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Frischknecht
Caleb Frischknecht
English 2010
Tues-Thurs 10:00
Broken Homes, Broken Society
Society is strongly affected by families’ worldwide. The examples parents set for
their kids are very influential, either to build them up or damage them indefinitely.
Statistics show that most criminals come from broken homes which include children
with single parents, young parents and living in poverty, which are only a few examples
of the many kinds of broken homes. In most cases, how children are raised will either
make or break a society altogether.
As the years have passed, there have been many advances in “birth control”, i.e.
condoms, pills, etc. Since the 1980’s teen pregnancy has gone down significantly up
until about 2006-2007. “Between 2005 and 2007, the rate rose 5 percent (from 41 to
42.5 per 1,000 women). This increase follows a 14-year decline between 1991 and
2005, when the rate fell by one- third (from 62 to 41 per 1,000 women).” (“Teenage
Pregnancy”) Even though many of these numbers do result in abortions, there are still a
high number of children being born to teen mothers, who don’t always have a husband
or father figure when the child is born and therefore have to care for the child on their
own.
Many of these children are “accident” babies and because of that the mother
isn’t ready for the child and sometimes doesn’t care as much for them. Of course that’s
not always the case, a small percentage of pregnant teenagers turn out to be amazing

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mothers. Sometimes the families feel hurt or dishonored and will disown the teen
mother, or the young father and
mother will have to give up school
just to work full time to care for the
little family. It’s hard to have a kid
in the first place, kids are a lot of
money and responsibility, and if
someone is young and unprepared
then a child is quite a big surprise and burden to have to deal with.
A way to help solve this issue would be to have more helpful sex education in
schools to talk about safe sex. The idea of sex is too exciting and common among young
people today, it isn’t effective enough to just say don’t have sex until you are married
anymore. Teenagers need that guidance and direction from others about how to lower
the risks of premarital sex. It’s impossible to stop teenagers from experimenting with
sex, but if they have some guidance in how to be safer about sex it will help prevent
other more serious problems.
Children brought up in broken family units or homes that have only one parent
usually have more social and behavioral problems in comparison to those with two
parents. Individuals who are single parents are more likely to live in poverty, especially
women, as they usually are younger and less educated than others. This makes it harder
to get good employment to support a family, which means a lower income which has a
negative impact on the family causing more problems. This doesn’t mean that all
children of single parents grow up to be irresponsible adults, many of them actually

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grow up to be responsible normal adults. They tend to grow up faster than kids of two
parent households because they are more involved with the decision-making, which
helps them understand the effects of good and bad choices. A single parent will deeply
impact the life of the child, whether positive or negative, depending on how the parent
handles different situations. “State-by-state analysis by Heritage scholars indicates that a
10 percent increase in the percentage of children living in single-parent homes leads
typically to a 17 percent increase in juvenile crime.” (Patrick Fagan, Ph.D.)
In a Health Age article, Rajan says that “The leading experts have warned that
family breakdown is a major cause of mental illness. They revealed that children from
broken homes are more likely to go on to suffer depression, commit crime and die
younger. Such children often suffer behavioral problems such as lying and stealing.”
These are all things we want our children to avoid and never to take part in. He goes on
to say “The conflict between parents has been linked to a range of adjustment problems
in kids, for example deprived peer
interaction, ill health, anxiety,
depression and conduct problems.
Kids having single or step-parents are
fifty percent more prone to fail at
school, having low self-worth,
deprived peer relationship and behavior difficulties, added the report.” Problems don’t
just start right away out of these situations, it takes time. Kids are like sponges and if
they grow up in that lifestyle they will just assume life is just that way. Like Rajan
mentioned, it leads to mental illness, which over time turns into more serious disorders

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leading to crime and many misdeeds. In some rare occasions the child or children take
the other direction in life and become successful or live happy and healthy lives unlike
their parents, excelling in school and work. For example, Jodie in our class recalled her
early history of parents abusing drugs and them going in and out of prison. She saw
everything horrible that could possibly happen and yet she pulled through and is living a
happy, married life. She has not followed in her parents footsteps which is awesome.
Unfortunately there is not always a happy ending to most of these stories.
My wife is a teaching assistant for a program that deals with children who are
homeless and have little or nothing. The family she is assigned to has four young boys
and two girls who participate in the program. A couple years ago the dad was arrested
and put in jail, leaving the mother and children to fend for themselves. They currently
live at a homeless shelter downtown and have to take trax all the way up to Midvale for
this program, which is really the only solid thing in their lives. Things that seem good
and taken for granted to us are scary and taboo for them. Cops for instance are the bad
guys who took away their dad and will take them away too if they do something wrong.
The two older of the four boys need the most attention because they have major
behavior issues and temper tantrums where they will just lash out at whoever is near
them. This has to be a result of their childhood and the poverty they have been living
through. In addition to their own poverty, they have plenty of bad examples at the
shelter influencing how they act and what they do, instead of having good examples
from their parents.
What the country needs is more programs that help benefit children and young
teenagers in finding healthy and happy ways of life. They need guidance and support in

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those early times in their lives when things matter most. Bad influences and examples
will not only hurt and/or destroy them for the rest of their lives, but it will also affect the
lives of many others in devastating ways. Whether it is through schools that these
programs take place, or homeless shelters, or even just in communities, the help and
guidance will make worlds of difference.
Why should these kids suffer because of the mistakes and problems of their
parents? We as a people can’t just sit around and hope that society will get better on its
own, or hope that someone else will take action and make things better. It needs to start
in our own homes. Crime rates are getting higher and higher every day, while divorce
rates steadily increase on a regular basis. It’s hard for good examples to shine through
the massive amounts of bad examples out there. There are many statistics proving this
point and plenty of real life examples of kids who have come from broken homes who
end up in prison because of bad decisions they made. But who are we to blame for the
crimes, the criminal, or the parents of the criminal?

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Works Cited
Alvarado, Adam . "Explaining Teen Depression: The Effect of Broken Homes, pt. II."
The Last Broken Home | From Teenage Depression to Self Esteem. N.p., n.d. Web. 12
Apr. 2012. http://www.thelastbrokenhome.com/teenage-depression-2/
"Children from broken homes more prone to suffer depression and commit crime." The
Health Age. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. www.thehealthage.com/2011/02/failed-
families-linked-mental-illness-rise-psychiatric-health-hits-105bn/
Fagan Ph.D., Patrick. " The Real Root Causes of Violent Crime: The Breakdown of
Marriage, Family, and Community." Conservative Policy Research and Analysis.
Version 1026. N.p., 17 Mar. 1995. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1995/03/bg1026nbsp-the-real-root-causes-of-
violent-crime
Frischknecht, Kayla Jo. My wife.
"Single parent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-parent

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"Teenage pregnancy | Professionals | March of Dimes." Pregnancy, Baby, Prematurity,
Birth Defects | March of Dimes. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.
http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/medicalresources_teenpregnancy.html