State juvenile courts with delinquency jurisdiction handle cases in which juveniles are accused of acts that would be crimes if committed by adults.
All states, by statute, set a maximum age for juvenile court jurisdiction over youth charged with violating a law based on age at the time of the offense, arrest or referral to court. In 44 states, for most offenses, the maximum age of juvenile court jurisdiction is 17, meaning that the juvenile court has jurisdiction until the youth's 18th birthday. In 2020, Vermont became the first state in the nation to expand juvenile court jurisdiction to 18, meaning the juvenile court has jurisdiction over a young person until they turn 19. Five states-Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin-now draw the juvenile/adult line at age 16.
However, all states have transfer laws allowing or requiring young offenders to be prosecuted as adults for more serious offenses, regardless of their age. Four forms of transfer laws are:
- Statutory Exclusion-State law excludes some classes of cases involving juvenile age offenders from juvenile court, granting adult criminal court exclusive jurisdiction over some types of offenses. Murder and serious violent felony cases are most commonly "excluded" from juvenile court.
- Judicially Controlled Transfer-All cases against juveniles begin in juvenile court and must literally be transferred by the juvenile court to the adult court.
- Prosecutorial Discretion Transfer-Some categories of cases have both juvenile and criminal jurisdiction, so prosecutors may choose to file in either the juvenile or adult court. The choice is within the prosecutor's executive discretion.
- "Once an adult, always an adult" Transfer-The law requires prosecution in the adult court of any juvenile who has been criminally prosecuted in the past, usually regardless of whether the current offense is serious or not.