The laudable innovations pertain to the accusatory process and the limitation placed on the use of preventive measures. Overall, however, the reform is a reversal of the trend that has developed in Italy over the past 10 years, which has seen a gradual contraction of penal intervention paralleled by growth in local social services which separate the penal and welfare mechanisms. The reform under the law favors the rehabilitative model, characterized by a wide range of interventions and structures that aim at rehabilitation in the context of punishment. Its application methods risk opening the door to a dangerous dominance of penal requirements over welfare needs. Under the act, there is the potential for the transfer of welfare institutions to the penal sector. Group homes are likely to become jail-like. Preventive measures have a restrictive treatment quality and may be applied prior to determination of guilt for an offense. Rather than focusing on alternatives to a juvenile penal system, the new law returns to the past in an attempt to enforce rehabilitation in a restrictive penal context. 5 references