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Adjudicative Competence

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Adolescence

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Introduction

Juvenile adjudicative competence is a legal principle that refers to a juvenile defendant’s competence to proceed with and effectively participate in the adjudicative process, either in juvenile court or adult criminal court. There are at least three fundamental competencies integrated into adjudicative competence: competence to stand trial, competence to waive counsel, and competence to enter a guilty plea. In addition to establishing these three main competencies, a defendant must also demonstrate “pre-adjudicative competence,” which includes competence to waive Miranda rights or competence to confess.

Constitutional Basis

Adjudicative competence is an established principle of jurisprudence that extends back to at least the seventeenth century. Adjudicating incompetent defendants violates several amendments of the US Constitution (in addition to English common law), including a defendant’s Sixth Amendment trial rights (e.g., the right to effective assistance of counsel,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Southern California, 2250 Alcazar Street CSC 2200, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Christopher Fischer

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, 10850 Wilshire Blvd Suite 850, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA

    Christopher Thompson

  3. Psychiatry and Biobehaviorial Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 11500 W Olympic Blvd Ste 538, Los Angeles, CA, 90064, USA

    Praveen Kambam

  4. 2154 Broderick St., San Francisco, CA, 94115, USA

    H. Eric Bender

Authors
  1. Christopher Fischer
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  2. Christopher Thompson
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  3. Praveen Kambam
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  4. H. Eric Bender
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Correspondence to Christopher Fischer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Roger J. R. Levesque

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Fischer, C., Thompson, C., Kambam, P., Bender, H.E. (2018). Adjudicative Competence. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33228-4_245

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