Wade C. Mackey

About the author: Wade C. Mackey is a professor of anthropology at El Paso Community College in Texas and the author of Fathering Behaviors.

Children raised in single-parent families (especially those in which the mother is the single parent) are more likely to commit violent crimes both as juveniles and as adults than those raised in two-parent families. Statistics show a relationship between increasing rates of violent crime and the rise in divorce and out-ofwedlock childbearing. Reducing divorce and bolstering the role of fathers in families can help reduce the epidemic of violent crime.

The recent upsurge in violent crime in America has received a great deal of exposure in the popular media. News magazines, television specials, and radio talk shows are filled with the accounts of violent crimes, especially those perpetrated by...