Curfew Policy Research Paper

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Curfew Policy

Description of policy

Problem/need identification

Development of policy

Evaluation of policy

It is unquestionable to claim that the world is progressively advancing and entering into the epoch of developments. However, it is very unfortunate to state that the social issues especially juvenile delinquency at the same time is increasing at an accelerated pace. This apparently indicates the fact that youth violence over the years have raised to a much greater extent. In fact, statistical records have revealed the piece of information that juvenile delinquency has become one of the leading causes of deaths in the United States (LeBoeuf & United States - Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1996).

In this regard, juvenile curfew policy has been designed, enacted, and enforced as one of the popular control strategy to increased juvenile delinquency and victimization, which is attributable to numerous social trends. The increased juvenile crime rates have raised the concerns across the nation, which has been the prime motive behind the enforcement of the juvenile curfew policy in most of the states of United States. In addition, the government of the nation intends to reduce the juvenile crime rates as well as want to protect them from victimization of such crimes (LeBoeuf & United States - Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1996).

With respect to the significance of juvenile delinquency, the dissertation intends to discuss the curfew policy designed to control the youth crime within the nation. Therefore, the next section comprehensively describes the policy and its primary aims and objectives. The subsequent section aims to identify the youth issues in detail that results in criminal actions. Moreover, this section also highlights the causes and consequences of juvenile delinquency.

Based on the identified problem, the development of juvenile curfew policy has come under discussion to understand the events that led to the development of the policy and what is worked in correction. However, the evaluation of the policy is another essential segment under discussion, which has led to recommendations (the last segment of the dissertation) for improvement in the policy.

Description of policy

The policy 'juvenile curfew policy' speaks for itself that the policy makers have put in their efforts to design and enact laws that can provide safety to the young adults of the country (ABA Center on Children and the Law, Center for Children & Law and Policy, 2009. Indeed, it is a recently re-emerged prominent solution (that is imposed intermittently) of the perceived need to control the more stringent social concerns over the country) (Adams, 2007).

However, providing protection and security to the youth from being victimized to any kind of crime as well as preventing the young adults from being involved in any kind of criminal acts and improper influences are the two fundamental objectives of the curfew policy. With the enforcement of juvenile curfew policy, the teens have to face few restrictions on their freedom to spend time outside their home. This is particularly performed to prevent the youngsters from getting involved in felony acts (Adams, 2007).

Curfew laws are designed and enacted with respect to the affected locality, timeframe and authorizations and these enforcements may vary from cities to cities. This means that late nights till early morning is the common time in which the minors have a restriction to stay at their homes or properties, because it is the most common timeframe in which juvenile crimes are likely to happen (Shahidullah, 2008).

Nevertheless, it has been observed that few jurisdictions permit exceptions to appear on roads in certain situations that include weekend nights or during summer vacation months. In addition, youths in many cities are also exempted with curfew ordinances if they are attending school-based events, religious events, or civic-sponsored events. While on the other hand, the cities or neighborhoods that are considered to be high-targeted crime zones, then the curfew laws impose more stringent parameters (Shahidullah, 2008).

The variations in the curfew policy extensively exhibits the fact that the safety and security of the young adults is the integral and most important factor for the policy makers, due to which they impose curfew rules that can alleviate the crime rate within the country. The attention towards the juvenile curfew policy has also been raised because of the increasing crime rate in the recent years that have mounted the concerns over the entire nation. Therefore, for many of the cities, the curfew policy has become an essential component of their crime-control strategies (Shahidullah, 2008).

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The legislative of the nation is not only concerned about the economic conditions of the nation, and social order is also one of the aspects that needs to exhibit positive outcomes. Therefore, to achieve the social order goals, the policy makers have developed juvenile curfew policy that can facilitate them in reducing the juvenile crimes and that can lead to maintenance of peace all over the United States (Shahidullah, 2008).

Problem/need identification

Juvenile delinquency, or youth crime, simply means minor's (youth below 18 years of age) participation in illegal actions. Wide ranging studies have brought the fact to the surface that increasing number of young adults are observed to be engaged in some kind of juvenile crime or illegal actions. These offenses typically include violence in schools, teen pregnancy, alcohol and drug consumption, and so on (Nakaya, 2005).

Concerning the high rates of juvenile crimes, a number of studies have been carried out to identify the root causes that lead the children to commit such offenses. Family's economic problems, psychological problems, social problems, broken families, and parenting styles have been highlighted as principal explanations behind such behaviors on a general term (Shoemaker, 2009).

Lack of parental control and adequate amount of care provided to the children is considered to be one of the greatest reasons that promote and attract the adolescent to commit lawbreaking actions. Various other family factors that include sever ways of child punishment, disciplinary actions at home, parental conflicts, parental or sibling abuse, and overall parent-child relationship act as key driving force of juvenile crimes. This means that supervision and proper care to the juveniles can prevent more serious crime commitments (Nakaya, 2005).

Peer rejection is also one of the leading predictors that augment the likelihood of juvenile delinquency. This is because if the child is rejected (due to any reason such as difference of color, physical appearance, or so on) amongst his peer groups, it would directly affect the socializing ability of the teen. The feeling of social isolation would be developed as an outcome of it, which would influence the teen to any other person who would accept him, and may even lead to juvenile delinquency (Nakaya, 2005).

The above mentioned factors profoundly contribute as a risk factor to the problem because the self-esteem and confidence level of the young adults is devastated, which adversely affects the development of the personality in the adulthood period of the individual. The overall personality of the juvenile gets disturbed and confusing because of the development of the feeling of isolation. The psychological problems (such as impulsiveness, aggression, low intelligence level, and so forth) as an outcome are likely to appear within the personality of the juvenile (Shoemaker, 2009).

The impact of juvenile delinquency is severs, harsh, and far reaching for the child as well as the entire community on a broad spectrum. The most importantly, academic performance of the adolescent is affected that may lead to further education dropouts. Consequently, the career in the later adulthood is equally affected due to decreased academic achievements. However, the more harsh consequences of delinquency often make the juvenile a repeat offender due to the punishments that they have to experience for the committed offenses. Eventually it would also escalate the chance that the juvenile becomes a hard core criminal in his adulthood (Shoemaker, 2009).

Development of policy

Juvenile curfew policy has been enacted from a long time as an effective strategy to control the juvenile crime rate. From the historical evidences, it has come to an observation that curfew ordinances originally enacted in the United States in the latter years of the nineteenth century, with the core objective to shrink the crime rate that increased because of immigrant juveniles. The inadequate parental care was alleged the prime reason that led to immigrant children to commit crime. Therefore, many cities enacted the juvenile curfew policy as a measure to impose parental responsibilities towards their children (Finley, 2007).

The aftereffects of curfew ordinance were impressive due to which this policy gained more prominence in the early years of the twentieth century, as it was primarily initiated to curb the unpleasant juvenile activities. However, this practice of crime control was discontinued for few decades, until the phase of World War II came. During this time, juvenile curfew policy was again enforced on the U.S. inhabitants. This came into application as an effective control for parents especially the ones who had been involved in the warfare activities and.....

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