Cautioning is used both to avoid the labeling that may lead to further criminality and to save police time and resources. It has its origins in the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act which aimed to divert as many juveniles as possible from entering the criminal justice system. As cautioning has become almost universally used, the issue of widening the net of social control has become a concern. Monitoring and evaluation should be central parts of the management and practice of cautioning. In addition, police should give parents clear explanations of the implications of the caution. They should also avoid using juvenile court proceedings as the means of involving welfare services in a family with problems and should monitor data so that net-widening and disparate approaches to cautioning do not persist. Tables, appended tables, and 16 references