Youth Curfew Essays

Youth Curfew Essays Youth Curfew Essay Youth Curfew Essay Good evening chairperson, fellow debaters, ladies, gentlemen and others. In our world today, violence and crime still rages and much of which have been perpetrated by young people of about my age. A growing problem, youths are beginning or continuing to wander the streets after hours to offend the law. If no action were to be carried out, a future where crime through youths will thrive. Today, we the Affirmative side is here to address to you all about a solution towards this problem. We as a team believe that youths should not be allowed to roam freely but kept in their homes to prevent the occurrences of youth problems. To make obvious to you all what a youth curfew is, our team has prepared a definition of the term youth curfew. The Oxford Dictionary defines curfew as, A signal or time after which people must remain indoors until the next day. This, to us just means that a curfew is a way to keep us young people off the streets. Having teenagers wandering the suburbs at dark, young people are given a chance to act in a criminal way. Therefore, a youth curfew is essential to a society of any sort. One of the main goals of a youth curfew law is to protect non-delinquent youths. It is stated by the Curfew Laws that a main purpose of a curfew is to protect youths from victimization. According to the Ruefle and Reynolds analysis, the curfew may be used as a means to protect non-delinquent youth from crime and to deny delinquent youth the opportunity to engage in criminal behaviour. Also, according to the FBIs UCR report, youth perpetrators often take crime upon people of their age so it is expected that crime rates of victimization will reduce. Through reference from the Office of Crime Statistics and Research in Adelaide, it has been displayed that a high number of teenagers participate in youth crime. In the year of 2004, it was recorded by the South Australian police that persons of the age between 10-17 years of age were apprehended for crime, with the figure stretching up to 6,482. Unfortunately, this number does not include the other youths who have offended the law whilst also getting away with their crime. Having still excluded the unknown figure, it still can be seen that there are high rates of crime. Also, this number only displays the figures of South Australia alone and not the other states of Australia. Youth Curfews not only reduces victimization, it also is a form of zero tolerance policing, the curfew creates an atmosphere whereby it is shown that the community does not allow or accept the development of any lawlessness within the area. The idea of having zero tolerance comes from the presence of low-levelled crimes, such as, graffiti spraying, breaking glass windows, drug dealing and etc. (all of which are criminal acts performed by youths). If these minor problems were not to be controlled and acted against effectively by the policing force, then a permissive atmosphere would then be created for violence and more severe crimes. With this flourish of crime, law and order stands a great chance in breaking down. Now, with the help of youth curfews, the police are aided through the zero tolerance climates of which the curfew has generated. This then in turn would create a safer community for everyone. Youth Curfews can also be used as an aid to various other programs that help stop youths from causing misdemeanours. If the curfew was to be put into place, then those who are willing to abide the law are kept off the streets during the curfew. Those who ignore the curfew are then left on the streets. These youths usually are set to behave in a misconduct way. Out on the streets, the youths are left for the police to handle. Also, because it is quite difficult to identify criminals, such a scheme like the curfew would help immensely in the process of finding the law offenders through the process of elimination. So, ladies and gentlemen, Youth Curfews are a must and is an essential part to our society. We already know that violence and crimes are committed by youths that roam the streets in the dark. These sorts of crimes range from minor offences such as graffiti spraying or even up to violence, which in most cases, are inflicted on innocent youths. With the curfew in place, the policy can enable the law abiding or vulnerable teenagers to stay in their homes at curfew hours but also prevent them from being afflicted to violence through the delinquent youths. Also, the policy works as an aid towards other youth crime prevention programs. So, you could say that the curfew does its job in keeping potential offenders away from the chance to act in a criminal way but also does aid other programs. So this curfew is what you can call a double action towards juvenile delinquency. Must I remind you that statistics from 2004 shows that 6,482 teenagers from just South Australia alone have been apprehended by the police for juvenile crime! This figure should not be accepted by the Australian society. With that figure displaying the number of juvenile delinquents for just South Australia, you can try to imagine the total amount of teenage law offences in the whole of Australia! To conclude, all that has to be said is that to enable this society to progress in a safety environment, a youth curfew is essential.