Montana Senator Co-Sponsors Bill Making It Easier to Try Violent Juveniles as Adults

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) co-sponsored a bill last week that would help facilitate the ability to charge certain violent juvenile defendants with federal criminal charges.

The Violent Juvenile Offender Accountability Act would make it easier for juveniles between the ages of 16 and 18 who are charged with homicide, assault, carjacking, robbery or aggravated sexual assault to be tried as adults if they are accused of breaking federal law.

The bill proposal would remove the transfer process, which determines whether a juvenile will be tried as an adult for a crime.

Very rarely are juveniles tried in federal courts in America. According to a 2025 Department of Justice report, in fiscal year 2023, juveniles accounted for only 1.2 percent of defendants charged in federal court.

Between 2016 and 2022, the number of homicides committed by juveniles increased 65 percent, the Council on Criminal Justice said.

Newsweek also reported that juveniles being arrested for violent crimes rose by 10 percent from 2022 to 2023.

Sheehy said every American deserves “safe streets where they do not have to worry about violent criminals robbing, assaulting, or murdering them or their families.” He added that these crimes, “for far too long,” have “gone unpunished and terrorized far too many communities.”

“Ensuring Americans have safe communities to live in is both common sense and one of government’s most basic duties, and we’re working to deliver with this bill to restore law and order and protect hardworking, law-abiding families across the nation,” the senator explained.

Besides Sheehy, this bill was sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Tom Cotton (R-AR).

Cotton noted the bill will “help keep Arkansas communities safe by holding teenagers over the age of 16 accountable for violent crimes.”