The British 1969 Children and Young Persons' Act intends to promote decriminalization, decarceration, and community social service programs for juveniles. The act further institutionalizes discretion by providing only the most general boundaries for police, courts, and disposal agencies. This is intended to promote individualization in the handling of persons contacting the criminal justice system. Discretion, however, also makes possible stereotyped and prejediced court processing and decisionmaking that ignores the interests of the defendant. Based upon the findings of this study, courts may, and apparently some do, increase punitive sentencing and base decisions on bureaucratic expediency and the social prejudices of magistrates. An analysis of sentencing statistics and an observation of court processing, together with interviews with court officials, showed that 'Countyside' juvenile court tends to grant legal aid only when it does not inconvenience the court, dispenses harsh sentences in comparison with the 'City' court studied and national sentencing patterns, and renders moral and legal judgments according to court officials' ideological and 'commonsense' notions about working-class life, juveniles crime, and 'law and order.' Such patterns go unchecked since defense lawyers and probation personnel are apparently reluctant to challenge the court's customary patterns. Tabular data and 19 references are provided.