Crime & Traffic

Juvenile records are:

• Police reports,
• Computer database entries, and
• Court documents.

The records are created when a person under age 18 is accused of a crime. This includes any contact with police. This includes at school, while driving, or if someone fills out a police report against you. 

Juvenile arrest and court records are confidential. This means they can only be seen by certain government agencies and employers. This is different from adult records which anyone can view. When a juvenile expungement is granted, however, these government agencies and employers can no longer see these records. Though juvenile records are confidential, the police department must release information to the person about their own arrests. Learn more about juvenile expungement. 

Juvenile arrest records 

Whenever a person is arrested in Illinois, the arresting agency creates an arrest record. In some cases, they may report the arrest to the State Police. So there may be two records for an arrest. 

Juvenile arrest records include:

• All arrests before you turn 17 years old,
• Arrests for misdemeanors before you turned 18 years old from 2010-2013, and
• Starting in 2014, all arrests before you turn 18 years old.

Court records

If you are charged with a crime in juvenile court, there will be juvenile court records. These include cases in juvenile court only. They do not include cases tried in adult criminal court or traffic court, even if you were under 17 years old. 

How young do you have to be for a record to be juvenile?

Before 2010, prosecutions as an adult started at 17 years of age. However, after 2010, prosecutions as an adult begin at 18 years of age. Depending on how old you were and the year you were arrested, you may have either an adult or a juvenile record.