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They are good because a teen has no business being out 2 am unless they're involved in something potentially dangerous like alcohol, smoking, gangs, or drugs. Also, sleep is important and lack of it will affect schoolwork and extracurricular

activities. A curfew teaches responsibility to a teen and act as a safety net. Also, parents need to know their daughter/son is safe.

Answer

A teenager has just as much of a right to be out at 2 AM as anybody else. Maybe they like going for long walks or runs late at night or very early in the morning. Maybe they like to go to the park in the middle of the night to swing on the swings. Maybe they like going to late movies.

Whatever the case, a teenager does not have to justify him/herself to you. Your neighbor's teenage kid does not owe you an explanation for his/her actions.

The idea that a teen "has no business being out at 2 AM" is extremely presumptuous. What your neighbor or your neighbor's kid does is none of your business, and you do not have the right to dictate when it is appropriate for someone else's kid to be outside.

What a teen is doing out at 2 AM is nobody's business except their own, and their parents'. It's not up to the government to decide when a child should be home. That decision is up to the teen and his/her parents.

It's nice that some people are apparently so concerned about teens getting enough sleep at night. But again, how much sleep a teen gets is not the government's business...or anyone else's, except for the teen's and his/her family's.

If a parent needs to know their daughter/son is safe, then they can enact their own curfew. They don't need the government to do it for them.

To pre-emptively restrict someone from being outside their home, just because they MIGHT commit a crime or cause trouble, is unjustifiable. We don't put such restrictions on people unless they've already been convicted of a crime or crimes (parolees, for example, have many restrictions put upon them regarding where they have to be and when). To tell someone that they are too "dangerous" to be allowed out at night -- when you don't know a single thing about them besides their age -- is ludicrous.

And, to enact a law that applies only to a specific demographic group or groups is inherently unconstitutional. It is a WHOPPING violation of a person's civil liberties. If someone tried to enact a law that said that black people, or women, or the elderly, must be inside their homes from 10 PM to 6 AM, it would never fly. So why is it okay for teenagers?

No one has yet enacted a law making it illegal for elderly people to drive, despite the obvious prudency of doing so. Even though making it illegal for seniors to drive could greatly reduce the number of auto accidents that happen when people who are too old to drive attempt to do so, we don't do it. Why? Because it's wrong. Because it's wrong, and because, unlike teenagers, elderly people can vote against the passing of such laws.

But, morality and constitutionality aside, there is no valid evidence whatsoever to support the idea that teen curfews help reduce nighttime crime and/or disturbances. The only "evidence" anyone can provide is either anecdotal, manipulated and/or misinterpreted statistics, and/or convoluted reasoning that has no basis in logic or even common sense.

In fact, teenagers commit the LEAST crime of any demographic group, except for the elderly! Not only that, but the majority of crimes that ARE committed by teens are committed between the hours of 2 PM and 8 PM. NOT in the middle of the night. Source: Related Link #1, "National Youth Rights Association - Curfew FAQ" (see below).

We get along just fine without a teen curfew here in New York City. In fact, New York City is currently the safest city in the United States.

In sum, teen curfews are unfair, unconstitutional, totally unnecessary, and completely ineffective.

See the Related Links below for further reading.

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15y ago

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