What happens to a juvenile who is charged with a felony in PA?

Answer 1

Gimme a break!!! They are punished!!!

Corrective addition:

This is a legitimate question deserving of a legitimate answer. "Kids", assuming they are minors, may be punished under the juvenile offender laws or may even be tried as adults and punished as if they were adults. However in some cases, if the "kid" is below a certain age and commits a criminal act, the kid might not be punished at all because the "kid" would be presumed to be unable to form the "mens rea" or criminal intent that is necessary for the act to be punishable under the criminal law.

A simple example of this is where young children discover a loaded firearm and one shoots the other without understanding the nature of his action. The kid has committed a homicide but not criminal homicide, because he never formed the criminal intent to commit murder.

Some might say in this case the kid did not "commit a crime", but that is playing semantics and is not an answer to this question

Answer 2

It can depend on the serioussness of the offense. If VERY serious they could be charged and tried as an adult offender.

Other than that, they would be charged and tried under the rules of juvenile court.

It should be noted that there are no such things as 'juvenile laws' and 'adult laws.' The law and the criminal charges are the same in both cases - it is ONLY in the their method being handled in court and by the corrections system that they differ.