The Magnitude
High rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births have created a generation of fatherless boys...
The Arizona % of kids growing up in single family homes is 38% vs the USA Average of 32%.
One in three children are born to unmarried parents. [i]
An estimated 24.7 million children do not live with their biological father. [ii]
43% of urban teens live away from their father. [iii]
42% of fathers fail to see their children at all after divorce. [iv]
Since 1960 the rate of U.S. boys without fathers has quadrupled. [v]
THE CONSEQUENCES
A recent Newsweek article “The Trouble with Boys” states “one of the most reliable predictors of whether a boy will succeed or fail in high school rests on a single question: does he have a man in his life to look up to? Too often, the answer is no.”
- 85% of youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless home. [vii]
- 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. [viii]
- 80% of rapists with displaced anger come from fatherless homes. [ix]
- 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. [x]
- Gang membership increased from 50,000 in 1975 to 1,150,000 in 2008. [xi]
- 90% of homeless children are from fatherless homes. [xii]
- 85% of children with behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. [xiii]
- 90% of adolescent repeat arsonists live with only their mother. [xiv]
- Fatherless boys are 4 times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. [xv]
The Financial Cost
The cost of corrections in the United States to tax payers is staggering.
- 5% of the adult male population is in or has been in prison, costing taxpayers $75 billion a year. [xvii]
- The prison incarceration rate more than quadrupled since 1975. [xvi]
- A boy leaving high school to enter into a life of crime or drug abuse can cost his community $1.7–$2.3 million in his lifetime. [xviii]
Reference:
[i]Youthviews, Gallup Youth Survey 4 (June, 1997)
[ii] National Fatherhood Initiative, Father Facts, (3rd Edition): 5
[iii] Youthviews, Gallup Youth Survey 4 (June, 1997)
[iv] Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr. and Christine Winguist Nord, “Parenting Apart,” Journal of Marriage and the Family
[v] U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007. Households and Families, Historical Statistics
[vi] Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. NAACP 2011
[vii] Fulton Co. Georgia jail populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992
[viii] National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools
[ix] Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26, 1978
[x] US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census
[xi] National Youth Gang Center
[xii] U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census
[xiii] Center for Disease Control
[xiv] Wray Herbert, “Dousing the Kindlers,” Psychology Today, January, 1985
[xv] US D.H.H.S. news release
[xvi] Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? Raphael Goldman School of Public Policy 2008
[xvii] The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration. Schmitt, Warner, Gupta, June 2010
[xviii] Cohen’s The monetary value of saving a high-risk youth, Journal of Quantitative Criminology