The Spate of Escalating Criminality among the Youth in Ekiti State: The Role of Single Motherhood

Family of orientation plays a significant role in a child’s upbringing and determines a lot on what a child will become in the society. Recently, Single-mother parenting as a type of family of orientation were seen as the most powerful predictors of youth involvement in criminal activities in the society. Hence, the increase rates of youth involvement in crime makes it crucial to examine how single-mother parenting influences young people’s involvement in criminal activities, underscoring the need for more research in this area. The study investigates the extent to which single-mother parenting contributes to the rise in youth criminality in Ekiti State. The researchers conducted this study using a case study approach. Data were gathered through key informant interviews with thirty participants, employing a purposive sampling technique to select participants. The collected data were then analysed using content and thematic analysis, and the findings were presented in prose form. The results of this study revealed four key themes that significantly explain the role of Single-Mother Parenting in spate of criminality among youth in Ekiti state: (1) Single Motherhood as a Conditional Risk Context Rather Than a Deterministic Cause, (2) Socio-economic Strain as a Structuring Condition of Family Processes, (3) Pathways from Family Conditions to Juvenile Behaviour, and (4) Context-Specific Policy Implications Grounded in Empirical Mechanisms. Single-Mother Parenting is not inherently criminogenic, but the structural vulnerabilities typically associated with single-parent families, such as economic hardship, emotional exhaustion, and restricted access to social support, diminish the capacity for effective parenting.