The Scottish system of children's hearings was established in the 1968 Social Work Act which thoroughly reformed the Scottish juvenile justice system even before similar steps were taken in England and Wales. The present discussions of children's hearings are designed to serve as a text for training children's panel members, to inform concerned laymen, and to articulate the experience of participants in the system. Most of the contributors have been closely associated with the hearing system. The book contains five sections. The first section is devoted to the historical origins of the hearings system, its objectives and structure, its relationship to the court system, and hearings statistics. The second section examines the roles of the principal components of the system: the police, the reporter, the children's panel, and the social work department. While the third section centers around the hearing process, it also considers theoretical and practical matters such as theories of delinquency; problems of assessment, of interviewing, and of assessment of reports; and rules of procedure. In the fourth section contributors outline the services provided by a number of agencies with resources used by children's hearings; i.e., social work services, residential and intermediate treatment facilities, schools, psychiatric services, and child guidance services. Finally, the last section discusses the underlying principles of children's hearings, means for protecting children's rights, differences between American and Scottish juvenile justice reforms, experiences with panel membership, and strengths and weaknesses of the hearings system. Several tables, notes for individual chapters, and a selected bibliography are supplied.