Calls for a curfew to be put in place to curb violence among Bermuda's young people are short-sighted and fail to address the real issues which lead to incidents such as the New Year's street-fights, anti-poverty advocate Sheelagh Cooper said yesterday.

"I don't want to call it a knee-jerk reaction but, it is not a response that takes into account the fundamental reasons that these things happen," Ms Cooper said.

The curfew suggestion was put forward by defence lawyer Mark Pettingill after a number of community leaders expressed outrage at the scale of violence that took place over the holiday.

Up to 1,000 people are said to have gathered to watch gangs of youths battle on Front Street in the early hours of 2003.

"To put in place a curfew would be to not even begin to look for a real solution," Ms Cooper said.

She said she was shocked to hear callers to radio talk shows suggest that the cat-o-nine tails be used to stamp out the youth violence.

"It seems like we're a community at war with our young people," Ms Cooper said.

"I do not in any way condone what is happening but we have got to address the root causes of this violence."

Ms Cooper said Bermuda was failing to confront the fact that most of the violence is driven by rampant drug use and economic disparity.

"We do not even want to acknowledge that the violence is largely gang-related," she said.

With the gap between the very rich and the very poor growing, an increase in violence is predictable, she said. "The census was very clear - we do have a widening gap."

As the gap grows more and more young people feel detached from the greater society - a sentiment inflamed by drug and alcohol abuse.

Meanwhile, Ms Cooper said, Bermuda does not even have a facility offering residential drug treatment programmes for young people.

Putting a curfew in place would be closer to hiding the problem away at night than truly addressing it, she suggested.