In may cities, teenagers are subject to a curfew enforced by their local police department. In the United States, 276 of the 347 biggest cities have curfew laws. A lot of the older people who live in cities that have curfew laws support it and think that it is a good thing. The curfews are put in place mostly to prevent teenagers from committing crimes. Curfews may help parents by not making them set their own curfews, but other than that, curfews do not actually do much good.
Curfew effectiveness was studied in California. The study showed that after putting a curfew in place, the rates of misdemeanors committed by minors did not fall, rather, they rose. The curfew obviously did not do the job it was supposed to do. There was no decrease in the amount of vandalism committed by teenagers and no decrease in the amount of felonies committed by teenagers.
One city did report that after the curfew was put in place, there was a 12% drop in the amount of crime activity after curfew. This would be considered a good thing and would show that the curfew is not completely useless, but that city also experienced a 13% increase in the amount of crimes that were committed during the daytime. This does not put the city in any better place, if anything, it makes it worse because they ended up with a 1% increase in total crimes.
Teenagers who commit crimes, are most likely not going to care about curfews. If they are out there stealing and vandalizing, curfew is probably not at the top of their list of worries. The teenagers who comply with the curfew and do not have problems obeying the law are not the ones who are committing the crimes. Teenagers will commit crimes no matter what time of the day it is, and whether or not there is a curfew. It really is unfair to teenagers who do obey the law, which is the majority of them, to have to follow this law that was put in place to stop criminal activity and is not even working.
Catching teenagers who are out past 11 o’clock at night is not a good use of the police department’s time. They have better things to do then to arrest and give tickets to teenagers who are coming home from a movie that started at 9 o’clock or out walking their dog. There are real criminals out there and that is what the police need to focus on. Every teenager who is out past curfew is not going to be caught by the police. Most of the teenagers that are being fined by the police for being out too late are not the ones who are committing crimes.
Teenagers are not the only ones who commit crimes. After you turn 18 you are no longer subject to curfew, and in some cities 17-year-olds are not under curfew. While it is true that some teenagers vandalize and steal, most of the people who commit serious crimes, such as murder, robbing a business, or breaking and entering, are considered adults in the eyes of the law.
Curfews are not an effective way to reduce the crime rate in cities.
Reference “Politics in American Popular Culture,” www.americanpopularculture.com
“Who’s Against Teen Curfews,” www.cbc.ca
