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In a study conducted by Wright and Wright in 1997, four factors were determined to explain the relationship between single parent families and delinquency. These factors include economic deprivation, reduced supervision, formal controls, social supports, living in poverty neighborhoods characterized by high crime rates and alienation and lastly an increased criminal justice system response to children from single parent families. They also determined the absence of fathers increased these factors. Children from both single parent families, as well as those children who live in complex, shifting, highly stressed families suffer from these same conditions. In fact, according to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, poverty has now become a children’s problem, owing chiefly to the fact that an increased proportion of children live for long periods, sometimes their entire childhood, in mother only families, a large fraction of which are also poor. A 1996 Department of Health and Human Services study found that at every income level except for the very highest (over $50,000 a year), children living with never married mothers were more likely than their counterparts in two parent families to have been expelled or suspended from school, to display emotional problems and to engage in anti-social behavior. The same study revealed that if the family is headed by a teenage African American single mother, the risks are even greater. Children of teenage black single mothers are less able to control their impulses, have a lower tolerance for frustration, are more likely to be hyperactive, have more difficulty adapting to school and, if boys, are likely to be more hostile, assertive and willful than children of older mothers, both black and white. Another factor to consider in the breakdown of families is the increasing number of children placed into foster care by single mothers who are unable to provide for their care, children born addicted to crack and taken away from their mothers, children born infected with the HIV virus who demand more care than their mothers are able to provide for them and those children who are actually homeless due to any number of conditions. These children are at an even greater risk for delinquency. It is estimated that over 500,000 children are presently in foster care. These same children move from home to home an average of three times per year. Is it any wonder, without proper parental care, supervision and control that 44 percent of these foster children are expected to commit an act of delinquency before they turn eighteen? Children , both young and old, have the right to expect strong family morals and values. Children have the right to have their parents show a sincere interest in both their school work and their activities away from school. Children have the right to have both parents actively involved in all aspects of their lives. They have the right for parents to sit civilly at the dinner table and ask about their day. They have a right for respect and decency and they have a right to not be victimized by those people who chose to bring them into this world. They have a right to be able to learn respect for other people, respect for authority and respect for themselves. Children have a right to effective parenting. In conclusion, I would agree there are many causes of juvenile delinquency, however, the most important cause and one that needs to be addressed and corrected is the breakdown of families. Parents who care responsibly for their children will help them avoid the other causes of delinquency. These parents will restrict their access to media violence, monitor their peer groups, explain and inform them of the negative effects of substance abuse, prevent their access to firearms, provide them with a stable family life, free of violence, discipline them with love and consistency and most importantly, teach them the basic values of life – respect for others, respect for authority and respect for themselves. CAUSES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY”THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILIES IN AMERICA” Cheryl L. RhoadesMarch 11, 1999 RESOURCES 1. Kortege, Carglyn, Parenthood Training Promoted. The Register Guard, Des Moines, IA www.os/c.org/InTheNews/parenthood 2. Child Abuse Prevention Network, “Moral Development and Boys, James Garbarino, PH.D www.child.cornell.edu/npr.violentboys 3. Conseur, Amy, Rivera, Frederick P., Baronski, Robert and Irvin, Emanuel, “Maternal and Perinatal Risk Factors for Later Delinquency.” Pediatrics, June, 1997, v. 99, p 785 (6) 4. Berg, Stacie Zoe, “High Praise For Strict Parenting,” Insight on the News, Sept. 1, 1997, v 13, n 32, p. 43 (1) 5. Encarta Online Deluxe, Juvenile Crime www.encarta.msn.com/encart 6. Alternatives For Parents Who Have Lost Control www.fbcbaytown.org/parents 7. Boostrom, Ron, “Enduring Issues in Criminology – Opposing Viewpoints,” Greenhaven Press, Inc., P.O. Box 289009, San Diego, CA 92198-9009, p. 121-125, 173-174, 180 8. MacKenzie, D.L. 1997, Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention. In Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What Looks Promising (A Report to the United States Congress), eds. L.W. Sherman, D. Gottfredson, D.MacKenzie, J. Eck, P. Reuter and S. Bushway, Washington, D.C. – National Institute of Justice

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