18 U.S.C. § 5033
Section 5033 · Custody prior to appearance before magistrate judge
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 73 court decisions — leading case United States v. Male Juvenile (1997)
Most recently applied in T.S.H. v. Green (May 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whenever a juvenile is taken into custody for an alleged act of juvenile delinquency, the arresting officer shall immediately advise such juvenile of his legal rights, in language comprehensive to a juvenile, and shall immediately notify the Attorney General and the juvenile's parents, guardian, or custodian of such custody. The arresting officer shall also notify the parents, guardian, or custodian of the rights of the juvenile and of the nature of the alleged offense.
The juvenile shall be taken before a magistrate judge forthwith. In no event shall the juvenile be detained for longer than a reasonable period of time before being brought before a magistrate judge.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §§922, 923 (June 16, 1938, ch. 486, §§2, 3, 52 Stat. 765).
This section consolidates said section 923, and the final sentence of said section 922, of title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., with such changes of phraseology as were necessary to effect the consolidation.
This revised section and section 5032 of this title were rewritten to make clear the legislative intent that a juvenile delinquency proceeding shall result in the adjudication of a status rather than the conviction of a crime.
The other provisions of said section 922 are incorporated in section 5032 of this title.
Amendments
1974—Pub. L. 93–415 amended section generally, substituting “Custody prior to appearance before magistrate”, for “Jurisdiction; written consent; jury trial precluded” in section catchline, and substituting provisions relating to advice of rights by arresting officer, notification of Attorney General, parents, guardian or custodian, and appearance before magistrate, for provisions relating to jurisdiction of district courts, jury, consent by juvenile, and apprisal of rights by Judge of District Court.
Change of Name
Words “magistrate judge” substituted for “magistrate” in catchline and wherever appearing in text pursuant to section 321 of Pub. L. 101–650, set out as a note under section 631 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure.