Previous research has emphasized the importance of looking at the diverse ways in which contemporary juvenile justice systems distribute power and control. The author discusses various legal avenues for dealing with juveniles in complex juvenile justice systems. These legal avenues follow the theoretical arguments that contemporary societies have a deep-seated need to classify juveniles with a diverse set of labels and that the traditional labeling approach of thinking about juvenile delinquents and non-delinquents into either/or categories makes little sense. Recognizing juvenile justice continues to expand in response to social needs to create new legal avenues for labeling juveniles, the author calls for looking at less legal avenues of juvenile justice. The author offers ideological and organizational perspectives on juvenile justice and examines tightly versus loosely coupled juvenile justice systems and trust and abstract juvenile justice systems. 35 references