In most states persons accused of violating the law before they are 18 years of age are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts, and persons accused of violating the law when they are 18 years of age or older are under the jurisdiction of the criminal courts. Some states begin prosecuting persons as adults in the criminal court system when they are 17 years of age, and some states begin prosecuting persons as adults in the criminal court system when they are 16 years of age.

But all states have transfer laws that permit or require criminal prosecution of some young offenders—even though they are still of juvenile age, as defined by the state’s laws. Transfer laws vary from state to state, but generally fall within three categories: (1) judicial waiver laws that allow juvenile courts to waive jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis; (2) prosecutorial discretion or concurrent jurisdiction laws that define a class of cases that may be brought in juvenile court or in criminal court—usually at the discretion of the prosecutor; and (3) statutory exclusion laws that grant criminal courts exclusive jurisdiction over certain classes of cases involving juvenile-age offenders.

The laws that govern when a person of juvenile age may be prosecuted as an adult in the criminal court system are generally located in a state’s statutes.

In Michigan, the age at which a person is considered an adult for the purposes of criminal prosecution is 17 years old. This means that individuals who are 17 or older are typically under the jurisdiction of the criminal courts rather than the juvenile courts. However, Michigan law also includes transfer laws that allow for certain juvenile offenders to be tried as adults, even if they are under the age of 17. These transfer laws include judicial waiver, prosecutorial discretion, and statutory exclusion. Judicial waiver allows juvenile courts to waive their jurisdiction and transfer a case to criminal court. Prosecutorial discretion laws permit prosecutors to decide whether to file certain cases in juvenile or criminal court. Statutory exclusion laws automatically exclude certain offenses from juvenile court, meaning those cases are directly filed in the criminal court. The specifics of these laws, including the offenses and circumstances under which they apply, are detailed in Michigan's statutes.