The following are raw statistics, offered without commentary, compiled by the National Fatherhood Initiative, addressing the effect on children of growing up without a father in the home.  True, many children who have no father in the home are the children of parents who never married, and other children of divorce end up with the father, so the figures are not directly applicable to divorce only.... but nonetheless the figures are telling of the dramatic and extremely serious effects single parent families have on all of us:

    Seventy-two percent of all teenage murderers grew up without fathers in their homes.
    Sixty percent of rapists were raised in fatherless homes.
    Seventy percent of the kids held in juvenile corrections facilities grew up in single-parent homes.
    Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school as their classmates who live with two parents.
    Children whose fathers are consistently gone from the home score lower than the norm in reading and math tests.
    Three-fourths of the teen committing suicide are from single-parent families.
    Children living apart from their fathers experience more accidents and a higher rate of chronic asthma, headaches, and speech defects.
    Eighty percent of the adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from fatherless homes.
    Compared to girls raised in homes where both parents are present, the daughters of single parents are 164 percent more likely to become pregnant before marriage, 53 percent more likely to marry as teenagers, and 92 percent more likely to divorce.
    A growing body of evidence establishes a strong connection between the absence of a father in the home and violence among young men (especially violence against women).
    Girls without a biological father in the home at nine times as likely to be raped or sexually abused before reaching age 18 (often these assaults are committed by stepfathers or the boyfriends of mothers with custody).

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