The Wilson and Boland proposal underlies a recommendation by the 1981 U.S. Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime to lift restrictions on procedures pertaining to adult court use of juvenile records. One rationale for this change is to avoid sentencing inequities, notably lenient treatment for young adults with extensive juvenile records. A review of American literature yields little evidence that such leniency is occurring, and the English study, where delinquency records are provided routinely in adult courts, shows that leniency clearly did not occur. Wilson and Boland also argue that the current system does not protect the public because the highest rates of incarceration do not coincide with the highest rates of offending. American research on this issue is inconclusive, although it suggests that offending rates peak in late adolescence and early adulthood. The English study confirms the peak as occurring around age 17, but indicates that changes in incarceration rate with age seem to depend primarily on changes in institutional provision with age. Both American and English studies confirm that juvenile delinquency is often the forerunner of adult crime, at present the only valid justification for centralized storage of juvenile records. More American research on inequities cause by the two-track system and on offending and incarceration rates at different ages is required. Four tables and 71 footnotes are supplied.