THE STUDY'S BASIC RESEARCH QUESTION WAS 'ARE THE ASCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF AGE, SEX, AND RACE SIGNIFICANT SOURCES OF PROCESSING DECISIONS IN THE JUVENILE COURT, AS ASSERTED BY CONFLICT THEORISTS?' IF THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS YES, THIS DIFFERENTIAL PROCESSING MIGHT PARTIALLY ACCOUNT FOR THE OVERREPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN GROUPS, NOTABLY OLDER, MALE, AND BLACK JUVENILES IN DELINQUENCY STATISTICS. MOREOVER, SUCH PROCESSING, IF DISCOVERED, MIGHT SUPPORT CONFLICT ANALYSES OF THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORDER MAINTAINING FUNCTIONS OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY. COURT RECORDS OF 7,857 JUVENILES WERE UTILIZED IN THIS STUDY. USING THE CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE, HYPOTHESES WERE DEVELOPED BASED ON THE CONCEPT THAT SOCIETY PROCESSES JUVENILES ON THE BASIS OF THEIR PERCEIVED THREAT TO THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORDER. IN ADDITION, A MODEL OF THE COURT IS DEVELOPED TO DIFFERENTIATE MORE CLEARLY THIS KIND OF ORDER PROCESSING FROM OTHER TYPES OF PROCESSING, AND TO REFLECT ADEQUATELY THE COMPLEX, CONTINGENT, AND INTERACTIVE NATURE OF THE COURT AS REFLECTED IN OBSERVATIONAL AND INTERACTIONIST STUDIES. HYPOTHESES CONCERNING THE RELATIONSHIP OF SEX, AGE, AND RACE TO COURT DISPOSITIONS WERE NOT SUPPORTED BY THE DATA. IN ADDITION, IT WAS FOUND THAT THE MODEL OF INTERPRETATIONS OF COURT ACTIVITY RECEIVED LITTLE OVERALL SUPPORT FROM THE FLORIDA JUVENILE COURT DATA. IN SHORT, NEITHER THE ASCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS, NOR THE PSYCHOSOCIAL CONDITION OF JUVENILES APPEARED TO BE A PRIMARY FACTOR IN THEIR PROCESSING BY THE COURT. TABLES AND REFERENCES ARE INCLUDED. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED--MLC)