Grossly commercialised though they undoubtedly are, we have no doubt that the annual commemoration of Father’s Day on Sunday (yesterday) and Mother’s Day last month provide priceless reaffirmation of good parenting.

For men, we believe, such celebrations have assisted the process of improving attitudes towards their children, more especially the ever-pressing need to consistently strive for a brighter future.

But, as chaplain of the Department of Correctional Services Reverend Dwayne Nelson reminds us, delinquent, often-absent dads are still very much with us.

In far too numerous cases, women — as best they can — must strive to be both mother and father. That usually doesn’t work well.

Rev Nelson’s years of listening to countless inmates in our prisons have left him with the certain knowledge that the absence of the father figure is a major contributor to crime and antisocial behaviour.

“Fatherlessness is one of the most powerful cross-demographic predictors of juvenile delinquency and future incarceration,” Rev Nelson told our reporter in this newspaper’s latest Sunday edition.

The chaplain says his interaction with imprisoned men suggest some turn to crime to provide materially for their mother and fatherless siblings.

Also, the absence of a positively guiding male figure results in their vulnerability to negative influences and flawed, distorted perceptions of manhood.

Intriguingly, for girls, the absence of a father’s stabilising influence can lead to unfortunate romantic relationships, thereby extending the cycle of societal instability.

It’s easy to dismiss absent/delinquent fathers as “wutliss” and “don’t care”. But it’s actually not accidental that such behaviour is far more prevalent in ex-slave societies such as ours than in regions with age-old traditions of stable, orthodox, human relationships.

The harsh, indisputable truth is that, before Emancipation, less than 200 years ago, the children of slaves, like their elders, were property, liable to be bought and sold just like livestock.

That reality led to the embedding over hundreds of years of the negative culture, manifest today in far too many fathers.

To their great credit, many others, even during slavery, stood resolutely by their women and children. After Emancipation, the admirable work of the Church, greatly buttressed by formal education in too few schools, nurtured and advanced that positive attitude.

Yet, the negatives are still with us.

That urgent need for resocialisation of astray, fatherless young men and boys is the reason Rev Nelson is urging aware, responsible men to serve as mentors not just at correctional centres but everywhere.

He tells us that the society needs mentors to guide, and empathise with young men in crisis “to channel their pain into a more forceful determination” to be good fathers.

In our view, that can’t be left to individual initiative.

We recall with great regret the national values and attitudes programme which died on the altar of political opportunism decades ago. Hence our applause back in March when Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness voiced an intention to reach out to Opposition Leader Mr Mark Golding towards nurturing a positive social ethic. By necessity, we think, that must include a sustained push for a culture of good parenting and stable family life.

There is surely no better time than now to begin that process.