18 U.S.C. § 5031
Section 5031 · Definitions
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 307 court decisions — leading case Gault (1967)
Most recently applied in United States v. Reginald Graham (December 2024)
Applied most in the Ninth Circuit Circuit (47 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 18 U.S.C. § 5032 · 18 U.S.C. § 5037 · 18 U.S.C. § 924
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.
For the purposes of this chapter, a “juvenile” is a person who has not attained his eighteenth birthday, or for the purpose of proceedings and disposition under this chapter for an alleged act of juvenile delinquency, a person who has not attained his twenty-first birthday, and “juvenile delinquency” is the violation of a law of the United States committed by a person prior to his eighteenth birthday which would have been a crime if committed by an adult or a violation by such a person of section 922(x).
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §921 (June 16, 1938, ch. 486, §1, 52 Stat. 764).
The phrase “who has not attained his eighteenth birthday” was substituted for “seventeen years of age or under” as more clearly reflecting congressional intent and administrative construction. The necessity of a definite fixing of the age of the juvenile was emphasized by Hon. Arthur J. Tuttle, United States district judge, Detroit, Mich., in a letter to the Committee on Revision of the Laws dated June 24, 1944. Words “an offense against the” was changed to “the violation of a” without change of substance.
Minor change was made in translation of section references to “this chapter”.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 inserted before period at end “or a violation by such a person of section 922(x)”.
1974—Pub. L. 93–415 amended section generally, inserting “or for the purpose of proceedings and disposition under this chapter for an alleged act of juvenile delinquency, a person who has not attained his twenty-first birthday” after “eighteenth birthday,” and substituting “committed by a person prior to his eighteenth birthday which would have been a crime if committed by an adult”, for “committed by a juvenile and not punishable by death or life imprisonment.”