Maryland study finds link between married families and lower crime

Using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, David Ayers, a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville and an expert in family studies, compared different Maryland counties based on the percentage of households headed by married couples. The data showed a significant correlation between a higher percentage of married households and lower rates of crime, drug use, alcohol abuse, teen sex, and poverty.

The correlation was particularly high for poverty and crime. Married households had a median income that was more than three times higher than that of single women. The violent crime rate of Baltimore City, which has the lowest rate of married households in the state, was more than 14.5 times higher than that of Carroll County, which has one of the highest rates.

The results consistently showed that Carroll County had many of the best results, while Baltimore had many of the worst.

An exception to this were the rates of sadness, depression and suicide, where no significant correlation could be found.

The study is the first publication of MFI, a Christian nonprofit organization that focuses on family life, religious freedom, marriage and parental rights.

“We wanted to make our case for why we need a Maryland Family Institute,” MFI President Jeffrey Trimbath told the Washington Examiner“And we've tried to show through this broader report and through each of these individual reports that there is indeed a connection between the quality of our family education in Maryland and various social pathologies that we all have to live with in Maryland.”

“And what you can see from these reports is that there is actually a very strong connection between these two variables,” he added. “If we [families] That way, life is better for every Marylander, and if we don't educate them in that direction, life is harder, especially for children, adults and the community.”

Ayers argued that the study would be of use to anyone in the policy sphere because it provided “irrefutable” evidence of a surefire way to improve the country.

“No matter how progressive a politician is, and you’re talking about county-level officials, literally any level of government or policy issue in Maryland, it’s right in front of them,” he told the Washington Examiner“The facts are incontrovertible. They all come from sources that are highly respected. If there is a bias in any source, it is a progressive bias. And even if you really disagree with us on the fundamental stance we take on these issues, you will still find this very useful.”

Even those who live in counties with higher marriage rates, without necessarily being married, will benefit from the tiered benefits, Ayers noted.

“I think that surprises a lot of people,” he said. “I don't think they realize the stark differences, and here we're talking about where you live, what county you live in, but if you live where most people are married, you're better off in almost every way than if someone lives 10 miles away from you in an area where the out-of-wedlock birth rate is maybe 45% or 50%.”

Trimbath expressed the hope that the study would lead to discussions among politicians about how legislation could be made more family-friendly.

“Every bill, or most bills in Annapolis, have to have a financial impact note, an equity impact note, a racial equity impact note,” he said. “And so we proposed that a legislator, Justin Ready of Carroll County, add a family impact note to every bill that's introduced. It didn't pass, but it got the discussion going.”

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Trimbath argued that the MFI study was particularly important because of Maryland's location.

“Maryland is a state that is very important to the country because it is close to Washington and even New York City, which is only a three-hour train ride away,” he said. “So if we can improve families and change the debate in Maryland about families, the potential to impact the country and the world is huge, and that's one of the reasons we created the Maryland Family Institute.”