DN Editorial: Kids, stay home

YESTERDAY, City Council passed, by 15-1, a bill to extend the city's emergency curfew and impose fines on parents of children caught violating it.

The bill, authored by Blondell Reynolds Brown, extends Mayor Nutter's tightening of the curfew laws in response to August's flash mobs. At that time, he also made Center City and University City off-limits to minors after 9 p.m. on weekends and flooded those areas with police. Since those measures, flash mobs have been curtailed.

The new bill, which sunsets in two years, sets new curfew times for three age groups, extends the curfew citywide and year-round, and fines parents from $75 to $500 for offenses.

Many citizens will be relieved to hear about this crackdown on juvenile crime, and glad to hear that parents of delinquent teens will have to pay for their children's misbehavior. But anyone thinking that adding broader curfew times to the law books will end juvenile crime should adjust their expectations.

Although youth curfews and parental liability laws are popular, there's no evidence that either of them work.

People assume curfews work, because it makes sense that getting youths off the street at night will keep them out of trouble. But studies of curfews in several states show that curfews don't affect the rate of juvenile crimes, most of which occur before curfews kick in. (On the other hand, the majority of homicides in the city happen between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.)

Meanwhile, any serious and fair enforcement of a curfew can suck up police resources, and punish and alienate well-behaved kids (10 p.m., the curfew for 17-year-olds, is not very late for a high-school student to take the bus home from a movie with friends on a Friday night). It's true police can use a curfew law as a tool - but there are plenty of rules against the kinds of behavior we saw in flash mobs.

Parental-liability laws have a similar history. Citizens in municipalities around the country have felt good about laws punishing parents for their children's misdeeds. But University of Oregon professor Leslie Joan Harris has found that psychic benefit is the only gain: The laws tend not to be enforced. They just enable society to point a finger without solving a problem.

Flash mobs, and youth violence generally, are serious problems . . . too serious for any single solution, like a curfew.

That's why we hope this measure gets followed up with more action, like re-funding youth and recreation programs. And we hope Council takes the curfew's two-year sunset provision seriously, and honestly assesses the plan's effectiveness.

Meanwhile, although some citizens might rest a little easier knowing that fewer kids are on the street, it's no time for blissful slumber. The youth-crime problem - and the youth of the city - needs real attention.