Neighborhoods are safer when two-parent households are predominant, according to a report from the Institute for Family Studies.

While the primary theories on the causes of crime include "social structural factors" such as unemployment and poverty or the prevalence of law enforcement, the new study found the stability of "core social institutions" such as family, churches, and schools to be determinative in the crime rates of communities.

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“This new research indicates that our city streets are safer when families are more stable,” W. Bradford Wilcox, study co-author, IFS Future of Freedom fellow, and University of Virginia sociology professor, said. “Given this, policymakers should be aiming to strengthen families by taking steps — like teaching the ‘success sequence’ and eliminating marriage penalties in our means-tested programs — that shore up the cultural and economic foundations of family life.”

The study looked at crime, violent crime, and homicide data from more than 600 cities and found that “family structure is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, predictors of ... urban violence across cities in the United States."

National violent crime rates are 118% higher, and homicide rates are 255% higher in cities with prominent levels of single-parent households, which the study notes remains the case when controlling for factors such as race, education, and poverty.

Looking at individual neighborhoods in Chicago, the study's authors discovered that neighborhoods with higher levels of single parents had 226% higher violent crime rates and 436% higher homicide rates than neighborhoods with more intact families. Overall, crime in single-parent neighborhoods was 137% higher.

In cities with households above the median share of single-parent families, overall crime is 48% higher than in cities with more two-parent households, the study found.

While the study found a significant connection between family structure and crime, it also noted that single-parent households do not always predict higher crime rates and acknowledged that family structure is not the only predictor because poverty and race also affect crime levels.

Study authors believed the relationship between family structure and crime "is likely a byproduct of some mix of the heightened risk of family instability in the socialization of young children and the role that father absence plays in providing less guidance and oversight for adolescent and young adult males."

Calling fathers "essential role models for their children, particularly their sons," the study pointed out that boys observe "male responsibility and achievement, how to be suitably assertive and independent, and how to relate acceptably to the opposite sex." In addition, paternal influence in a child's life is connected to higher levels of self-control, compassion, and empathy, "all of which deter criminal behavior."

The disciplinary role of fathers, such as setting boundaries for their children, also contributes to a sense of order, thereby lowering the likelihood that young men will become criminals, according to the study.

The authors recommended three policies to boost the prominence of intact families, including encouraging the "success sequence," which holds that obtaining a high school degree, keeping a full-time job, and getting married before having children are major factors in finding success as an adult. The authors would have this idea advertised on social media and in cities across the country.

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Another recommendation was to nix the "marriage penalties" in federal programs such as Medicaid because those penalties "discourage marriage among lower-income families."

Finally, the authors would guide young men in particular toward vocational schools and apprenticeships, making them better prospects for marriage.