Many parents practiced plenty of ways to keep their growing teens out of trouble.

One
of it is by setting a curfew. This is due to the general mindset that teenagers are the most
vulnerable to crimes. It is understandable that people impose curfew in hope that the
youngster’s life would be protected from harm. However, it is not to denied there are
consequences that comes with it and mostly affected the youth themselves. Research from
Juvenile Curfew Effects on Criminal Behaviour and Victimization: A Systematic Review
(Wilson, Gill, Olaghere, McClure, 2006) shows negative results on curfew effectiveness in
decreasing crimes. Therefore, I strongly disagree that curfew can keep teen away from trouble.
First and foremost, a tight curfew can discourage the teenager’s from being
independent. Nowadays, most youngsters have a packed schedule, and hardly have time to
spend with peers outside of school. Now, with curfew added to their timetable, there will be
almost no time to spend for people outside. With limited social interaction, the teenagers will
become more dependable to parents. This will cause them to face a hard time when they reach
adulthood as they do not have the basic independent skills.
Secondly, curfew enforced by government will interfere many parenting methods. For
example, there are parents who emphasize on their children’s ability of being independent.
Japanese child is encouraged to develop a sense of self-discipline (hansei) and hard work (L.
Bennett, 1998). This shows how children as young as preschool students are being trained,
little by little, on how to face the trials in life. If curfews become a requisite administered by
the government, all those will almost be impossible. Let’s say the same curfew are imposed on
teenagers, when do you think those youth will have the chance to experience basic life skills?
Last but not least, implementing curfews on growing youngster will spark a negative
implication to their behaviour. It is unethical to criminalize teenagers’ presence in a public
space which will lead to social deprivation. One of the most common situations we can see
nowadays is many youngsters being socially shy or in other word, introvert. This is due to the
fact that curfew has restraint them from engaging social activities. Lack of social skills will
lead the minors to become an easy bullying target. With all these peer pressure coming at them,
they will fall into depression. Untreated depression will lead not only to physical harm, but also
will affects one’s mental sanity. Prolonged depression can lead to teenagers harming
themselves, first by making scratches on parts of their body, then finally committing suicide.
Opponent of this idea states that curfew can act as an experience for teens to learn about
responsibility, mainly on proper time management. Teenagers can be taught on practicing the
right time managing by many other ways without having to include curfews in their already
packed timetable. Majority of parents are investing on registering their children on more extra
classes which then decreases their free time. Let’s say, a teenager finishes their class on 3p.m
on most school days, then they have to attend for tuition classes not long after. The schedule is
packed enough but then their parent decided to put on curfews, so when can the teenager have
their own leisure time for the day?
As a conclusion, it is undeniable that curfew brought a lot of positive outcomes in terms
of controlling teenage behaviour. But the pessimist consequences are not to be ignored blindly,
everyone should seek a less time restricting method to control juvenile crime among the newer
generations.
Citations:
10 Primary Pros and Cons of Teenage Curfew (2015, September 9). Retrieve from:
https://greengarageblog.org/10-primary-pros-and-cons-of-teenage-curfew

Curfew for Minors: Advantageous or disadvantageous? (2011, October 12) Retrieve from:
https://ourhappyschool.com/debate/curfew-minors-advantageous-or-disadvantageous

D. B. Wilson, C. Gill, A. Olaghere, D. McClure (2016, March 23) Juvenile Curfew Effects on
Criminal Behavior and Victimization: A systematic review. Retrieve from:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.4073/csr.2016.3

L. Bennett (1998), Expetations for Japanese Children. Retrieve from:

http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/yl/1003/100306.html