The Case for Parental Licensure

Abstract

The violent crime-rate in the United States increased nearly 500% from 1960 to 1992. Subsequent small decreases can be attributed to the 500% increase since 1980 in the number of men locked up in American prisons. The most plausible explanation for this increase in crime and other social pathology is the sharp increase since the 1960s in the proportion of young men who were reared without the participation of their biological fathers. In the U.S., boys reared without fathers are approximately seven times more likely to become delinquent, then criminal. Girls reared without fathers are more likely, in consquence, to produce babies out-of-wedlock, to become teen-age runaways, and to drop out of school. Millions of American children are now being reared by (or domiciled with) parents who are incompetent, over-burdened, immature, or unsocialized themselves and many of these children will be thereby cheated of their birthright to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is argued that society has a responsibility to these children to require that persons who plan to acquire a child biologically must meet the same minimal standards expected of persons hoping to adopt a baby, namely, that they be mature, married, self-supporting, and neither criminal nor crazy.

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