JUVENILE COURTS

1) Adjudicated - went to trial

 2) Adjudicatory hearing – trial

 3) Child-victim - juvenile is victim of abuse, neglect, etc.

 4) Conference - roughly equivalent to preliminary hearing

 5) Delinquency - crime committed by juvenile

 6) Detention - confinement pending adjudication

 7) Dismissal - petition or charges dropped

 8) Disposition – sentence

 9) Initial hearing - informal hearing at which intake decision is made

 10) Intake decision - decision as to whether case will be handled formally or informally

 11) Juvenile - person subject to juvenile court jurisdiction

 12) Juvenile courts - special courts set up to deal with juvenile misconduct

 13) Lower age of jurisdiction - age below which juvenile court does not have jurisdiction of child

 14) Non-petitioned case - case handled informally

 15) Other dispositions - any disposition other than dismissal, probation or placement, such as restitution, community service, etc.

 16) Parens patriae - theory that state may act in place of parents

 17) Petition - charging document

 18) Placement - disposition involving removing juvenile from home

 19) Probation - disposition involving formal or informal supervision

 20) Probation officer - officer of court assigned to do background investigations, make recommendations and supervise offenders

 21) Referral - case transferred to non-court agency

 22) Status offense - offense that can be committed only by juveniles

 23) Summons - order to report to court

 24) Transfer to criminal court - juvenile to be tried and sentence in criminal court

 25) Upper age of jurisdiction - age above which you cannot be tried in juvenile court