Combative and Incorrigible 17 Year Old

My question involves juvenile law in the State of: Indiana.

I have a younger brother living at home who, for the past three years at the very least, has regularly bee incorrigible and combative. He won't be 18 for another 7 months. He has harmed myself (older sister living at home and going to college) and the family pets-- I fear he will soon make good on his threats to actually kill them or us. He has done and is doing so many horrible things, I beg you pardon if I seem a little incoherent in my descriptions. He has purposefully caused our mother multiple heart attacks and strokes, just to have his way, knowing about her preexisting problems(and sneering while doing so) and has also threatened to cause her to have heart attacks/strokes if she did not comply with his demands. He has also gotten multiple piercings from unlicensed places without parental permission and against their wishes and threatened to get more if they did not comply with his demands. He has broken a computer, punched holes in walls, and caused a lot of other property damage. He has also purposely attempted to make my older brother and father hit him, so he could call the police on them(they have never touched him, no one has). He also cuts school and threatens my mother until she calls in sick for him. He threatens our family members and our pets regularly and destroys property when he does not get what he wants. He has also been saying to other people that his parents have kicked him out and abused him(other way around, in reality) and threatens to lie and tell the police/school that my parents abuse him and do drugs(they do neither of which) if they ever call the police/school about him. I have no idea what to do without him somehow getting my parents into some trouble, and we have absolutely no money for therapy or other treatment. One or more of our dogs will die at his hands before he comes of age. I am hopeless. Please, any advice on how to get him away from our family for our own physical/mental/emotional/financial safety?

Your parents need to act.

If he is threatening them, they need to call 911. Immediately. Same as when he's destroying property.

Have him arrested next time. By the time he is out, he will be 18 and they can evict him for good.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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Your parents need to act.

If he is threatening them, they need to call 911. Immediately. Same as when he's destroying property.

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I wish it was that easy, but as I said before, he will lie to the police once they arrive and tell them that my parents abuse him and are druggies. He has actually planted marijuana in my father's garage before! And the police and schools of the county we live in take any hint of child abuse very seriously-- when my older sister's friend hit her mom in the face as a teenager, her mom then grabbed her wrist and gave it a little slap and said "No, you don't hit Mom!", our school said that it could be taken as child abuse on her part. It's insane. My little brother has rammed his face into a wall before to make his nose bleed so he could say to his friends that my parents abused him(I watched him do this).
Also, in reading on some Indiana laws on minors in trouble with the law, the parents can get fined and get jailtime for their child's actions or be ordered to pay for expensive therapy-- none of which I want to happen. And, of course, there is the consequence of calling the police on him; if he gets taken into custody by the police and then has to come home, which is practically inevitable, he is sure to break everything we own and most likely hurt someone and kill some animals, if not a attempt to kill an actual family member. I just want him out of this house with the least amount of bloodshed possible, but he wants to stay to keep leeching money from my lower-middle-class parents for as long as he can. I keep hoping there's some legal miracle for this problem, but I'm losing that hope rather quickly. I do know that the next time he gets violent, I'm going to turn on my recorder to get him on tape and I'll photograph the damage he does-- I just hope he doesn't catch me, since that would end badly.

So you want him out but you don't want to call the authorities who can take him out.

So, pray tell, what is it that you expect us to tell you?

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Quoting cbg

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So you want him out but you don't want to call the authorities who can take him out.

So, pray tell, what is it that you expect us to tell you?

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I suppose what I'm wanting to hear is calcification on the laws concerning this matter, to clear up my fears about calling the authorities on him. I'd like to know whether the authorities can remove him permanently without causing any trouble for my parents, and if he would have to come back home after calling the police out to get him the first time-- or if the police would take him into custody at all. I don't know if the police are required to look into my brother's claims of abuse and drugs or that they would believe my brother plants evidence and lies. I have no clue what happens to a person after the police are called, whether they go to jail for a period of time or get probation or whatever else might happen to them. I don't know the law very well, so I don't know if he will have to come back after first being taken into custody, as I fear he might. I also don't know if there is any legal route my parents could take to emancipate him without having to call the authorities during one of his violent fits, or otherwise lawfully get him out of the house (ie, not kick him out, which I think is against the law? I'm not really sure.). I don't know the legal ramifications that my parents could possibly face if they would have to go to court about my brother after calling the police. And I don't know what would happen to my brother-- foster care, emancipation, juvenile detention, etc? I just want to know the legal side of this, since the only thing I have to base my fears about what may happen come from what other people with little knowledge about law have told me to be true. I hope this makes more sense than 'I can't call the authorities.'

the thing is, nobody can really answer the question accurately because we cannot guess how things will transpire.

There are several possible outcomes, and they all depend on the exact details of what's going on PLUS how things are handled on a local level.

I also don't know if there is any legal route my parents could take to emancipate him

Don't even imagine this will happen. In the very, very rare cases that a minor is emancipated, it is when that minor is living outside the home, managing his own financial affairs, and has shown a greater than average level of maturity. There is NO chance - NONE - that a minor with the kind of record you are describing would EVER be emancipated.

the police and courts cannot help those who will not seek their help. Your family has done a great job of allowing this kid to continue to do exactly as he wants to do (enabling). If you and they will not act to curtail his actions, you will have to live with them. Nobody can make you take action.

if the kid is getting tattoos illegally, then the tattoo parlor needs to be reported to the proper authorities. Their license is in jeopardy by performing illegal tattoos.

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In 1997, Indiana Code 16-19-3-4.1 required the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) to adopt rules to regulate the sanitary operation of tattoo parlors. The rule, 410 IAC 1-5, became law on June 12, 1998, and was readopted July 21, 2004. The following are some requirements of the tattoo rule:

• All tattooists must receive yearly training concerning how diseases are spread by contact with blood.
• To receive a tattoo, anyone under 18 years of age must be accompanied by, and have written permission from, a parent or legal guardian.
• Gloves or other appropriate personal protection must be worn when performing tattooing procedures and when handling blood.
• All needles must be sterile and designed for single use.
• Reusable tubes must be sterilized.
• Infectious waste must be handled properly according to Indiana law

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http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title16/ar41/ch16.html

a call to the tattoo parlor, if you know which one it is, should curtail any more tattoos.