Teen Curfew Essay, Research Paper

Teen CurfewIn San Diego County, and in many other counties across the country,teenagers are forced to be indoors after ten p.m. Should there be a teencurfew? This idea is ridiculous. There is no legitimate reason for there to bea curfew.The proponents of a teen curfew say that a curfew would bring thecrime rate down during those hours that teenagers are not allowed to beon the street. This statement is false. The amount of crimes committedduring the hours of curfew has basically stayed the same since the curfewlaw has been enforced in mid-1994. Just because teens are out at acertain time of night does not mean that they are causing trouble. Theymight be out talking to a friend, or coming home from a late sporting event,not creating anarchy. If somebody wants to commit a crime they are goingto do it no matter what time it is. A curfew law is not going to stop anyone,they are going to break the law anyway. The statistics show that enforcing acurfew does not bring the crime rate down significantly during the curfewhours. It should not be in the hands of the police officers to tell parents whentheir son or daughter has to be inside, that should be the parentsresponsibility. Parents should be the ones to make decisions about how to

raise their children, and to decide whether their honor student orresponsible teenager has earned the right to stay out late. Police officersshould be looking for real crimes, not for teenagers violating their curfew. They should not be spending their time arresting young adults for causingno trouble while a murder may be going on down the street. What are thepriorities of our law-makers? Teen curfew is direct discrimination towardsyoung adults. This law brands all teenagers a criminals. Adults commit manymore crimes than teenagers. Should there be a curfew for adults? Adultstry to teach adolescents to be responsible, when they are not allowed toprove that they are responsible. It would be much cheaper for the county ifthey would just trust the teenagers instead of hiring extra officers to huntthem down. Any crime is unfortunate, but when the crime rate among teensduring curfew hours has been shown to make a significant impact on crime,the county cannot enforce it. It is unjust. Not all of the teenagers should bepunished for a few teenagers actions. The county should rather support latenight activities that may be educational, and keep teens off the streetinstead of forcing a bed time on them. by [email protected]