Age Boundaries of the Juvenile Justice System

This literature review from the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention assesses age boundaries of the juvenile legal system across the country.

From the summary:

This literature review discusses the age boundaries of the juvenile justice system. The review provides definitions of juveniles, delinquency, status offenses, and other related terms; gives a summary of the lower and upper age limits in the United States; describes common exceptions based on mitigating circumstances or transfer laws; and presents a national perspective on data trends with respect to age in the juvenile justice system. The review also summarizes research related to adolescent developmental science and highlights how that research has affected raise-the-age legislation and recent Supreme Court decisions regarding protections for youths under age 18. Additionally, the review examines outcome evidence on the impact of changing the age boundaries for jurisdiction of juveniles who offend, including attempts at diverting them from the adult court and transfer laws between the juvenile court and adult court systems.