1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This chapter investigates the origins of curfew regulations in Canadian municipalities and the concomitant explanatory discourses of lost children, ‘night children’, and juvenile delinquents. Its purpose is to provide insight into the reasons why a curfew law tradition was forged in modern Canada and elsewhere.» (p. 96)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
The author uses primary sources particularly «[...] newspapers and other publications advocating youth curfews [...].» (p. 96)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

The author concludes that during the Second World War the curfew was «[...] cast as a family stabilizer at a moment of intense familial distress. [...] Canadians embarked on a mission to save and protect children in the late nineteenth century. A fundamental part of this movement involved using the state and specifically laws to govern the behaviour of children. A strong belief in the need to relieve street-corner culture of its attraction for youth led to widespread calls for criminalizing children’s presence in public after sundown. [...] This mechanism of social control found most favour among women’s groups, child savers, and small towns. Women’s organizations looked to bolster the family by making sure its members were confined to the home. [...] Canadians’ initial reaction to juvenile nocturnal curfews was mixed. Most large urban centres, especially Toronto and Montreal, resisted the juvenile curfew as a retrograde and impractical policing innovation. [...] And, although some argued that the curfew infringed on parental rights, absent from the debates was a strong sense that youth’s right were abrogated. In fact, most vulnerable – or lost – in this story were the rights and voices of children and youth whose lives were shaped by this technology of control. This was entirely consistent with early juvenile justice in Canada, which trampled on children’s rights; only in the 1960s would a children’s rights movement overhaul the system.» (p. 108-109)