Running Head: Single-parent and Juvenile Delinquency Single-parent and Juvenile Delinquency School: Jennifer Morse has taken a clear stand on the relationship between juvenile delinquency and parenting. In this article Morse asserts that children learn about their fellow humans only through their parents and when they have a failed relationship with their parents it, in turn, affects the way they perceive the society around them which leads them to commit crimes and other offenses. This is more pronounced in the case of children living with parents who do not work as a team or with single parents.
Children from such failed households are finally left to the society or prisons which are entrusted with the job of rehabilitation and taming these children. There are several examples that serve as proof for the fact that children raised in households by parents who had previously committed suicides or crimes like the report in the San Diego Union-Tribune about two step-brothers, whose father had committed suicide, strangling and chopping off their mother’s body. In another case, two brothers attacked their father with a baseball and followed it by setting the house on fire in order to hide the evidence.
They were raised in a foster home as their mother left them and were later returned to the custody of their father as the foster parents were unable to handle them (Morse, 2003). There are several theories that support the fact that children who are raised without a father lacked maturity and in their later years they tend to assert their maleness by committing acts of delinquency. In the 1920s boys who were lodged in reformatories in New York majorly hailed from broken homes (Juvenile Delinquency, n.d). Morse has also stated that a 1994 report from the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Service found that a majority of juvenile delinquents came from broken families or single-parent homes (Morse, 2003).
The explanation given to such problems was greater exposure to criminal activities due to parental conflicts or other reasons such as alcoholism and drugs in single-parent households. Additionally, in single-parent households, the parent finds it difficult to supervise and control their child and prevent them from engaging in criminal activities. There is a general lack of family interaction in such households which are further burdened by emotional and economic problems. Another criterion pointed out by Morse is the lack of educational attainment by children raised by single parents who drop out of school early.
This in turn encourages them to engage in criminal activities in order to make a living. A similar case is observed with children who are left alone at home by working parents who are unable to devote much time to the child (Morse, 2003). When children are not given the attention they consider themselves to be unworthy and tend to treat others in a similar manner. They grow up with a lack of care and love for their fellow human beings. On the contrary, studies have shown that children raised in homes in which there is better interaction between the parents and the children are less likely to commit crimes (Juvenile Delinquency, n.d). Children who are raised with compassion and care right from their young age by their parents, especially the mother, naturally imbibe good moral values from them and in their later years show more maturity and behavior and eventually have a successful career and family life.
Such an upbringing in turn makes the child compassionate and respectful to others and would be pricked by their moral conscience even if they commit a small mistake in their lives. However, children who lack such an upbringing may end up in prison cells or correction centers. Morse also notes that the implementation of laws such as the “three strikes law” which incarcerates people who have committed three offenses for a lifetime in prison has added to prison costs over the years and consequently also burdened the taxpayers.
Thus there are several links provided by studies that children from single-parent households are likely to be more aggressive and land up in prisons. However, this cannot only be attributed to the lifestyle within such families as some children may also be genetically wired to behave aggressively irrespective of the family set up. Though being a single parent is the choice made by an individual he or she will have to keep in mind that in the future their decision may have a formidable effect on the growth of the child.
Hence in agreement with Morse’s views, it would be wiser for young individuals to get married rather than to remain single and stand the tests of time as in addition to their life the lives of their children as well as the society are intertwined with their decision (Morse, 2003).
Read More
