The idea of imposing an indiscriminate curfew on kids is grotesque

The idea of imposing an indiscriminate curfew on kids is grotesque

'I have a distasteful vision of the police riding around the streets of English towns and cities rounding up youngsters'

Marcel Berlins

In the Youth Crime Action Plan, published today by the government, the bit I find the most worrying is not one of the main ones. It's the proposed imposition of curfews, banning children from being outside past a certain time, and punishing parents if they are. The word curfew has, for me, sinister and ominous connotations. Silent, dark streets; prowling soldiers with guns at the ready; the occasional click-clack of hurried footsteps as a hunched figure hurries to safety; a shot is fired, someone is captured - or lies dead. Now that's what I call a curfew.

Its original meaning, from the French, had to do with a bell being sounded, telling residents to extinguish their fires and retire to bed. Think of "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day" in Gray's Elegy. The word grew to mean an order restricting people to their homes at times of unrest. Most recently, it has become a means of controlling troublesome teenagers. Quite apart from my distress at seeing such an interesting and evocative word applied to children who swear, puke and fight, I find the prospect of kids' curfews objectionable.

I have a distasteful vision of the police riding around the streets of English towns and cities rounding up youngsters who have missed the 9 o'clock deadline. Their parents are then interrogated and asked to explain why they hadn't kept their child at home. Remember, these are kids who have done nothing wrong. But if the parental answers don't satisfy the police, they can be forced to undergo parenting classes and even, it seems, be themselves served with asbos. Would "My son went to see a friend. I knew where he was. He's a responsible child" be enough to deflect action? Perhaps not.

The use of the indiscriminate curfew - catching wrongdoers and innocent alike - is a stark admission of failure. We have failed to prevent drugs and alcohol getting to a small minority of the young; parents and schools have failed to instil decent values into a small minority. So why don't we just bang up all children in their own homes; then they can't get up to any mischief, even the huge majority who weren't doing anything wrong in the first place.