A FORMAL CAUTION IS A RECORDED ORAL WARNING GIVEN BY A SENIOR OFFICER AT A POLICE STATION TO AN OFFENDER WHO OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE BEEN PROSECUTED. TYPICALLY THE CAUTION CONSISTS OF A SHARP REMINDER OF THE SERIOUSNESS AND CONSEQUENCES OF OFFENDING WITH A REFERENCE TO THE POSSIBILITY OF PROSECUTION FOR FURTHER OFFENSES. THE FORMAL CAUTION IS USED MORE OFTEN IN JUVENILE CASES THAN IN ADULT CASES AND YOUNGER JUVENILE OFFENDERS ARE CAUTIONED MORE FREQUENTLY THAN ARE OLDER JUVENILE OFFENDERS. WHILE THE NUMBER OF JUVENILES FOUND GUILTY IN COURT INCREASED FROM 64,371 IN 1968 TO 91,126 IN 1975, THE NUMBER CAUTIONED INCREASED FROM 25,759 TO 88,307 OVER THE SAME PERIOD. THE INCREASE IN JUVENILE CAUTIONING MAY BE ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE FOLLOWING FACTORS: POLICE RESPONSE TO THE GROWING EMPHASIS ON NONPENAL TREATMENT; PASSAGE OF THE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS ACT 1969, WHICH ENCOURAGES THE USE OF DIVERSION METHODS; THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE NUMBER OF OFFENDERS ELIGIBLE FOR CAUTIONING MAY HAVE INCREASED FASTER THAN THE NUMBER OF PERSONS APPREHENDED FOR MORE SERIOUS OFFENSES; AND POSSIBLE CHANGES IN THE PROPORTION OF CAUTION-ELIGIBLE OFFENDERS RECORDED BY POLICE. VARIATION AMONG POLICE FORCES IN CAUTIONING RATES IS EXTENSIVE. IT IS SUGGESTED, HOWEVER, THAT CARE SHOULD BE EXERCISED IN USING CAUTIONING RATES AS AN INDEX OF VARIATION IN PROSECUTION POLICY.