Juvenile Law Center

Records of juvenile crime—regardless of how minor or severe—follow an individual throughout adulthood and can have far-reaching consequences on a youth’s ability to join the military, pursue higher education, or obtain employment. Unfortunately, many fail to appreciate that adolescence is a volatile stage through which the vast majority of teens pass without additional legal difficulties.

To limit the havoc juvenile records can wreak on an individual’s future, we seek to ensure the swift and permanent destruction or “expungement” of these legal documents. Our attorneys have worked within Pennsylvania and nationwide to promote expungement policies that are easy for youth to understand and for professionals to implement. We publish articles to inform attorneys and adolescents of this issue’s significance, support legislative efforts to curb records’ enduring harmful effects, and support litigation and other advocacy to ensure that records don’t enhance criminal sentences. We’ve also partnered with Philadelphia E3 Centers to offer educational trainings and assistance to youth so that they might petition the court for record expunction. The program serves hundreds of young people citywide.

Fortunately many states keep records of juvenile delinquency confidential under most circumstances. Some states go even further to require that records not be used against juveniles seeking educational and employment opportunities, an approach the newly adopted ABA Policy on Collateral Consequences supports. Reducing the associated consequences of a juvenile adjudication helps to ensure that youth succeed in adulthood.

Last updated December 2011