U.S. CODE

U.S. Code

§ 5038. Use of juvenile records

(a) Throughout and upon the completion of the juvenile delinquency proceeding, the records shall be safeguarded from disclosure to unauthorized persons. The records shall be released to the extent necessary to meet the following circumstances:

(1) inquiries received from another court of law;

(2) inquiries from an agency preparing a presentence report for another court;

(3) inquiries from law enforcement agencies where the request for information is related to the investigation of a crime or a position within that agency;

(4) inquiries, in writing, from the director of a treatment agency or the director of a facility to which the juvenile has been committed by the court;

(5) inquiries from an agency considering the person for a position immediately and directly affecting the national security; and

(6) inquiries from any victim of such juvenile delinquency, or if the victim is deceased from the immediate family of such victim, related to the final disposition of such juvenile by the court in accordance with section 5037.

Unless otherwise authorized by this section, information about the juvenile record may not be released when the request for information is related to an application for employment, license, bonding, or any civil right or privilege. Responses to such inquiries shall not be different from responses made about persons who have never been involved in a delinquency proceeding.

(b) District courts exercising jurisdiction over any juvenile shall inform the juvenile, and his parent or guardian, in writing in clear and nontechnical language, of rights relating to his juvenile record.

(c) During the course of any juvenile delinquency proceeding, all information and records relating to the proceeding, which are obtained or prepared in the discharge of an official duty by an employee of the court or an employee of any other governmental agency, shall not be disclosed directly or indirectly to anyone other than the judge, counsel for the juvenile and the Government, or others entitled under this section to receive juvenile records.

(d) Whenever a juvenile is found guilty of committing an act which if committed by an adult would be a felony that is a crime of violence or an offense described in section 401 of the Controlled Substances Act or section 1001(a), 1005, or 1009 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act, such juvenile shall be fingerprinted and photographed. Except a juvenile described in subsection (f), fingerprints and photographs of a juvenile who is not prosecuted as an adult shall be made available only in accordance with the provisions of subsection (a) of this section. Fingerprints and photographs of a juvenile who is prosecuted as an adult shall be made available in the manner applicable to adult defendants.

(e) Unless a juvenile who is taken into custody is prosecuted as an adult neither the name nor picture of any juvenile shall be made public in connection with a juvenile delinquency proceeding.

(f) Whenever a juvenile has on two separate occasions been found guilty of committing an act which if committed by an adult would be a felony crime of violence or an offense described in section 401 of the Controlled Substances Act or section 1001(a), 1005, or 1009 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act, or whenever a juvenile has been found guilty of committing an act after his 13th birthday which if committed by an adult would be an offense described in the second sentence of the fourth paragraph of section 5032 of this title, the court shall transmit to the Federal Bureau of Investigation the information concerning the adjudications, including name, date of adjudication, court, offenses, and sentence, along with the notation that the matters were juvenile adjudications.

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