If you are looking for a book to read try
The Tiger that Isn't
If you are believing all these teenage pregnancy, drinking, crime stats then find out where they came from and what they mean. The media thrives on a "Perception Gap", it uses statistics in a very divisive way to create news where non really exists. There are some superb illustrations of this, and Teenage Pregnancy is one of them. Bad information is so prevalent and saturates so deeply that even people with expertise in a field believe the guff over what they see with their own eyes.
As an amusing aside my dad got a job with an education authority once, and between getting the job and starting on his first day new areas of responsibility kept being added to his role. He started out in charge of Art and design, then art and design and technology, then domestic science was added, then special education was added, and education for teenagers is detention and the list kept growing.
On his first day there was a big conference where he was introduced and the long list of his responsibilities was read out, with a new one. The guy introducing him added "…… and he's also responsible for all the pregnant teenagers in Greater Manchester"
