It’s almost time to ask: ‘trick-or-treat?’ – but in some cities across the country local lawmakers have introduced age limits for the Halloween pastime.
Rather than facing any costumed zombie or ghost, kids aged over 12 could instead face the long arm of the law. Teen violaters can face jail or fines of up to $100.
Former Mayor of Belleville, Illinois, Mark Eckert, led a push in 2008 to ban trick or treating by high school-aged teens in community of about 35,000 people.
‘When I was a kid my father said to me, “You’re too damn big to be going trick-or-treating. You’re done,” Eckert said at the time. ‘When that doesn’t happen, then that’s reason for the city governments to intervene.’
While some Belleville residents complained about the ordinance he said he more often hears from those thankful for the age limit.
Some cities have introduced age limits for children to take part in trick-or-treating with potential legal consequences as a result of age restrictions. Pictured, a child stops to look at an Upper East Side home decorated for Halloween
A number have set an age limit around the age of 12 over who can go door-to-door gathering with penalties for teenage violators including jail time or fines
The ‘Halloween Solicitation’ ordinance prohibits those over 12 years old from wearing masks in public any other day of the year and forbids anyone above eighth grade from trick-or-treating. To do so requires ‘permission of the Mayor or Chief of Police’.
Those who do go door to door must be done by 9pm.
In Virginia, several cities have had trick-or-treating age limits on the books since the 1970s.
Until recently Chesapeake had a law that potentially could send any trick-or-treating teen to jail for six months.
The city eventually changed the law following a massive backlash but there is still a statute that states any child over 14 is guilty of a misdemeanor.
The towns of Jacksonville, Illinois and Rayne, Louisiana both prevent kids older than 13 from trick-or treating.
City officials from Meridian, Mississippi to Bishopville, South Carolina and Boonsboro, Maryland have also cut off the ritual even younger at the age of 12.
Similar restrictions exist in Taft, Texas, where trick-or-treating can only be done between 6 and 8:30pm.
Officials cannot recall anyone ever being arrested or fined for being too old to trick-or-treat
‘The practice of persons in previous years on Halloween night in roving all over the city late at night has become … undesirable,’ places a burden on the police department and creates ‘an intolerable situation,’ the city said in its law.
Still, officials cannot recall anyone ever being arrested or fined for being too old to trick-or-treat.
If anything, officers will let teens off with a warning or a phone call to their parents.
Even if they wanted to, officials acknowledge the laws are difficult to enforce.
Still, they say putting the word out about the laws every year keeps too many teens from violating the bans.
There’s no way to know exactly how many cities have such ordinances.
The National League of Cities doesn’t keep track of ordinances, and states have left such matters up to the localities.
Trick-or-treating evolved out of the late medieval custom of children asking for treats in exchange for praying for the dead of the household, said Hans Broedel, a University of North Dakota history professor and expert on early traditions.
Law enforcement often let teenagers off with a warning or a call to their parents
Tricks — usually vandalism and other debauchery by teens and young adults — were a big part of Halloween for a time until a conscious effort in the 19th and early 20th centuries to shift the celebration toward children, Broedel said.
Excluding teens from trick-or-treating could make it more appealing to do other, less desirable, things, he said.
‘Trick-or-treating in a large part is embraced in this country because it serves to cut down on teenage vandalism,’ Broedel explained.
‘Certainly telling teenagers they can’t go trick-or-treating isn’t going to stop them from going out on Halloween and doing whatever.’