Research indicates that parental characteristics and parenting practices are among the best early predictors of subsequent delinquency. Ineffective parenting and inadequate socialization are at the core of most theories of delinquency causation. Care and discipline are the essential features of parenting or guardianship, and both are subject tests of reasonableness. While it is within the juvenile court's authority to establish minimum standards of care and maximum standards of punishment, courts and even social agencies are unlikely to discover serious problems in either or to intervene unless inadequacies are so aggravated that they require medical care. Society appears to accept inadequate and incompetent parenting as a lesser evil than intrusion by the State into family concerns. Yet, given the availability of effective parenting and other interventions and the difficulty of changing delinquent patterns once established, it seems the State might exert as much regulatory power among prospective parents as it does among prospective drivers. 2 endnotes, 5 figures, and 39 references.