Representing Juvenile Status Offenders by ABA

The American Bar Association published a 2010 guide for advocating juvenile status offenders. This 160 page document provides assistance, guidance, and available resources to assist attorneys who represent juvenile offenders.

There are few training resources for attorneys representing juvenile status offenders or youth who are truant, runaways, or beyond their parent’s control. Yet representing this population of children, who often fall between the cracks of child welfare and juvenile justice, can be challenging. Often, few community or court resources are devoted to these families in crisis, making advocacy for appropriate services and alternatives to detention difficult.