Although 1,079 juveniles have been caught violating the city curfew since 1995, only 289 parents have been cited, records compiled by the Herald-Leader show. Walsh said most parents are not cited, because a warning is sufficient to get most people to obey the law. Katherine Hester said her husband, Henry Hester, was cited for a curfew violation last year when their son, who was 17 at the time, was caught after curfew, smoking in the parking lot of Henry Clay High School. He was supposed to be on his way home. Most violators are picked up near shopping centers and city parks on the county's south side.
Most offenders live in the neighborhood where they are caught.
Statistics show that half the 363 violations this year were committed by white males. Hasan Davis, director of Lexington's Stop the Violence Project, says the numbers show that teen-agers across the socioeconomic spectrum violate the curfew. He thinks affluent kids don't get the attention they need. Affecting the crime rate Walsh maintains that a curfew reduces juvenile crime rates. And though the number of juveniles arrested for burglaries and auto thefts increased from 1995 to October 1997, Lexington can boast that homicides committed by juveniles dropped 100 percent, robberies dropped 28 percent, rapes dropped 14 percent and assaults dropped 13 percent.