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September 17, 2004
The expiration this
week of a ten year ban on assault weapons has kicked up a debate on
American crime rates and how to cut them.
Fighting crime has
become a way of life for Americans. We build more prisons. We enact
new tougher laws with mandatory sentencing. We hire more police, put
gates around our communities, and install metal detectors in our
schools. And we tell the unrepentant criminal, “Three strikes, you’re
out.”
Many of us can
remember a time when life in America was safer. In 1960 your risk of
being a victim of crime in the
United States
was 1.89%, and of a violent crime 0.161%. In 1996 nearly forty years
later, your risk of being a crime victim was 5.079%, and of a violent
crime 0.634%.
The United States
Crime Index Rates Per 100,000 Inhabitants went from 1,887.2 in 1960 to
5,897.8 in 1996. By 1996 the crime rate was 313% the 1960 crime rate.
Crime in the
United States
accounts for more death, injuries and loss of property than all
Natural Disasters combined.
It’s tempting to
think of guns and gates and laws in an effort to protect ourselves and
our families from crime. But there is a better way.
We each hold the
key to the primary method of cutting crime. Rather than dealing with
the aftermath of crime and relying on punishment to deter, this method
cuts crime off at the very beginning where it starts, in the heart and
soul of a young person who needs guidance to keep him or her on the
path to success.
The method? The
key? Our families and our fathers.
In his book Life
Without Father David Popenoe explains another statistical trend
that has followed the trend in crime through the past forty years:
The decline of
fatherhood is one of the most basic, unexpected and extraordinary
trends of our time. Its dimensions can be captured in a single
statistic: In just three decades, between 1960 and 1990, the
percentage of children living apart from their biological fathers more
than doubled, from 17 percent to 36 percent. By the turn of the
century, nearly 50 percent of American children may be going to sleep
each evening without being able to say good night to their dads.
Why does this
matter? The subject of families may seem a private matter that we
should back away from when looking for the solutions to our crime
problems and creating public policy. But Popenoe says otherwise.
[T]he decline of
fatherhood is a major force behind many of the most disturbing
problems that plague American society: crime; premature sexuality and
out-of-wedlock births to teenagers; deteriorating educational
achievement; depression, substance abuse and alienation among
adolescents; and the growing number of women and children in poverty.
What about the
young people you know? Do you see their hearts aching for a strong
and healthy relationship with their fathers? Do you see their eyes
light up at the sight of dad in the audience at their band concert, of
dad in the stands at their football games? Statistics speak to the
issue. But our children and their hearts prove the truth. Dads
count.
As we hear
politicians talk tough on crime, we must listen for the cures they
offer us. And at the top of their list, we need to expect a plan to
strengthen families by helping mothers and fathers raise children
inside of healthy marriages. This is good for children, good for
parents and, most of all, good for America.
Cutting crime at
the most basic level has less to do with subtracting guns and adding
prisons. And it has everything to do with how we raise our children.
If we want children
to walk away from a life of crime, we would do well to make sure our
fathers are leading the way.
National Crime
Statistics:
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/
FBI Uniform Crime
Reports:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
Copyright © 2004 Jane Jimenez
THE POWER OF A FATHER
June 18, 2004 Me
Jane, You Tarzan
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