ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
CURFEW LAWS, including the one enacted by Roanoke City Council in 1992, have in recent years proliferated like potholes after a hard-scrabble winter - a response to local communities' growing concerns about juvenile crime.
The laws, which aim to keep youngsters off the streets during late-evening hours, have their critics.
Civil libertarians say they violate children's constitutional rights to freedom of association.
Others, including some criminologists, say the value of curfews is purely cosmetic: a way for politicians to appear to be doing something about juvenile crime when in reality curfews have little impact on crime rates.
Roanoke city officials admit they'd be hard-pressed to prove otherwise. But juvenile crime, while never as prevalent here as in many urban areas, seems to be declining.
Last summer - and summer is traditionally when juvenile crime picks up - was judged one of the city's best ever. Officials believe the curfew law is partly responsible, along with COPE (Community-Oriented Policing Effort), new parks-and-recreation activities and other initiatives.
Meanwhile, officials in Washington, D. C., saw a 34 percent decline in juvenile arrests in the three months after a curfew law was implemented last year. Other localities have also noticed a drop in juvenile crime after new curfews were imposed or they started enforcing old ones.
Not surprisingly, some teen-agers aren't thrilled to have their wings clipped - by night-time curfews or variations on the theme, including anti-cruising ordinances in some cities, counties and towns.
Protests David Pressman, a San Diego teen: ``This [curfew] law isn't keeping gangbangers off the streets. It's just making life difficult for law-abiding people.'' Perhaps many in Roanoke would say the same.
But one good rationale for curfews is to be found in the first half of Pressman's comment. Neither these laws nor any other that we know of (possibly excepting martial law that targets all civilians after dark) can sweep the streets of all ``gangbangers,'' dope pushers, rapists, muggers and psychonuts - and these municipal menaces often prey on youngsters.
Tellingly, not only has the curfew's enforcement in Pressman's hometown brought a decrease in violent crime since 1993, but it's also resulted in a significant reduction in the number of juvenile victims of crime.
Indeed, absolute proof of curfews' effectiveness may never come, in Roanoke or elsewhere, in terms of lower juvenile-crime rates.
Protecting society from trouble-making kids, though, is not the only goal of curfews. They also can protect kids from trouble-making society. When curfews are effective in that regard, they are giving good value, too.
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