What are the different stages in the juvenile court process for delinquency cases?
The different stages in the juvenile court process for delinquency cases consist of the offense, the apprehension, the detention-center admission, a detention hearing, and finally a trial. Juvenile offenses, like adult offenses, often fail to result in apprehension. The juvenile justice process begins, generally, with a law-enforcement apprehension and decision to move a case further by delivering a youth to the detention center with a request for admission, or by delivering a paper referral that asks probation intake or the prosecutor to consider formal charges. The detention-center-admissions decision is usually made by a probation-department intake officer or a designated detention-center official and is based upon statutory admissions criteria and, increasingly, upon risk-assessment instruments that best guide this decision. Admitted juveniles are detained until a detention hearing is held within 24 to 72 hours of admission. The hearing is conducted by a judge or other judicial off
