Teens should be allowed to have much more freedom. Teenagers want to stay out and enjoy themselves with friends. Curfews for teens should be eliminated because teens need more freedom, it is a way to gain trust with parents, and teens can get in trouble at any time.
People know for a fact that curfews do not actually do the job they are supposed to which is to keep teenagers out of trouble. “Nationwide more than 80 percent of juvenile offenses take place between 9 o’clock in the morning and 10 o’clock at night, outside most curfews” (Reed). Curfews really don’t work, more and more people are starting to realize if they can or can’t actually keep their child in sight and out of trouble, or does a curfew really need to be added into that a teen’s life. Many parents think back to when they were teenagers and what they were like. Did those parents have a curfew? If they did, would they follow the rules or were they rule breakers? Teenagers were probably more likely to follow the rules now than they were way back then.
Curfews are laws that impose that a certain person needs to be inside at a specific time, usually later during the night. Curfews mostly apply to teens to try and keep them safe and stay out of trouble. Different places around the world will have different rules on what time that person has to be indoors. Examples of different times could be 11 p.m. in one city and 12 p.m. in another. Most teens do not tell their parents where they are going when they get a car. “Also, teens like to party like there is no tomorrow, and most of them lead to hardcore drug and alcohol abuse in their near and distant future, so curfews really do not keep teens out of trouble, no matter what parents may think” (Fry).
It’s very true that curfews have reduced crime, but a lot of people think that it is restrictive against teenagers. Also, people don’t know what the main cause of teen crime is. Teens are close to growing up and being on their own. They should be able to have just as much freedom as adults. If there were more legitimate nighttime activities for teenagers, it would make a huge change in the curfew system. At least having no curfew on weekends could be a major help to teens’ freedom.
“The number of youth under 18 arrested has been steady for the past 10 years” (Fry). This shows that curfews are not making a change in teens’ crime rate. Even though curfews really don’t make a change. Teens need to look at the situation they’re in from a parent’s perspective. No adult or parent wants to see their teen coming home at 3 in the morning. Every parent can probably relate to their teens wanting to stay out later with friends because they’re having fun and a good time.
Teenagers don’t want to be stuck at home all day, bored, and have nothing to do. They want to have fun and enjoy their childhood and high school years. Many teens sneak out of their homes to go out and have fun. This leads to many teenagers getting in trouble and making them look like they are bad teens. When in reality they should have the choice of whether or not they want to leave the house.
“Curfews have nothing to do with keeping kids out of trouble. If your kid is gonna do something stupid, they’ll do something stupid. End of discussion. If they want to do hood rat crap with their friends, they will. It could be 3 a.m. or 3 p.m.; if they want to, they will” (Branstetter). When they do get caught, it's usually not by the police, but by the parents, which leads the parents to become very disappointed and mad at the teen. From there, the teen is probably grounded, and that can trigger them even more, which could lead the teen to run away from home. Once they sneak out and get caught being out past curfew the teen’s parents will probably lose faith in the teen and not look at them as young adults anymore, which is basically what a teen is. Most teenagers find a way to stay out past curfew and attempt to act like they weren't. Most parents will think that the teen is doing something very suspicious like drugs or alcohol, which in reality they probably aren’t. Usually, the teen is just trying to find more time to spend with friends, or needs to get something accomplished, but it's past curfew, so there not allowed to.
If curfews ever do change to a later time, teens would really appreciate the freedom that adults are giving them, and won’t have to sneak out after curfew and get in lots of trouble. This should also reduce the number of crimes that teenagers are committing after curfew. Even making more nighttime activities could change a lot. That would not only give teenagers freedom, but it gives them a purpose to be out late. Creating places around the world that would allow teens to hang out and spend time together would make a huge difference. Not as many teens would be getting in trouble if they were at an event meant for teens and not at something they shouldn’t be at after curfew.
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Curfews have been around for a long time. This means that curfews have been implemented in teenagers' live for a while now. Many teens are suffering socially from this horrible law. Curfews shouldn’t have even been invented nor should they be a law. Most teenagers would agree that they should be home at some point during the day, but curfews just aren’t the way to go. Curfews are taking away teens’ freedom and could be socially making teens awkward. Curfews can come from two things: your parent or guardian, and the city that you live in. When a parent makes a curfew for their teen, it usually is before the city curfew, which could be around 2 hours of a difference in time, but that 2 hours could impact that teenager’s life tremendously whether its learning new things in that amount of time or just being social and meeting new people.
If you were a parent, would you want to hear that your teenager parties all night and stays up past curfew? Parents need to gain more trust with their teens and help them learn from their mistakes because once that happens they keep learning and learning the difference between right and wrong, so once they gain the trust fully the parent should realize that curfews just aren’t helping in any way. As a parent, people should realize that a curfew should be the guardians’ curfew, not the city’s. Whose responsibility is the teen the parents obviously, so the city needs to just stay out of the issue. If a parent wants to make their curfew, they’re more than welcome to, because technically the teen is still under the responsibility of the parent and has to follow what they want, so there's no stopping the parents. If you are a parent your teen would probably suggest you not make a curfew, and if you don’t make it like 9 o’clock, that's just cruel to the teen and you’re ruining their social life.
A curfew is not going to keep teens out of trouble. Having a strong and crisp relationship with the parent is what's going to keep them safe and not do something they’re not supposed to be doing. Why do people think that curfews can actually make a difference in society? Don’t those people, especially the older ones, remember what it was like to be a teen and not have as much or any freedom at all because of curfews? Let’s be honest, if a teen wants to do something dumb, they’re going do something dumb. Whether it’s 2 in the morning or 2 at night, a teen is going to do something parents won’t. Usually, teenagers with really strict parents are the ones that turn out to be little liars, they try to get away with anything they can because of how strict and crazy their parents are. For most teenagers, the thing that makes them happiest is being around their closest friends. There’s no better feeling than being around your friends on a Saturday night and having a great time. There’s not a worse feeling than being out on a Saturday night, having a great time with your friends, and then your parents call you saying it’s too late to be out and you need to be home now.
Curfews aren’t letting teens get the chance to explore their inner selves and mind. This keeps them from making their own decisions and is making most of them self-centered because of the amount of time there at home and not out being social. It should totally be the parent’s decision whether they want their teen out past curfew. The law should not be incorporated into teenagers’ lives. Who raised the teen? Who knows the teen the best? Obviously, the parents. The teen and the parents have a connection, unlike the law does with the teen. This is why teen needs to grow in trust with their parents and listen to them, not take orders from the law.
“A study by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice concluded that crime fell faster in California cities without curfews than in California cities with curfews” (Murphy). This shows that curfews really don’t do much, and even without them, crime is reduced. This is why parents should have control over when the teen is home or inside. Curfews mainly target teens which are really wrong because adults still make the same mistakes teens can at an older age. When curfews were made law, people should have thought about everybody, not just the teens.
“The widespread perception that juvenile crime takes place at night turns out to be wrong. Federal crime statistics show that people between the ages of 12 and 17 are more likely to commit crimes or become victims of crime between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., the hours when they are least likely to be supervised in school or by their parents” (Murphy). No matter your age, you should be protected. What's the point of a curfew when your only protecting the younger and not the older, it doesn't matter because curfews have been proven to not really do the job of reducing crime and keeping teens safe. If curfews aren’t doing anything then why aren’t they illegal by now? The fact that many people know that curfews are just pointless and that teens won’t listen to that law, but most will listen to their parents is just absurd. Being a teen is not easy especially when you get to high school. Teens are under a lot of stress between school and sports. It’s hard to find time to relax and be with friends. With all that stress on teens, they really want to just have some time by themselves or with friends. Curfews are not helping that problem, because they’re not allowing teens to have that freedom when they have the time. Especially on the weekend when the curfew is like 11 p.m. and you had a stressful week with school and sports and you just want to go and hang with your friends to try to relieve that stress. It could be difficult when curfews are holding you back from going out and enjoying yourself after a week of hard work and stress. As an adult, this is very important when you have a job and a family to take care of and protect. Parents probably want some peaceful time by themselves away from the stress, just like teens want in their lives. Once again, curfews have to get in the way of that peaceful time.
“That’s what happened in Detroit after it adopted a youth curfew in 1976. Juvenile crime dropped 6 percent during the curfew hours, but it increased 13 percent in the midafternoon” (Zimmerman). People get the point of keeping teenagers safe and taking away that risk of getting in trouble, but why even have a curfew if teens aren’t following that rule? There’s no point for a cop to arrest a teen because curfew is 12 p.m. and it’s 12:30 p.m., that’s just uncalled for and stupid! The police need to let the guardian or parent of the teen let the decisions be made and what the consequences are for the teen not listening to the parents. There shouldn’t be a curfew, what needs to happen is if the teen is doing something bad, they should get in trouble for doing whatever was illegal not for being out past curfew. Now if it’s late and the teen is outside being harmless then why is there a reason to arrest the teen when he’s just minding their own business? Technically curfews punish non-criminal behavior, which is unacceptable.
Curfews are taking away teens’ rights. Not only their freedom but their ability to speak and show that curfews aren’t helping the world in any way. Curfews are so inconvenient and the government needs to understand that and make a change. There should have been a change in the curfew law a while ago. Once people started to figure out that curfews were not helping reduce crime or keep teens safe, they should have tried and banned curfews when they first made the law. Now that curfews have been around since our parents have been alive, it seems like it’s just a traditional law that’s been around for a while and everybody has to follow, which is so uncalled for.
Curfews have put an impact on many teenagers’ lives. These impacts have made teens’ lives much more difficult and stressful. Let’s hope that the teens can use their voices and stand up for themselves so they can try to change this law.
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