The headlines have been full this week with the news of the Casey Anthony verdict. Carolyn Moynihan writes in Mercator.net about the increased risks to children when a marriage culture breaks down:

Casey Anthony is a single mother, living with her own parents, the father of her child nowhere to be seen, although there have been rumours of incest. Macsyna King was cohabiting with her twins’ father, Chris Kahui.

The stresses of single parenthood, with or without boyfriends, are well known. And the dangers of cohabitation for children are becoming clearer all the time. A recent US federal government study of child abuse and neglect shows the dramatically increased risks for children living in a home where there is an unrelated boyfriend -- and even with their own parents if they are cohabiting.

Despite decades of feminism and gender role revision, we are still more shocked when mothers neglect, abuse and especially kill their children. But one does not have to look far into the lives of most of these women to find that the other side of the sexual revolution -- what’s politely known as the “evolution” of the family -- has played a significant role.