The saying goes that the only constant in life is change, and it’s certainly true in the area of juvenile offenses. According to the Juvenile Justice Geography, Policy, Practice and Statistics, Virginia’s numbers have gotten comparatively worse than the US as a whole in several key areas, including total detained individuals and individuals in residential…

According to County Health Rankings, 30 percent of Virginia’s households involve single-parent living arrangements. This means that, for many of these parents, child custody issues surfaced at some point in time. Unfortunately, some of these questions didn’t always produce accurate information, as can often happen with complicated legal topics. Considerable misconceptions regarding Virginia child custody…

Felony sex offenses are very serious criminal charges. In Virginia, minors can be charged with felony sex crimes. A conviction — referred to adjudication as a delinquent — on a felony sex offense could put a minor on a path to being incarcerated in the state’s juvenile justice system and, eventually, in an adult correctional…

In Virginia, it is a crime to knowingly or intentionally expose another person to a serious sexually transmitted disease (STD). Depending on the specific allegations, a defendant may even face felony sexual battery charges for exposing another person. If you were arrested and and are facing infected sexual battery charges in Northern Virginia, you should…

In Virginia, an issue that occurs in a school could potentially end up in the juvenile justice system. According to data released by the state of Virginia, approximately 40 percent of all disorderly conduct complaints filed against juveniles were filed by teachers, public safety officers, or other school officials. Increasingly, disciplinary matters that used to…

If you are going through a marital separation, you are not alone. According to data from the National Health Statistics Reports, close to half of all U.S. married couples eventually get divorced. Although it happens to many families, ending a marriage is never easy — especially for parents who have a young child. After a…

Parents should provide financial support to their children. Unfortunately, many non-custodial parents fall behind on their child support obligations. According to a report published by the United States Census Bureau, only half of all parents who are receiving child support are getting the full amount that they are owed. Alarmingly, nearly one quarter of custodial…

We often hear about the dangers of distracted driving, but can distracted walking also result in serious pedestrian accidents and motor vehicle collisions? A recent article in Curbed discusses a new study on distracted walking conducted by researchers at Northern Arizona University. While the study focused on pedestrian behaviors in New York City and Flagstaff,…

Can divorce actually make people happier than they would be if they were married? While previous studies, such as an article published in the journal Addiction, suggest that getting divorced is linked to higher unhappiness rates and more problems with substance abuse, new research is starting to suggest that such trends may be shifting. Indeed,…

When a child or teen commits a crime, many people assume that they will not face serious consequences due to their young age. However, in our state, juvenile crime is taken very seriously by both school and state officials. A young person could face a juvenile criminal offense with severe consequences that affect them well…