Teenage Curfew Leads to Trouble Not Safety

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.

Curfews have been around in the United States since the late 1800s. Over time curfews have changed; the original curfews were in medieval Europe. A curfew was “the ringing of a bell indicat[ing] that fires were to be extinguished for the evening” (Fried 128). When curfews were adopted in the U.S., city officials and citizens believed that imposing a curfew helps to reduce crime rate and victimization of teens. First curfew was imposed in Omaha, Nebraska in 1880. According to the article, “Youth curfews popular with American cities but effectiveness and legality are questioned” President Harrison believed that curfews were very important in protecting children from “‘vices of the street’” (Favro). Later, curfews were adopted in many of the major U.S. cities that had populat...

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