The study examined Vernon, CT’s nighttime curfew for youths younger than 18. It used Connecticut and FBI Uniform Crime Reports to compare Vernon’s Part I crime trends to those of similarly sized Connecticut cities (including those without curfews), Connecticut as a whole, and 600 similarly populated cities nationwide. After the curfew took effect in 1994, Vernon experienced a smaller decline in Part I crime than did comparable cities or the State. Examination of 410 individual curfew stop citations issued by Vernon police for 1995-1998 showed only seven of the cited youths were involved in criminal or suspicious activities; none was intoxicated or endangered. The curfew’s main effect was to occupy police time removing law-abiding youth from public places, creating emptier, less policed streets and possibly enhanced opportunities for crime. The article concludes that curfews fail to reduce crime because they are founded in the mistaken assumption that most juveniles are crime-prone when, in fact, the large majority are not. Tables, figure, references