Well, when we’re talking about children who are being arrested or are being accused of crimes, there are certain rights afforded to them because of their age. The first thing, that you need to know, is that law enforcement officers must make an attempt to contact the child’s parent or legal guardian if he or she is not present, before the child is subject to questioning. As we talked about before, there are certain Miranda Warnings that the person who is accused of a crime or in custody is given before he’s interrogated. A child may appreciate how significant it is to wave those rights. A child may not know exactly what he’s doing. And, that’s why law enforcement officers have to make an attempt to contact the family. They don’t have to cease questions or stop the investigation if they cannot get in touch with the parent or legal guardian, but they must make an attempt. That is important and that is what you should know.
