California Healthy Marriages Coalition Says Helping Couples With Marriage Can Also Help Cut the Cost of Juvenile Crime

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The LA Times recently highlighted a study from the California Dropout Research Project which identified an increase of $1.1 billion in costs associated with crime due to higher numbers of juveniles dropping out of school. Several studies now link high divorce rates with increases in juvenile delinquency and academic decline, pointing the way to an innovative marriage-strengthening solution that reduces these spiraling costs.


Pennsylvania State Professor Paul A. Amato summarized results in 2005 from 93 studies confirming that children with divorced parents are on average worse off than those with continuously married parents on measures of academic success, conduct, behavior problems, aggression, psychological well-being, self-esteem, and peer relations. Similarly, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Waves I and II found "20 percent of students in Grades 7-12 who lived with their married, biological parents experienced suspension or expulsion from school, in contrast with rates higher than 50 percent among adolescents who lived with a single, never-married parent." A 2005 study from the Center for Marriage and Families found "Children growing up with non-intact families engage in more adolescent misbehavior harming both grades and test scores, and concluded that "Family structure substantially influences high school dropout rates and graduation rates."


California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC) President Dennis Stoica believes that Marriage and Relationship Education can reduce these problems. "If we want to reduce dropout and delinquency rates, we need to look at broad scale means for teaching parents the skills for creating healthy marriages and families. Research clearly shows that relationship skills programs help keep families together. By making these programs more widely available throughout the state, we would be able to keep more kids out of the juvenile justice system and significantly lower social services costs that our State now struggles with."


In the LA Times article, California's Dropout Research Project Director Russell Rumberger estimates that reduced crime will save the state $2 for every $1 invested. Responding to this, CHMC's Stoica says "We welcome a partnership with legislators, law enforcement officials and the Department of Education to educate the public about healthy relationships as a means for lowering juvenile delinquency rates and the cost of juvenile crime. Together we can tackle this problem with an innovative educational approach with widespread benefits."


CHMC is the recipient of the Federal government's largest Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant. For the past four years, CHMC has taught proven relationship-building skills to California individuals and couples. Local class information is available at www.CaMarriage.com.