Juvenile Delinquency & Single Parent Homes

Juvenile delinquency and single parent homes is an important topic in today’s society given the fact that more and more children are growing up in a home without one parent, whether it be the mother or the father. After all the rate of divorce for first time marriages in America is about 56% and many children growing up sometimes do not even know one parent, typically the father.

I chose the subject of juvenile delinquency and single parent homes because I am the product of a single parent home. Growing up I never knew my father; he left when I was a baby. I grew up living with my mother and grandmother, two people who loved me and made sure I was well taken care of. …show more content…

Most juvenile crime occurs between the hours of two and seven or so. Unfortunately with single parent homes, school officials, church leaders, and even police officers have attached a social stigma to juveniles from one parent homes. These children are already pre-judged that they will engage in behavior that is socially unacceptable and destructive. These kids are delinquents or will become delinquents. Given the opportunity and correct parenting, children of single parent adults can and will become productive citizens of society.

Most of the information I have found on single parent homes and juvenile delinquency states that a single parent home is more likely to occur among African Americans and Latinos, not Caucasians.
These youth are more likely to become delinquents. I personally don’t believe that race is a factor as to whether or not a child from a single parent home will become a delinquent. I think it is in the quality of the job a parent does.

A study done in 1994 by the NAACP states that access to benefits like social services can be seen as a major contributing factor to crime problems. Another study done by Dr. June O’Neill says that receiving an increase in benefits led to a one hundred and seventeen percent increase in the crime rate among young black men. Seventy percent of juveniles in reformatories come from single parent homes.
Children in single parent homes are more likely to exhibit