When a minor is charged in Arizona, the case usually goes to juvenile court. There, the county attorney files a petition, and a judge decides whether the child is adjudicated delinquent. If the child is, the court then orders a disposition such as probation. Some cases are diverted before a petition is ever filed. Some felony cases can be transferred to adult court or filed there.
You may be reading this from a kitchen table in Phoenix or a hallway outside a detention center in Tucson. Your teenager has been arrested or questioned, or a court date is now on the calendar. Most people facing a child's juvenile case arrive with the same questions: Will my child come home tonight? Could this end up in adult court? What will it mean for school and for the years after? This page walks through how Arizona juvenile cases move, one stage at a time, so the next hearing makes sense before it happens.
How Arizona Juvenile Court Works
Arizona's juvenile court has original jurisdiction over all delinquency proceedings brought under Title 8 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, the part of Arizona law titled Children (Arizona Legislature). "Original jurisdiction" means the case starts there. That statute ties the court's reach to persons under eighteen.
Once the court takes jurisdiction of a child, it keeps that jurisdiction until the child turns 18, unless the court ends it earlier. There is one exception for 17-year-olds. Before an adjudication hearing, or before a proceeding where the child admits the allegations, the state may file a notice of intent to retain jurisdiction. Once that notice is filed, the court keeps jurisdiction until the youth turns 19, unless the court ends it sooner or another condition in the statute applies.
The vocabulary differs from adult court:
- A petition is the written document that accuses a child of a delinquent act. It is not a criminal complaint.
- A finding against the child is an adjudication of delinquency. It is not a conviction.
A case in Maricopa County or Pima County is governed by these same statutes. Even so, the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention notes that case processing within a state "often varies from community to community depending on local practice and tradition" (OJJDP).
Arrest, Questioning, and the First Hours
The first hours after an arrest are often the hardest part for a parent. Calls go unanswered, and nobody can say yet whether your child will be home tonight.
Constitutional rights. In In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967), the United States Supreme Court held that minors in delinquency proceedings have due-process rights. Those rights include the right to counsel and the privilege against self-incrimination. These protections apply to a teenager in Phoenix or Tucson just as they apply to anyone else.
A parent's presence is a separate question. Whether a parent must be notified or present during police questioning is a different question from whether the child has a right to a lawyer. It turns on Arizona rules and on the facts of how the questioning happened. This page does not state those rules.
Appointed counsel. Arizona law requires the court to appoint an attorney for a child in every delinquency proceeding that begins with a petition or that may involve detention. The court must appoint that attorney before the first hearing, and the attorney represents the child at all stages of the case (Arizona Legislature).
The detention decision. After an arrest, someone decides whether the child is held or released to a parent or guardian. Detention means holding a child in a secure juvenile facility while the case is pending. If the child is held, a detention hearing follows. That is a court hearing where a judge decides whether the child stays detained.
The Detention Hearing and Release Decisions
The timing of a detention hearing is set by law. Across the country, OJJDP reports that a detention hearing must be held within a period defined by each state's statute, "generally within 24 hours." At the hearing, "a judge reviews the case and determines if continued detention is warranted," and the youth "may be released or detention continued" (OJJDP).
Arizona's own statute sets the exact deadline. The factors the judge weighs, and any conditions attached to a release, depend on Arizona's rules, the alleged offense and the child's circumstances.
Detention does not always end quickly. OJJDP notes that detention can extend beyond the adjudicatory and dispositional hearings.
The juvenile probation officer is a court officer who supervises youth and handles referrals. Probation officers play a role from the very start of a case. Under Arizona's diversion statute, when a probation officer receives a referral alleging an offense, the officer sends it to the county attorney, who decides whether to file a petition. The only exception is for offenses the county attorney has designated as eligible for diversion (Arizona Legislature).
In Maricopa County, Pima County and every other Arizona county, that charging decision belongs to the county attorney.
The Petition, Adjudication, and Disposition
The petition. The formal case begins when the county attorney files the petition. The court then schedules an adjudicatory hearing, which OJJDP describes as the juvenile court's trial: "witnesses are called and the facts of the case are presented." In nearly all adjudicatory hearings, a judge decides whether the youth was responsible for the alleged offense, although some states give youth a right to a jury trial (OJJDP).
Adjudication. If the court finds the allegations proven, the child is adjudicated delinquent. That is a juvenile-court finding, not a criminal conviction.
Disposition. Next comes the disposition: the court's order about what happens to the child. It is not a sentence. Among the dispositions Arizona's disposition statute provides for are these two (Arizona Legislature):
- Probation. The child is supervised by a probation department, subject to any conditions the court imposes. Those conditions can include up to one year in a juvenile detention center.
- Commitment to the department of juvenile corrections. When ordering commitment, the court may set a minimum period the child must remain in secure care, after considering the state's length-of-stay guidelines.
A youth in the custody of that department is what Arizona law calls a ward of the department of juvenile corrections.
How long probation lasts. Probation may continue until the child's 18th birthday, or until the 19th birthday if jurisdiction was retained. However, probation cannot exceed one year when all of the conditions the statute lists apply.
Testing for alcohol and drug offenses. For an adjudication involving alcohol, or an offense under Title 13, chapter 34, the court may order random drug and alcohol testing at least twice a week as a condition of probation.
Diversion: When a Case May Not Go to Court
What diversion is. Diversion resolves a case outside formal juvenile court. In Arizona, before a petition is filed or an admission or adjudication hearing is held, the county attorney may divert a juvenile's prosecution to a community-based alternative program or to a diversion program run by the juvenile court (Arizona Legislature).
Who decides. With a limited exception, the county attorney has sole discretion over whether to divert a case. The county attorney may also designate which offenses go to diversion. For that reason, practice can differ between Maricopa County, Pima County and other counties.
Who is not eligible. Some juveniles cannot be diverted. Among those the statute lists are:
- a juvenile who is a "chronic felony offender," and
- a juvenile accused of an offense listed in Arizona's adult-prosecution statute, which is discussed in the next section.
What a program can require. Program conditions can include, among others, unpaid community restitution work.
What completion means. If the juvenile successfully completes the conditions, the county attorney shall not file a petition. The resolution:
- cannot be used against the juvenile in any further proceeding,
- is not an adjudication of delinquency,
- is not a conviction, and
- does not disqualify the juvenile from a civil service application or appointment.
Whether diversion is offered in a particular case depends on the offense, the child's history and the county attorney's decision.
Transfer to Adult Court
Many parents reasonably fear this section more than any other. Arizona has two separate routes into adult court, and they work differently.
Route 1: A transfer hearing in juvenile court
For any felony filed in juvenile court, the state may ask the court to transfer the case to the criminal division of the superior court. When the state makes that request, the court must hold a transfer hearing before the adjudication hearing. A transfer hearing is the proceeding where a judge decides whether a juvenile will be prosecuted as an adult (Arizona Legislature).
The judge orders transfer only on finding, by a preponderance of the evidence, all three of the following:
- There is probable cause that the offense was committed.
- There is probable cause that the juvenile committed it.
- Public safety would best be served by transfer.
In deciding the public-safety question, the court considers factors including:
- the seriousness of the offense,
- any prior commitments to residential placements and secure institutions,
- any prior commitment to the department of juvenile corrections for a felony,
- any felony committed while a ward of that department, and
- the likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation through services currently available to the juvenile court.
The judge must state the reasons on the record and make a written determination, and cannot postpone the decision. If transfer is denied, the court sets an adjudication hearing.
Route 2: Filing directly in adult court
Some cases begin in adult court without any transfer hearing (Arizona Legislature).
- Required adult prosecution. The county attorney shall prosecute a juvenile as an adult if the juvenile was 15, 16 or 17 at the time of the alleged offense and is accused of a listed offense. The list includes first-degree murder and any offense properly joined to a listed offense.
- Discretionary adult prosecution. The county attorney may prosecute a juvenile who was at least 14 as an adult for other listed offenses. That list includes a class 1 felony.
- Prior felony conviction. Adult prosecution is also required when the juvenile has a historical prior felony conviction.
A juvenile prosecuted in adult court may ask for a hearing on whether they are a "chronic felony offender." The statute defines that term as a juvenile with two prior and separate adjudications and dispositions for conduct that would count as a historical prior felony conviction if tried as an adult. At the hearing, the state must prove that status by a preponderance of the evidence. If it does not, the court transfers the juvenile to juvenile court.
A youth prosecuted as an adult faces the adult criminal process, not the juvenile process described above.
Juvenile Records and Sealing in Arizona
A juvenile case leaves a record. That record can include arrest, court and probation records.
Nothing happens automatically at 18. Arizona does not automatically clear a juvenile record when a child turns 18. Record relief generally means a court order that limits a record's effect or who can see it. Sealing is one form of that relief. The Arizona provision described here is different: it is called setting aside an adjudication (Arizona Legislature).
Who may apply. A person may apply to the juvenile court to set aside an adjudication if the person:
- is at least 18,
- was adjudicated delinquent or incorrigible, and
- either fulfilled the conditions of probation or was discharged from the department of juvenile corrections after successfully completing an individual treatment plan.
The application may be filed by the person or by the person's attorney, probation officer or parole officer. The clerk may not charge a filing fee for it. The court must tell the person about this right in writing at the time of disposition.
What the court considers. The court may weigh factors including the victim's input and any other relevant factor. If a victim requested post-adjudication notice, the victim may be present and heard at the hearing on the application.
What a set-aside does. Except as another part of the statute provides, if the court grants the application it:
- sets aside the adjudication,
- dismisses the petition, and
- releases the person from the penalties and disabilities that resulted from the adjudication, except certain penalties imposed by the department of transportation.
A set-aside does not destroy the record.
Who cannot use this process. The statute does not apply to adjudications for certain offenses it lists.
Other consequences. Effects on school, college admissions and employment can follow a juvenile case. They depend on the facts and on rules this page does not cover. Immigration consequences are governed by immigration law, which this page also does not cover.
What This Site Covers — and What It Does Not
What this page covers. This page is about minors facing delinquency charges.
What this page does not cover. It is not about:
- adult criminal cases, except where a minor's case moves to adult court,
- family court matters,
- dependency proceedings, where a parent is accused of abuse or neglect, or
- immigration cases.
Other states. This page states Arizona's rules, not any other state's. For comparison, this site has separate pages on California juvenile defense, Pennsylvania juvenile defense and Sacramento County juvenile defense.
The full disclaimer appears at the foot of this page.
Talking Through Your Child's Arizona Case
An Arizona juvenile case can change course at several points: a diversion decision, a detention hearing, a transfer request or a direct adult filing. Each one turns on the child's age, the offense alleged and decisions made early in the case.
A consultation can cover what the petition or complaint alleges, which hearing comes next and its date, whether your child is detained, and whether the case is in juvenile court or adult court. This page does not cover dependency or family court matters, or any state's rules other than Arizona's.
When you are ready, you can contact Juvenile Justice Defense Group to request a consultation about a child's juvenile case in Arizona.