Teen Curfews Are Ridiculous

A primary reason curfews are not the right solution to the problem of juvenile crime is that they are not, have not been, and will not be effective. According to the article "Teen Curfews," "146 of the nation's 200 largest cities now enforce teen curfews," yet "juvenile crime rates nationwide remain largely higher than in the past." If teen curfews really are effective, then it would be assumed that there would be a decrease in the juvenile crime rate, or at least a maintenance of status quo. Statistics show that most juvenile crime occurs between the hours of 3 P.M. and 6 P.M. Thus it would be fruitless to enact curfews that do not attack the problem head on. As James Alan Fox, the dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, says, "The problem with curfew laws is that most kids, the good, the bad and the tired, are asleep at midnight." Past curfews faced these same problems. The time line shows that many cities had passed curfew laws by the 1980s, yet "the juvenile violent-crime rate... surges upward." …