Are age-based curfew laws effective in reducing teenage crime rates?

No

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by Sarah Barendse

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How exactly are age based curfews any different than profiling - which everyone is so up in arms about these days as we seem to fear not being politically correct. There is no certain time of day when teenagers are able to perpetrate crimes. To think that making kids come home early by mandating a state or local law will solve the issue is naive.

Think back to when you were a teenager, not necessarily that you were out committing crimes, but just about everyone snuck around to do something they weren't supposed to. Whether it be sex or drinking or even drugs and you got away with it didn't you? At least most of the time. I am also willing to bet that you did have a curfew. Time is irrelevant.

You can do things that are just as bad at two o'clock in the afternoon as you can at two o'clock in the morning. I do believe that teens should have a curfew but that it needs to be set by individual families, not the government. By throwing out this broad fishnet of a law, you are catching many good kids as well, and it is hardly fair to them. Teens are individuals too and the ones who live their lives correctly should be treated in a respectful manner rather than punished based on what "might" possibly happen, based on someone else's skewed judgement.

Your teenage years are some of the few in your life where I feel you should be allowed true freedom of expression. Where you don't have to have a job and a boss where you need to conform to a company mandated dress code. Where you can dress how you want and really discover who it is that you are. This is a time when you are exploring and in order to become a good person who is truly independent and in control of their lives, they need to be allowed to make their own choices. One of those choices is to obey their PARENTS curfew and to be home on time. Not because the law says so, but because it is the right thing to do.

This is just one more subtle form of government control that needs to be nipped in the bud before they decide that they can take away our individual freedoms, not only as teens, but as red blooded American adults one more at a time, no matter what their excuse.

Wake up people, if you voted "YES" on this, you are not seeing the forest for the trees. America was founded on the idea of Freedom for all. Not freedom for those over a certain age or those in power, or those we happen to agree with. Freedom for ALL. If we intend on moving forward as a nation based on freedom, small laws like this need to be recognized as what they truly are - a wolf in sheep's clothing.

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