Baltimore riots caused by single parent households

While not commenting on race, Sara, a retired family counselor and advice columnist with Parenting with Sara noted that a majority of children in impoverished communities come from single parent households.  A lack of good parenting causes whole generations of undisciplined and disrespectful children and teens.  Given an environment where authorities are restrained or disabled, these teens are prone to develop a kind of group sociopathy resulting in the rioting behavior seen in Baltimore over the past few days.   

She said the low-income single parent culture often propagates generation after generation of dysfunctional children who never learn responsibility, respect for society nor empathy with their non-impoverished fellow man.  In multi-generational welfare homes this is often accompanied by an entitlement culture impossible to break without intervention.

Often single parent households, especially in the low-income demographic, the parent is unable to convey morality, empathy and respect for society.  Either the mother is working and her children are left without parental supervision, or she is on welfare and transmits an entitlement morality to her children who expect to live their lives the same way.  

Males raised in this environment follow the example of their absent fathers, taking little responsibility for their actions.  In this environment, children are left to the influences of the meanest examples on the street and the worst examples of behavior on television.

Sara is a retired counselor with Seven Counties Services in Louisville, Kentucky who writes advice column Parenting with Sara.  Her services were rendered in the impoverish areas of Louisville working with troubled families.