Upper age of jurisdiction
The upper age of jurisdiction is the oldest age at which a juvenile court has original jurisdiction over an individual for law-violating behavior.  States vary in terms of their upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction. Age 17 is the most common upper age. A complete list of age boundaries can be found on this page from OJJDP's Statistical Briefing Book website.  It must be noted that within most States, there are exceptions in which youth at or below the State’s upper age of jurisdiction can be placed under the original jurisdiction of the adult criminal court.  For example, in most States, if a youth of a certain age is charged with an offense from a defined list of "excluded offenses," the case must originate in the adult criminal court.  In addition, in a number of States, the district attorney is given the discretion of filing certain cases in either the juvenile court or the criminal court.  Therefore, while the upper age of jurisdiction is commonly recognized in all States, there are numerous exceptions to this age criterion.