Juvenile law is the area concerned with the application of the laws involving persons under the age of eighteen years .
Juvenile courts are specialized courts which deal exclusively with matters involving children.
Most times when children become involved with the law their are indirectly affected such as in a divorce or when they are passengers in a car involved in an accident. The general jurisdiction courts frequently handle these cases. It is when a person under the age of eighteen years is directly involved as a plaintiff or defendant in a civil action or when the juvenile is a defendant in a criminal matter that the laws applicable to juveniles and juvenile courts become involved. In juvenile criminal matters , the law generally presumes that a young person is to be held to different legal standards and their needs are different from those of an adult. The juvenile courts are established specifically to meet those needs.