Parenting is hard. Single parenting is difficult. Single parenting in poverty is despicable. Many single parents living in poverty merely exist in environments that are similar to a nightmare one can only wish to wake up from. “African Americans rank behind all major racial/ethnic groups in annual household earnings (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Lee, 2005)”. Living in a perpetual state of survival often lead to ‘toxic stress’. This review will inform readers on the realities of poverty, the mental/behavioral effects of poverty and the consequences that later impact impoverished children’s future. Children raised in poverty are more likely to be referred into the juvenile justice system versus children raised in middle class.
POVERTY
Poverty has been defined as the state of deprivation from goods and services that are essential to the maintenance of an adequate standard of living. The U.S. government spends just 10% of the national budget on kids – a fraction of what other developed countries spend. Children raised in poverty experience poverty experience huger, unstable and sometimes harmful environments, emotional, physical and behavioral and mental health issues. (Crosson-Tower, Cynthia pg.66) Children raised in poverty face many challenges lacking necessary resources, proper support systems, and parental guidance than those of middle class families. The US Census Bureau conducted an American Community Survey from 2010-2015 for Floridians and the research showed that, “Nearly 70% of families in poverty with children are headed by a single-parent”. There are more African-American families living in impoverished communities which leaders to more mothers spending less time with their children that results in their children being more likely to be involved in criminal activities. The least educated racial/ethnic group are African Americans whose single parents lack adequate resources to expose their children to better opportunities. Many live with and are being raised by grandparents which means there is less supervision and emotional support. And, many experience unstable environments which affect nutrition and daily needs are often compromised. Poor housing, nutrition and health care all play a factor as it pertains to an impoverished family. Impoverished communities affect its constituents differently. Nevertheless, children are still impacted negatively. Children living in impoverished neighborhoods often times lack space and resources for a community center or park for younger children. Middle aged and older children are ofter pre exposed to physical, drug and mental abuse.
Most often children in middle class households have a higher socio economic status which allots children the safety of daily needs being met. They are likely to be raised by both parents which provide children with better structure and emotional support often resulting in less unsupervised time and better decision making. It is proven that when a child is shown love, support and encouragement from parents children are better equipped to thrive under pressure and are less likely to act out. Due to middle class families having more resources, children are just as likely to experience stress just in a different capacity. Note: Not all children who live in poverty will face the criminal justice system but often live with risk factors that typically contribute to the outcome.
Mental Health
Poverty is mental and social. 13.5% of blacks, 10.9% of Hispanics, 5.8% of Asians and 4.3 of whites live in deep poverty here in the U.S. New research is showing how children who’s fathers are incarcerated suffer from twice as many mental health issues than a child who’s father is not incarcerated. This is another component that adds to the realities of toxic stress. In cases of extreme poverty many parents abuse drugs and alcohol to cope which in turns turns into neglect; all issues which compounds the mental health issues of children. Nevertheless, the abuse leaves many children in a state of hopelessness with a sense of feeling unloved within the family unit.
In fact, only alcohol and drug abuse are cited more often than poverty as a factor relating to child abuse (Jaudes & Voohis, 1995). A shift of 1 percent of children from the category of “absent father, non-working mother” to absent father, working mother” is associated with an increase in substantiated cases of physical abuse of 6.6 percent and an increase in neglect of 12.6 percent the authors find.”
Due to the disruptions and uncertainties of daily life in that affect an impoverished family it also affects the development of the brain and decreases the ability to achieve goals. Children in poorer communities are at a higher risk for physical health problems, for example: low birth rate, inadequate food supply, and risky behavior such as smoking or engaging in early sexual activity. “Absent fathers, unemployed fathers, and increased poverty are all associated with increased maltreatment. Poverty ultimately has a larger impact on neglect than on physical abuse. If single mothers work, child maltreatment is considerably more likely due to their high stress level tend to be more neglectful/abusive. More so, children growing up in poverty are left in the care of someone who may also be neglectful/abusive.
Department of Juvenile Justice
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice does not directly report many statistics that relate to Florida children who are raised in poverty. Though many are more than likely to be subjected to negative interactions in the Juvenile Justice Center who devoted resources to, “breaking the cycle of poverty”, are offered counseling through job related services, parenting classes and counseling of life skills. Poverty and crime are best addressed as a social problem, and knowing the statistics and programs that work best for the youth will help prevent future involvement in the justice system and lower crime rates.
Youth detentions are made up of “secure detentions” located in a local facility or an “in-home detention program”. “Male admissions accounted for 78 percent of all detentions…. (FDJJ, 2006 pg. 58) Of the secure detentions in just Miami-Dade County, the non-Hispanic white male offender admissions were 261 offenders, the black offenders were 2,161, and the Hispanic white offenders were 1,442 inmates. The most reported crime among children in Florida is property offenses being burglary with 8,840 arrests. (FDJJ, 2006, p. 7). The second most reported crime by youth in the state of Florida is battery with 15,786 arrests (FDJJ, 2006, p. 5). The third most reported are drug offenses with a total of 9,881 arrests (FDJJ, 2006, p. 9). It is not clear as to how poverty contributes to the outcome.
Although this is not a conclusive indication of poverty and crime in youth populations, it does suggest that poverty plays a role in crime at least in Florida’s largest metro area. Each year the dept. releases a comprehensive evaluation of their services. Although household income is not widely reported by the state, many statistics are reports in terms of ethnicity and gender. Burglary, Assault & Battery and Drug offenses are a typical consequence of children living in impoverished communities.
Conclusion
The decision to proceed with the hypothesis of, ‘children raised in poverty are more likely to be referred into the juvenile justice system through the education system versus children raised in middle class’ was a mutual decision of the group. The information gathered dis-proved the hypothesis due to a lack of data not available primarily from the confidentiality of mental health data not available and the FL Department of Juvenile Justice. If data was collected at the time of diagnosis and arrests which proved the household income our hypothesis may have proved true. In order to prove our thesis more information based on household income must be gathered.