Should there be a curfew for people under 18 years to reduce crime? [ENDS 28/02/10]

[-:Undertaker:-]

Dan, the taxpayers fund far more for these people at the moment - think of all the costs of law proceedings & police and hospital man hours connected to these people. It would cost the country a lot less.

The only thing the taxpayer should be funding for these people at the moment is a jail cell. Why should my family and other families around the country work to pay for these dirty habits of people, especially when the fact I brought up that drug dealers would still be active and making a profit so in essence; it wouldnt make one bit of difference - just add to our state bill and de-criminalise drugs even futher making them more and more attractive to younger kids.

If you want to pay for these people then by all means, donate to clinics who 'look after them' and 'help them' get off their dirty habits, but the rest of us have no interest in funding these people - most of whom are rotten-to-the-core, theiving scumbag criminals who cant differ between their right and left hand and wouldnt know what time of the year it is if you shoved a calender under their face.

[Inseriousity.]

Jails don't work. Prison just sticks a plaster over the problem and hope that when they pull it off, the wound's gone. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. So no, building more prisons and whatnot will not solve crime in the long run. I think it's over half of offenders re-offend after release from prison.

A curfew is a rather silly idea imo. The majority of teenagers are law-abiding citizens and I wish the government would acknowledge that rather than punishing us all as that just causes more frustration. Instead, to reduce youth crime, they need to actually TALK to these young people, see if there's a common factor as to why they committed the crime and fight that rather than enforce a curfew.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Jails don't work. Prison just sticks a plaster over the problem and hope that when they pull it off, the wound's gone. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. So no, building more prisons and whatnot will not solve crime in the long run. I think it's over half of offenders re-offend after release from prison.

A curfew is a rather silly idea imo. The majority of teenagers are law-abiding citizens and I wish the government would acknowledge that rather than punishing us all as that just causes more frustration. Instead, to reduce youth crime, they need to actually TALK to these young people, see if there's a common factor as to why they committed the crime and fight that rather than enforce a curfew.

The idea of prison is to protect people from those who are dangerous, therefore prison does work. If they re-offend after they are let out of prison, dont let them out in the first place. You know, you hear these stories of murderers being let out and going on to kill more people - why on earth were they let out in the first place?

Kids commit crime because they want to, they dont need the government to patronise them and give them more play parks to vandalise - at the end of the day its your choice, and by doing so you agree to the saying 'commit the crime, you do the time' - simple as that really, people need to start taking some responsbility for once instead of blaming everyone and everything but themselves.

[Inseriousity.]

The idea of prison is to protect people from those who are dangerous, therefore prison does work. If they re-offend after they are let out of prison, dont let them out in the first place. You know, you hear these stories of murderers being let out and going on to kill more people - why on earth were they let out in the first place?

Kids commit crime because they want to, they dont need the government to patronise them and give them more play parks to vandalise - at the end of the day its your choice, and by doing so you agree to the saying 'commit the crime, you do the time' - simple as that really, people need to start taking some responsbility for once instead of blaming everyone and everything but themselves.

hmm well as a determinist, I'd disagree with that but that's a whole different debate, which takes a long time to argue about

Prisons have 4 functions:

Protect the public. Do they really protect the public if all they're going to do is re-offend when they get out? And just saying "well don't let them out" is absurd too. not all prisoners are murderers, can't keep them ALL in there forever or it'd greatly dilute the point of the criminal justice system. "Oh if Im gonna get jailed same amount of time for vandalising this street and murdering someone... hmmm...."

Punish criminal behaviour. Okay fair point, they do this.

Reform criminals - Here lies the problem. Giving them academic achievements in the hope of them turning their lives around doesn't work! They need to find out why their lives ended up on the wrong track in the first place before they can help!

Deter people from crime. The majority of citizens are law-abiding so I'd say this isn't much of a problem although is it really because of the prison system or more because of society's influence on us?

Back to the debate in hand then, the curfew would also not reform criminals as like prisons, they would be sticking a plaster over the problem and hoping it goes away next time they look.

[-:Undertaker:-]

hmm well as a determinist, I'd disagree with that but that's a whole different debate, which takes a long time to argue about

Prisons have 4 functions:

Protect the public. Do they really protect the public if all they're going to do is re-offend when they get out? And just saying "well don't let them out" is absurd too. not all prisoners are murderers, can't keep them ALL in there forever or it'd greatly dilute the point of the criminal justice system. "Oh if Im gonna get jailed same amount of time for vandalising this street and murdering someone... hmmm...."

Punish criminal behaviour. Okay fair point, they do this.

Reform criminals - Here lies the problem. Giving them academic achievements in the hope of them turning their lives around doesn't work! They need to find out why their lives ended up on the wrong track in the first place before they can help!

Deter people from crime. The majority of citizens are law-abiding so I'd say this isn't much of a problem although is it really because of the prison system or more because of society's influence on us?

Back to the debate in hand then, the curfew would also not reform criminals as like prisons, they would be sticking a plaster over the problem and hoping it goes away next time they look.

Why would we want to reform them? - you cant reform someone like Ian Huntley and most criminals are unreformable - a leopard rarely changes its spots. It is their choice to reform at the end of the day, and if they show no hope of reform them quite simply do not let them out.

If you let criminals out based on the very vague hope that you have reformed them then you are putting people at immense danger and thats not acceptable.

[Inseriousity.]

Why would we want to reform them? - you cant reform someone like Ian Huntley and most criminals are unreformable - a leopard rarely changes its spots. It is their choice to reform at the end of the day, and if they show no hope of reform them quite simply do not let them out.

If you let criminals out based on the very vague hope that you have reformed them then you are putting people at immense danger and thats not acceptable.

Are you comparing murderers to young people? It makes no sense. As for reforming murderers, yes, it is almost impossible to reform them but you can talk to them and maybe find a reason why they committed that crime and then try to prevent others from having that reason.

If you want to reduce crime, stop locking people up and hoping the problem goes away because it doesn't work! You can't compare young people to murderers and keep them all in prison for an indefinite period of time because the crimes of a young person are weak compared to those of a murderer.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Are you comparing murderers to young people? It makes no sense. As for reforming murderers, yes, it is almost impossible to reform them but you can talk to them and maybe find a reason why they committed that crime and then try to prevent others from having that reason.

If you want to reduce crime, stop locking people up and hoping the problem goes away because it doesn't work! You can't compare young people to murderers and keep them all in prison for an indefinite period of time because the crimes of a young person are weak compared to those of a murderer.

Both, you say you support reform. The problem does go away though, because it makes people think twice before they commit a crime if their mate is in prison and secondly, it prevents the crime. So instead of having 10 criminals on the loose, you may only have 1 or two - thus a reduction in crime.

Of course, and for younger criminals such as petty crime and so forth, a short spell in prison for their first offences may teach them a lesson. If not, put them in for a much longer period. If still not reformed, put them in for a very long time until they show some signs of a change - and until they do, do not allow them out.

Prison works, its liberal policies like 'lets talk to them' & 'aww lets pander to them' like you are suggesting that results in people having no respect for the police and no respect for the law. It results in a worsening of offenders because feel they can get away with it, and ultimately it results in death and violence.

[Black_Apalachi]

Statistics show that it is only a small minority of people who are responsible for most of the crime so a curfew is wrong. ...

Yeah but how many of the kids out late at night hanging round on street corners do you think aren't being rowdy, drinking alcohol or causing trouble one way or another? It's not as if the kind of people who spend their nights outside are innocent little choir boys.

[GommeInc]

Won't solve much, and alot of damage to private and public property is done by other, older people :/ It's assuming that all under 18s are evil beggars, when it's just a minority who do.

[Swastika]

No, this is England NOT North Korea.
Its the governments fault teenagers are going outside and causing mayhem and drinking underage. I personally think there isnt enough things to do for children/teenagers to do in the area, so i can understand why some turn to petty crime out of pure boredum.
Crime is the governments problem to sort out, and setting a curfew to under 18s is a big step in the wrong direction, making innocent kids stay in because of the minority wont go down well with the country's people.