The Effectiveness of Juvenile Curfews.
Curfew is a word that derived from the French word “courvrefeu”. The meaning of the word courvrefeu is “to cover fire”. Implicating that a curfew is a way to put something out or maybe to reduce something down. Going back in time, curfews have been around since the feudal era. A long ways ago, “a bell would ring to alert the villagers to put out their fires and go to bed for the night. William the Conqueror even used an 8:00 p.m. curfew in 1068.”(The Effectiveness and Enforcement of Curfew Laws and Minors’ Rights) Moving a little forward, “the United States has used curfews during wartimes and emergencies since before the Civil War.”(The Effectiveness and Enforcement of Curfew Laws and Minors’ Rights) But what was the necessary need for a curfew on teenagers, especially so early in time? The criminal rate in juveniles “was blamed on immigrant children and their parent's lack of control over their children. This led to the support and enactment of curfews for minors in almost 3000 cities in the United States by 1900.”(The Effectiveness and Enforcement of Curfew Laws and Minors’ Rights) The overall purpose of juvenile curfew laws is to reduce juvenile crime and keep teenagers off the street at night who might be up to no good. Some cities claim that the crime rate indeed has gone down a certain percentage since they have enacted the curfew laws, but others claim otherwise.
Supporters of the curfew laws believe juvenile curfews are effective in reducing crime and help in their homes. Evidence was collected “when a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in New Orleans on youngsters under 17, the city reports a 20 percent decrease in juvenile crime. Dallas declares that violent juvenile crime has been reduced 30 percent and that overall juvenile crime has dropped nearly 21 percent since a curfew was instituted in 1994.”(Curfews and Common Sense) An example of crimes or uprisings that adults are worried about would be