Root cause of misery that brings death to innocents

IN the aftermath of Shane Geoghegan’s tragic death, I believe the work of George Akerlof helps to explain much of what has been happening in Limerick city. Akerlof is professor of economics at the University of California Berkeley and a Nobel prizewinner.

He asked why there was so much crime and violence in American inner cities and concluded that with the arrival of contraception young men in these areas asked young women for sex on the understanding that there would be no babies and no marriage.

The women were forced to agree and then inevitably the unwanted pregnancies began. Akerlof noted, correctly, that more contraception meant more unwanted pregnancies.

Since the fathers had walked away, the mothers had to choose between aborting and keeping their babies. Those who kept their babies now found themselves in poverty, trying to mind a child and run a house while working outside. They often became depressed and turned to alcohol and drugs. They invited live-in male partners to their homes. These frequently abused the children physically and sexually, or caused further pregnancies. They came and went.

Many of the boys grew up uncontrollable without the modelling and guidance of a father, often abused by their stepfather and knowing that their biological fathers had rejected them. They did little at school, learned no trade or profession and many joined gangs and began to live by crime and violence. They soon got involved in turf wars.

I am simplifying Akerlof’s thesis, but it does seem to reflect the experience of Limerick city where last year nearly 60% of births were extramarital, where the rate of single-parent families is highest in the country and where dating agencies aiming at single mothers continue to thrive. In the torrent of words that followed the latest Limerick tragedy, no one dared to mention the root causes — especially contraception — which have led to such social devastation, damaging everybody caught up in this cycle of desertion and violence. Few commentators on this issue would venture to say how they might have turned out had they grown up in a similar milieu.

Is there any solution? Well, surveys show consistently that the attitude and opinions of parents on sexual matters influence their children’s views and behaviour more than any other single factor. Parents can often have far more influence than they realise. Meanwhile, it does not help that a statutory agency exhorts their children, night after night, to think contraception, the very thing that precipitated so much misery.

Aiden McGing

Sundays Well Road

Cork