FWSN-advisorybd-repo.. - The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance

• Has without just cause runaway from the parental home or other properly
authorized and lawful place of abode,
• Is beyond the control of the child’s parent, parents, guardian or other custodian,
• Has engaged in indecent or immoral conduct,
• Is a truant or habitually truant or who, while in school, has been continuously and
overtly defiant of school rules and regulations, or
• Is thirteen years of age or older and has engaged in sexual intercourse with
another person and such person is thirteen years of age or older and not more than
two years older or younger than such child.”
A significant change in the law occurred in 2000. P.A. 00-177 created a category of
“status offenders” for sixteen and seventeen year old youth. A youth age sixteen or
seventeen may be found to be a “youth in crisis” who:
• Has without just cause run away from the parental home or other properly
authorized and lawful place of abode;
• Is beyond the control of parents, guardian or other custodian, or
• Has four unexcused absences from school in any one month or ten unexcused
absences in any school year.
If a youth is adjudicated as a “youth in crisis” the Court has the following dispositional
options:
• Direct the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to suspend motor vehicle
operator’s license of the youth in crisis for a period of time, as directed by the
court, not to exceed one year;
• Require work or specific community service;
• Mandate that the youth in crisis attend and educational program in the local
community approved by the Court;
• Require mental health services;
• Refer the youth in crisis to a youth service bureau, provided one exists in the
local community; and
• Review the option of emancipation, pursuant to section 46b-150, of the youth
in crisis.
A “youth in crisis” found to be in violation of any court order is not considered to be a
delinquent and may not be punished by the court by incarceration in any state-operated
detention facility or correctional facility.
Public Act 07-4, Sec.73 will expand the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters jurisdiction
over sixteen and seventeen year olds. Effective January 1, 2010, the age for charging
children and youth with delinquency or status offenses will include any child or youth
under the age of eighteen. The category of “youth in crisis” will be eliminated.
Therefore, all children and youth, as defined by the Act, will be capable of being alleged
to be children from families with service needs.
87