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by Simonne Liberty

Created on: July 13, 2009   Last Updated: July 15, 2009

Age based curfews are not effective in reducing teenage crime. Teens who are properly supervised by parents, are not likely to be out in the late hours of the night, or early morning. They will be occasionally influenced by unruly teens to join them, to go to a party, or hang out.

A curfew doesn't mean anything to teens who are determined to run the streets all night. Teens who are up to no good, only find a curfew another challenge. It speeds up their adrenalin, and creates more reason to get wild, and out of control. A curfew will not prevent them from committing crime, if they have it in their minds to do so.

If the police happen to see a teen out at a late hour, the police usually question why the teen is out and about at such an unreasonable time. Many teens are running away from an abusive home. If there is a curfew, they will make it a point to watch out for the police and to avoid them. Police should be helping teens who need help, instead of punishing them for breaking curfew.

There are young teens who are on the streets at night, prostituting in order to survive. A curfew will not stop them from doing what they have to, in order to eat. They will only find more creative ways to dodge the police. We as a society, spend more money and waste more time, running down teens who break curfew, instead of resolving the problems that lead to them being out when they shouldn't be.

There will always be teens who seek to do mischief. Curfews will not stop them. If they can't get their crimes done at night, they will simply do them in the daytime hours. Maybe the cover of night gives them an advantage, but the police taking the time to arrest them, transport them to jail, and give them a criminal record, for violating curfew, causes more harm than good. Hiring more officers to replace the ones chasing down curfew violators, cost taxpayers more money for nothing. Where is the common sense?

Simply because a teenager may be out after curfew, may not mean they are up to no good. Couples who are in love, lose tract of time. Movies get out late. Sometimes teens must walk home after babysitting. Friends may be over at a friends house playing video games, and lose tract of time. Teens are not always mature enough to keep tract of time when they are having fun.

Saying that age curfew reduces teen crime, is in effect saying that teens are only out after curfew, to commit crime. There is an old saying that goes something like this; "If you accuse a person often enough, they will eventually do it."

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