Sage

Something that these stats don't address, and something which was talked about extensively in my Sociology classes in college, is that when you say something like "children from fatherless homes are blah blah blah" you're not taking into account WHY the children are fatherless to begin with. Are their parents middle class and white, and just got a divorce, or are these children from poor famlies with fathers who are in prison? If you're poor and your dad is in prison, it makes sense that where you live there is a lot of crime and possibly a higher oppurtunity for you (the kid) to get into trouble. These stats aren't taking into account the whole picture of society from which these "troubled kids" come from.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc- the fallacy of saying that "because B happens after A, B happens BECAUSE of A." We don't know if these kids are in trouble because their dads are nonexistent, or because they live in poverty where the only percieved way to "get ahead" is to sell drugs, be in a gang, or date a drug dealer. Always look at the broader spectrum.

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