Happy Father’s Day?

I have my reservations about Father’s Day. An import from across the pond that has more of a history with selling greetings cards than anything else, but call me sceptical. Nevertheless it is a nice sentiment, and I confess to be suitably fussed over by my children and I am very grateful for their love and gifts.

Nevertheless it does remind me of the statistics about fatherlessness. Of course there are plenty of people who miss their fathers on days like today. Perhaps through illness or tragedy their relationship with their father was cut short. For many people days like today will no doubt be very difficult.

I am thinking though of absent fathers. Those who through choice, neglect or conduct remove themselves from their children’s lives. According to figures from 2021 by the Office of National Statistics amongst lone parents, mothers outnumber fathers by nearly six times. Of course there are many reasons why families have become more fragmented over the generations, and plenty of examples of fathers who may not be living in the same home as their children, but still maintain a strong parental rule. There are also those fathers who want to be involved and for some reason cannot be. This is however not universal.

The Guardian has reported on the work of Clinical Psychologist Jenny Taylor who demonstrated “very striking” difference between groups of boys who shared the similar socio-economic backgrounds and even demonstrated similar rates of dyslexia. In her study 80% of the “good boys” (not known to the police, no trouble with teachers) has good relationships with their biological fathers. Whereas the group of “bad boys” (in trouble at school/expelled, criminal convictions) only 45% said they had anyone who they considered a father figure and just 4% had their biological father living at home.

In an - admittedly now rather aged - study by the Prison Reform Trust in 2013, it was shown that 76% of the young men in prison in England and Wales had absent fathers. There is also plenty of evidence to suggest that the absence of a father has an adverse impact on daughters too.

This is not to say that the traditional nuclear family is the only way to raise children. As stated above there are plenty of families who make different household arrangements work, and of course only a tiny proportion of the population that commit crimes. Nevertheless it is frankly reckless to ignore such statistics.

The Centre for Social Justice reported in 2011 that in Camden, 62% of families had no father. This may be stark example but the same study showed that there were 236 other areas in England and Wales where the figure was more than 50%. That is to say, it was the norm. In the majority of families in those areas there was no father.

When we look at improving children’s life chances, and reducing their likelihood of becoming involved in crime, we often talk about involving schools. This is of course crucial, the work of Thames Valley Police’s schools officers, alongside our violence reduction unit and the efforts of dedicated teachers makes a real difference. I have long felt that we ignore parents at our peril. All too often we appear to have outsourced the raising of children to the state, expecting schools to do everything. Parents are responsible for raising their children, and to a large part responsible for their children’s behaviour.

So whilst I am determined that we should do more to work with parents, to support them, help them and their children in order to reduce crime, perhaps we should focus particularly on the role of fathers.