These are the findings of a new report published by Hudson Institute, an Indianapolis-based public policy research organization. The report encourages states to seize the opportunity welfare reform offers to create a system that promotes self-sufficiency for welfare recipients and strengthens and rebuilds families. Working men tend to be more capable and responsible as fathers. Alter the states' priorities to promote not only father financial responsibilities but also the important role the fathers' involvement plays in their children's well-being. Simply stated, children need their fathers, and men need marriage to be good fathers.
Effective welfare means encouraging both more work and more marriages.
Statistically, nearly four out of every 10 children in the United States are being raised without their fathers. According to the report, the lack of a father in the home can have a devastating effect not only on the child but also on the community as a whole. Seventy percent of long-term prison inmates grew up without fathers, as did 60 percent of rapists and 75 percent of teenagers charged with murder. Children without fathers are also three times more likely to fail at school, three times more likely to experience problems requiring psychiatric treatment, three times more likely to commit suicide and nearly 40 times more likely to experience child abuse as compared to children growing up with both a mother and father in the home.