Curfew Violation

The offense of being present in a public place during a legally designated curfew period without an applicable exception, most commonly enforced in the United States as a juvenile curfew restricting a minor's presence in public during specified late-night hours absent a parent, guardian or another recognized exception such as travel to or from work, and separately imposed on a citywide or areawide basis by a government during a declared civil emergency, natural disaster or period of civil unrest. A juvenile curfew ordinance has been challenged in a number of United States court cases on constitutional grounds, including a minor's right to free movement and a parent's right to direct their child's upbringing, with courts reaching mixed results depending on how narrowly the ordinance is drafted and what exceptions it provides, while an emergency curfew imposed under a jurisdiction's general emergency powers has more consistently been upheld as a valid, time-limited exercise of police power.