A national police survey on the use of juvenile curfews

Advocates of juvenile curfews claim that they are useful for both minimizin g victimization of young people, as well as a tool to aid in the deterrence of offenses by youthful offenders. Opponents claim that curfews have only interim, short-term effects on youth misconduct and violate the civil right s of young people. This research note reports initial data from a national survey of police agencies to determine the extent of curfew use and its per ceived effects. The study found that most jurisdictions with curfews had th e ordinances in effect for several years. In the vast majority of cases, th ey felt that curfew was an effective tool to control vandalism, graffiti, n ighttime burglary, and auto theft. Those jurisdictions that did not have cu rfews typically reported that the nonexistence of a curfew was largely a re sult of political reasons. even if the police supported such an ordinance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.