The biggest root cause of crime is fatherlessness

[mips_r4300i]

Years ago, my dad owned and rented out some Section 8 houses in the hood. Tenants were single moms on welfare with usually 3 to 4 young kids.

Many times he'd knock on the front door after a call to fix the toilet or some such repair, be told to hang on for a sec, and a man would try to run out the back door and disappear.

This was the baby daddy (or a prospective one) being shooed out by the mom, because his presence was a risk to the single mom's welfare checks.

Hard to improve when the incentives are against it.

[tech_ken]

For sure, the benefits cliff is a huge flaw in our social safety net. We should direct massively more resources to create a comprehensive social benefits program that covers a wide range of social strata with both goods and services, either subsidized or at-cost.

[thealchemistdev]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_(film)

> ... Throughout the film, Miss Kabak, a social worker, visits Claudine at her home and asks her if she is employed and if she is dating anyone. Claudine always claims to be unemployed and single, to make sure to get the maximum amount of benefits, which she desperately needs. If Claudine has a job or dates anyone and receives gifts from her boyfriend, the social worker has to deduct any money or gifts from her benefits, forcing Claudine to lie.

This movie was released in 1974. Though fiction, it's one of the examples used when people say that when government gets involved ($$$), it moves slow and breaks things for a long time.

I think people will always try to game/pervert a system, and unfortunately we all will have to suffer the consequences. For now.

[hotpotamus]

I was led to believe that Clinton ended "welfare as we know it" to address that sort of thing. I wonder what your preferred solution is? Because it always seems to be something to the effect of "just get rid of welfare" which seems like it might be a bit hard on the kids as well.

[maxerickson]

How did they get the idea that their landlord observing a guest would impact their benefits?

[soupfordummies]

Ah the old "welfare queen" trope. That's a lot of anecdotal speculation where I think the reality is probably a lot more complex in a chicken-or-the-egg type of way.

[jewayne]

Lesson: Landlords look down on their tenants.

[whoisthemachine]

The article headline prefaces this with "Opinion", perhaps the headline here should as well?

[barryrandall]

Isn't the domain enough of a flag?

[gwern]

No, it is not, and we are quite sure of this. The fatherhood correlation never survives any control for family-level factors, like comparing siblings or looking at kids who lose their father to accidents. And none of the evidence cited by OP addresses this or provides real evidence of causality, much less hyperbolic claims of it being biggest.

[stairlane]

Do you have any evidence to back up your claims?

I have yet to be convinced otherwise.

[Morte42]

The paper referenced by the article actually shows what the author is saying is false. He is either very confused or convinced that nobody will read the linked paper so he can make up what he wants.

[jeffbee]

This theory only works if you narrowly construe crime to exclude large-scale white collar crimes like attempting to overthrow the government, poisoning the whole nation with addictive painkillers, dodging taxes, etc. It's pretty clear that on a crime-weighted basis the root cause of virtually all crimes is being born rich.

[foogazi]

How many crimes did Bernie Maddof commit ?

How many crimes do local police officers commit ?

Are people in possession of federally illegal drugs committing a crime ?

Did they have fathers?

[jewayne]

That's an excellent point. There's a survivorship bias here. Perhaps fatherlessness doesn't cause crime so much as it makes you more vulnerable to the criminal justice system.

[bb88]

Mods, add Opinion to the title.

[squeegee_scream]

https://archive.is/A25Lp

[tech_ken]

[flagged]

[PortiaBerries]

Well, whether or not fatherlessness is the actual cause (and I believe there is abundant evidence that it is), it seems very likely that partially rewinding the societal changes that have led to widespread fatherlessness are going to have a positive effect on crime. And yes, I'm talking about the sexual revolution.

[positus]

Why do you consider the opinion voiced in the article to be a "stupid opinion"?

[yourmatenate]

Its almost as if being on the precarious end of a precarious system lets down the most vulnerable.

[ofo8]

This is easy to falsify; lesbian parents exist, how do their kids rank? Study after study has found little difference in outcomes.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-sexual-continuum...

Fatherless-ness in those

Various studies have analyzed personality data written by teachers, managers, etc of kids raised by straight parents and kids raised by lesbians. Kids of lesbians self report fewer instances of anxiety to their teachers and other non-parental mentors. Those non-parental mentors register in their teachers notes, or medical notes, similar sentiments; trained professionals see fewer outbursts in kids raises by lesbians.

Personally, will categorize this as “ossified mind parrots memorized social script, film at 11”

What’s most likely is economic instability and too little quality mentorship overall leave people feeling crime is their only option.

[sjducb]

Kids of gay couples do better than kids of straight couples because it’s a really clear choice for gay couples to become parents.

About 70% of children to heterosexual couples are unplanned.

[mandmandam]

It's good to read at least as far as the sub-headline:

> Children are likelier to finish high school and stay out of trouble if they’re brought up by two parents.

Article goes on to talk about 2 parent families.

[Podgajski]

And poverty is the biggest root cause of fatherlessness.

[misja111]

I think you are swapping cause and effect here.

[drewcoo]

I don't quite follow you.

Is that because mothers wealthy enough not to be on welfare don't need to stay single to stay on welfare?

[johnea]

But of course, the WSJ would never want to admit that massive wealth inequality has negative consequences...

[vixen99]

You forgot to add any links for this blanket statement.

[HonestOp001]

Could you give some more insight on this?