It is Friday night. Teenagers are planning on winding down after a long week. There is only one object that prevents them from being able to fulfill their night; Curfew. Teens have always been opposed to having a mandated curfew. The real question is do they understand why there is a curfew? A number of teenagers are responsible where others are just being teenagers. The numbers of teenagers that are responsible are much less than the number of teenagers that are irresponsible. Teen curfews are in effect to not only mitigate teens getting into trouble, but to support the safety of teenagers from misfortune. Furthermore, curfew violations also allow the parents to become involved with their teens.
Teen curfews date back to the late 1980s. “In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the citizens of many cities were alarmed by the increasing incidence of serious crime by juveniles and looked for ways to respond quickly and effectively to this threat” (Sutphen and Ford 55-56). Teenagers were committing crimes primarily at night. Curfews restrict teenagers to being home throughout certain hours of the night. As the number of cities that supported the curfew and placed them into effect rise, the larger the number of critics and opposition of the curfew grow stating that the curfew is not right. Curfews exhibit essential qualities for the teenage community. Additionally, curfews have become a vital
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There are numerous teens that oppose the curfew. Teenagers state that they are responsible and that the curfew laws only cause them feel similar to being treated like criminals. “Parents or guardians, not the government, should decide how late teens stay out at night” ("Carefree Vs. Curfew”). There are teens that feel that the curfew laws render all teenagers to seem like trouble makers. Likewise, they feel that they shouldn’t be forced to proceed home at a certain hour of the night when they are just minding their own
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.
As one of the major social problem, underage drinking can cause negative affect on both teenagers themselves and the whole society. Based on the research, approximately 190,000 youth under 21 visited emergency room for alcohol related hurts, even I accompanied one of my friends to ICU for alcohol poisoning nearly month ago. Annually about 5000 individuals under 21 die from it, not including other mature people directly or indirectly killed by them. Meanwhile, child’s brain and emotional developments are still in process until 20s so that taking alcohol will produce great damage on their body health. For example, alcohol can interfere with children’s capacity to build new, short, and lasting memories of information because it shrinks hippocampus about 10
Most if not all teens look forward to several events in their life. One of those events are getting a driver's license. This small piece of plastic is their ticket to freedom. This ticket is more than just freedom to be able to drive their friends around but also freedom from the ritual of their parents having to drive them everywhere and embarrass them in public. Also this is a freedom to the parents as well they may save more on gas from not having to drive their children around. However, some teens are not as safe as they possibly could be if they were to take a few steps to promote good driving habits. This is evident in the article “Teen Driving”, as the author gives the reader teen driving statistics, as well as explanations of programs and steps that can improve teen driving.
A staggering 80% of college students consume alcohol and around half of those students are frequent binge drinkers (“College Drinking”). The excessive consumption of alcohol has became a widespread issue at universities nationwide, causing many people to wonder where the problem got its roots. However, the problem of underage drinking is not exclusive to college campuses. By the time a student graduates high school, there is a 65% chance that they will have consumed at least one alcoholic beverage. Some researchers could claim that this epidemic is due to the historical time period of Prohibition in the 1920s and early 1930s. The eighteenth amendment, ratified in January 1919, outlawed the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” and caused drastic changes in American society (qtd. in Anderson). The ratification of the eighteenth amendment not only affected citizens
Underaged drinking has become an epidemic within the United States. Starting to consume alcohol at a young age damages the brains developmental process and also leaves behind long term drinking problems for that individual. According to the case file between Heisenberg vs. the State of Missouri, the national average underaged drinking begins at fifteen years of age. Curiosity allows students under the age of twenty-one to want to experiment with toxins like alcohol. These dangerous decision then create the unsafe action to drink and drive. The government should create laws that not only reinforce the existing laws but also alter them, so than young adults are restricted. The legal drinking age of twenty-one should be increased to twenty-five because underaged drinking causes a delay in brain development, it would decrease a young adults curiosity to perform dangerous behaviors and it is also the main cause for car crashes.
For starters, curfew keeps children safer than usual. When you have children just roaming the streets, something bad is bound to happen. It’s always that one experimental friend that says “hey guys, let’s go try this”. Well this one statement can lead to a heap of trouble. According to a recent study done, there has been a 97 percent drop of juvenile delinquents (Seith 1). What this means is with curfew incorporated within the community the rate of children going to juvenile centers has significantly decreased.
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.
Weigel, Margaret. "Impact of Juvenile Curfew Laws on Arrest of Youth and Adults." 29 November 2011. Journalist's Resource. 7 May 2014 .
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.
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.
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 different positive but many negative views in parents and teenagers.
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.
Many people assume curfews will stop children and teens from acting out, however I think that is only part of the fix from the “bigger issues” that are happening. Teenagers do not just rebel for no reason, and putting a time limit on when you can go outside isn't going to be much of a fix to any of the problems either. I agree that curfews help keep our city and environment safer than if there was none at all, however there is more that people can do to help fix the issue of rebellious