PROTECTING MARRIAGE, INC
Statistic of The Week August 6, 1998
As this is the debut week for our Website, the statistic to start with is, perhaps appropriately, the most powerful -- and poignant -- that exists anywhere on divorce and its impact, but is one that politicians want to avoid and for you to not know about.
PROTECTING MARRIAGE, INC
Statistic of The Week August 6, 1998
from the Journal of Socio-Economics, 1994,
In a research study aimed to find a connection between unemployment and homicide, two researchers at Drexel University in Philadelphia reviewed 44 years of U.S. records (1940-1984) . They actually did not find a link between homicide and unemployment but what they did uncover was that "the most powerful predictor of HOMICIDE rates in the United States are the divorce rates."
Consider the significance of this finding. Divorce wasn’t ranked #2 or #7 or #23. It ranked at the very top. A year later a group of British sociologists basically reproduced this data, but their method was to tabulate data from 3, 000 counties in America and they found that the link from divorce to homicide was even stronger in rural areas. Now, what does this mean? As you continue reading, think about Jonesboro, Pearl and Padukah.
NO! In no way is this discovery inferring that divorced people are inclined to commit murder, but that is a familiar, instant response, even if we know it is ludicrous. But here is what it IS telling Americans:
Whether you are single, married forever, widowed or divorced . . . "You or those you love are at a significant risk of being a VICTIM of homicide, any marital status is subject to the danger that exists for you and those you love if you live in an area that has a high rate of divorce. As we see in horror, children are being killed now by other children. The problem for each of us is that we live in a country with a huge and steady number of terminated marriages with all the human emotional carnage that means. So even if you live in Massachusetts, the state with the lowest rate of divorce, you are still at risk, almost as much as Oklahoma which long has had a high divorce rate. Why? Because we reside in a nation with the largest rate of divorce in the world.
This summer, this statistic is a more crucial issue because there is a rare opportunity to have Congress put out a message about divorce and homicide. The Senate subcommittee on YOUTH VIOLENCE, chaired by Senator Sessions of Alabama, is working on S 10, known as the Juvenile Crime Bill. A simple amendment has been suggested that would reward up to 5 states yearly that lower their divorce rate by 1%. Any State can choose any method it wishes.But Senate staffers are resisting furiously; two Senators had agreed to consider offering this amendment, but faded. It is time to speak up . . . for the kids.
HALL OF SHAME 
MILITARY DIVORCES
NOTES AND NOTICES LETTER FROM PMI PRESIDENT
