899.shtml+wedlock+crime+poverty&hl=en

The Importance of Marriage

If someone told you that they had a remedy for poverty, out-of-wedlock births, crime and a host of other social ills, how would you respond? Even a cynic would at least want to hear what this person had to say. The truth is that the remedy is not really such a mystery; a growing body of social-scientific evidence demonstrates that the root cause of poverty, crime, and many of the problems attendant thereto are linked undeniably to the presence or absence of marriage.

Children in families disrupted by divorce and out-of-wedlock birth do worse than children in intact families on several measures of well-being. Broken families earn less and experience lower levels of educational achievement. There is a direct statistical link between single parenthood and virtually every major type of crime. And while the public is generally aware of the correlation between these problems and the breakdown of the family unit, most are probably unaware of the breadth of the supporting evidence.

The following is a brief overview of the research demonstrating the links between broken families and poverty, crime and children's well-being:

Poverty

Fatherless children are six times more likely to live in poverty than children living with both parents. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health, Washington D.C., 1997).

Almost half of American families experience poverty following a divorce. (Julia Heath, Determinants of Spells of Poverty Following Divorce," Review of Social Economy, Vol. 49 (1992), pp. 305-315).

Seventy-five percent of all women who apply for welfare benefits do so because of a disrupted marriage or a disrupted relationship in which they live with a male outside of marriage. (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Factors Affecting the Labor Force Participation of Lone Mothers in the United States, prepared by the Panel on Evaluation Factors Affecting the Labor Force Participation of Lone Mothers, Paris, 1989).

The vast majority of children who live with a single parent are in households in the bottom 20 percent of earnings. Specifically, about 74 percent of families with children in the lowest income quarter are headed by single parents. Conversely, 95 percent of families with children in the highest quarter of income are headed by married parents. (Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, 1997).

Over 12.5 million children in 1994 lived in single-parent families that earned less than $15,000 per year. Only 3 million such children lived with families that had annual incomes greater than $30,000. (Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, 1994).

Crime

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 70 percent of all juveniles in long-term correctional facilities did not live with their father growing up. In fact, a case study in Wisconsin revealed that nearly 88 percent of juvenile delinquents in state custody came from broken homes.

A 1996 survey relating to the family background of jail inmates revealed that 60.3 percent grew up in broken homes. Furthermore, 46 percent indicated that a family member had been incarcerated. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, "Profile of Jail Inmates 1996," 1998).

There is a strong correlation with the number of single parent families and the crime rate in cities with a population of over 100,000. (From the Journal of Legal Studies).

According to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, young men who grow up in homes without fathers are twice as likely to end up in jail as those who come from traditional two-parent families.

Children's Well-Being

According to a study published in Psychological Reports, children of broken families experience significantly lower self-esteem and poorer self-concepts than children of intact families. The former also report more depression.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that children of never-married mothers are more than twice as likely to have been treated for an emotional or behavioral problem.

Children whose parents separate are significantly more likely to experience conduct and mood disorders, engage in early sexual activity and abuse drugs. This effect is especially strong for children whose parents separated when they were five years old or younger. (David M. Ferguson, John Horwood, and Michael T. Lynsky, "Parental Separation, Adolescent Psychopathology, and Problem Behaviors," Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 33, 1994).
Nebraska is not exempt from these problems. During the 1990's, Nebraska has averaged 6,351 divorces per year. Since 1980, the percentage of out-of-wedlock births has increased every year, except for a slight dip in 1995. In 1998, over 26 percent of births were to out-of-wedlock mothers. Statistics reveal that the average income of Nebraska women heading their families is $14,000.

As healthy, intact families are replaced by living situations that lead to crime, abuse and a myriad of other problems, the burden on society will also become greater, and society itself will be less equipped to cope with it. Unfortunately, anti-family government policies have played a role in creating the current problem. Examples of such policies include the proliferation of no-fault divorce laws; welfare policies which provide disincentives for marriage; and family discriminatory tax policies (i.e. the marriage penalty, federal estate taxes, the earned income tax credit).

However, federal, state and local governments can play important roles in rebuilding the family to ensure that children escape the inherent problems associated with the disruption of marriage and out-of-wedlock births. One of the most effective things the State can do is adopt general policies and positions favoring marriage and the stability of two-parent homes. For instance, the State could encourage a public service ad campaign espousing the benefits of marriage. Given the high social costs associated with divorce and out-of-wedlock births, dollars expended on such a campaign would be money well-spent.

Other possible actions could include changes in no-fault divorce laws, better enforcement of child support laws, and revamping school curricula to ensure that the benefits of marriage and costs of divorce are fairly covered. In the private sector, businesses should be encouraged to become "pro-parenting" by doing such things as allowing flex time so that at least one parent can be home when the kids arrive after school. Churches and communities can also play vital roles by providing more parent surrogates for the parentless. Where parents are missing or unwilling to uphold their responsibilities, mentoring programs should be supported. Research has also shown that church involvement drastically reduces the likelihood of children from broken homes falling into the dangerous behaviors that beset many of their peers. Churches can further help by instituting pre-marital counseling and taking a strong stand against divorce and infidelity. It will take an integrated approach such as this to reverse the devastating effects of a culture that has devalued marriage.