Gospel singer Judy Mowatt believes the dominance of matrifocal families in Jamaica is detrimental to the wholesome development of youth. Mowatt shared her thoughts at the International Women’s Day free concert held at National Indoor Sports Centre on Thursday in St Andrew.

“So many children are wasted. Why? The children need parents. [For] too long we have had so many babymothers and we weren’t created to be babymothers, we were created to be wives. I look at kids who are born in marriages and those who are outside of marriages and there is a waywardness in most of them. I’m not saying all of them, ’cause we mothers we do try, but it is not gonna be fulfilled the way God would want it. He said, ‘Parents, train up your children in the way they should go and when they become old they should not depart from it”, Mowatt told the Jamaica Observer.

Mowatt urged entertainers to exercise responsibility, as they also influence on youth.

“I came up in the 70s and the 80s and the message was conscious; I didn’t see what is happening now happening then because there was some semblance of teaching through the music. I am not saying that the music is not upholding that principle, but I think we need more of that. We need to make a conscious effort, seeing where the young people are going. Feed them with good music — not the branches, the foundation — which is gospel,” she said.

She said the absence of fathers from the home is a heavy influence on rising crime figures.

“The father plays a significant role in a boy’s life… and the girls too. Who is there now to guide the boys and tutor them in the way of a man? I see a lot of young men today without any identity because they don’t have an image to follow or a father figure,” she said.

Last October head of Police Area One, Assistant Commissioner Donovan Graham said a large number of children (mostly boys) between the ages of 12 and 18 were arrested for serious crimes over a two-year period. The crimes include murder, shooting, rape, robbery, larceny, and aggravated assault. Graham said between September 2015 and the end of September 2017, 1,400 children committed serious crimes. During this time, he said, 192 children were arrested for murder, 232 for rape, 152 for shooting, 364 for robbery, and 256 for breaking and entering.