Juvenile courts tend to have their own jargon, in part to portray a gentler image than adult criminal courts. Some of the unique terms that you may encounter if you become involved in juvenile court proceedings are as follows:
Adjudication: A juvenile court trial, similar to an adult trial.
Admission of Petition: The juvenile court counterpart to a guilty plea.
Camp: A locked facility for juvenile offenders. Camps often house minors who will be locked up for many weeks or months, while juvenile halls tend to be temporary holding facilities. States may have various types of camps differing in degrees of security, rigidity and facilities. Many camps have school facilities.
Custody order: An arrest warrant.
Dependency court: A branch of the juvenile court that hears cases involving minors who have allegedly been neglected or abused by parents or guardians.
Detention order: An order that a minor be placed in custody.
Disposition: A juvenile court sentence or other final order, which juvenile court regulars often shorten to "dispo."
Dispositional hearing: A sentencing hearing.
Fact-finding hearing: Along with "adjudication," a juvenile court term for a trial.
Transfer hearing: A hearing conducted in juvenile court to decide whether a juvenile is fit to be tried as a juvenile--as opposed to a trial in adult court--because of the underlying circumstances.
Infant: A minor, in most states a person under the age of 18.
Involved: The juvenile court equivalent of "guilty."
Juvenile Hall: A jail (or temporary holding facility) for minors.
Petition: The juvenile court equivalent of a criminal complaint charging a child with an act that incurs the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, including 1) a criminal act, 2) a status offense (truancy, disobedience) or 3) parental neglect or abuse.
Referee: A judicial officer, usually a lawyer appointed by a court's presiding judge, who performs many of a judge's functions but who has not been formally elected or appointed as a judge. For all practical purposes, his decisions are equivalent to those of a judge.
Respondent: A juvenile court defendant.
Suitable Placement: A court order removing a juvenile from the juvenile's parental home and placing the juvenile into a foster home, a group home, a treatment facility, a camp or some other type of placement.
Sustained (Not Sustained): The equivalent of a verdict, a juvenile court finding that the charge in a petition is (or is not) true.
Ward of the court: A minor who is under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. |
