Although policymakers have recently emphasized the juveniles' individual responsibility for their actions, the community has assumed increasing importance in fighting juvenile delinquency. These community based programs include both preventive and rehabilitative intervention such as crime awareness programs, counseling centers, victim- offender mediation and reconciliation, therapy centers, and halfway houses. Especially in France and Italy, decentralization has shifted much of the responsibility from the central government to the communities. This approach has worked well for wealthy communities, but has led to a total neglect of juvenile problems in poorer regions. In addition to the financial difficulties, the community-based approach to juvenile delinquency includes other potential hazards: varying and unequal treatment of juveniles in the different communities and the absence of the necessary community ties that programs can rely on. Most significant, however, is the reluctance of central government institutions to relinquish their hold because a true community-based system would make them superfluous. A bibliography is included.