Combating Gangs by Combating Fatherlessness
June 6th, 2008 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
My wife and I were at one of Hollywood PR guru Michael Levine's dinner parties the other night and had an interesting conversation with Dennis Zine, a Los Angeles City Councilman. One of my former employees is one of Zine's key people, so I've followed his career some. He's an interesting guy, and something of a maverick.
Anyway, at the dinner he was talking about Los Angeles' gang problem and how to deal with it. I put forward the notion that the key issue with gangs is fatherlessness. Zine was caught a little off-guard. I mean, I'm sure he's aware of the linkage between fatherlessness and troubled youth but, like many politicians, he's saddled with so many immediate problems and having to put out fires that there's often insufficient time for long-term solutions.
I inflicted my co-authored newspaper column on fatherlessness and gangs on Dennis and he said he'd read it. I don't think reducing fatherlessness has to be that much of a long-term solution--there are things California could do in the short term. Two good places to start would be:
1) helping fathers, including low-income, unwed fathers, get meaningful joint custody
2) reining in the child support system which victimizes low-income minority dads
The column is below. I also recommend my blog post 'The first thing one notices about the gang world is this: There are no fathers', which is about Sudhir Venkatesh's research on gangs.
CA Anti-Gang Bills Miss Central Truth About Kids & Gangs
By Mike McCormick and Glenn Sacks
Gangs were responsible for 70% of the shootings last year in Los Angeles, and local lawmakers are proposing numerous measures to address the gang crisis. One package of bills, recently endorsed by Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, Sheriff Lee Baca, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, would make it more difficult for gang members to get firearms. Another, introduced by Compton Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, would create Gang Alternative Education Programs in selected inner-city areas.
While these measures have merit, one central truth is being ignored—the presence of fathers, including nonresident fathers, greatly reduces the likelihood that a teen will become involved in crime or gangs.
A study just released by Boston College finds that when nonresident fathers are involved in their adolescent children’s lives, the incidence of violence, crime, substance abuse and truancy decrease markedly. Most of the families in the study, which was published in the journal Child Development, are low-income African-American and Hispanic families. The study's lead author, professor Rebekah Levine Coley, explains:
"Nonresident fathers in low-income, minority families appear to be an important protective factor for adolescents…Greater involvement from fathers may help adolescents develop self-control and self-competence, and may decrease the opportunities adolescents have to engage in problem behaviors."
The study also found that when teens begin to slide towards delinquency, nonresident fathers increase their involvement in response. The researchers found such involvement to be effective--the impact of father involvement was the greatest on the kids who had previously been the most troubled.
The new study’s findings are consistent with a wealth of research on the impact of fathers. One study published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency concluded that fatherlessness is so predictive of juvenile crime that, as long as there was a father in the home, children of poor and well-to-do families had similar juvenile crime rates. A University of Chicago study of crime in the African-American areas of 171 cities found that fatherlessness was the strongest predictor of violent juvenile crime.
The link between fatherlessness and crime has long been axiomatic for law enforcement officials. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox says he’s examined hundreds of pre-sentencing reports detailing the family histories of convicted criminals, and found one common denominator:
“Uniformly, there was a parent, usually the father, missing from the home.”
The devastating impact of fatherlessness is clearly understood behind prison walls. In an interview of juvenile offenders at the California Youth Authority in Stockton, reporter Ramon McLeod quotes one 20 year-old gang member, who was incarcerated for trying to kill a gang rival, as saying, “[My father] was never around when I needed him…[my mom] did OK until I was 10--she could control me up to then. But then I went to the gangs, like my brothers…It might have mattered if he was around.”
McLeod writes:
“Teenage inmates in the room nodded. Most of them come from single-parent families, too…73 percent of the young men in California's massive juvenile prison system grew up in single-parent and broken families.”
While some nonresident fathers voluntarily remove themselves from their children’s lives, there are many low-income African-American and Latino fathers who seek a greater role in their children’s lives and are thwarted by the family law system.
Most California child custody arrangements provide fathers only a few days a month to spend with their children, and fighting for shared parenting is expensive and difficult. Misguided custodial mothers frequently fail to honor visitation orders, and while California spends several hundred million dollars a year on child support enforcement, there is no system in place to help enforce visitation orders. In such cases, fathers must scrape together money for an attorney so they can go to court, and even then courts enforce visitation orders indifferently.
Moreover, many inner city noncustodial fathers owe child support to the state to repay the cost of the welfare their children’s mothers’ received. A study of California child support obligors conducted by the Urban Institute found that the system’s demands upon low-income men are often wildly unrealistic. This and the enforcement system's abusive practices often make it hard for young, low-income men to function as fathers.
Lawmakers can’t turn a disinterested parent into a caring one, but they can do much to break down the barriers separating children from caring nonresident fathers. Tougher law enforcement measures and gang prevention programs have their place. However, the best way to keep teenagers out of gangs is to help them get the much-needed discipline, care and love that so many fathers are skilled at providing.
This article first appeared in the Pasadena Star-News & Affiliated Papers (3/25/07).
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June 6th, 2008 at 11:12 am
re: Zine was caught a little off-guard.
...Why am I not surprised? Just like the former presidential candidate who said fathers need to stay around and raise their kids, apparently completely oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of divorces are filed by women...
June 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Not only fatherlessness, but you mix on top of that, school systems Where the males have been conditioned to trip over each other to help the girls get an education, at the expense of near abandondement of our boys educations, and you get the results we are now getting.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Way to go: getting yourself in the right place and time, and speaking up judiciously. Thanks for being there and carrying the flag for dads.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
This is nothing new. A century ago and more ago, the word bastard described a no father male.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Glenn,
Good timing... and well done.
Thanks.
G_R
June 6th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
....rather than report on the connection between fatherlessness and crime, the mainstream media is more likely to be lauding well-heeled women for making the choice to have babies without any father around....
June 6th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
So instead of spending millions of dollars on prevention programs and advertising campaigns and jail costs and other societal costs of gang violence, one good solution might be to have a father in their sons' lives? That's so simple it almost doesn't seem real.
"One study published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency concluded that fatherlessness is so predictive of juvenile crime that, as long as there was a father in the home, children of poor and well-to-do families had similar juvenile crime rates."
What if the father is not available (or in jail)? Would a mother's boyfriend be a substitute (long term boyfriend)? What about an uncle or granfdather?
June 6th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Just to play devil's advocate ...
With almost 40% of American babies being born today into single-mother households, I think it is a mistake to see the Family Court circus as primarily about "breaking up families."
Why? Because in the majority of unmarried pregnancies, no family ever existed.
In today's rampant "hook up" culture, men inseminate women for sport, and women spread their legs for money.
The "father" had no sentimental attachment to the 'ho who became his baby's mommy. He likewise has no emotional attachment as her "baby daddy." (He may be BD # 2, #3, #4 ... etc.)
The term "father" carries with it a lot of cultural baggage about caring and commitment and relationship that is often just not evident in these "pump her and dump her" exchanges. (And, to be balanced, she may just want to increase her monthly ADC payments and the hook-up boyfriend was never envisioned as a stable father figure, only a means to cash in from the current welfare system.)
It is easy to become a father in the minimal biological sense.
That is not a certain path to "family."
June 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I do agree with the fatherlessness, but I believe gangs go much further than that. As many ex-member have said, being in a gang may just be for protection to some. They may have both father and mother in the home, but not being in a gang leaves them in a warzone without protection. Some who would not choose to be in a gang do so to be protected. A friend of mine lived in a gang area. Going to work, he packed, and they had gun lockers at work for the employees. He moved, sold his home he'd lived in for 45 years after his wife was hit by a stray and was paralized from the waist down.
Gangs too are criminal organizations, like the mafia but less discreate. They seek $$$$$$$. What I found during my behavior research is one word "happiness". People lack personal happiness. They are not happy with who they are, therefore they seek instant gradification to fill that void. If everyone was happy, they wouldn't seek happiness out of the bigger home, the new car, new cloths, or physical means. Look at the large number of plastic surgeries. People just aren't happy.
Another big problem we have is ignoring the negative. In gang areas people rush home, lock their doors with more locks than I have on my door, make sure widows are secure, then they're safe so what happens outside their safety zone is of no business to them.
I've said before "whats good for the few is good for the whole, what's not good for the whole is not good for the few". We could actually learn from gang members and how they live. They are in an area where not being part of a gang could leave you an instant victim. They know in order to survive they have to live and protect in a certain way. We who live in better communities, go to work, come home, yet have no real community involvement. We blend into negative decisions government makes without taking actions against it. Americans are the true power of government and in order to create change we need to stand up for what we believe in and take our government back. We must demand decisions which benefit the whole and not a small part. We must demand our agencies to act with integrity and put this country first. Would you just go in and enter a gang neighborhood? I know I try to avoid. That's because they all work together to create their environment. We can do the same as a nation. We may not agree with the acts of the gangs, but we can learn from their unity.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:07 am
If you stop rewarding females for having children out of wedlock i.e public assistance. And stop rewarding females for breaking up families i.e child support and alimony at least 65% of the problem would be solved.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:09 am
We can't reward females for having children, just because they want the freedom to do so and expect everyone else to pay for it.
June 7th, 2008 at 10:16 am
But Roy, the existence of the family court system, with its "let the women get it all" message, also promotes unwed births by providinga disincentive to marriage. Even if they are not directly involved in one case, they promote the problem. Same way that you may drive the speed limit even if you've never been stopped by the police. The authority in charge makes marriage a bad deal and makes being a committed father a more risky affair, therefore there are less of both.
June 7th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Jeanna asks
What if the father is not available (or in jail)? Would a mother's boyfriend be a substitute (long term boyfriend)? What about an uncle or granfdather?
MCA gives his opinion,
One of my earliest mentors, who were outside my familly, was my crazy science teacher in high school. The man would never comb his hair, and wore a white lab suit wherever he went. He was definatelly a radical electron, and I admired that he was somewhat immune to the hysteria around him.
So yes, to boys, mentors mean sometimes more than even biological fathers.
June 8th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Gangs are increasingly becoming domestic and international terrorist movements. Gangs such as MS-13, The Crips, Bloods, Outlaws, Hells Angels have been found with military weaponry provided by transnational criminal organizations and even governments who want Americans civilians killed. They are a serious threat to our domestic security and even what integrity remains in our political systems. They bring in illegal aliens, guns, drugs and threaten the rights and freedoms of law-abiding citizens. It isn't so far fetched that gangs could also bring in nuclear, biological or chemical weapons for attacking the American people. They have no loyalty except to power and money, and make useful idiots for the global elite's dirty work too. Who will cry a river over gang bangers killed by police or their intended victims? Nobody, that's who. It will take a lot more than providing guidance to young people who badly need it, it will also require vigorous enforcement of laws already in place and securing our borders as well to begin to smash gangs, or at least keep them from turning into dangerous terror movements. That can be done without trashing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Taras
June 10th, 2008 at 9:25 am
There can be no doubt, that a woman just doesn't get it when it comes to discipline.
I have often told my wife (2nd marriage) that she needs to let me be the dad, and stop trying to abridge my behavior because she thinks it may be too harsh. I do not physically hurt any child, but the scolding for the irresponsible behavior leaves an impact.
I have even pointed out to her at times she is just as harsh, but she denies that (even when right after it happens)
Her role is the mom. nurturing, supporting and loving.
My role is the dad. firm, resolute, scary and loving.
The old adage of "wait till your father gets home" was right on the money... if anyone fears the repercussions of their actions enough, they will not commit the injustices intended.
I have seen this time and time again. It worked then, It works now (when allowed to), and it will work in the future (if not stripped away)
June 10th, 2008 at 10:31 am
There is no evidence that the female makes the best molder of young people, in fact there is evidence to the contrary. Thank God Barack O'bama was raised by his grandparents so he did have some male influence and learned only the lessons the male figure can impart.