Phllly.com reports that: "In 1970, 40 percent of households were married couples with children. Such households made up just 19 percent of homes in 2013." Further philly.com reports that: "Of children living with only a mother, 48 percent had a mother who had never been married in 2013, up from 7 percent in 1970." This means, that within the last two generations America's nuclear family has fundamentally changed, and while on the one hand, the more liberal conditions in America may be considered to be a living reflection that adults should be entitled to live their lives in a way that they best see fit, signifying their personal choices as adults, one would be amiss to not reflect that the new family structures of today do have cost and consequences to society in general, and in particular, children.
The fact of the matter is that child sexual abuse, has been a regrettable part of life for far too many children for far too long, but what makes it appreciably worse, is the fact that child sex abuse is increasing at a substantial rate in America, to which, a primary reason for this increase is as reported by cachouston.com is that: "Children who live with a single parent that has a live-in partner are at the highest risk: they are 20 times more likely to be victims of child sexual abuse than children living with both biological parents." This means, that a biological single parent with a live-in partner that is not biologically related to the children in that household have in a substantial amount of cases, increased the risk of the biological single parent's offspring being sexually abused to appallingly high levels.
Indeed, there are logical reasons why a non-biological adult would have a strong tendency to be more of a predator than a biological parent and that begins with the fact that within most parents, especially parents that are not psychologically damaged, or abusive of alcohol or drugs, is an innate urge to want to nurture their offspring, and that it would be atypical for any biological parent of sound mind to desire to abuse their own progeny. On the other hand, those without biological connection to children that they deal with, are free from that incestuous conflict, and further to the point, often as an adult are able to utilize their authority position, their power, their strength, their deceptions, and their experience, to take advantage of the gullibility, trust, and naiveté of children.
While most parents are quite protective of their children and keep a relatively high guard when dealing with strangers and the outside public, regrettably, within their own domain, within their own home, their defenses are often left exposed, and the enemy that they should really fear, is that enemy that is already within. Unfortunately, in a country that has dropped its moral guard and has made highly sexualized media and its images a part of everyday life, this to a large extent, helps enable the perpetrator even more and eases the road that the abuser needs to take to conduct his unseemly business.
The thing is that single parents with children are often overwhelmed already with a litany of legitimate concerns, such as health, welfare, work, bills, school, as well as all of these things as they also apply to their children. The single parent's desire is to have a helpmate to which their selection of a fellow adult to assist them and to be part of their life, may be limited to those that are not of good character, who, sad to say, for the children that they abuse, are really wolves in sheep clothing, to which times, for these abusers have never been better, in a world in which the adult attitude of anything goes, has torn down the barriers and negated the sanctuary for far too many of our children.