Family policy or moral regulation?

Abstract

The article draws a distinction between family policy and moral regu lation and argues that there has been increasing emphasis upon the latter in recent public debate about family life. The analysis suggests that British social policy compares unfavourably with other European countries because it lacks an explicit family policy. The Conservative government's family strategy has revealed confusions, most noticeably in the divergence between the Green Paper Looking to the Future which advocates a move to 'no fault' divorces and the broader politi cal project of demonising lone parenthood. The article concludes by examining some evidence that undermines the view which suggests that family structures have a unique explanatory power in accounting for a rise in incivility and criminality in modern society.