Kai Lin/'A strong family foundation is the best way to address social ills.' Do you agree?

It is undeniable that a strong family foundation may be able to instill values in children when they are still learning and need guidance. Young children depend on their parents to set good examples for them and educate them on having a good character and living by the right values. If their parents have created a loving and supportive family, the children would be likely to enjoy their siblings' affection and good parenting, leading them to value love and good leadership, amongst other values. This is evident in how most children tend to take on the characteristics of their parents or older siblings. However, a strong family foundation like the one mentioned above may not be able to address social ills that result from compulsive behaviour such as compulsive shoplifting and murderers who kill because they cannot control themselves. In this case, government intervention in the form of law and other reformative institutions would be better at alleviating possibly uncontrollable behaviour. This is because these crimes are difficult to prevent or address through the family. Reformative institutions such as prisons and rehabilitation centres have the facilities and expertise to tackle compulsive behaviour at its root cause. For example, psychological therapy and counselling are often sentenced to people who commit crimes compulsively as it is after all a psychological problem. Therefore, a strong family foundation is insufficient to address social ills. Government intervention is required to work with it in order to alleviate society's problems.