On September 22, 2013 16-year old Shaina Harris was given permission by her mother, Linda Richardson, to go to Burger King. The time of her stroll to Burger King was past 10 p.m., which violates her town’s curfew. Shaina was issued a summons because of her violation and was taken to court. Such an innocent behavior like going to get a milkshake with your mother’s permission should not be frowned upon. Nor should it bring a punishment like the one Shaina received. Her mother, Ms. Richardson claimed, “It’s my right as a parent to tell my child when to be home—not the government’s.” (Cowen, 2013). Ms. Richardson does indeed have the right as the mother of her child to reprimand her daughter and give her the approval to leave home. It is not the government’s position to be placing authority upon young teens.
Today law enforcement is criminalizing innocent activity because of curfews placed in their region. Like in Shaina’s case, she had a destination in mind. Many young teens out past 10p.m. are only trying to get home or have a place of interest in mind. There shouldn’t be an automatic negative assumption of a teen that is out past 10pm. Teenagers should not have labels placed upon them when they have not caused any trouble. Curfew laws create these labels on young teens and put down the ones who are innocent. Curfew laws discriminate against young teens who have done nothing wrong and serve no threat to the community.
Any teen like myself can be doing one of many innocent activities and end up in a heap of trouble because of curfews. Innocent teenagers will no longer be innocent because they were approached by police officers while walking home with friends. Then being forced to be driven home in a police car can create negative ...
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... a safer, happier and flourishing community.
Works Cited
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Cowen, R. (2013, March 8). ACLU Sues Wanaque Over Teen Curfew. The Record .
Enfinger, E. (1993). 8 Reasons To Oppose A Statewide Curfew Law for Teens. Orlando Sentinel .
McClatchy. (2013). Avalon's Curfew/Not the Answer. Tribune Business News .
Schukat, A. (2006, Winter). A (Very) Short History of Youth Rights. Retrieved June 5, 2014, from SIRS: http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S678346-0-6584&artno=0000242096&type=ART
Wagner, J. F. (2013, September 12). Retrieved June 6, 2014, from The Baltimore Sun : http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-09-12/news/bs-md-ci-baltimore-curfew-questioned-20130911_1_curfew-police-union-police-commissioner-anthony-w
The policy was aimed mainly to apply to the youths of Western Australia, specifically those who frequently loitered in the Perth/Northbridge area. The policy prohibits children 12 or under to be in the area after sunset, and children between the ages of 13 to 15 after 10pm – unless under the care of a sober or responsible guardian. The policy is something that has also been directed to those all less than 18 years of age, who engage in what is said to be anti-social beha...
Therefore, we must let others around the world know about the rights teens should have at home. We solemnly declare that teens should have the right to be free and be able to decide what chores to do around the house. For the support of our declaration, we pledge our lives, honor, and all that we
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.
III. Oversimplification of Youth Structures: Critiques and Alternatives Each research question and argument (outlined in the previous paragraph) establishes the contents of the book. Citizen Youth is an incredibly interesting analysis of contemporary youth activism. Kennelly draws upon many different anthropological, political and geographic approaches to create an engaging book.
There is some debate on whether curfews keep teenagers out of trouble. A curfew is defined as a law or regulation that requires a person or group of people must stay indoors for a designated time, usually through the night. Curfews usually apply to teenagers and are there to help keep them out of trouble and keep them safe. City regulations have different views on curfew times and age groups. For example, a 13 year old will need to go indoors earlier than a 17 year old. Usually a curfew is set at about 11 p.m., but can also be set for in the daytime. In consideration of having a curfew for teenagers, the crime rate has greatly decreased.
What will it take to end the crime and violence? Is having a curfew for teens the answer? This paper will look at the possibility of having a law enforced curfew and pros and cons it may have. To begin with, violence is one of many issues among teens in the local cities of Columbus, MS. Violence is a behavior involving physical force or intended to hurt or kill someone (Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus p. 90).
Moskowitz, Ellen. "Parental control and teenage rights." The Hastings Center Report Mar.-Apr. 1994: 4. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
As an old saying goes “parenting does not come with a guide book”. Most parents fear and will agree that adolescence is the age when the kids are the most difficult to handle. It is the age in which the child is experiencing a transitional stage. The child is experiencing physical changes and psychological human development that brings a desire to try to connect to the world. It is the age when the child starts to become more independent and starts to think he/she knows it all, and that is when problems arise. In this report I will analyze the positive and negative impact of curfews on teens. I will make a comparison and draw a conclusion to answer the question if curfews help to keep teens out trouble.
Teens today go out trying different things because it’s new to them. Parents and police set curfew for teens on their license as a result the amount of teens they have to arrest or even suspend their license because they are staying out too late doing bad things . The curfew for teens essential for their well being and for their health. Some teens stay out too late and don’t get enough sleep for school because of this they may experience a drop in grades. Teens today need to do what they want to even if it’s bad we can’t control them, but they need to at least be back home before their curfew is over with.
"Some teenagers can't hold down graveyard jobs mainly because of the curfew limitations. This discriminates young individuals who need to do extra work to support their family and themselves. In the same way, authorities outright categorize those who do stay out beyond the curfew limit as delinquents or violators" (Green 4). Although crime rates don’t go down, authorities continue with the false mindset that all teens are bad. "To restrict the activities of all teenagers because some misbehave is similar to the teacher keeping the entire class after school because one child acts up.
"Curfews don't keep kids out of trouble." - NewsWorks. N.p., 25 Oct. 2011. Web. 3 Dec. 2
Sutphen, Richard D., and Janet Ford. “The Effectiveness And Enforcement of A Teen Curfew Law.” Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare 28.1 (2001): 55. Academic Search Complete. 20 Mar. 2012.
Should teenagers be restricted to a curfew? That's a question many parents question themselves. What is my son up? What is my daughter doing? How do I know if they're safe? What time will he/she be home? When following curfews, teens tend to stay out of trouble more because criminal activity or high-risk behaviors is more likely to occur later in the evening when parental supervision is not present. Therefore teenagers need have a curfew, imposing curfews would help keep young teens out of trouble legally, set strict boundaries, and provides safety.
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