Absent fathers have a ‘significant impact’ on behaviour of young people caught up in crime, drugs and gangs
by Martin Beckford, Mailonline:
Absent fathers have a ‘significant impact’ on the behaviour of young people caught up in crime, drugs and gangs, a shocking report has found.
Experts who examined the lives of 60 vulnerable teenagers in South London found that nearly three quarters were not living with their fathers.
Four in ten witnessed domestic abuse and many of the parents had problems with drink or drugs or were in trouble with police themselves – with their children often following suit.
The report was commissioned after three teenagers were stabbed to death in Croydon, South London, in November last year.
The report by the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board concluded: ‘A significant proportion of fathers were absent from the family home, which meant they had limited parental control or influence on their child’s behaviour, with the remaining parent finding it increasingly more difficult to curtail risky, or troublesome behaviours.’
Many of the youths’ parents themselves committed crime or abused drugs or alcohol, ‘possibly indicating to the child that such behaviour is acceptable’. Domestic abuse also ‘had a significant impact on the child’s behaviour and relationship with figures of authority’.
Of the 60 teenagers studied in the past two years, five have died –including the three who were stabbed, one who was killed in a moped crash and another who took a fatal dose of drugs.
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