Increased youth crime rate is caused largely by absent fathers. We have seen two groups of working age adults emerging. One group will have received psychological, social, economic, educational and moral benefits. The other group will have been denied them all. The first group will have grown up with a father present in the house. The second group will have not had a father present.
In order to be divorced in the past, one mate had to be proven adulterous. Legally, one party was deemed guilty and one was innocent. That finding affected each party financially and socially enough so that most couples tried hard not to divorce.
In the late sixties, the "sexual revolution" began and couples rebelled against the constraints of marriage. The addition of more grounds for divorce and the elimination of the need to appear in court made it easier for couples to split.
Now there are "no fault" divorces which further decrease the stigma. By late 80s one out of two couples divorced. The divorce picture is not all rosy. Divorced uneducated women get by with less or no income.
For their children, this translates into less money for school activities, clothes, opportunities for traveling and learning, day care and sometimes food. Children can be called on to do adult tasks before they are ready, like caring for younger siblings. Older children may be required to work long hours at a job to help bring money to the family.
As a result, they may fall behind in their school work. After a while, the child may feel it is hopeless to try to keep up and decide to quit school. At this point a girl may decide to get pregnant and bear a child. She may feel that in doing so her life will have more meaning and she will receive unconditional love from the child. More girls from divorced families become mothers. For boys, leaving school generally means a succession of low paying jobs or life on the streets.
1 comment:
Hi Joe,
This is indeed a very serious social problem in our society. I raised something like this in my post on perpetuating tragedies. And these tragedies will be repeated over and over again and the people who suffer are the innocent young. They have practically no chance in this knowledge based world. And their plight and social status will be worst than when they started. It is not a joking business unless these people are taught if not arm twisted to help themselves.
During the 50s and 60s, the gap between the rich and poor is not that wide. I don't mean just in monetary terms. And the poor can live off the land, and somehow catch up quite easily if they wanted to. Today, once deprived, the chances of making it good in life is very slim. Forget about the rare diamonds that will be thrown up once in a while. The truth is that many of these deprived children from broken homes of ignorant, naive and irresponsible parents will have their lives wasted.
There is a need for the cane. Not for these children but their irresponsible parents.
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