Opinion: Soapbox - Fatherless families are not the whole problem

His argument seems to be: we have violence on the street, predominantlyin areas where there are one-parent families, so fatherlessness is themain reason boys are feral.

While young men from single-parent households are certainly overrepresented in crime, the way we interpret these findings is critical.Those like Cameron take facts such as young men from single-parenthouseholds are more likely to underachieve and leap to the absence of afather as the critical problem. But what does the absence of a fathermean exactly?

And if a father lives in a family then does their mere presence have apositive effect?

There are, of course, significant numbers of fathers who work long hoursto keep their families but, consequently, are at work for most of thehours their children are awake. Surely, it isn't the presence of afather but what he does that matters? It then follows if we understandwhat fathers do, why can't single mothers do the same?