Also known as: juvenile delinquencies · juvenile delinquent · juvenile delinquents · juvenile offender · juvenile crime
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A civil proceeding in which a juvenile court adjudicates a child for conduct that would constitute a crime if committed by an adult. The proceeding focuses on treatment and rehabilitation rather than punishment.
Fifteen-year-old Maya faces a juvenile petition alleging computer fraud after investigators link after-hours office access to her. The court applies a preponderance standard and adjudicates her delinquent. On appeal the adjudication is reversed because due process requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every element when the petition rests on criminal conduct.
Seventeen-year-old Jamal is adjudicated delinquent for arson that destroys a warehouse but causes no deaths. The court imposes life without parole. The sentence is vacated because the Eighth Amendment forbids that punishment for a juvenile in a non-homicide case.
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Fourteen-year-old John is adjudicated delinquent after selling magazines ruled obscene under the prevailing test. The adjudication stands because the materials meet the constitutional definition of obscenity even though the buyer was also a minor.
Sixteen-year-old Jillian is adjudicated delinquent for engaging in sexual intercourse with a fifteen-year-old male. The court rejects her equal-protection challenge because the statute may constitutionally treat the older participant as delinquent regardless of gender.
Thirteen-year-old June is adjudicated delinquent for repeated thefts. The same conduct later supports a separate petition to terminate her parents' rights. The delinquency adjudication supplies clear and convincing evidence that the parents failed to control her behavior.
Fourteen-year-old Julia is searched at school and found with cigarettes. The evidence supports a delinquency petition for possession. The search is upheld because school officials need only reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause.
Due process requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every element. The civil label of the proceeding does not reduce the constitutional burden when the petition rests on criminal acts.
No. The Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits that sentence for juvenile offenders in non-homicide cases.
No. The Sixth Amendment jury-trial right does not extend to juvenile adjudications.
The delinquency proceeding is civil and aims at treatment rather than punishment, although constitutional protections such as proof beyond a reasonable doubt still apply when the petition alleges criminal conduct.
…387 U. S. 1 (1967). The present case draws in question the validity of a New York statute that permits a determination of juvenile delinquency, founded on a charge of criminal conduct, to be made on a standard of proof that is less rigorous than that which would obtain had the accused been tried for the same conduct in an ordinary…