Victoria's welfare and juvenile court legislation from the late 19th century to the present establishes a treatment rather than a legal model for the processing and disposition of juveniles. The relevant statutes have a general wording that does not clearly distinguish between sexes in categorizing and treating juveniles, so that any selective enforcement according to sex apparently lies in police and juvenile court policy. Australia is a patriarchal society that manifests sexual stereotypes. On the one hand, women are viewed as having passive, dependent, suggestible natures that require special moral vigilance; on the other hand, women are revered for their supposed superior moral and spiritual qualities. Such a perspective encourages greater supervision and restriction of females, especially adolescents, even though their behavior, whether actually or potentially deviant, poses no serious threat to persons or society. By contrast, the juvenile justice system intervenes in the lives of male juveniles only when their behavior poses a clear threat to persons and property. Parents as well as police are more inclined to seek juvenile court intervention for girls deemed to be in 'moral danger' (noncriminal deviant behavior) than for boys. This results in some of these girls being committed to institutions also occupied by juvenile offenders. Fifty-one footnotes and 47 references are listed.