Question

Jan hears that the city council is considering a youth curfew. She worries that the curfew might interfere with her afterschool job. She does not think it is fair for her to get in trouble simply by walking home from work! She decides to go to a town hall meeting. During the meeting, she hears two different viewpoints about the issue: Speaker 1: People often call the police when kids are out after dark. The curfew will prevent that. It also gives parents a good reason to tell their children to come home at a certain time. Curfews are a good prevention tool, keeping at-risk kids from becoming victims or criminals. Speaker 2: The law would make anyone who looks under 18 without an ID after dark into a criminal. That's not the answer; that's a police state. Confining innocent youth to house arrest does not make young people more responsible. Jan decides to do some more research on the curfew. What topics should she research if she wanted to support the statements of Speaker 2?

Answer 1

Curfews in or around her area, crime rate of teens 18 and younger, etc.

Answer 2

Answer:

The best answer to the question: What topics should she research if she wanted to support the statements of Speaker 2, would be:

1. Criminal statistics according to age groups, to see if it is true or not that people under 18 present more criminal tendencies than older ones.

2. Criminal statistics of youth after a certain hour, particularly after dark. These will allow Jan to acquire enough arguments to show if indeed it is true that young teenagers are more prone to become criminals after dark. This leads to another set of information Jan would need, which would be criminal statistics, per age group, during daylight hours. This last one would show if criminal activity at young ages, is present more during night, or daytime.

3. She could consult research as well on the effects of such a drastic measure as curfew on the minds of young people, especially since the reason for doing so is arguing that young people tend towards criminal activities if they are let to roam free at night.

4. Research different theories on how young people can develop a sense of responsibility, that comes through education, rather than punishment.

These are only a few ideas. There could be more that Jan could research in order to support the statement of Speaker 2 against an idea as dramatic as a curfew.