Your Child, Juvenile Court, and Juvenile Charges - Page 2
If Your Child is Arrested Does a Child Need an Attorney
Juvenile’s Rights During Questioning Can your Child be Treated as an Adult Does a Juvenile Record Affect Your Child’s Future
Juvenile’s Rights During Questioning
Juveniles have the same rights as adults, with one important exception, they do not have the right to a trial by jury. Instead juvenile cases are heard in juvenile or family court by a single judge. When a child is arrested the police no longer have to inform the parents or guardians. The child has a right to remain silent during questioning and the arresting officer must inform the child of his or her rights. Statements made by juveniles to probation officers or to juvenile intake officers before their arrest can be used against them in court. Of course, statements made to the police following arrest may be used as evidence in court. Like an adult the child has the right to an attorney. Both child and parents must be informed of the child’s rights of the various stages of the criminal process and the child is not allowed to waive any rights without permission from a parent or guardian. Children also have the right to subpoena witnesses and to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. Until they are release on bail or to the custody of a parent or guardian, children are generally held in custody in a juvenile detention center.
Can your Child be Treated as an Adult
Generally speaking juveniles are tried in juvenile court by a judge. In cases of serious crimes including murder, rape, drug dealing, car jacking, kidnapping, and some gang related offenses, a child can be tried as an adult. If a child has previously been convicted of a felony the prosecutor may decide to try the repeat offender as an adult. The laws vary greatly among the states as to the age of which a child can or should be tried as an adult. Generally if there is any doubt as to whether the child should be tried as a juvenile or as an adult, the juvenile court with hold a so-called ameanability, or bind over, hearing to decide the matter. Ameanability hearings are becoming more common as serious juvenile crimes become more prevalent. If at the ameanability hearing the judge decides if the child should be tried as an adult, then the case proceeds through the regular criminal justice system. In these cases your child has the same rights to a jury trial as any adult and can be sentenced to the same punishment as an adult.
Does a Juvenile Record Affect Your Child’s Future
Previously, a juvenile record did not have to affect your child’s future. In Ohio however the law has been significantly changed in recent years so that juvenile sex offenders are now required to register as sexual offenders for periods that range from 10 years in length up through the rest of their life depending on the crime for which they are convicted. In some cases however, a juvenile record can be expunged once the child reaches the age of maturity. Your attorney can provide you with specific information concerning the expungement or sealing of a child’s record depending on your child’s individual case. In cases handled for juveniles where the punishment is not serious there is generally an opportunity to have the criminal record expunged or sealed at a later stage. However, there are some notable exceptions. For example the Immigration and Naturalization Services, the INS, has ruled that expunged criminal records may be used in an immigration case, for example in naturalization investigations. More than ever before, in Ohio there has been an emphasis to increase the seriousness of the punishments of juvenile offenders. Some of these consequences can have life long penalties and as such it is critical that an attorney review juvenile cases before critical decisions are made on the case.