The Gault mandate of the right to defense counsel has led to greater prosecution representation of the community interest at adjudicatory hearings. State legislatures, responding to public concerns regarding juvenile crime, are rapidly placing prosecutors in decisional roles at juvenile intake. (Author)

Family intervention is shifting from an informal alternative in treatment of juvenile offenders to a formal adjudicatory option. The politically expedient move was not based on conclusive empirical data. Without evaluation of family intervention strategies, such strategies are likely to proliferate with little control over possible unfortunate…

Following an analysis of the major forces for institutional change confronting the juvenile courts, and a review of recent federal and state responses likely to promote further modifications in the present system, the author discusses a modified system capable of accommodating demands for basic alterations of juvenile justice. (Author)

Compares the recidivism of 2,738 juveniles who were transferred to criminal court in Florida in 1987 to that of a matched sample retained in the juvenile system. By every measure of recidivism employed, including rates of reoffending, seriousness of reoffending, and time to failure, reoffending was greater among transfers than the matched…

Presented findings from a study of a five-year cohort of youths processed through juvenile aid panels and juvenile court. These indicate that the rate of reappearance of youth processed through the panels was similar to that of youths processed through the court. This mechanism was at least as effective as court processing. (Author/BEF)

Review of 40 attempts at prevention of juvenille delinquency shows none has successfully prevented delinquency. The authors' recommendations include separation of implementation and evaluation, enrichment or abandonment of the individual treatment approach, diversification of evaluative measures, and greater sensitivity to the rights of the…

The authors contend that diversion of youth from the juvenile justice system may be seen as potentially dangerous and harmful, and they present several arguments against expansion of diversionary services. (Author)

One hundred workers from rural, urban, and suburban juvenile courts were interviewed to ascertain their perspectives as to factors that should and do influence sentencing decisions. The data demonstrate that the factors perceived to affect these decisions vary among juvenile courts, making it difficult to determine the impact of any single factor.…

The legal concept of juvenile delinquency as administered for the last 150 years began to die with the Gault decision. Delinquency jurisdiction should be removed from juvenile courts and be allowed to revert to criminal courts, where interests which are highly valued in our society can be protected more fully. (Author)

Evidence is presented to show that, at every level in the system, girls charged with status offenses are treated more harshly than girls charged with crimes. Further, the noncriminal activity of girls is frequently seen as requiring more drastic intervention than the criminal behavior of boys. (Author)

Evaluates an Illinois statewide program to remove status offenders from detention. Found substantially fewer youths were referred to detention but more youths than expected were classified as detainable and subjected to court and agency processing. Suggest this may be due to organizational self-interest and the weakness of community structure.…

A 10-year comparison of New York State Family Court records examines the differences in the way courts adjudicate adolescent delinquents according to sex and offense. Attention is called to the improbability of altering adolescent behavior in any positive way through the punitive and highly moralistic means now employed. (Author)

Reports the findings of a group of studies relating to major issues in juvenile justice. Findings concern the growth of programs providing grants-in-aid from state governments to local counties for support of juvenile justice programs; constitutional questions regarding juvenile court services; and the waiver of juvenile court jurisdiction.…

Assesses the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system in preventing delinquency and rehabilitating delinquents. The six articles in this special issue also discuss status offenders and gender issues, examine the Chicago Area Project, and discuss the future of juvenile justice policy and research. (JAC)