In cases involving juveniles, courts must deal with the conflicts among the rights of the child, the rights of the parents, and the interests of the state. The parental right to custody and control of the child has assumed constitutional dimensions despite the fact that parents often fail to live up to society's standards for child-rearing. The primary shortcoming in efforts to help the child in trouble is the absence of a system with centralized authority over all aspects of the child's interaction with the law. This centralized authority should take the form of an organization of impartial overseers focusing on the rehabiliation of the family. The group of officials should mediate among the varying interests involved and help relieve the pressures on the courts. Forced intervention is bound to fail when it seeks to coerce compliance with standards of behavior defined by the intervening authority alone. The child and family must learn how to take control of their own rehabilitation process. The Government should always consider the healing of the family paramount and post hoc intervention by the state insufficient. Special coordinator should therefore work with the family to devise an agreement delineating acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Extensive notes accompany the text.