Delinquency And Broken Homes Essay

What evidence is there that single families are more likely to produce delinquent children?
In sociology we all know that the family plays a key part in how society operates on a macro level and micro level. The institution of family has seismic effects on how children develop. If a family is “broken” sociologists say that this could lead to catastrophic impacts on the children’s childhood and one of the impacts I’m going to be exploring is the likelihood of a child becoming delinquent in a single parent household. There has been countless research done on this issue suggesting that a single parent household is more likely/will espouse to delinquency. The daily telegraph highlights this issue with shocking statistics that “Children from broken homes 'nine times more likely to commit crimes than those from stable families'”. Work and pensions secretary Duncan smith said “the breakdown of marriage had led to the fracturing of society, as well as addiction, crime and lost productivity and tax revenues that, in all, cost Britain around £100 billion a year” [1]
This suggests that children from single family households are more likely to turn to addiction and crime subsequently leading to a general increase in delinquent behaviour. The reasons as to why “broken homes” produce delinquent children are numerous however the ‘Social Justice Challenge’ stated in their manifesto the importance of home context where they say “implicated debt, economic dependency, failed education, drugs and alcohol addiction as contributors to family breakdown, which in turn is implicated so often in criminality”[2] their factors include inadequate parenting, economic disadvantage, family disruption, unstable living conditions etc.
More evidence supports the statement from a sociological perspective this article states ‘participants in the legal system blame broken homes for failures to socialize children as willing participants in an ordered social system, this conclusion goes well beyond the facts.’[3] Furthermore the article goes on to discuss how the lack of same sex parenting has an effect on the child. ‘Some assume that children learn how to become adults by association with parents of their own sex. Boys reared without a resident father, according to this assumption, are deprived of the association necessary for appropriate maturation. As a result, children are said to overreact by asserting masculinity through delinquent behaviour. This opinion has been buttressed by reports suggesting that typical delinquents lack the guidance of a father.’ [3]
What evidence is there that this is not the case?
Despite the evidences, there are still plausible arguments against the statement. The Milwaukee sentinel infers that broken homes do not necessarily cause delinquency as a broken home can cause unhappiness however it’s not deterministic enough to influence a child’s life choices, other sociologists propose that deviancy is more of a biological factor rather than social, César Lombroso was an

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