Juvenile Offenses

Attorney Chad B. McKay has more than 20 years of experience working within the juvenile justice system in Ogden. When a juvenile is charged with a crime, it’s important to have a juvenile offenses lawyer you can trust to ensure a compelling defense and exceptional representation.

What Is a Juvenile Delinquent?

The definition of a juvenile delinquent is someone under the age of 18 who commits an act that would be a crime if the person was an adult. Juvenile delinquency is a more serious charge than juvenile’s accused of status offenses (activities that are only crimes because of the person’s age), such as truancy, curfew violations and underage drinking or tobacco use.

Utah Juvenile Offenses Attorney

The Utah juvenile justice system seeks to intervene with young offenders early and intensively in order to prevent the young person from getting entrenched in a criminal career. But sometimes the juvenile justice folks intervene too aggressively and too early — assuming a young person is guilty of a crime when he or she may only be guilty of hanging out with the wrong people.

No matter what your child has been accused of, no matter what situation he or she is in, the experience of Attorney Chad B. McKay in juvenile offenses can help you.

How the Utah Justice System Sentences Juvenile Delinquents

Utah has a separate juvenile sentencing guideline for young people who have committed juvenile offenses. These guidelines allow juvenile court judges discretion to consider aggravating circumstances when they make a sentencing decision. The judge will consider:

The seriousness of the juvenile offense (whether it was a crime against a person, against property, or some other type of offense)

The role the juvenile played in the offense (most young people do not commit crimes on their own, they do so with one or more friends or in a gang)

The young person’s history

Impact on the victim

Whether the judge considers the young person to be a risk to society

When sentencing a young person for juvenile offenses, the judge could sentence the young person to probation, supervision (parole), community placement (out of home) or secure care (a juvenile detention facility). If a young person is considered a chronic offender, he or she could be transferred to the adult criminal system. We work hard to keep young offenders in the juvenile system and out of the adult criminal system.

Juvenile Offenses System – Utah

Depending on the crime, a juvenile court can sentence an individual to probation, detention or a variety of programs including the Young Offender program or the Diversion program. A criminal lawyer will offer professional guidance and support for juveniles and their families as they proceed through the juvenile court system.

If you or a loved one has been referred to any Juvenile Court statewide, contact the law office of Chad B. McKay today at (801) 621-6021.

For more information regarding Utah Juvenile Procedure, click here.