1. 1FrischknechtCaleb FrischknechtEnglish 2010Tues-Thurs 10:00 Broken Homes, Broken Society Society is strongly affected by families worldwide. The examples parents set fortheir kids are very influential, either to build them up or damage them indefinitely.Statistics show that most criminals come from broken homes which include childrenwith single parents, young parents and living in poverty, which are only a few examplesof the many kinds of broken homes. In most cases, how children are raised will eithermake 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 1980s teen pregnancy has gone down significantly upuntil about 2006-2007. Between 2005 and 2007, the rate rose 5 percent (from 41 to42.5 per 1,000 women). This increase follows a 14-year decline between 1991 and2005, when the rate fell by one- third (from 62 to 41 per 1,000 women). (TeenagePregnancy) Even though many of these numbers do result in abortions, there are still ahigh number of children being born to teen mothers, who dont always have a husbandor father figure when the child is born and therefore have to care for the child on theirown. Many of these children are accident babies and because of that the motherisnt ready for the child and sometimes doesnt care as much for them. Of course thatsnot always the case, a small percentage of pregnant teenagers turn out to be amazing

2. 2Frischknechtmothers. Sometimes the families feel hurt or dishonored and will disown the teenmother, or the young father andmother will have to give up schooljust to work full time to care for thelittle family. Its hard to have a kidin the first place, kids are a lot ofmoney and responsibility, and ifsomeone is young and unpreparedthen 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 inschools to talk about safe sex. The idea of sex is too exciting and common among youngpeople today, it isnt effective enough to just say dont have sex until you are marriedanymore. Teenagers need that guidance and direction from others about how to lowerthe risks of premarital sex. Its impossible to stop teenagers from experimenting withsex, but if they have some guidance in how to be safer about sex it will help preventother more serious problems.Children brought up in broken family units or homes that have only one parentusually have more social and behavioral problems in comparison to those with twoparents. Individuals who are single parents are more likely to live in poverty, especiallywomen, as they usually are younger and less educated than others. This makes it harderto get good employment to support a family, which means a lower income which has anegative impact on the family causing more problems. This doesnt mean that allchildren of single parents grow up to be irresponsible adults, many of them actually 3. 3Frischknechtgrow up to be responsible normal adults. They tend to grow up faster than kids of twoparent households because they are more involved with the decision-making, whichhelps them understand the effects of good and bad choices. A single parent will deeplyimpact the life of the child, whether positive or negative, depending on how the parenthandles different situations. State-by-state analysis by Heritage scholars indicates that a10 percent increase in the percentage of children living in single-parent homes leadstypically 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 thatfamily breakdown is a major cause of mental illness. They revealed that children frombroken homes are more likely to go on to suffer depression, commit crime and dieyounger. 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 onto say The conflict between parents has been linked to a range of adjustment problemsin kids, for example deprived peerinteraction, ill health, anxiety,depression and conduct problems.Kids having single or step-parents arefifty percent more prone to fail atschool, having low self-worth,deprived peer relationship and behavior difficulties, added the report. Problems dontjust start right away out of these situations, it takes time. Kids are like sponges and ifthey grow up in that lifestyle they will just assume life is just that way. Like Rajanmentioned, it leads to mental illness, which over time turns into more serious disorders 4. 4Frischknechtleading to crime and many misdeeds. In some rare occasions the child or children takethe other direction in life and become successful or live happy and healthy lives unliketheir parents, excelling in school and work. For example, Jodie in our class recalled herearly history of parents abusing drugs and them going in and out of prison. She saweverything horrible that could possibly happen and yet she pulled through and is living ahappy, 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 arehomeless and have little or nothing. The family she is assigned to has four young boysand two girls who participate in the program. A couple years ago the dad was arrestedand put in jail, leaving the mother and children to fend for themselves. They currentlylive at a homeless shelter downtown and have to take trax all the way up to Midvale forthis program, which is really the only solid thing in their lives. Things that seem goodand taken for granted to us are scary and taboo for them. Cops for instance are the badguys 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 majorbehavior issues and temper tantrums where they will just lash out at whoever is nearthem. This has to be a result of their childhood and the poverty they have been livingthrough. In addition to their own poverty, they have plenty of bad examples at theshelter influencing how they act and what they do, instead of having good examplesfrom their parents. What the country needs is more programs that help benefit children and youngteenagers in finding healthy and happy ways of life. They need guidance and support in 5. 5Frischknechtthose early times in their lives when things matter most. Bad influences and exampleswill not only hurt and/or destroy them for the rest of their lives, but it will also affect thelives of many others in devastating ways. Whether it is through schools that theseprograms take place, or homeless shelters, or even just in communities, the help andguidance will make worlds of difference.Why should these kids suffer because of the mistakes and problems of theirparents? We as a people cant just sit around and hope that society will get better on itsown, or hope that someone else will take action and make things better. It needs to startin our own homes. Crime rates are getting higher and higher every day, while divorcerates steadily increase on a regular basis. Its hard for good examples to shine throughthe massive amounts of bad examples out there. There are many statistics proving thispoint and plenty of real life examples of kids who have come from broken homes whoend up in prison because of bad decisions they made. But who are we to blame for thecrimes, the criminal, or the parents of the criminal? 6. 6FrischknechtWorks 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." TheHealth 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 ofMarriage, 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-crimeFrischknecht, 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 7. 7Frischknecht"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