Crime

I spent the last 7 years before coming to Congress as a Criminal Court Judge in Knox County. On my first day as Judge, I was told that 98% of the defendants in felony cases come from “broken homes.” I went through well over 10,000 cases in that position, since most people in Criminal Court plead guilty and apply for probation. It turned out to be more accurate that over 90% of defendants in felony cases came from father-absent households. Of course, many good people come from such homes, but we need to do a much better job educating young people about the consequences of out-of-wedlock births. Now just under 40% of all births, 80% of teen births, and 60% of births to early twenty-somethings are out of wedlock.
We need to tell young women over-and-over that if they get pregnant while very young, the odds are great that they and their child will live in poverty. We need to tell young men over-and-over if they do not help raise a child they father, they are probably dooming that child to a life of crime. Drugs and alcohol cause most crimes, but usually are secondary to the father.