Despite the sometimes overwhelming nature of juvenile delinquency, juvenile courts focus mainly on rehabilitation and avoid many of the stigmatizing terms used in the adult system. Possible causal factors in juvenile delinquency include psychological and environmental factors. Parents have the main responsibility for meeting children's nine basic requirements for psychosocial development, but responsibility for children placed in the care of the government rests partly with the juvenile probation officer, juvenile detention officer, or group home counselor. No approach is uniformly effective with each juvenile delinquent. Family counseling is the most important treatment component for a juvenile delinquent. The task of the juvenile probation officer or careworker is to make sure that families become involved in counseling despite their reluctance. Checklist to guide a needs-assessment interview and 51 references