Juvenile Justice

In the early twenty-first century all states had juvenile courts and laws identifying the rights of juveniles and the options available to judges. Larger U.S. jurisdictions had full-time juvenile courts, while smaller ones were part time and often combined with some other form of court.

Juvenile judges were licensed attorneys in most states and often elected officials. Because of the large caseloads in some areas, experienced attorneys acted as assistant judges under supervision of the juvenile judge. The most frequent violent offense for juveniles is aggravated assault, while the most common property crime is larceny-theft.