Also known as: delinquencies · delinquent · delinquents · juvenile delinquency
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
An obligation or debt that remains unpaid after its due date. The condition arises when a required payment such as taxes or assessments is not made on time and creates a lien or enforcement risk against the underlying property.
An obligation or debt that remains unpaid after its due date. The condition arises when a required payment such as taxes or assessments is not made on time and creates a lien or enforcement risk against the underlying property.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Conduct by a person under the age of majority that would constitute a crime if committed by an adult. The label triggers special procedural protections including proof beyond a reasonable doubt in adjudicatory hearings.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Conduct by a person under the age of majority that would constitute a crime if committed by an adult. The label triggers special procedural protections including proof beyond a reasonable doubt in adjudicatory hearings.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Denise Donovan holds a mortgage on a commercial building owned by Decker Electronics. Decker stops paying the county property taxes for eight months. The county schedules a tax sale. The mortgagee treats the nonpayment as waste because the taxes became delinquent without its consent and now threaten the security.
Delinquency occurs when the mortgagor fails to pay property taxes or assessments before they become overdue and create a senior lien. The Restatement treats this nonpayment as a form of waste that impairs the mortgagee's security.
Supporting sources
Yes. When taxes become delinquent without the mortgagee's consent, the mortgagee may treat the failure as waste and pursue remedies including foreclosure or recovery of amounts paid to clear the lien.
Supporting sources
Dominic Drake, age thirteen, is charged in family court with entering a locker and taking cash. The court must decide whether the prosecution proved every element of the underlying theft offense beyond a reasonable doubt before it can label him delinquent.
Danielle Dixon is adjudicated delinquent for an aggravated assault. The court considers whether a statutory sentencing enhancement that increases the maximum disposition must be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
Deanna Davenport, a minor, lives with her grandmother after her parents' incarceration. City zoning officials seek to remove her, claiming the household violates single-family rules. The court weighs whether the arrangement receives constitutional protection in the delinquency context.
Destiny Davis, adjudicated delinquent for repeated thefts, faces a state law authorizing sterilization of habitual offenders. The court examines whether the statute denies equal protection by singling out certain offenses for the penalty.
Diane Dawson, age fifteen, is charged with murder in juvenile court. The statute places the burden on the juvenile to prove heat of passion to reduce the offense. The court must decide whether that allocation violates due process in a delinquency proceeding.
Yes. The Due Process Clause requires the prosecution to prove every element of the underlying criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt in juvenile delinquency proceedings just as in adult criminal cases.
Supporting sources
A delinquency adjudication labels a juvenile's conduct as criminal if committed by an adult but does not produce a criminal conviction. Special procedural rules and confidentiality protections apply instead of standard criminal procedures.
Supporting sources
…Clause and the Due Process Clause; and in Zablocki v. Redhail , 434 U.S. 374, where the Court invalidated a law barring fathers delinquent on child-support payments from marrying. Indeed, recognizing that new insights and societal understandings can reveal unjustified inequality within fundamental institutions that once passed…