Joseph Schreiner: Author and Columnist

Crime and Punishment in the United States – Part I

Cold Moon, 04 December 2025

This moon’s post is the first in a series addressing crime and the legal system in the United States. Being the first post, I discuss what I believe is the most significant upstream cause of crime in the United States. But first, let me dispense with factors that I believe do not contribute to crime in the US:

The first of these non-causes is poverty. Many societies are or have been poor. But these societies were not wracked by crime. Indeed, Americans in the 1930s were relatively poor by today’s standards. Violent crime, except that spawned by alcohol prohibition, was not a significant problem. And if we take the long-term, historical view, those Americans living in poverty today have a much higher standard of living than royalty of the past.

The second of these non-causes is drugs. Drugs do not cause crime, real crime. Drug use, possession, and distribution are artificial, fake crimes. At worst, they harm nobody but those who voluntarily use them. It is government prohibition that creates the criminal milieu.

So what is the fundamental cause of the violent crime that is so rampant in urban centers of the United States? It is the government itself, federal, state, and local. And by what mechanism? The government pays irresponsible women to breed children without fathers present in their lives.

Government support, subsidy, of fatherless households is not charity. It is child abuse. The negative consequences of fatherless households are legion: poor academic performance, poor physical and mental health, teen pregnancy, suicide, behavioral disorders… But what I wish to stress here is the increase of criminal behavior. Other sources discuss this issue in detail, including the America First Policy Institute:

https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/fact-sheet-fatherhood-and-crime

I refer the reader to this web site for more details, but I cite a few of their findings here:

It has been reported that fatherless children are anywhere from 3 to 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than children raised in dual-parent households
71% of teachers and 90% of law enforcement officials state that the lack of parental supervision at home is a major factor that contributes to violence in schools.
Some data suggests 72 percent of adolescent murderers and 70 percent of long-term prison inmates come from fatherless homes

Children, especially boys, raised in fatherless households are less likely to be held to high standards of behavior, to be held accountable for their behavior, and to have positive role models.

But this subsidy of irresponsible feminine behavior has a second order effect on crime: dysgenics. The government encourages the breeding of children with lower intelligence, lower self-control, and lower conscientiousness, all of which are correlates of criminal behavior. To make matters worse, it suppresses the birth of less criminally inclined children by taxing intelligent and responsible parents. Ever so slowly, the government is displacing the constructive, productive sector of the United States with the criminally inclined.

This issue is discussed at Grokipedia:

https://grokipedia.com/page/Dysgenics

If the government wants to reduce crime over the long term, the first thing to be done is to stop all subsidies of fatherless households. Irresponsible women should not be encouraged to breed criminally inclined children. It might take a generation before we see the effect, but our descendants will thank us for it.