Argument239 【challenge yourself小组】第三次作业 by monica365

monica365UID: 2230712

TOPIC: ARGUMENT239 - The following appeared as an editorial in the local newspaper of Dalton.

"When the neighboring town of Williamsville adopted a curfew four months ago that made it illegal for persons under the age of 18 to loiter or idle in public places after 10 p.m., youth crime in Williamsville dropped by 27 percent during curfew hours. In Williamsville's town square, the area where its citizens were once most outraged at the high crime rate, not a single crime has been reported since the curfew was introduced. Therefore, to help reduce its own rising crime rate, the town of Dalton should adopt the same kind of curfew. A curfew that keeps young people at home late at night will surely control juvenile delinquency and protect minors from becoming victims of crime."
WORDS: 383          TIME: 00:18:24          DATE: 2008-7-28 20:53:52

中文提纲：
文中有三处逻辑错误：
1.       造成W犯罪率减少的原因，除宵禁政策外，可能有很多其他的。比如4个月前是假期晚上外出的学生多
2.       W和D两处的情况有可能不一样，同样的政策有可能不适用于D
3.       town square的犯罪率减少不具有整体代表性



The editorial recommends the town of Dalton adopt a curfew as its neighboring town of Williamsville did, in order to reduce Dalton's rising crime rate. To support this suggestion, the editorial points out that youth crime in Williamsville decreased by 27 percent during curfew hours after established the policy four month ago.  However, I find this claim problematic in several respects.

First, the editorial is failing to consider other possible alternatives to the decreases of youth crime during curfew hours in Williamsville. Perhaps four months ago was the period of vacation, and there were much more teenagers loitering or idle in public places after 10p.m than ordinary level. Yet, nowadays-during the schooldays, majority students are staying inside of their houses or school dormitories. In this situation, the curfew policy might not be the factor which significantly made youth crimes dropped in Williamsville.

Even if curfew indeed dropped youth crimes in Williamsville, the policy might be not suitable for Dalton to adopt since the situations in the above two towns maybe differing. It's possible that crimes in Williamsville mainly consist of youth crime, however in Dalton its adult crime. If so, the curfew which keep young people at home late at night won't be useful to control juvenile delinquency in Dalton as in Williamsville. It's also possible that there are only few pubs or clubs in Dalton which attract young people, compare to Williamsville where is famous for its awesome nightlife, and most of young people in Dalton already get used to stay at home at night.

Even if the situation in Williamsville and Dalton are the same, the statistics from Williamsville’s town square can hardly stand for the whole crime rate in Williamsville, therefore is unpersuasive to adopt curfew in Dalton to decrease crime rate. Perhaps the base installation in the square improved, and there are more lamps and alarms equipped in the town square, which will surly be more difficult to commit crimes.

In sum, the editorial is logically unsound. To strength it, I would like to ask the speaker to provide evidence that shows curfew is the only reason for the crime decrease in Williamsville, and the situations in the two towns are exact the same. I also need the statistics of crime rate in other area of Williamsville, not only the town square.



[ 本帖最后由 monica365 于 2008-7-31 22:04 编辑 ]