NCJ Number
167414
Date Published
1995
Length
36 pages
Annotation
A review of the literature on violence causes concludes that the basic causes of violent crime are the absence of stable marriage and the resulting breakdown of family and community stability and that actions are needed to address these problems.
Abstract
Although overall crime rates have declined in recent years, both the level and severity of violent crime by adolescents have been rising steadily. These violent adolescents were born into chaotic family and social conditions. These conditions have become increasingly prevalent. The increasing rate of births out of wedlock will intensify these trend. Although government can staff and manage the criminal justice system efficiently and prevent crime in the short term through incarceration, it lacks both the capacity and the competence to address crime's basic causes. This task is the mission of three other basic societal institutions: the family, the church, and the school. Government needs help these institutions fulfill their missions by removing the burdens it has increasingly placed on them over the last 5 decades. Needed actions include hearings on the real causes of crime, a review of all national social programs, research on the effects on children of the intergenerational transmission of the single-parent family structure, welfare reform, promotion of volunteer community efforts, experiments with vouchers in inner cities, removal of barriers to adoption, promotion of religious worship, and reduction of taxes on marriage and children. However, leadership is also required. Figures and footnotes