How does curfew work

One critique of curfews, particularly ones that start early in the evening, is that for a short period of time before a curfew begins they can result in more people being crammed together on transit, in stores, etc. In addition, jurisdictions close by such as neighboring cities can have different curfews, making it difficult to really ensure the curfew is effective as an individual with an early curfew could stay out in a neighboring city with a later curfew.

In addition, individuals can go around the curfew, for instance, by gathering in homes after the start of curfew. There are pros and cons to curfews, with logical reasons pointing towards their use. However, targeted actions such as limiting indoor dining or cracking down on large indoor gatherings are more likely to be more effective. One of the measures that jurisdictions have begun implementing to help curb the increasing spread of COVID is to institute curfews. Curfews are a regulation requiring people to remain indoors between specified hours, typically at night.

For instance, in the U. This article was published on. What our experts say The intended purpose of curfew orders is to reduce nonessential interactions between individuals from different households by keeping people at home during a time when they are more likely to participate in nonessential activities that could result in less compliance with public health practices.

I spent a day reading news articles about the worth of this particular measure, and the scientists and physicians interviewed simply could not agree. Some argued there was no evidence curfews worked. Others put forward the notion that they must work because they make intuitive sense. One justification I heard for them is that they signal to the population that things have gotten very serious.

As it turns out, determining if curfews do indeed work is very, very difficult. Calculating their plausibility takes us down crossroads littered with assumptions, and the evidence we do have is imperfect and piecemeal. Inferences are best guesses but they may not always be right.

Starting tonight, we will impose a curfew. Will it work? If we prevent people from congregating in supermarkets and pharmacies in the evenings, surely we will put a stop to potential outbreaks! Shoppers may decide to make fewer trips and simply buy more and stock up on the trips they do make A supermarket might conceivably see the same number of customers but packed into fewer hours.

If one of them is infectious, it could lead to a worse outbreak. As we continue to think about the issue, we may infer that restricting nighttime activities will be beneficial because these activities often involve alcohol, especially in younger populations, and alcohol impairs judgment.

But if our city has already closed bars and restaurant dining rooms, will adding a curfew do more to curtail this behaviour?

Will people meet inside of houses and apartments instead? Will the police be able to tell when a small group is gathering inside after hours? Are the outbreaks in our city really coming from people congregating after work or are they mainly coming from schools and workplaces?

At what time should the curfew begin? Should it only affect people of a certain age? Answering these questions in the abstract forces us to make assumptions, and depending on the ones we choose to make, we will reach different conclusions. So we need data.

But even here, there is entanglement afoot. Curfews are not solitary creatures; they tend to be part of a set of interventions that includes lockdowns, school closures, mask ordinances, and work-from-home orders. In fact, a model often used to illustrate how these interventions work is the Swiss cheese model.

Each slice represents one intervention, and each slice has a couple of holes here and there, but when you layer them you build a uniform block impenetrable by the virus. So if cases drop after enacting a curfew, was it because of the curfew or because of the curfew layered in with the other measures?

Did the curfew add anything? I hope these questions make it clear that armchair-opining about the worth of a real-world intervention like a curfew in the midst of a public health crisis that is being solved in real time by an ever-changing combination of measures is not wise.

And the evening curfew time is an hour earlier on each end than the California curfew for those under 18 driving with a provisional license without a licensed parent, guardian, other adult 25 years of age or older, or licensed or certified driving instructor in the vehicle.

Skip to main content. Curfew Violations Parents should know the activities and whereabouts of their minor children under 18 years old and make sure that they are home during curfew hours, which is the period from 10 p. Constitution; travelling between activities listed above; emancipated pursuant to law.