A study from the University of Washington [completed in March, 2004] finds that church, family and school help keep kids from engaging in brutal street behavior.

The study tracked 154 Seattle children deemed highly aggressive by the local school system. Overall, 35 percent of the 154 adolescents had engaged in violent behavior by the time they reached age 18. Researchers found, however, that only 11 percent of black teenagers became violent by the time they were 18 if their parents practiced "good family-management skills (such) as:

• actively providing supervision

• setting clear rules and expectations for behavior

• reinforcing good work habits

That compared with 49 percent of teens who didn't have positive parental input who wound up turning violent.
Mychal Massie, spokesman for the Project 21 Campaign, said the survey results are hardly surprising, since God and a good two-parent family are positive influences.
"Here is your empowerment through God, through Christ, to overcome your hostile environment," he said.

Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America, said it's all about accountability. "(Teens) need accountability to their parents, and when they have accountability to God, that's their greatest protection of all," he explained. "When they keep a close relationship with their parents, with their church, with people who will influence them in a positive way, you get good outcomes.

"It's those . . . kids who don't have those connections that we see getting into trouble, getting into teen pregnancy, drugs, sex, crime, you name it."