Ungovernability: The Unjustifiable Jurisdiction

Abstract

Ungovernability:The Unjustifiable Jurisdiction Juvenile and family courts in most states 1 have jurisdiction over youths who have committed offenses (staying out late, disobeying parents, running away, truancy) illegal only for persons under a specified age, usually sixteen. 2 Nationwide, at least one-quarter of all juvenile adjudications are for these offenses 3 and studies suggest that forty to fifty percent of all incarcerated minors are charged with such noncriminal misbehavior.4 Statutes have long proscribed this misbehavior.Such statutes typically list these offenses in general terms 6 as one of the many forms 1. See Comment, "Delinquent Child": A Legal Term Without Meaning, 21 BAYLOR L. REV.352, 369-71 (1969) (a useful survey of state laws in this area, including several pages of comparative tables); I. Solet, Report on State Laws Concerning Detention of Children, September 1973 (unpublished report of Yale Legis.Serv. in Yale Law Library).2. New York, for instance, commences jurisdiction at birth and terminates it at 16. N.Y.FAMILY CT.Aar § 712(b) (McKinney Supp.1973-74).Indiana terminates jurisdiction at 18. IND.

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