Myths about children

Although there are many myths that focus on young adults there was one particular myth that I felt was interesting to focus on which was giving young adults a curfew to be in the house before ten at night to help bring down juvenile crime rates. While American society focus’ on young adults breaking curfew laws the main focus should not be making sure they are in the house before the street lights come on because that should be parents' role to make sure their children are in the house by a responsible time and focus more on children committing crimes during the day when they get out of school. In Mike Males’ book he focus’ on the fact that there is evidence that shows that by giving young adults a curfew is not going to bring down the crime rate committed by young adults. The evidence that Mike Males also provides states that most crimes that are committed by young adults happen during the day not at night time. In fact by giving young adults a curfew just keeps adolescents from roaming the streets to look for trouble at night time. This myth is maintained because majority of society believes that most crimes are committed at night time when people are in there homes and unable to be supervised by adults. In which they are roaming the streets looking for trouble. Another factor in why society believes that by giving young adults a curfew will bring down juvenile crimes rates is because the media focus’ on what parents want to happen and parents want to make sure that young adults stay off the streets past ten at night, so the media focus’ on making statements that use headings that address the problem with juvenile crime happening during the evening and now the focus would be on setting curfew’s for young adults. People believe it because they are only reading what is available in the news or in the paper. The problem is that the news will leave out certain data or use certain data to back up points that are misled. The central thesis that I will focus on in this paper is by giving juveniles curfews this will not bring down juvenile crime rates.


Throughout the articles I found that if there is a curfew law that is enforced police will focus more on young adults violating the curfew law by staying out past ten o’clock instead of picking up actual offenders that are committing serious crimes instead of a young adult committing the curfew law. The main issue is not that children are out roaming the streets past certain hours of the night, but the fact that they are not being supervised by adults is a fear that society is pointing there fingers at. With the belief that if there are no curfew laws than children will commit crimes at night. This is actually false because many children who are committing crimes are committing crimes in day light after school. The focus for police should not be young adults breaking curfews because there are many other serious crimes that are being committed with adults that are over the age to have a curfew at night past ten o’clock. The situation is easy to elaborate on when we can argue that children have curfews and are not allowed to roam the streets to help bring down young adolescents crimes rates that are being committed at night, but what about adults who committee crimes at night as well, should they have a curfew to see if we can bring down crime rates for adults?


Another focus on giving young adults curfew is the free time that they have to do what they want. During the fun hot summers having a curfew makes young adults have to be inside by ten o’clock which puts a tamper on them being able to have fun. The problem with this is that children look forward to summers to be able to stay out and hang out with there friends, whether it’s at the movie theatres, swimming pools, parks, etc. having to end the night so young and be in the house by ten o’clock makes young adults feel they might have to be rebellious and sneak out. The summer time is the only time for adolescents’ to be able to have s little free time and not have to worry about being in the house early, going to bed early, doing homework, and even hearing their parents yell at them about how late it is and that there still up. When I look back to when I was growing up I had a curfew in the summer that my parents made for me and it was later than ten o’clock and I didn’t think my curfew was even fair that my parents set for me. To look at it through my perspective I had a later curfew than ten o’clock and I was never in trouble nor do I remember any friends of mine committing crimes at night time. I can remember the joy of being able to hang out late whether it was to go swimming (hot tubing), play tag at night time, truth or dare, etc. There were no thoughts of committing crime just because it was night time and we were out later than ten o’clock "curfew time". If I was a teen now a days and there was a curfew law that stated young adults had to be in the house by ten o’clock that would absolutely be dreadful because my parents made a later curfew for me than the law would have. I can also remember that plenty of my friends had curfews that were the same as mine or some even an hour or so later.


The myth that young adults should have a curfew in order to keep juvenile crime rates down is a myth that the media is enforcing by making sure they give certain ideas to parents and adults through the press. The myth is sustained through the press by focusing on the fact that if young adults do not have a curfew than children are in danger of either being behind bars for committing a crime or in danger of their lives because there are dangerous youth on the streets at night time. The way that this myth is going to be maintained is by the media and press using certain word choice in the news to scare parents that children’s lives are at risks in we do not handle the curfew law as soon as possible. The interest of maintaining this myth is for the children’s safety to keep them off the streets and out of trouble, to make sure that the parents can sleep at night knowing that their children are safe at home in their beds and that nothing happens to them. I must say that the myth of juveniles having a curfew should not be accessible because of the fact that in order for children to learn certain things on their own they will have to learn themselves and with the law making certain laws such as curfews limits kids to roam freely and become adventurous on their own. I feel that children need to be able to have the opportunity to stay out late during the summer so that they have something to look forward to and that way they wont want to fail any classes during the school year because than they wont have to do summer school and they can have a fun summer. But, if students do not have anything to look forward to then they tend to slack off and not worthy about the future of a fun summer. Although, I have a younger sister and I agree that she should be in the house by ten o’clock, I know if she was out past ten o’clock she is not out in the streets looking for trouble or committing crimes she’s just being a kid and having fun!