There is a major crisis imminent for many youth trapped in an economic underclass in contemporary Australia. Structural changes are closing off opportunities for movement into conventional lives as young adults. Long-term unemployment fosters a variety of new and deviant lifestyles, some of which include crime. Society can take two basic approaches to the problem of crime among the new youth underclass. One strategy is a positive, developmental approach that directly addresses the central issues of employment, education, and job training. These approaches have the advantage of providing an economic solution to what is clearly a structural economic problem. The second basic approach is to attempt to control the symptoms of youth discontent and economic disadvantage through the juvenile justice system. Whether responses to symptomatic deviant behavior are harsh and punitive or lenient and supportive, they cannot by themselves address the basic causes of youth discontent. Although many favor a public policy of harsher sentences, expanded police powers, greater use of imprisonment, or use of the new concept of reintegrative shaming, a more reasonable approach is to provide new forms of education and employment. 14 references