Teen Curfew
Mangum 1
Donnell Mangum
Professor ?????
ENGXXXX
July 23, 20XX Teen Curfew: A Benefit to Youth? How would you feel, as a parent, if your child was out late and didn’t return home? How would you feel if you received a phone call from police saying they have arrested your teen for criminal mischief? The way a parent may feel if they didn’t know the whereabouts of their children or how they would feel having to go to a police station to bail their teen out is anything but happy or joyful. We all want to keep our children safe. We don’t want to keep our children locked up for fear of something bad happening to them so we give them a curfew to be at home by. Some parents are not as strict on their kids as others so those kids are basically raising themselves. This is when the government should step in and make laws to protect those kids who have no guidance from their parents. The government has put into place in certain cities and states a law that pertains to underage minors. This law is basically a curfew that starts at midnight and ends at 6 a.m. The consequences for violating this curfew are, hours of community service, fines, counseling for the minor and their parents, and referrals to social services. Many minors and parents do not agree with this curfew. These parents and children argue that a curfew system will violate their constitutional rights such as their 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th amendments. (Le Bouef 3.) It is easy to understand why these youth would disagree with this curfew but hard to understand why parents would disagree with it. If there were a new and improved curfew system put into effect across the entire country, it could possibly cut down on the rate of missing children, combat juvenile delinquency, and ultimately keep teenager at home so they can form a bond with their parents during the most emotional time of their lives. Washington 2
A missing child is always a touchy subject. When hearing about a missing child
Donnell Mangum
Professor ?????
ENGXXXX
July 23, 20XX Teen Curfew: A Benefit to Youth? How would you feel, as a parent, if your child was out late and didn’t return home? How would you feel if you received a phone call from police saying they have arrested your teen for criminal mischief? The way a parent may feel if they didn’t know the whereabouts of their children or how they would feel having to go to a police station to bail their teen out is anything but happy or joyful. We all want to keep our children safe. We don’t want to keep our children locked up for fear of something bad happening to them so we give them a curfew to be at home by. Some parents are not as strict on their kids as others so those kids are basically raising themselves. This is when the government should step in and make laws to protect those kids who have no guidance from their parents. The government has put into place in certain cities and states a law that pertains to underage minors. This law is basically a curfew that starts at midnight and ends at 6 a.m. The consequences for violating this curfew are, hours of community service, fines, counseling for the minor and their parents, and referrals to social services. Many minors and parents do not agree with this curfew. These parents and children argue that a curfew system will violate their constitutional rights such as their 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th amendments. (Le Bouef 3.) It is easy to understand why these youth would disagree with this curfew but hard to understand why parents would disagree with it. If there were a new and improved curfew system put into effect across the entire country, it could possibly cut down on the rate of missing children, combat juvenile delinquency, and ultimately keep teenager at home so they can form a bond with their parents during the most emotional time of their lives. Washington 2
A missing child is always a touchy subject. When hearing about a missing child
Cited: Le Boeuf, Donni. Curfew: An Answer to Juvenile Delinquency and Victimization?. Washington: US Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquent Prevention, 1996. Print. Beck, Miltenberger. Evaluation of a Commercially Available Program and in SITU Training By Parents to Teach Abduction-Prevention Skills to Children. University of South Florida. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2009. Print. Puzzanchera, Charles. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Ojp.usdoj.gov. Slowitkowski, Jeff. April 2009. Office of Justice Programs. http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED505593.pdf Fair, Dixon. What Do You Want? Teens’ Unmet Expectations About the Parent-Child Relationship. Georgia: Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association. 2001. Print.