Single Parents and the Rise of Crime Rates Among Children popular

Crime rates among children have been on the rise in recent years. However, it is even more interesting to consider that the crime rate of children from a single parent home has also continued to rise as well. There are many reasons behind the rise in crime from children who have only one parent in the home, but most of them can be dealt with or eliminated with a few basic treatments and solutions.

A Lack of Supervision

One of the most common reasons why there is a rise in crime rates among children of single parents is the lack of supervision that is available each day. Most single parents have to work extended hours, or odd hours such as overnight in order to make ends meet. Many even resort to second or third jobs in order to provide the basics for their children. Once their children reach a certain age, many single parents choose to drop the day care bill and allow their children to stay home alone.

While this saves the family money, it also provides a breeding ground for their child to become wayward and turn to a life of crime. Simple solutions to this problem are getting your child involved in a local community or church group that meets each day after school. This surrounds them with positive role models, and keeps them off the streets while you are not able to be with them. It may also be beneficial to get your child involved in many different extracurricular school activities which will not only surround them with school friends, but will also provide supervised practice and participation times most days as well. The more active and positively influenced your child is the less time they will have time to get into trouble.

Resentment and Acting Out

Another common cause for the rise in crime rates among children of single parent families is their resentment and anger at their absent parent. As children become teenagers, they begin to deal with many things that they can hardly understand, and old feelings of anger, resentment, and abandonment may come forward and cause them to act out and follow a path they normally would not walk down.

In order to help your child voice their frustrations, and keep them from falling in with the wrong crowd, it is important to be extremely open and available to them. Get them involved in counseling and talking to you about their feelings as early as possible. The sooner they deal with the issues that they have, the more at ease you will be and the less chance they will have to turn to criminal acts for attention.

Although children raised in a single parent home are more susceptible to committing a crime, it certainly does not mean that being from a single parent home will lead to criminal activity. There are many things that can be done in order to stop the rise in the crime rates among children, and some of the most common and effective ones can be found listed above. Although children with single parents are twice as likely as intact family children to commit a violent crime, hopefully with some small changes these rates will change in the years to come.