One of the biggest issues in America today is crime. It is a large problem that continues to erode our country economically as well as morally. Because of the vastness of the problem, many have speculated what the cause for crime may be in hopes that a solution will be found. Many believe that a bad family life, location of residence, and poverty hold a few of the answers to why an individual becomes involved in criminal activity. Crime has been a major problem addressed in every presidential campaign for about three decades. This is because the American people are sick of the ever growing problem and seem to be voting for whoever claims to do the most about it. Major criminal justice functions such as correctional facilities, the FBI, and the Judicial branch have all, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, had increasing budgets for the past 15 years. The problems persist and we still scream for more crime prevention. Why does America experience such problems? There are many theories. The theory that holds the most validity is that many criminals have had a bad family life in one way or another. They have had few positive role models while growing up. John J. Dilulio, Jr., a scholar on crime policy, summed it up in one of his articles:[b]ased on my own reading of these studies plus about fifteen years of observation and interviews inside scores of prisons all across the country, I would posit that the hair-trigger mentality, the gang-related behavior, and the murderous violence itself emerge from the same source, namely the simple fact that inner-city teenagers have had few, if any, adults in their lives who gave them unconditional love, taught them right from wrong, and reared them accordingly (6). Dilulio's article states that "Seventy-five percent of the most violent incarcerated juveniles are children who were abused by a family member" (6). Dilulio also went on to say that half of all youth in long-term j...
