A juvenile burglary charge accuses a child of entering a building or other structure intending to steal or commit a felony inside. Most of these cases stay in juvenile court. That court can release or detain the child, decide whether the accusation is proved, and order probation or other steps. In some states, including California, serious cases can move to adult court.
Most parents facing this have just had a call from the police or from juvenile hall. They are trying to work out what their teenager is actually accused of, whether the child is coming home tonight, and what this means for school and for a record that may follow the child. This page walks through those questions in the order a case moves. It explains how juvenile courts across the United States generally handle burglary and uses California's rules as the worked example. Where a rule is California's, the page says so.
What Juvenile Burglary Charges Mean Under the Law
Burglary is entering a place with the intent to commit a theft or a felony inside. That intent is what separates it from trespassing, which is being somewhere without permission. It also separates burglary from theft, which is the taking itself. A burglary can be charged even if nothing was taken.
In California, Pen. Code § 459 defines burglary as entering "any house, room, apartment, tenement, shop, warehouse, store," or another listed structure "with intent to commit grand or petit larceny or any felony." The list also covers vehicles when the doors are locked. The same section defines "inhabited" as "currently being used for dwelling purposes, whether occupied or not." California law separates burglary of an inhabited place from other burglary. Which degree is charged depends on the facts and the statute. Burglary is often charged at the felony level, and that affects detention, transfer and sealing.
Juvenile court uses its own words. The charge is a petition, the document that asks the court to take jurisdiction over the child. A finding that the allegation is true means the petition is sustained, which is called an adjudication. It is not a conviction. Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 602, California's juvenile court generally covers minors who were 12 through 17 years old when the alleged offense happened. It covers younger children only for listed offenses: murder, and rape, sodomy, oral copulation or sexual penetration by force, violence, duress, menace or fear. Definitions and degrees differ from state to state. An attorney for juvenile burglary charges works from the statute of the state where the petition was filed.
How the Juvenile Court Process Works After a Burglary Arrest
After an arrest in California, the child is usually brought to a probation officer. Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 628, the probation officer must investigate and release the child to a parent, legal guardian or responsible relative. The officer may keep the child in custody only if remaining at home is contrary to the child's welfare and one of three conditions exists:
- detention is urgently necessary to protect the child, or reasonably necessary to protect another person or their property
- the child is likely to flee the court's jurisdiction
- the child has violated a juvenile court order
A detained child then has a detention hearing, where a judge or referee decides whether the child stays in custody. Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 632, that hearing must happen as soon as possible and no later than the end of the next judicial day after the petition is filed. A shorter limit of 48 hours, not counting nonjudicial days, applies in one situation. It covers a child arrested without a warrant for a misdemeanor not involving violence, threats or weapons who is not on probation or parole. If the deadline is missed, the child must be released. Federal guidance describes detention hearing deadlines across the states as generally within 24 hours, according to the OJJDP case flow overview.
Diversion means handling a case outside formal court proceedings, often through an agreement with conditions such as restitution, school attendance or counseling. The same OJJDP overview notes that in most jurisdictions a youth may be offered this only after admitting the act. In California, an informal program of supervision is one form it takes. Eligibility depends on the offense, the child's history and the court.
If the case goes forward, the jurisdiction hearing, also called an adjudication hearing, decides whether the petition is sustained. A judge usually decides, although some states give a jury trial right. A disposition hearing then decides what happens next. The court may make the child a ward of the court, meaning the court takes ongoing authority over the child. It may also order probation, which is court supervision with conditions. A juvenile criminal defense attorney appears at each of these hearings. Timelines differ from state to state. Our guides to the California juvenile court process and the juvenile court process walk through each step.
When a Juvenile Burglary Case Can Be Transferred to Adult Court
The possibility of adult court is often what frightens a parent most, so it helps to know exactly when California law allows it. A transfer hearing, sometimes called a fitness hearing, is where the juvenile court decides whether a minor's case moves to adult criminal court.
Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 707(a), the prosecutor may move to transfer only in two situations. The first is an offense alleged to have been committed when the minor was 16 or older, if it is listed in § 707(b) or is any other felony. The second is a § 707(b) offense committed at 14 or 15 by a person not apprehended before juvenile court jurisdiction ended. Section 707(b) lists serious offenses. Whether a burglary allegation, or another charge filed with it, is on that list depends on the specific charge. The motion must come before jeopardy attaches. Until the transfer hearing ends, the court must postpone taking a plea.
The probation officer prepares a report on the minor's behavior patterns and social history. The court may order a transfer only if it finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that the minor is not amenable to rehabilitation while under juvenile court jurisdiction. It weighs listed criteria, including:
- the minor's criminal sophistication, considering age, maturity, trauma and peer pressure
- whether rehabilitation is possible before juvenile jurisdiction ends
- the minor's previous delinquent history
- the success of the juvenile court's earlier attempts to rehabilitate the minor
If the court orders a transfer, it must state its reasons. A transferred case follows adult criminal procedure and carries adult consequences, a difference explained in juvenile court vs. adult court. Transfer rules differ from state to state. The OJJDP overview describes states where certain cases begin in criminal court. That is not California's § 707(a) process. A juvenile defense attorney works within the rule of the state where the case is pending.
Possible Outcomes: Probation, Diversion, and Other Dispositions
A disposition is the juvenile court's decision about what happens after a petition is sustained. Adult court would call it a sentence. Juvenile court does not, because its stated focus is rehabilitation.
The range is wide. A child may be placed on informal supervision, or on formal probation with conditions. The OJJDP overview describes probation orders that can include counseling, community or victim restitution, and weekend confinement. It also describes placement in a residential facility, which may be secure or home-like. Restitution, paying an alleged victim back for losses, may be ordered in a burglary case. In California, an unpaid restitution order alone does not make probation unsatisfactory for sealing under § 786.
California's Division of Juvenile Justice no longer operates, so a commitment there is not a current option. Which placements remain available depends on current California statutes and on the facts.
Outcomes differ by state and by case. A court considers the child's age, record, the nature of the alleged offense and the child's circumstances. A juvenile defense attorney can present information on each of these, and the decision rests with the court.
Juvenile Record Sealing After a Burglary Case
Many parents' deepest worry is whether this follows the child into college applications and job interviews. Sealing is a court order closing a juvenile record so that it is generally not open to others. A juvenile record does not disappear, and it is not sealed automatically at 18.
California has two main routes. Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 786, when a person satisfactorily completes informal supervision, probation under § 725, or a term of probation, the court shall dismiss the petition and seal the records. The arrest and proceedings are then deemed not to have occurred. Satisfactory completion means no new felony or moral-turpitude misdemeanor finding during supervision. It also means no failure to substantially comply with reasonable orders the person could perform. Under § 786(d), the court shall not seal or dismiss under § 786 if the petition was sustained on a § 707(b) offense committed at 14 or older. The exception lifts if that finding was dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor or to a lesser offense not listed in § 707(b). Under § 786(e), records are also sealed when a petition is dismissed or not sustained.
Under Welf. & Inst. Code § 781, a person may petition for sealing five years after juvenile jurisdiction ends, or at any time after turning 18. The court orders sealing only if it finds two things since jurisdiction ended. The person has not been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, and rehabilitation has been attained to the court's satisfaction. For a § 707(b) offense committed after age 14 that led to wardship, a petition may be filed only in two circumstances. One is a person committed to the former Division of Juvenile Facilities who has reached 21 and completed probation after release. The other is a person not committed there who has reached 18 and completed any probation for that offense.
Sealing rules differ by state, and a juvenile defense attorney reads them for the charge involved. School, college, employment and immigration consequences can follow a juvenile case and depend on facts and rules this page does not cover, including immigration law.
What a Juvenile Defense Attorney Does in a Burglary Case
The right to counsel in juvenile delinquency proceedings comes from the United States Supreme Court's decision in In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967). A juvenile defense attorney represents the child at the detention hearing, the jurisdiction hearing, any transfer hearing and the disposition hearing.
Early on, the attorney examines the evidence, how the arrest happened, and whether the child's rights were observed. In California, Welf. & Inst. Code § 625.6 requires that, before a custodial interrogation and before any waiver of Miranda rights, a youth 17 or younger "shall consult with legal counsel in person, by telephone, or by video conference," and "the consultation may not be waived." The court must consider a failure to comply when deciding whether statements can be used. A narrow exception applies when an officer reasonably believed questions were necessary to protect life or property from an imminent threat and limited the questions to that need.
From there, the law allows an attorney for a minor charged with burglary to raise several challenges, none of which is certain to succeed:
- moving to suppress evidence
- challenging whether the evidence proves intent
- raising diversion eligibility
- at a transfer hearing, responding to the probation report and offering other relevant evidence on the listed criteria, such as the child's maturity, family and community environment, any childhood trauma, and potential to grow and mature
- arguing at disposition for the option that fits the child's rehabilitation
Related charges follow similar steps. They are covered in juvenile robbery and juvenile aggravated assault. This page does not cover adult burglary prosecutions, except where a case is transferred. It does not cover civil claims, or other states' procedural rules beyond the official sources linked here.
Talking With a Juvenile Defense Attorney About a Burglary Petition
A burglary case turns on details that a general page cannot reach. These include what kind of place was entered, what the petition alleges about intent, and the child's age on the date alleged. Those details shape detention, transfer and sealing. A consultation with our juvenile defense attorney can cover the petition and its charges, the next hearing date, whether the child is detained, and the stage the case has reached. This page explains the general rules and California's statutes. It does not decide how they apply to one child's case.
To talk through a case like this, contact Juvenile Justice Defense Group to request a consultation about a child's juvenile case.