Australian in U.S. on baseball scholarship murdered by teens because they were bored

The Ancient_sl said:

And what percentage of those homes produce murderers? Are you arguing that it's the majority? That is what your implying.

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The Ancient_sl said:

And what percentage of those homes produce murderers? Are you arguing that it's the majority? That is what you're implying.

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But Hetherington, who like Roiphe embraces changing family structures, also was honest enough to admit that divorce tends to double a child's risk of a serious negative outcome. Specifically, she found that "twenty-five percent of youths from divorced families in comparison to 10 percent from non-divorced families did have serious social, emotional, or psychological problems." Other research suggests that the children of never-married single parents tend to do somewhat worse than children of divorced single parents.

Take two contemporary social problems: teenage pregnancy and the incarceration of young males. Research by Sara McLanahan at Princeton University suggests that boys are significantly more likely to end up in jail or prison by the time they turn 30 if they are raised by a single mother.

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. 63 percent of suicides nationwide are individuals from single-parent families.

. 75 percent of children in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families.

. More than half of all youths incarcerated in the U.S. lived in one-parent families as a child.

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The Ancient_sl said:

Nope. It's a simple and common fallacy to assume that because x is more likely to have y that y is more likely to have x. You are rearranging my question. Just because it is likely that a murderer came from a single family home does not mean that it's likely that a single family home houses a murderer.

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And what percentage of those homes produce murderers? Are you arguing that it's the majority? That is what you're implying.

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Just as is the case that just because it's more likely that a murderer is black it's not more likely than not that a black person is a murderer.

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You are going to have a difficult time finding that a majority of single family homes produce murderers even if you a restrict it to a majority of single family black homes.

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Children from single-parent families are more likely to have behavioral problems because they tend to lack economic security and adequate time with parents.

Abstract: The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency reports that the most reliable indicator of violent crime in a community is the proportion of fatherless families.

Fathers typically offer economic stability, a role model for boys, greater household security, and reduced stress for mothers. This is especially true for families with adolescent boys, the most crime-prone cohort. Children from single-parent families are more prone than children from two-parent families to use drugs, be gang members, be expelled from school, be committed to reform institutions, and become juvenile murderers. Single parenthood inevitably reduces the amount of time a child has in interaction with someone who is attentive to the child's needs, including the provision of moral guidance and discipline. According to a 1993 Metropolitan Life Survey, "Violence in America's Public Schools," 71 percent of teachers and 90 percent of law enforcement officials state that the lack of parental supervision at home is a major factor that contributes to the violence in schools. Sixty-one percent of elementary students and 76 percent of secondary children agree with this assessment.

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In a study of 167 Baltimore mothers incarcerated for drug offenses, 41 percent of
the women grew up with their mother as "the sole supporter" of the family, and
more than 26 percent had "no father figure [at all] in their lives." Thomas E. Hanlon et al.,
"Incarcerated Drug-Abusing Mothers: Their Characteristics and Vulnerability," The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol
Abuse 1 (2005): 59-77.

Even after controlling for income, youths in father-absent households still had
significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families.
Youths who never had a father in the household experienced the highest odds.
Cynthia Harper, and Sara S. McLanahan, "Father Absence and Youth Incarceration," Journal of Research on
Adolescence 14 (September 2004): 369-397.

A 2002 Department of Justice survey of 7,000 inmates revealed that 39% of jail
inmates lived in mother-only households. Approximately forty-six percent of jail
inmates in 2002 had a previously incarcerated family member. One-fifth
experienced a father in prison or jail.
Doris J.James, "Profile of Jail Inmates, 2002," (NCJ 201932). Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Department of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs, July 2004.

Among adolescents charged with murder, 72 percent grew-up without their fathers.
Dewey Cornell "Characteristics of Adolescents Charged with Homicide" Behavior Sciences and the Law 5 (1987): 11-23.
High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families
abandoned by fathers. The Real Root Causes of Violent Crime: The Breakdown of Marriage, Family, and
Community by Patrick F. Fagan Backgrounder #1026 March 17, 1995

Youths are more at risk of first substance use without a highly involved father. Each
unit increase in father involvement is associated with 1% reduction in substance
use. Living in an intact family also decreases the risk of first substance use.
Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Kristin A. Moore, Randolph C. Capps, and Jonathan Zaff. "The influence of Father Involvement on
Youth Risk Behaviors among Adolescents: A comparison of Native-born and Immigrant Families," Social Science
Research 35 (2006): 199.

Despite the difficulty of proving causation in the social sciences, the weight of
evidence increasingly supports the conclusion that fatherlessness is a primary
generator of violence among young men. David Blankenhorn, Fatherless America (New York: BasicBooks,
1995): 31.

Poverty
Children in father-absent homes are five times more likely to be poor. In 2002, 7.8
percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to
38.4 percent of children in female-householder families.
U. S. Census Bureau, "Children's Living Arrangements and Characteristics," March 2002, P200-547. Table C8
Washington D.C. GPO, 2003.

A child with a nonresident father is 54 percent more likely to be poorer than his or
her father.
Elaine Sorenson and Chava Zibman, "Getting to Know Poor Fathers Who Do Not Pay Child Support, Social Services
Review 75 (September 2001): 420-434.

Throughout the world, the lack of fathers is a key factor in the impoverishment of
children.
The Economist September 9, 1995

Physical and Psychological Health
"[T] greater the fathers? involvement was, the lower the level of adolescents?
behavioral problems, both in terms of aggression and antisocial behavior and
negative feelings such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem." Marcia J. Carlson,
"Family Structure, Father Involvement, and Adolescent Behavioral Outcomes," Journal of Marriage and Family 68 (1)
(February 2006): 137-154.

Higher levels of father involvement in activities with their children, such as eating
meals together, helping with homework, and going on family outings, has been
found to be associated with fewer child behavior problems, higher levels of
sociability, and higher levels of academic performance in children and adolescents.
J. Mosley and E. Thomson, "Fathering Behavior and Child Outcomes: The Role of Race and Poverty." Fatherhood:
Contemporary Theory, Research, and Social Policy (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications 1995): 148-165.

"Fathers matter." A father?s involvement in a child?s life "significantly influences
outcomes: economic and educational attainment and [avoidance of] delinquency."
Fathers who are "both emotionally close and highly involved in joint activities" play
a major role in a child?s maturation. Adolescents who experience "increasing
closeness" with their fathers are protected from "delinquency and psychological
distress." Kathleen Mullan Harris, Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., and Jeremy K. Marmer, "Paternal Involvement with
Adolescents in Intact Families: The Influence of Fathers Over the Life Course," Demography 35 (May, 1998): 201-16.

"Controlling for associated factors such as low income, children growing up in such
[father-absent] households are at greater risk for experiencing a variety of
behavioral and educational problems, including extremes of hyperactivity of
withdrawal, lack of attentiveness in the classroom, difficulty in deferring
gratification, impaired academic achievement, school misbehavior, absenteeism,
dropping out, involvement in socially alienated peer groups, and, especially, the socalled "teenage syndrome? of behaviors that tend to hand together-smoking,
drinking, early and frequent sexual experience, a cynical attitude toward work,
adolescent pregnancy, and, in the more extreme cases, drugs, suicide, vandalism,
violence, and criminal acts."
Urie Bronfenbrenner, "Discovering What Families Do," In Rebuilding the Nest: A New Commitment to the American
Family, ed. David Blankenhorn, Steven Bayme, and Jean Bethke Elshtain (Milwaukee, WI: Family Service America,
1990): 34.

National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that obese children are more likely to
live in father-absent homes than are non-obese children.
Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

Obesity of fathers associated with a four-fold increase in the risk of obesity of sons
and daughters at age 18
V. Burke, L.J. Beilin, D. Dunbar, "Family Lifestyle and Parental Body Mass Index as Predictors of Body Mass Index in
Australian Children: A Longitudinal Study." Department of Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital, University of Western Australia,
and the Western Australian Heart Research Institute; Perth, Australia.
Father?s inactivity is a strong predictor of children?s inactivity.
S. G. Trost, L M. Kerr, D. S. Ward, R.R. Pate, "Physical Activity and Determinants of Physical Activity in Obese and NonObese Children," School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072,
Australia. M. Fogelholm, O. Nuutinen, M. Pasanen, E. Myohanen, T. Saatela, "Parent-Child Relationship of Physical
Activity Patterns and Obesity," University of Helsinki, Lahti Research and Training Centre, Finland.

Children who live apart from their fathers are more likely to be diagnosed with
asthma and experience an asthma-related emergency even after taking into account
demographic and socioeconomic conditions.
Kristin Harknett, "Children's Elevated Risk of Asthma in Unmarried Families: Underlying Structural and Behavioral
Mechanisms," Working Paper #2005-01-FF. Princeton, NJ: Center for Research on Child Well-being, 2005: 19-27.

Education
Living in a father-absent home is a major contributing factor to school dropout
rates. Suet-Ling Pong and Dong-Beom Jr., "The Effects of Change in Family Structure and Income on Dropping Out of
Middle or High School," Journal of Family Issues 21 (March 2000): 147-169. Ralph B. McNeal, Jr., "Extracurricular
Activities and High School Dropouts," Sociology of Education 68 (1995): 62-81.
Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. Survey on Child Health.
Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1993.

Father involvement in schools is associated with the higher likelihood of a student
getting mostly A's. This was true for fathers in biological parent families, for
stepfathers, and for fathers heading single-parent families.
Christine Winquist Nord and Jerry West, "Fathers' and Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Schools by Family Type
and Resident Status," (NCES 2001-032). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, 2001.

Students living in father-absent homes are twice as likely to repeat a grade in
school; 10 percent of children living with both parents have ever repeated a grade,
compared to 20 percent of children in stepfather families and 18 percent in motheronly families.
Christine Winquist Nord and Jerry West, "Fathers' and Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Schools by Family Type
and Resident Status," (NCES 2001-032). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, 2001.

Black males who identified their fathers as their role model maintained a
significantly higher grade point average and reported significantly less truancy than
peers who identified a member of the extended family as a role model or did not
have a role model. Alison L. Bryant, "Role Models and Psychosocial Outcomes Among African-American
Adolescents" Journal of Adolescent Research 18,1 (2003): 36-87

A study of 1330 children from the PSID showed that fathers who are involved on a
personal level with their child schooling increases the likelihood of their child's
achievement. When fathers assume a positive role in their child's education,
students feel a positive impact.
Brent A. McBride, Sarah K. Schoppe-Sullivan, and Moon-Ho Ho. "The Mediating Role of Fathers' School Involvement on
Student Achievement," Applied Developmental Psychology 26 (2005): 201-216.

Half of all children with highly involved fathers in two-parent families reported
getting mostly A's through 12th grade, compared to 35.2% of children of
nonresident father families.
National Center for Education Statistics. The Condition of Education. NCES 1999022. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of
Education, 1999: 76.

Sexual Activity
Protecting daughters from sexual overtures of other men has long been a major role
of fathers. They are also very important in providing models for the kinds of
nonsexual relationships with men that daughters need to develop if they are to avoid
the ploys of sexual abusers. When daughters grow up without fathers they do not
enjoy such protections from sexual abuse perpetrators. David Popenoe, "Life Without Father:
Compelling New Evidence that Fatherhood and Marriage are Indispensable for the Good of Children and Society,"
(Harvard University Press: Cambridge Massachusetts, 1996): 67-68.

Girls who identified their biological father as their primary father figure reported
fewer depressive symptoms than peers who identified alternative father figures
(men who stepped into "father-like roles" for youths who were not the fathers'
biological children). Rebekah Levine Coley, "Daughter-Father Relationships and Adolescent Psychosocial
Functioning in Low-Income African American Families" Journal of Marriage and Family 65, 4 (2003): 867-875.
Researchers using a pool from both the U.S. and New Zealand found strong
evidence that father absence has an effect on early sexual activity and teenage
pregnancy. Teens without fathers were twice as likely to be involved in early sexual
activity and seven times more likely to get pregnant as an adolescent.
Bruce J. Ellis, John E. Bates, Kenneth A. Dodge, David M. Ferguson, L. John Horwood, Gregory S. Pettit, and Lianne Woodward. "Does
Father Absence Place Daughters at Special Risk for Early Sexual Activity and Teenage Pregnancy," Child Development
74 (May/June 2003): 801-821.

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Ichu_sl said:

Maybe black mom and dad will be able to keep little Adebisi in line

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