Amethyst Williams

Period 2
6/4/19

Did you know that the mass of criminal offenders are younger than 30 years? To be more
specific, teens. Not any teen, but, aiming to black teens, in fatherless homes.

Black teens who grow into single mother/father homes, commit the generality of crimes.
Since there is no male figure/role model in the household, there is less control and more
dysfunction to the family. There is no guidance or support being forwarded to young black teens.
Black teens being raised by single parents, are more likely to have trouble in school and develop
psychological problems. Single mother/father homes are caused by an increase in psychological
problems and illness, aligning to stress. Divorce, separation, and lone parenting has passed death,
deep rooting to the significant cause of single parent homes. If the criminal activity in black
teens are correlated to single black mother homes, then the increase in single black mother
homes, also increases the criminal activity in black teens.

Black teens who grow up in fatherless homes, are going to be having difficulties
emotionally and academically. “ Children from single-parent homes are most likely to drop out
of school, to have lower-income in their adulthood, receive welfare, experience parenthood, drug
abuse, or violence.” (Sawhill, 2014-2017). The explanation behind this is because since there is
not enough support in the fatherless home, the outcome of the teens are lead up to be negative,
especially future wise. “Fathers occupy a critical role in child development. Father absence
hinders development from early infancy through childhood and into adulthood. The
psychological harm of father absence experienced during childhood persists throughout the life
course.” (Children’s Bureau, 2018). Saying that not only mothers have a role in the family, but
fathers play the utmost role because they give more guidance and there is none of that present,
the teen can develop psychological and physical abuse, just from the absence of the father. “71%
percent of high school dropouts are fatherless; fatherless children have more trouble
academically, scoring poorly on tests of reading, mathematics, and thinking skills; children from
father-absent homes are more likely to play truant from school, more likely to be excluded from
school, more likely to leave school at age 16…” (Psychology Today, 2012). The following
statistics shows the percentage of the teens, who are affected academically and emotionally, from
the lack of the father presence and the support, only from one parent.

African American mothers have less support on their child/teen due to their
struggles.“Minimum wage keeps many single moms below the poverty level—even when
they’re working full time! ...Not surprisingly, poverty and economic hardship are linked to
anxiety and depression. “ (Dr.Marika Lindholm, 2019). Due to the economic hardships, African
American mothers have less support on their child/teens needs. They also have a very hard time
paying for things, which leads up to homelessness, DCFS, and psychological issues, due to the
way that they are set up from previous relationship(s) “Although they’ve made the brave choice
to leave, the psychological trauma lingers and can be easily triggered. Without support or
resources, too many single moms carry a heavy burden of pain, which is often expressed in
PTSD…” ( Talk Space, Lindholm, 2019). Furthermore, the previous relationship(s) have highly
affected the mother mentally, physically, and economically. This would make it harder for the
mother to provide for their teen and give them the support/resources that will be given to help
that child/teen grow into the person that they want to be. “It is worth noting that the share of
married black women who are non-earners gradually began rising in 2000, and increased sharply
alongside skyrocketing black unemployment rates during the Great Recession (between 2007
and 2012)...”. The difference that is shown upon married black women, were employed more
than the single black mothers. The unemployment rates of single black mothers, increased
rapidly.

Black teens who live in fatherless homes, are more likely to get incarcerated. “A study of
13,986 women in prison showed that more than half grew up without their father. Forty-two
percent grew up in a single-mother household and sixteen percent lived with neither parents.”
(The Fatherless Generation). The statistics difference between all of the inmates were all raised
from a single parent or no parent home, which highly affected them into being in prison. “Single
parent families have a great effect on children and their engagements in criminal activity. As a
result the children often display their aggression by involving themselves in crime. Children in
single parent families are likely to have been exposed to a great deal of crime promoting
influence such as parental conflict and abuse.” ( The Fatherless Generation). Teens are
influenced into criminal activity by witnessing the aggression that goes on with the single parent
and how it will portrays them later on in the future. “The results revealed that if the number of
fathers is low in a neighborhood, then there is an increase in acts of teen violence. The statistical
data showed that a 1% increase in the proportion of single-parent families in a neighborhood is
associated with a 3% increase in an adolescent’s level of violence.” (Knoester, C., & Hayne,
D.A. (2005). The cause and effects of not having a black male figure in the single parent home,
will lead the teen into criminal activity and will be associated to crime.

If the criminal activities in teens decrease due to the decrease of fatherless homes, then the
decrease in fatherless homes, also decreases the criminal activity in teens. “Ruptured homes lead
to high dropout rates, unemployment, and criminal involvement among Black street-identified
women.” Based of the care of the single parent household, the teen is going to become entitled
into negative factors that will belittle them from their future. (Sage Journals, 2015)“A study of
263 13- to 18-year-old adolescent women seeking psychological services found that the
adolescents from father-absent homes were 3.5 times more likely to experience pregnancy than
were adolescents from father-present homes. Moreover, the rate of pregnancy among adolescents
from father absent homes was 17.4% compared to a four (4) percent rate in the general
adolescent population.” (Fatherhood Factor, 2014). Not just black male teens are going to be
affected, but black female teens are going to be correlated with pregnancy due to the single black
mother home, due to the absence of the father. “This study provides an alternative framing street-
identified black women in particular and strings together family composition and criminal record
or street activity as predictive of shaping experiences of single motherhood within the Black
community.”(Sage Journals, 2015). Statistics are shown to the reflection the single black mother
homes and how they are seen through society, knowing strings are connected to the family
structure of the black community.
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