CURFEW Imagine a world where there is no standard state-set curfew on every single teenager. Doesn’t that sound like the world we live in? Even though we have a state curfew, barely anyone even acknowledges it. It’s not like you hear about crimes committed by teenagers every single night because they were out past their curfew. That’s because most of us have parents. And most of them care. The government, however, chooses to disregard the fact that we have parents/legal guardians, and that it’s their job to set such rules for us. Maybe that’s because we live in a very systematic universe, where everything runs on a system, program, or a machine. We think that if we didn’t have a rule or system in place for everything, there would be chaos. But haven’t you noticed that it’s often our rules that cause war? No one even believes in human power anymore. Everyone forgets that we actually have morals and a conscience. No, teenagers aren’t going to go out past their curfew for the sole purpose of damaging property or committing a crime. Because frankly, if …show more content…
Now, this can be classified as ‘prison pipelines’. Prison pipeline is the process in which a child is treated as a criminal, and getting more involved with juvenile and the police, that they slowly start becoming an actual criminal. They will tend to commit more serious crimes step-by-step. And the foundation for all their behavior would have started from a small act such as being out past curfew. Keep in mind, once a child has been involved with the police, court, or juvenile, it will stay on their permanent record which makes it harder for them to make it into a good college or to get a steady job. Is curfew violation really worth a child’s
Today, teen curfews are commonplace and supported by voters. Bainbridge observes that according to Jet Magazine’s survey taken in 2011, 75% of the voters were in support of curfew laws (13). Parents arrange for young children to go to bed at an earlier time than teenagers (Psychologytoday.com). Teens receive the privilege to stay up later but this can mean that they will be out on the streets later at night. McKinny indicates that curfews are in place to protect the youth from crimes that may harm them or take the children’s lives (Time.com).
They open up the doors to a new discussion that explores the idea of not punishments for crimes they commit, but preventing them before they take place. Staying after school, involved in productive activities seems to help students stay out of trouble. Curfews are imposed in some states, preventing juveniles from being out past a certain time until a time early the next day. These curfews are said to be in place in order to prevent crimes, but there are no statistics to back this up, as there are for the crime rate dropping with kids staying after school. Regardless, these are matters of precaution taken in order to attempt to prevent crimes from happening at the times in which they’d be anticipated to. If things are in place in order to prevent juveniles from committing crimes, the crime rate will drop, and many people will be saved from entering a world unknown to the world that is prison. Stopping juveniles from committing crimes would maybe them cause adults to not commit crimes as well, since in essence, these juveniles will indeed one day be adults. By implementing laws, states and law makers understand that there will always be people that don’t follow them. By stating programs, allowing juveniles a place to reconcile with small mistakes they make, or creating a safe-place where they can seek help from
As shown above, curfew laws can play a very critical role in a teenager’s life. It can assist with keeping the city safer, help them get enough sleep, and help them build their personal skill under a well-structured system routine. A lot of people might find curfew laws for teenagers unconstitutional and contradict the first amendment, so they decide not to abide with it. But by doing so, they are placing more a bigger experience to teenagers who are still working on developing their skills to take on new challenges. After all, Teenagers are the future of our society if we don’t teach, coach, direct, and offer guidance their future will be unstable and unproductive and that will affect the entire nation.
Transitioning from being a child to an adult brings challenges that some handle well and others have considerable trouble with. The amount of child delinquents between the ages of 7 and 12 inside the system has jumped 33 percent within a ten-year period. This information raises red flags and sets of alarms inside the juvenile system because younger offenders of serious crimes are more likely to repeat their offenses. The likelihood of a child delinquent between the ages of 7 and 12 to become a serious offender is two to three times higher than delinquents in their teens (Flores, Child Delinquency, 2003). Studies addressing school influences on antisocial behavior have consistently shown that poor academic performance is directly correlated with child behavior issues and to the onset of serious delinquency (Brewer et al., 1995; Maguin and Loeber, 1996).
Jason Tashea, writer for The Baltimore Sun states, “Youth delinquency primarily occurs afterschool and not during curfew hours” (1). This started a fierce debate in Baltimore, as Tashea points out,
I really don’t understand why all states don’t put a curfew in affect throughout all communities, let me explain why. First off, curfew keeps children safe, parents can’t be everywhere at one time. In addition, slowly but surely curfew teaches children time management and responsibility. Last but not least, curfew will indirectly raise student’s grades in school. There has been numerous studies done on how grades are affect by curfew. In closing, I strongly support the purpose of a curfew.
Curfews are here to stop teenagers from roaming the streets at night and causing trouble. In consideration of having a curfew for teenagers, the crime rate has greatly decreased. Many tests and studies have confirmed that curfews do keep teenagers out of trouble. Curfews have helped keep many of the streets safe and free of crime in various cities around the world, even cities in Michigan.
A curfew can be described as an order establishing a specific time in the evening after which certain regulations apply, especially that no civilians or other specified group of unauthorized persons may be outdoors or that places of public assembly must be closed (Dictionary.com). This definition refers to the curfews that are enacted in some states throughout the United States and some countries. A curfew can also be described as a regulation requiring a person to be home at a certain prescribed time, as imposed by a parent on a child (Dictionary.com). Local city curfew laws are enforced with the intension of reducing the juvenile crime rate. On the other hand, parents enforce curfews to keep teens safe, to protect them and to save them from getting involve in illicit things.
Strict rules create rebellious teens. Many people think that curfews are a fundamental way to keeping teens out of trouble, but this is not the case. Curfews are neither applicable, justified, nor are they a way to diminish criminal activities committed by adolescents. Curfews are ultimately useless because there are too many reasons that contradict why a curfew would work.
They are out there causing trouble, drinking, smoking, and having sex. The teenagers: feared by parents all around the world. That is not the reality; the majority of teenagers will not be out looking for trouble. On a typical Friday night teenagers will be hanging out with their friends, catching up with everything that has gone on during the week. Why do parents fear for their teenager’s lives? So often we hear about violent crimes and things that go bump in the night, but do we think that the problems can be solved by a magical curfew? Can parents really keep their teenagers out of trouble or does an imposed curfew only lead to resentment and chaos? Parents think back to when you were a teenager, did you have a curfew? If so, did you follow the rules or break them? Teenagers are no more likely to follow the rules today than they were in the past. It is not likely that creating a curfew for teenagers will cut down on the risk of violence and rule breaking.
Curfew is the time at which you should be back home and safe. Most High Schooler’s will argue that “it’s stupid” and “I won’t get in trouble anyways”. Curfew for High Schooler’s and younger children is an excellent idea because it keeps students in line and out of possible trouble. If curfew was enforced it would eventually help kids be more responsible and trust worthy. Although some might think otherwise, High Schooler's are irresponsible and can not be trusted enough to not have a curfew.
"Handling Curfews." BYU David O. McKay School of Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
According to McClain, Kansas City police and officials implemented a curfew for minors. This curfew restricts teenagers the rights that they’re are able to take part in. The curfew refuses teens the right to dine, watch movies, talk with friend, or walk around the plaza after 9 p.m. The curfew was implemented due to a shooting that occurred involving a number of teenagers. This article informs the reader that not only are teens having the freedoms that other people are able to enjoy taken away, but they are also being discriminated against because of their age. These restrictions are not only discriminative, but they’re unconstitutional. The 14th amendment to the constitution has a clause, called the Equal Protection Clause. The Equal Protection Clause states, “The constitutional guarantee that no person or class of persons shall be denied the same protection of the laws that is enjoyed by other persons or other classes in like circumstances in their lives, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness” (thefreedictionary.com). The Equal Protection Clause also prevents a class of people from feeling inferior. This clause could easily be extended to teens as well because they are viewed as intellectually inferior by majority class. Adolescents are thought to be incapable of making an appropriate solution to a situation. This misconception has been formed due to parents and elderly people forcing children to follow strict rules and do as the parent or elderly person says; this prevents the child from creating their own solution to problems and causes the child to lack problem solving skill. The lack of problems solving skill could affect them more substantially in life, due to them no longer being minors and having their punishment more severe. Teens are widely regarded as trouble-makers, but they only cause trouble in their pursuit to experience life. Not only do curfews force children to
In today’s society, some parents create curfews for their children while others allow their children to create their own curfews. Numerous people argue that setting curfews for teenagers help them refrain from taking part in mischief and help them to develop into superior adults. The remaining group of people state that curfews would make teenagers rebel. Teenage curfews produce many different positive and negative views in parents and teenagers. Different opinions on curfews are expressed through parents, teenagers, and mayors; and there are numerous reasons for people not supporting curfews.
Juvenile delinquency is one of the major social issues in the United States today. Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is when “a violation of the law committed by a juvenile and not punishable by death or life imprisonment” (Merriam-webster.com). Although we have one justice system in America, the juvenile system differs from the adult juvenile system. Most juvenile delinquents range from as low as the age of seven to the age of seventeen. Once the delinquent or anyone turns the age of eighteen, they are considered an adult. Therefore, they are tried as an adult, in the justice system. There are many different reasons why a child would commit crime, such as mental and physical factors, home conditions, neighborhood environment and school conditions. In addition, there are a variety of effects that juvenile justice systems can either bad effects or good effects. Finally there are many different solutions that can reduce juvenile delinquency. As a result, juvenile delinquency is a major issue and the likeliness of it can be reduced. In order to reduce juvenile delinquency there has to be an understanding of the causes and the effects.