One panel provides national statistics on the prevalence and the offenses of very young juvenile offenders, with attention to arrest rates, juvenile court caseloads, and residential placement. Findings of a local research effort on this delinquent population are presented for Hennepin County, Minnesota. Two other panels address etiology and delinquency prediction for very young juveniles, as well as targeted program efforts for this population. Factors in the connection between delinquent behavior and child-protection placement policies and practices are discussed by another panel. A paper provides an overview of a study the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law recently conducted on State laws designed to hold parents more accountable for the offending behavior of their children. This is followed by a summary of a panel on legal issues involved in the processing of juveniles, with attention to interrogations, balancing juvenile and parental rights, the impact of race, and judicial processes. The three remaining panels focus on issues in designing and implementing effective responses to very young juvenile offenders. Topics covered in these panels are program elements and strategies, program cost and cost-effectiveness, and system accountability. For individual panel summaries, see NCJ-185960-68.