It's sad when something that should be self evident is controversial

A recent dialog I had has me thinking about fatherless children. It's amazing how culturally we believe that it is fine for children to be raised without fathers, but not okay for children to be raised without mothers. Of course, mothers are soon also going to be unnecessary, too.

This is my source, and these stats are kind of old.

• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.

[U. S. D.H.H.S. Bureau of the Census]

• 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.
• 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes.

[Center for Disease Control]

• 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes.

[Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14 p. 403-26]

• 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.

[National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools]

• 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from fatherless homes

[U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept., 1988]

• 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.

[Fulton County Georgia Jail Populations and Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992]

• Nearly 2 of every 5 children in America do not live with their fathers.

[US News and World Report, February 27, 1995, p.39]

What does this mean? Children from fatherless homes are:

• 4.6 times more likely to commit suicide,

• 6.6 times to become teenaged mothers (if they are girls, of course),
• 24.3 times more likely to run away,
• 15.3 times more likely to have behavioral disorders,
• 6.3 times more likely to be in a state-operated institutions,
• 10.8 times more likely to commit rape,
• 6.6 times more likely to drop out of school,
• 15.3 times more likely to end up in prison while a teenager.