There are many who think that juvenile violent crime would be better managed by abolishing the juvenile court. They believe that the crueler punishment of the adult criminal system is needed, although they would temper incarceration by using juvenile facilities. They want longer punishment, although the 5-year average time served by violent adults is not much longer than for juveniles. They want adult procedural standards, though they would have the "infancy defense" at trial and the "youth discount" at sentencing. They want more due process, though they are quite ready to throw neglected children and status offenders to administrative handling with no due process. They would do all this even though they offer no evidence that abolition of the juvenile court would reduce the violent crime rate and in the face of clear evidence that it would not. The juvenile rehabilitative approach of changing the influences which cause juvenile offending does not satisfy the public's thirst for retribution, but it does produce a lower recidivism rate than the adult punitive approach based on the plea bargained offense. The public would face less crime if the adult courts were merged into the juvenile system where the reasons for committing crime would be reduced. Table, references