Upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction

The oldest age at which a juvenile court has original jurisdiction over an individual for law-violating behavior. It must be noted that within most states there are exceptions to the age criteria that place or permit youth at or below the state’s upper age of jurisdiction to be under the original jurisdiction of the adult criminal court. For example, in most states if a youth of a certain age is charged with one of a defined list of what are commonly labeled “excluded offenses,” the case must originate in the adult criminal court. In addition, in a number of states, the district attorney is given the discretion of filing certain cases either in the juvenile court or in the criminal court. Therefore, while the upper age of jurisdiction is commonly recognized in all states, there are numerous exceptions to age criteria.