Chapter 15: Union Station

In case you are wonderin' what is going on with this post....click here.

Fiorito takes a look at the stories of crime in a big city, most specifically Toronto. Fiorito tells us the stories of one courtroom as prisoners are sentenced one after another. He then tells us about three young girls who are murdered in Toronto.

This chapter got me thinking about what is a common denominator in the criminal's lives? There must be one thing that makes all criminals the same.

Well, there is no such common denominator (with the exception of the desire to commit a crime of course). But there are two common characteristics of most criminals that I've noticed over time: 1. Come from families who have a single parent and/or 2. were a victim of violence in their youth.

#2 is self explanatory (i.e. troubled youth who suffered a tramatic childhood just continues on down the wrong road).

In terms of #1, usually stories about young criminals have the single mother or father, who is struggling to make it life with their families, yelling that their son/daughter is headed to the slammer. Some of these parents blame society for letting them down. Society then turns around and casts their eyes down on these single parents and blame the parent for not raising their child properly resulting a crime being committed.

Who is correct in this situation? The parent or society?

I mainly blame the parent. Last time I checked it takes two to have a child, or at least in the conception of a child. The question is where did the second participant in the conception of the child go over time? Both participants in the conception, i.e. parents, should be involved in the raising of a child.

Without the second parent, their is only one person left to raise a child. This results in the leftover parent to work longer hours in order to raise the child all by themselves. The situation is worse if there is more than one child involved and/or if the parent has a low income job. This leaves the child all by themselves to their own devices. This could result in the child getting into criminal activity without the single parent even knowing it. Before long the child is arrested and thrown in jail and the parent blames society for not helping them raise the child.

The big question from in this situation is: "Did you have a relationship with the person you decided to have child with before you 'did the deed?'" Usually the answer is, "No". Case closed, if you don't invest in a relationship before considering children, problems may result down the road....

Footnote: Not all single parent families result in leading to crime. The above is just an observations over time of the backgrounds of those charged or convicted of crimes from various newspaper articles from Toronto, Ottawa and New York City. The above is not viewed from successful single parent families, which there are many, but at possibilities of how criminals might have found a life of crime.