Legal Curfews on Minors Debate

Legal Curfews

Module 3 LASA 1

Argosy University

9/00/2014

Legal Curfews: Juvenile Curfews

Curfew definition: “A curfew is a law, regulation, or ordinance that forbids particular people or particular classes of people from being outdoors in public places at certain specified times of the day.” (thelegaldictionary.freedictionary.com, 2014).

Juveniles are essentially in place to prevent minors 18 and under or in rare cases under 21, to be out during night hours, for health and safety reasons.

More specifically, these laws have been set in place so as to prevent occurrences of juvenile crime and maintain social order . Slides dense with text tend to bore the audience. Build your slides with images and keywords. Save the dense data for the notes.

 

Controversial Arguments Against Juvenile Curfew

Juvenile curfews violate the First amendment and are therefore is unconstitutional.

In most cases, our juvenile curfew laws offer “exceptions”, for when a juvenile maybe out, however such exemptions make curfew laws vague and difficult to understand.

“narrowly tailored, curfews must complement or enhance parental authority, not challenge or usurp it” (Blaue, 2007).

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Conclusion One

Per the United States constitution, all citizens are afforded the same rights, without mention of age restriction. (umn.edu, 2014).

The constitution prohibits any state laws enforced which lead to limitation of some individual rights otherwise protected under the U.S. constitution.

Therefore, juvenile curfews infringe upon citizen rights, as even the juveniles have the right to free movement under the U.S. Constitution. (umn.edu, 2014). . Slides dense with text tend to bore the audience. Build your slides with images and keywords. Save the dense data for the notes.

Conclusion Two

Apart from being unconstitutional, curfews are not effective solution to juvenile delinquency reduction rates.

Limited research suggests that there is no direct link between areas that have observed reduction in juvenile crime rates as correlating to curfew enforcement. (Joyner, 2011)

Targeting poor neighborhoods shows bias for enforcement of curfew making the law unjust.(Vines, 2007) . Slides dense with text tend to bore the audience. Build your slides with images and keywords. Save the dense data for the notes.

Conclusion Three

From the psychologists’ point of view, curfews are not always effective in preventing crime.

Minors begin to lose trust in local law enforcement creating less communication between community and local police.

Curfews have the potential of influencing criminal behavior through association. (proyouthpages.com, 2001).

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Final Anti-Curfew Conclusions Review

The argument made that curfews are unconstitutional may influence local governments to review and compare local laws against amendments, eventually realizing that curfews violate young US citizens freedoms.

The second conclusion is that research has proven curfews to be ineffective, despite slight decreases in small numbers of cities as a result of curfews, research maybe ineffective as not all socioeconomic backgrounds are necessarily taken into consideration.

The third conclusion is that based from the psychological stand point, being that curfews may eventually do more harm than good through distorted youth self image as a result of curfew violations

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Analysis of the Opposing Group Issues

In the primary conclusion, the argument is being made that all citizens are afforded the same rights under the constitution.

In the second conclusion which argues that curfew has been ineffective. Citing from empirical research, most juvenile crime take place between 3 p.m. to around 8 p.m. and thus, placing curfew between 10 p.m. to dawn is unnecessary.

The third conclusion among this group is the aspect of psychologists’ advice against curfews. The reasoning for this group is that police sometimes harass young people, and falsely label them as criminals. (Brank & Scott, 2014).

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Analysis of the Supporting group

The first conclusion counter argument is that juvenile curfews have nothing to do with constitutional rights. (Schleifer v. City of Charlottesville, 1997).

The supporting group states that on the contrary to the opposing group, curfews are very effective in preventing youth criminal activity. (Seith, 2001)

The supporting group argues that though curfews may not fully prevent crime, they can certainly keep youth out of becoming crime victims.(Badea, 2012)

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ResourcesBadea, L. (2012, ). Are Teen Curfews A Good Idea?. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Are-Teen-Curfews-A-Good- Idea?&id=7317230.

Blau, D. (2007, ). Juvenile Curfews: Constitutional Concerns and Recommended Remedies. Retrieved fromhttp://sogpubs.unc.edu//electronicversions/pg/pgspsm07/article3.pd

Free dictionary, . (2014, ). Curfew. Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Curfew.

Findacase.com, . (1997, ). SCHLEIFER v. CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE . Retrieved from http://va.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19970430_0000023.WVA.htm/qx.

Joyner, C. (2011, ). Limited studies say teen curfews ineffective. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2011/jul/22/mike-males/limited-studies-say-teen-curfews- ineffective/.

Newton, A. (2002, ). Curfews, loitering & freedom of association. Retrieved from http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/curfews-loitering-freedom-of- association.

Proyouthpages. Com, . (2001, ). Curfew Laws. Retrieved from http://proyouthpages.com/curfew.html#11.

San diego, . (2014, ). Exercising Parental Authority Curfew Violations. Retrieved from http://www.sandiego.gov/police/services/prevention/community/parental/curfew.shtml.

University of minnesota, . (2014, ). All Amendments to the United States Constitution. Retrieved from http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/education/all_amendments_usconst.htm.

Viren, S. (2007, ). Youths aren’t the only ones opposing curfews. Retrieved from http://copwatch.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/teen-daytime-curfew-laws- racist-and-classist/.

Seith, R. (2001, ). Curfews Can Reduce Crime. Retrieved from http://www.connectwithkids.com/tipsheet/2001/49_dec05/curfew.html.