This is nothing short of a scandal. The report correctly identifies illegitimacy as a root cause of crime, but it fails to explain why. The issue is so sensitive that the Curran report prefers not to deal with it at all. However, even if the Curran report had placed more emphasis on this topic, the limited focus on teenage mothers would still have been insufficient. Though the issue of unmarried teen pregnancy touches upon illegitimacy's key role in crime, it is not necessarily central to it.
Absent fathers are the crucial indicator of delinquency.
This is key. That the Curran report chooses to ignore the issue is testimony to the establishment's fear of the consequences of tackling sensitive issues head on.