But in some cities across the United States, it doesn't really matter what your parents think. More and more cities are making efforts to enact curfew ordinances in an effort to crack down on juvenile crime. These curfews are typically put into place as a way to reduce juvenile crime. Some officials and most studies say they don't. One 1998 study of California city curfews conducted by the Justice Policy Institute concluded that in most cases, juvenile crime did not decrease as the number of curfew arrests increased.
Curfews are a necessary evil for teenagers.
They are needed, not for the honors kids but the troublemakers. When we have no troublemakers, we'll have no curfews. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. This could be one reason curfews don't seem to be working, according to the Justice Policy Institute. So keeping kids inside during the hours when crime is on the decline anyway doesn't really make sense if cities are trying to lower juvenile crime rates.