Fathers’ absence, custody disputes fuelling youth crime – study

A new study has linked the rise in violent offending among young men to absent fathers and the weaponisation of child visitation disputes, warning that fractured families and lack of positive male guidance are leaving boys vulnerable to street influences.

The report examines the social histories of 47 people under 25 on remand in prison.

Senior research analyst at the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit, Kirt Goodridge, said the lack of positive male role models in predominantly female-headed households had left many young men turning to the wrong influences.

“The majority came from female-headed households, with 66 per cent raised by a female caregiver, and 57 per cent reported family incarceration, often for serious crimes,” Goodridge said. “Most households were in St Michael (51 per cent) and Christ Church (26 per cent), and although 44 per cent of young people described their communities as peaceful, 63 per cent had witnessed violence, including shootings, fights, and murders.”

Goodridge emphasised the critical role of fathers in shaping young men’s development. “We’re seeing a lot of young men growing up with a lack of a positive father figure, and international research always demonstrates that a male figure is very vital to the development of a young man. And this is not a knock on females raising boys, but a mother cannot instill the same things that a father will instil.”

He said that without male grounding, young men seek guidance elsewhere, often from peers who praise violence and “machoism” as markers of manhood. “When we have young men being raised predominantly by females, what we’re seeing is that we have young men that do not have that male grounding in their upbringing. So then what is happening is that they’re longing for this grounding. And unfortunately they tend to turn to the wrong males for this backing…. And this is because you don’t have the strong father figures to guide them along another path.”

Goodridge called for family-strengthening programmes and judicial reforms to prevent the weaponisation of child visitation, where parental disputes limit a child’s access to a father. “We have to also reform the justice system because we have some parents who are weaponising access to children to get back at a father. Mothers who take fathers to court because they’re upset with the father and they limit access to the child as a way of punishing the father, but you’re also punishing the child.”

He suggested that reforms also target the education system. “The prime minister would have spoken earlier this year about ensuring that no child leaves school before the age of 18. And that is a necessity. We cannot have young men going into society at 16 with no qualifications whatsoever. So we have to reform the school system where we no longer put persons out of school. We’re encouraging them to stay in school…. And if they are not excelling at traditional academics, they have to find other mechanisms and roads to put them on a good path.”

Goodridge also underscored the need for men to step up and be present in the lives of their children. “I would encourage men to step up. And at the end of the day, I know that we live in a society where there are a lot of conflicts between mother and father. And yes, you as a male may not get along with the mother of your child, but choosing not to be in the child’s life because of that is not good for the child…. A child should not be deprived of access to their father because the mother and the father can’t get along.”

Research officer Melanie Banfield emphasised family-based intervention as the first line of defence against youth offending. “Strong families are the first line of defence against young offenders,” she said. “There is an opportunity to strengthen and expand these types of programmes through monitoring and evaluation, ensuring they reach more families, integrate mentorship for households affected by familial offending, and provide sustained engagement throughout childhood and adolescence.” (SZB)