By Dr. Tom Snyder, Editor
According to statistics from multiple government sources and multiple studies, fatherless homes may be America’s biggest problem.
According to President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Larry Elder, author of DEAR FATHER, DEAR SON and producer of the documentaries UNCLE TOM and UNCLE TOM II, a child raised without a father is five times more likely to commit crime and be poor, nine time smore likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up in jail or prison.
Also, the U.S. Dept. of Health and the U.S Census Bureau say 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, and the U.S. Dept. of Justice says 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.
Researchers of Columbia University found that 30% of teenagers in single mother households are more likely to smoke, drink or use drugs. The National Principals Association found that 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
According to the Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org) and Marripedia (http://marripedia.org), almost 25 million children have absentee fathers, and families with absentee fathers are “the single most important cause of poverty” and crime.*
Conversely, children in intact families “are the least likely to commit delinquent acts.”
This problem is not new. In their book, FAMILY LIFE AND DELINQUENCY AND CRIME, Kevin and Karen Wright report that the New York State legislature was made aware of this problem way back in 1829 and 1830!
Dr. Patrick F. Fagan of the Heritage Foundation writes:
- Over the past 30 years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers.
- High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers.
- State-by-state analysis by Heritage scholars indicates that a 10% increase in the percentage of children living in single-parent homes leads typically to a 17% increase in juvenile crime.
- The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers.
- The type of aggression and hostility demonstrated by a future criminal often is foreshadowed in unusual aggressiveness as early as age five or six.
- The future criminal tends to be an individual rejected by other children as early as the first grade who proceeds to form his own group of friends, often the future delinquent gang.
On the other hand:
- Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods.
- Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90% of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast, only 10% of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime.
- Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married.
- The mother’s strong affectionate attachment to her child is the child’s best buffer against a life of crime.
- The father’s authority and involvement in raising his children are also a great buffer against a life of crime.
Marripedia notes, children in fatherless homes “are more likely to be abused, have emotional problems, engage in questionable behavior, struggle academically, and become delinquent.”
Marripedia cited numerous sources for its conclusions, dating from 1959 through 2015. See also http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1995/03/bg1026nbsp-the-real-root-causes-of-violent-crime and http://marripedia.org/effects_of_fatherless_families_on_crime_rates.
Elder says the breakdown of the family, especially the increase in fatherless families, is the Number One problem in America, not racism, discrimination, inequality, or bad cops.
“You’re far more likely to end up in jail without having a dad, than you are because of a white racist cop,” Elder said.
Also, according to USA Today and the Washington Post, only 23 unarmed blacks in the United States were killed in 2018 and only 12 in 2019. Yet, according to the Statista Research Dept., 7,484 blacks were murdered in 2019.
“The idea that a racist white cop shooting unarmed black people is a peril to black people is BS,” Elder said. “It’s complete and total BS. Half the homicides in this country are committed by and against black people.”
Nearly three-quarters of black children in America, 72%, are born out of wedlock, with 64% of black children living in single-parent homes compared to only 24% of Non-Hispanic white children.