Juvenile Curfew Laws - The Basics

Juvenile curfew laws are local ordinances that prohibit people of a certain age
(usually under 18) from being in public or in a business establishment during
certain hours (such as between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.).

Juvenile curfew laws are almost always enacted at the local level, by city or
county governments. The legislative intent behind juvenile curfew laws is usually
social order goals like prevention of crimes involving juveniles, and maintenance
of the general peace.

Curfew
A curfew is a law, regulation, or ordinance that forbids particular people or
particular classes of people from being outdoors in public places at certain
specified times of the day.
Juvenile Curfews
Local ordinances and state statutes may make it unlawful for minors below a
certain age to be on public streets, unless they are accompanied by a parent or
an adult or on lawful and necessary business on behalf of their parents or
guardians. For example, a Michigan state law provides that "[n]o minor under the
age of 12 years shall loiter, idle or congregate in or on any public street,
highway, alley or park between the hours of 10 o'clock p.m. and 6 o'clock a.m.,
unless the minor is accompanied by a parent or guardian, or some adult
delegated by the parent or guardian to accompany the child." MCLA 722.751;
MSA 28.342(1). Curfew laws in other states and cities typically set forth
different curfews for minors of different ages.
Curfew laws and ordinances have been sustained as necessary to control the
presence of juveniles in public places at nighttime with the attendant risk of
mischief. In re Osman, 109 Ohio App. 3d 731, 672 N.E.2d 1114 (1996). Courts
have found that curfew ordinances promote the safety and good order of the
community by reducing the incidence of juvenile criminal activity. Schleifer v.
City of Charlottesville, 159 F.3d 843 (4th Cir. 1998).
Curfew laws have generally been upheld against constitutional challenges on
First Amendment and due process grounds. Hodgkins ex rel. Hodgkins v.
Peterson, 175 F. Supp. 2d 1132 (S.D. Ind. 2001). One federal court held that
minors have no fundamental right to freedom of movement or travel that
protects them from restrictions imposed by curfew laws. Hutchins v. District of
Columbia, 188 F.3d 531,(D.C. Cir. 1999). However, a juvenile curfew ordinance
that exempted minors who had graduated from high school was found to violate
the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. In re Mosier, 59 Ohio Misc. 83, 394 N.E.2d 368, 13 O.O.3d 290 (Ohio
Com. Pl. 1978).
In some instances, courts will find particular language in a juvenile curfew law to
be impermissibly vague under the "void for vagueness" doctrine (a Fifth
Amendment doctrine that requires all laws to be sufficiently clear that persons of
average intelligence will understand in advance which conduct is prohibited). If
possible, courts will simply delete offending language from the law so that what
remains passes constitutional muster. For example, one curfew law allowed the
city's mayor to issue permits for minors to use public streets during prohibited
times if the mayor found that such use was "consistent with the public interest."
A California state court held that that language failed to provide any standards
by which the mayor could lawfully exercise the discretion to grant permits. The
court deleted the language but said the mayor could still grant permits when to
do so would be consistent with the purposes of ordinance as expressly set forth
therein. Bykofsky v. Borough of Middletown, 401 F. Supp. 1242 (M.D. Pa. 1975).
Curfew as a Condition of Probation
State laws typically allow courts to impose curfews on criminal defendants as a
condition of pre-trial release, and on probationers as a condition for successful
discharge from Probation. Defendants and probationers who are subject to
curfews can be ordered to pay the cost of monitoring their compliance with the
terms of the order. Curfew violations can result in the revocation of probation or
termination of the pretrial release bond.
However, curfew orders themselves must be reasonable, and courts must be
careful to explain the rationale underlying them. Orders imposing curfews that
are harsh or excessive, for example, have been invalidated. People v. Braun, 177
A.D. 2d 981, 578 N.Y.S.2d (1991). Similarly, orders that cite no justification for a
curfew have also been overturned. People v Sztuk, 126 A.D. 2d 950, 511 N.Y.S.2d
720 (1987).

Curfews have been around for hundreds of years. They originated for the public
goodto get youth offenders off the streets. Most curfew ordinances trace back to
a public safety regulation imposed by Alexander the Great that required the
residents of Oxford, England to retire and cover their fires when an evening bell
was rung. (Ruefle and Reynolds, 1996) In the early 1900s, the curfew bell could
be heard throughout America as a sign to teenagers and children that it was time
to be home. In recent years, cities nationwide have expanded the use of youth
curfews to address growing public concern about juvenile crime and violence. By
reducing the number of youth on the street during certain hours, curfews are
assumed to lesson the number of circumstances in which youth crime can occur.
It also assumes that curfews reduce youth crime by deterring youths from being
on the streets at certain hours out of fear of being arrested. Curfews have been a
tool for policy makers to reduce ju! venile crime. Most curfew policies require
teens under 18to be home at certain hours at night unless they have a legitimate
excuse or are accompanied by a parent/guardian. For example, the nighttime
curfew imposed in Dallas, Texas, is as follows: Specifically, the curfew applies to
juveniles under 17 years of age and only between the hours of 11pm to 6am,
Sunday through Thursday, and midnight to 6am on Friday and Saturday. The
exemptions include juveniles who are accompanied by an adult, traveling to or
from work, responding to an emergency, married, or attending a supervised
activity. (Drowns and Hess, 264) Many juveniles and their parents found in
violation of curfew laws are subject to fines and the label of a juvenile offender.
There is an article involving teen curfew in Harris County, and by the end of the
year, Montgomery County is going to be taking in effect the teen curfew law. It
has been said...