Research shows a disproportionate number of criminals involved in acts of violence come from fatherless families.

It is a major contributor to poverty, drop out rates, drug use, criminal activity, teen pregnancy, suicide, attraction to gang membership, sex crimes and so on.

For instance among African Americans today up to 80% are raised without a father in the home, 70% of African American children are born to unwed mothers.

Although African Americans account for only approximately 12% of the U.S. population they represent 50% of the 2 million people in prison. In certain communities like Baltimore Maryland, close to 50% of African American males in the age group of 20-30 are either in jail, on trial, parole or otherwise implicated in the criminal justice system.

This is not a problem among African Americans; it’s to a significant degree a result of “fatherlessness”. Research shows white children from broken homes are at greater risk than blacks from homes where both the parents are present.

Unfortunately this is a growing global problem. In response to the relatively new phenomenon of gang violence in the United Kingdom, Melanie Phillips wrote in the Daily Mail,   “The problem is not too few laws or not enough police powers. It is that the laws we already have are being actively undermined by a culture that is sliding towards social anarchy...At the heart of the problem is family breakdown and the widening epidemic of mass fatherlessness.”

Writing in the Jamaica Gleaner, Kevin O’Brien Chang writes, “Why does Jamaica have what is probably the highest murder rate in the world? 

According to World Bank figures Jamaica ranks 76th out of 187 countries in per capita income, meaning there are 111 poorer countries than us, nearly all less murderous. In 1962 the average Jamaican was far poorer and less schooled than today. Yet, the 2005 homicide rate was over 10 times that in 1962.....

No one knows for sure. But police tell me that the average criminal is a young man from a broken home with little education and no skills whose mother probably has little schooling herself and started having children very young. Most criminals probably don't even know who their fathers are - one notorious outlaw crew calls itself the 'Fatherless Gang'.

Research shows all countries are dealing with this issue as a growing problem.

It is for that purpose we wrote the “Our Father” book. We feel in communicating Pastor Smith’s story we can give insight, understanding and awareness of what has become the major social issue of our time.