Does the foster care system create criminals?
No. Child abandonment, neglect, abuse and no safety net creates criminals. To say that the foster system creates criminals is like saying Jenny Craig creates fat people, because, wow, look at all of those fat people coming out of the Jenny Craig building! Kids get put into foster care after their life has been ripped apart. Their parents have demonstrated an inability to raise them, thus many of the children are behind academically, emotionally, and socially. They are already primed for failure, when they hit a system that does not have adequate resources. The kids may never catch up in school, and at age 18, they are often left on their own, with no job, no hope of getting into college, and nowhere to live. Many end up homeless. The stress hormone cortisol can actually cause brain damage in children. Cortisol can cause cell death, thus resulting in children who are lacking some of neural pathways necessary. What foster kids’ biological parents did to them can often result in a brain t
