Blog Post #3

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111105/OPINION03/311050016/State-s-curfew-meets-constitutional-standard

 Curfews have reemerged recently as a popular option for policymakers in their efforts to deter juvenile victimization and delinquency. Imposed on and off since the turn of the century, curfews tend to receive increased attention when there is a perceived need for more stringent efforts at social control. For example, curfew ordinances were originally enacted in the 1890's to decrease crime among immigrant youth. During World War II, curfews were perceived as an effective control for parents who were busy helping with the war effort. More recent interest in juvenile curfew ordinances came as a response to growing juvenile crime during the 1970's Curfew laws vary with respect to the locale affected, timeframe, and sanctions. Most restrict minors to their homes or property between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., with some jurisdictions allowing exceptions for weekend nights or summer months. Many curfew ordinances provide exemptions for youth who are going to or from a school-, religious-, or civic-sponsored event. Youth traveling from places of employment or responding to emergencies often are excluded from curfew provisions as well. Several ordinances allow unrestricted mobility for youth who are married, accompanied by an adult, or traveling with a parent's permission. 

In addition, some curfew laws impose more stringent curfew parameters in specific zones of the city, usually in targeted high-crime or commercially important areas. A recent example of this type comes from the city of Austin where, in 1994, the city council took action to limit youth activity in the nightclub district of the city. In that area, the curfew begins at 10 p.m. each night, compared with the 11:30 p.m. curfew for the rest of Austin. This isn’t a good year because there is still problems going on with this issue, there are people under age still outside pass 10:00 pm. They can get in trouble if they are being seen out side under age with a crew, they can be blamed for flash-mob or any other thing out there that kids are being blamed for. Teens can be fine with being in the house at this time but they just chose not to listen and follow what there friends are doing, and that’s what will screw them up. I didn’t notice anyone working on this currently since this law has passed on October27th. 

Theirs really nothing anyone can do at this point but if anything do come up they can always address it to someone. I just think curfew is important because is respectful of the responsible party's time. For example, if a curfew is set by your parent or guardian, it is respectful to the them to be home by it. Otherwise, they are left worrying about you and left to decide if they should start an emergency search for you, etc. If a curfew is set by city officials, it is important because it allows law enforcement officials the ability to know right off that someone out after curfew is most likely causing trouble. It would also allow the city quiet time, in which residential folks could count on being able to sleep without noisy cars, yelling or other disruptive behavior.