Are Children From Single Parent Homes More Likely To Be Criminals?

Are Children From Single Parent Homes More Likely To Be Criminals?

Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to discuss if children raised in single parent homes are more likely to be criminals. According to some of the studies, the family structure portrays that the single parents have less control over their family decisions and children. They tend to make less demand from their children than dual parents do. This happens because two parents make more rules and regulations, and are more likely to stick to them than single parents do.

An unprecedented but unequivocal increase in single parenting homes presents a growing challenge for the American nation as recent studies have associated the trend with a horde of social and familial problems. Single parents may be both fathers and mothers; they may not have the skills to educate. When the father has a family, he must be sensitive to the problems of girlish, as well as to the problems of boys, if he has a daughter. Usually, the fathers are regarded as those who bring home the money and nothing more. In the case of single parents should be able to father a bit of everything and replace the role of mothers in the family (Maginnis, 1997).

Discussion and Analysis

The term 'single parent families' covers all those homes in which either the mother or the father looks after the children rather than both of them caring for them together while living under one roof. Over the past two decades, there has been a consistent rise in the number of children growing up in single-parent households. For example, by the start of the 21st century, the US Census Bureau claimed that nearly 12,900,103 households were dependent single mothers whereas the number of households being run by single males was estimated to be 4,394,012. Therefore, this was the major cause behind the criminal acts performed by the children. Sadly, the total figures for single parent households has increased significantly over the last twelve years and the US Census Bureau estimates that 16.2% of all married couple households are managed by a single parent.

The role of the family physician or pediatrician is to know the social and granting attention issues that may be caused by the fact that it is raising a child in a single parent home and offer help and support to the identified problems. The biggest challenge that a single parent has to face in front of the race is that they may have to juggle between work and children. Father may often have to take leave of their work and may not be able to work overtime. Being a single parent is certainly not easy. He or she may have to make an extra effort to meet his/her responsibilities as a single parent. Americans are now convinced of the link between the deterioration of family and children in their country and crime statistics showing that the United States has experienced a threefold increase ...