How to deal with the maturity of juveniles making decisions about their rights is often not easy.

In the family law area, courts are frequently asked to determine whether the juvenile is of sufficient age and maturity to decide which parent to live with.  Occasionally, judges are asked to decide whether the juvenile should be emancipated.

Courts are also asked to decide if juveniles are of sufficient age and maturity to make decisions like abortion.  But, the area where courts most frequently see the issue is around the decision to waive the right to counsel in criminal (delinquency) cases.  So, this post on SSRN is interesting:

Kentucky Should Mandate Attorney Consultation Before Juveniles Can Effectively Waive Their Miranda Rights 

Sandra Eismann-Harpen

Salmon P. Chase College of Law

September 16, 2013

Northern Kentucky Law Review, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 201, 2013

Abstract:

Kentucky’s protection of juveniles’ Miranda rights is not only inadequate, but it also lags behind other states. Although the Supreme Court of the United States expanded the protection of juveniles’ Miranda rights in J.D.B., the reasonable child standard created in J.D.B. is insufficient. Juveniles’ brains are not fully developed, and they often fail to comprehend the risks and potential consequences of waiving their Miranda rights. To circumvent this issue, some states require parental consultation for valid waiver of Miranda rights by juveniles; however, parents and guardians typically lack legal knowledge to adequately represent juveniles’ rights and may have interests that conflict with the juvenile’s interests. Therefore, this article proposes a modification to Kentucky law to better safeguard juveniles’ constitutional rights by creating a bright-line rule mandating attorney consultation before juveniles can effectively waive their Miranda rights.