Curfew Law in Arizona free essay sample

Many cities in the state of Arizona have put a curfew on all kids. Kids under the age of 16 cannot be out unsupervised between 10 pm and 5 am. Kids 16-18 cannot be out during 12 am to 5 am. Our country is a free country and allows parents to control their own kids how they choose. Who is to tell a parent how to raise their kid? The government should not be allowed to bully parents and give them rules for their own kids. These curfews are not allowing parents to control their kids to their liking. Many people feel curfews hurt teens rights, are unconstitutional and ineffective. Studies show that curfew do not lower the crimes that teenagers commit. Curfews hamper the teen’s right for free speech by not letting them congregate at certain hours. They go against what America was built for religious, political and economic freedom for all. . The 1st amendment states the right of the people peaceably to assemble. This amendment is broken by having a curfew. Many people believe curfews stop the crime rate in juveniles. However if a teenager is going to break laws what is to stop them from breaking the curfew law along with it? A curfew does nothing but restrict law-abiding citizens. The curfew law is the easiest law for teens to break, on purpose or on accident. Sometimes things such as car accidents happen, causing traffic. This later causes a teen to be late for curfew, and are caught and charged as juveniles for something that was not even their fault. Curfews are just setting teens up to be charged as juvenile delinquents. Anything that can be done during curfew can be done after and before curfew. This law is just keeping teens away for a few hours until curfew is up and they go do drugs, drink, etc†¦ Thus there is no point to a curfew. When a child is at home during curfew they will become bored and try and figure out ways to be entertained. Some may include breaking curfew or getting high or drunk. The more teens are bored the more they think of breaking curfew. Youth are criminalized by such laws simply for being outside of their houses. In effect, this makes the house function as a prison. A study conducted on behalf of the U. S. Department of Justice found that curfew laws did not lead to a reduction in the amount of youth victimized during any hours. Limiting the freedom of mobility of an entire subset of people based on incorrect assumptions, this is unacceptable. A fine of 50 dollars has been put in place for breaking of curfew. Is this really going to pay for the extra patrol cars out during curfew? Is our cities money going to the right place? Why are we paying more money just to trap our teens in their house between certain hours? Curfews waste tax payers money. Our parents have to pay for polices overtime salary. How many police officers actually catch juveniles past curfew? Its not just the money either, our police have better things to do than driving around catching teenagers out past curfew. DUIs are huge now a day and should be put first before curfew for teens. How many DUIs have been happening without getting caught due to the police placing their attention elsewhere. Curfews may cause some teens to return home in time for curfew but then later sneak out without their parents knowing, which is worse than staying out past curfew because if something happens the parents have no idea where their child is. As a parent would you rather have your kid out all night knowing where he/she is or sneak out and find out that 3 teens were killed on the news and have no idea if it was your child. Gangs are associated with teens all the time now a days. Gang violence will not be stopped by having a curfew. Most gang activity is during curfew. If a teen joins a gang then they are going to break curfew thus not changing anything in gang related violence. Teenagers in this day and age are constantly stressed and overwhelmed by school. hey get home at 3:30 or later if participating in after school activities. Then they do homework for 1-3 hours. So by the time a teen can relax its already 6 or later. How are a couple of hours of free time out of the house going to give a teen time to distress and relax? A stressed teen is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. It may explode in many different ways such as violence, suicide or breaking curfew. If a curfew is not put in place many students will have th e time to distress and turn the timer off. These statistics are based on violent crimes in a non-curfew city. Most crimes are committed immediately after school not during the hours that some cities have a curfew. On non-school days the most violent crimes are committed between 6 pm and 9 pm. The crime rate is up when curfew is not on. If crime rates are down during the hours curfews are put in, then what is the point having a curfew? The Justice Policy Institute looked at the effect of curfews in several California cities and concluded that the curfews which have gained widespread popularity around the country in recent years are more of a public relations tool than a crime-fighting tool. Even though curfew arrests of young people in California rose from 5,400 in 1989 to 21,200 in 1996, the JPI found that there was no corresponding decrease in youth crime rates. The researcher concluded that this was true for any race of youth, for any region, for any type of crime. The reading of crime reports show that teen crime rate went up 53% during the school year, but dropped during the summer when suspended. When the curfew was suspended the crime rate dropped! So the curfew did the exact opposite it was meant to do. Where is the point in having a law that makes crime increase? Criminalizing harmless behavior to prevent crime has long been the norm particularly for young people, despite often, dubious evidence of its effectiveness. Many times people assume obvious correlations exist between youth behavior and social problems and remove their constitutional rights with the very minimal, or almost no evidence it is necessary. The most blatant example of this is the use of curfew laws. Not every teen is a law breaker. Some teens are law abiding citizens. You cannot judge teens based on the few bad ones. Placing a curfew just makes one more law for the juveniles to break and one more for the law a biding to follow and obey. It’s not fair and is unequal. If a curfew is put in place it should be put in place for already juvenile delinquents but not for the law abiding. Use graph†¦. the peak of this graph is at 3 pm on school days which is when our school is released. And if you know anything about our school this is when the crime rates are at its high for our students at cchs. On non-school days the rate only goes higher than school days when most kids are asleep for school the next morning. This would make sense but as soon kids usually start waking up, around 6, school days wins again. Parents rights to parenting their kids their way is taken away by a city curfew. Curfews hurt the right to free speech by not allowing them to conjugate during certain hours. The first amendment is broken because the right for the people to peaceably assemble is not given to teens when a curfew is in place. Cities without curfew have fewer crimes during the times curfews are put in place in other cities. Crime rates have increased or stayed the same with a curfew in place. Our tax payers’ money is being wasted on paying police men vertime to patrol at night to find teens breaking the curfew law. The curfew law is just another law for juveniles to break and for law abiders to obey. It is only restricting those who are loyal to the law and given teenage attitudes, it’s just another way for kids to try and act cool. In America no religion is rejected and there are new religions popping up everywhere, this law could interfere with religious holidays and celebrations. Also it has been proven that age does not determine mental capacity and whether or not kids should be allowed out past a curtain time shouldn’t be determined by their age.