A total of 72 male juvenile offenders were classified according to type of offense: crime against person, crime against property, or drug/alcohol offense. Each participant was referred for psychological evaluation directly from a juvenile court and was assessed within a week of being adjudicated. Because offenses were clearly recorded in participant files, court records were consulted to obtain offense information. Selected scales were examined as discriminant predictors of offense pattern in a descriptive discriminant analysis as well as a classification analysis. The study found that the multidimensional perspective of personality characteristics measured by the MMPI-A helped capture the differences between three general offenses among male juvenile offenders. The MMPI-A displayed an impressive degree of accuracy in predicting juvenile offenses as a function of 12 predictor variables identified in the study. Both univariate and discriminant findings suggest that juvenile offenders who have higher degrees of concern with health, illness, and bodily functioning and actively avoid getting involved with other people have an unlikely chance of developing alcohol or drug problems, but are more likely to engage in property offenses. Those who had higher degrees of psychomotor retardation (feeling immobilized and withdrawn, lacking energy to cope, and lacking hostile or aggressive impulses), along with relatively more serious school problems, were more likely to engage in drug offenses. A greater interest in manipulative and self-oriented behavior and a greater proneness for developing alcohol and drug problems were associated with both person and drug offenders. Selected MMPI scales were more adept at identifying property offenders than person and drug offenders. The MMPI-A may thus serve as an initial screening for important indicators of adolescent offenses that may be more directly targeted in future investigations. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 30 references