The book explores the causes of juvenile crime, strategies being used to control juvenile misdeeds, the legal rules that protect innocent minors and curb adolescent misconduct, and recent research studies and policy initiatives. It also presents legal cases shaping the juvenile justice system, real-life stories that illustrate legal concepts, and hypothetical dilemmas to solve using theories and information in this volume. It includes a timeline of juvenile justice history that charts critical incidents in delinquency over the past 200 years. The book examines many specific juvenile justice topics, including: (1) childhood and delinquency; (2) juvenile justice theories; (3) social structure and delinquency; (4) association of delinquency with gender, family, peers, schools, and drug use; (5) police work with juveniles; (6) pretrial procedures; (7) the juvenile trial and disposition; (8) juvenile probation and community treatment; (9) youth crime around the world; (10) race and poverty; (11) crime and the American dream; (12) restorative justice in practice; (13) women who have killed their children; (14) gangs; (15) three model nonresidential programs; (16) disproportionate minority confinement; (17) rehabilitation strategies; and (18) institutions for juveniles. Tables, figures, glossary, appendix, cases cited, indexes