This paper examines how due to the shift in society over the years, a rising proportion of children are being raised in single
parent homes. It analyzes the detrimental effects on a child bought up in a single parent home, whatever the circumstances may be and how juvenile delinquency, in particular, is a frequent consequence of this arrangement. Juvenile delinquency is not just a personal or familial problem, it is a social problem as well and research has shown that is even more of a problem for minorities. The minority child growing up without a father or mother increasingly sees crime and anti-social behavior in general, as the road to success. It uses the State of New Jersey as an example of cities that have been hard hit by economic
depression,
population decline, crime, out-of-wedlock births and single parenthood and evaluates the new minority culture of drugs and crime which is not only entrenched but is growing continually worse. Each new generation witnesses conditions worse than those seen by its predecessor.