Family Law Data and Statistics (Does NOT include the RASH of recent murders in the area) While the data listed points to fatherless families, a better term would be one parent families.
Scrutiny of public policies affecting the modern family and children begins with assessing the empirical data that has been accumulating for decades.
This data reveals that children living in various forms of modern familial relationships evidence significant pathologies, are more prone to anti-social behavior and are at a greater risk of being abused. The data is alarming and correlates directly to the environment in which children reside.
The data is collected by various government sources. The data reveals that children of both genders who are denied the imprint and influence of their biological male and female parental identities, either in whole or in significant part, have consequences that are detrimental and neither in their best interests nor, in the best interests of our society as a whole.
Sobering Statistics
* 63% of youth suicides come from fatherless families,(Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
* 70% of juveniles in State Institutions come from fatherless families,(Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept 1988)
* 71% of teen pregnancies come from fatherless families,(Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)
* 71% of High School dropouts come from fatherless families,(Source: National Principals Association Report on the State of High schools)
* 75% of children in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless families,(Source: Rainbows For All God's Children.)
* 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless families,(Source: Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p- 403-26, 1978)
* 80% of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from fatherless families,(Source: "Family Matters: The Plight of America's Children.' The Christian Century, July1993: 14-21.)
* 85% of youths in prisons come from fatherless families,(Source: Fulton Co. GA jail populations, TX Dept. of Corrections 1992).
* 85% of children with behavioral problems come from fatherless families,(Source: Center for Disease Control)
* 87% of the juveniles in the Virginia juvenile justice system come from fatherless homes, (73% are rearrested within three years of their release), (Source: Virginia Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission)
* 90% of homeless and runaway children come from fatherless families,(Source: U.S- D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
To put it another way, children who grow up in fatherless (one parent) families are:
* 5 times more likely to commit suicide;
* 9 times more likely to drop out of school;
* 9 times more likely to end up in a state operated institution;
* 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances;
* 14 times more likely to commit rape;
* 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders;
* 20 times more likely to end up in prison;
* 32 times more likely to run away.
The effects of familial public policies on the modern family, which are evidently anti-male have further created a marked discrepancy between the genders of children as the following statistics confirm boys are:
* 33 % more likely to drop out of school & never finish;
* 60 % more likely to fail in school and be left back;
* 95 % more likely to be on drugs; and
* 200 % more likely to commit suicide than are girls.
Girls are not exempt from the ill effects of certain aspects of modern family life. The increase in female violence with girls viciously beating other girls is in the news with increasing frequency. Consider:
* 85% of girls drink alcohol before age 15;
* 70% of girls have "SEX" before age 15;
* 60% of girls smoke cigarettes before age 15;
* 18% of girls are pregnant before age 15.
Girls who grow up in modern fatherless homes are considerably at risk. The increase in violent and anti-social behavior among girls is directly related to the overall removal of fathers, (men), from girls' lives and from families in general.
Children living in households with unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die of inflicted injuries as children living with two biological parents, according to a study of Missouri abuse reports published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2005.
Children living in stepfamilies or with single parents are at higher risk of physical or sexual assault than children living with two biological or adoptive parents, according to several studies co-authored by David Finkelhor, Director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.
Girls whose parents divorce are at significantly higher risk of sexual assault, whether they live with their mother or their father, according to research by Robin Wilson, a family law professor at Washington and Lee University.
The National Incidence Study released in 1996, concluded that children of single parents had a 77% greater risk of being harmed by physical abuse than children living with both parents.
Consequences
The continued promotion of public policies that hinder and arguably devastate the modern family and directly, adversely impact the nation's children have detrimental short and long term consequences that are both emotional and economic. The price tag is staggering and ever growing. Some consequences are 'increases' and others are 'decreases' in activity and are a result of pubic policies that hinder and devastate the modern family. They include but are not limited to:
Increase in;
* depression,
* use of medication,
* suicide,
* out-of-wedlock births (equates to an increase in need for a welfare state),
* anti-social behavior,
* state and federal expenditures attempting to deal with familial turmoil;
Decrease in;
* education of boys at all levels,
* emotional stability,
* economic stability,
* available tax revenue for other necessary social considerations,
* business productivity,
* personal productivity.
The actual cost to society in dollars and cents is staggering.
A 2008 study and report concluded that at least $112 billion dollars annually can be directly attributed to the cost of divorce in America.
This figure is estimated to be low and did not calculate ancillary costs as well as a myriad of other economic factors that directly relate to public policies that presently promote single parent homes
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