Using Family Breakdown and Addiction as Indicators of Child Poverty is Profoundly Mistaken
Rikki Dean argues that the current proposals to develop measures that downplay income and material deprivation in favour of family breakdown and addiction are based on an incoherent conception of poverty that conflates child poverty with child well-being. To argue that family breakdown and addiction are part of the definition of poverty is indicative of prejudice towards the poor. Moreover, the simple truth is that there is little correlation between family structures and poverty.