Sounding a conservative theme, President Clinton is embracing tough curfews to fight crime: Kids under 17 should be off the streets at 8 p.m. on school nights.
Clinton was offering his recommendations for successful curfews Thursday in New Orleans, where a strict "dusk to dawn" curfew is credited with reducing juvenile crime by 27 percent and lowering auto theft by 42 percent.He was speaking before a women's group of the Church of God in Christ on "a specific type of safety program for kids."
Thursday's trip provided a good sounding board for the president to test his conservative themes. Louisiana gave Clinton 42 percent of the vote in 1992 and has a healthy number of swing voters.
But Clinton isn't alone in talking tough about youth and crime. Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole used the issue in a campaign swing in California just a day earlier, calling the president an election-year convert to the fight against illegal drugs.
Dole said society must help children who "never have a chance in America," but he also urged strict punishment for youths drawn to gangs and drugs. "We can beat gangs and we can beat drugs if we work together," Dole said.
New Orleans' curfew is similar to those in six other cities that require youngsters to be off the streets at night and steer violators to curfew centers where they receive counseling - and where parents pick them up.
A curfew report issued Thursday by the Justice Department says the best curfews provide exceptions for youths who are married, accompanied by an adult, traveling to or from work, responding to an emergency or participating in a supervised school, church or recreational event.
The report is to act as a guide in how to establish curfews that can withstand a constitutional challenge. The most successful programs, Justice officials said, use "creative community involvement" to attack "the root causes of juvenile delinquency and victimization."
"Law enforcement professionals generally view a juvenile curfew ordinance as an effective means to combat late evening crime," department officials wrote. "However, curfews are also intended to protect youth from becoming victims of crime."