The decision of two Giant grocery stores in Baltimore to prohibit youths under 17 from shopping after 6 p.m. without adult supervision will materially harm young people and their families and is based on misconceptions about rising youth crime.

Prohibiting individuals younger than 17 from shopping after 6 p.m. overlooks the reality that families often rely on their teenagers to go grocery shopping, particularly when they have hectic work schedules or child care responsibilities. Targeting youths sends the harmful, and inaccurate, message that young people are primarily responsible for crime and shoplifting. This recent announcement adds to a steady stream of headlines focused on juvenile crime, despite data showing a steady decline in youth arrests in the state over the last two decades.

While perhaps conceived as a response to a financial problem, this business curfew only fuels a dangerous public paranoia about youth crime. Our young people deserve better.

Hannah Stommel

Baltimore

Hannah Stommel is a Zubrow fellow at the Juvenile Law Center