The author contends that a way must be found to combine educative aims and penal justice when dealing with juvenile crime. Experiments with restorative justice are an extremely promising avenue for further exploration. This approach is far more than a simple alternative technique, but goes to the roots of the social and ethical governance of the societies of most industrialized countries. The article presents information regarding: (1) The Retributive Emotion and the Instrumentalist Illusion of Penal Law; (2) mediation and community service to supplement and possibly to unburden existing penal and protective approaches; (3) The Restorative Model; (4) The Search for Principles of Restorative Justice; (5) Restorative Justice and Democracy: In Search of a Legal Framework; (6) Empirical Evidence: Issues of Instrumentalism; and (7) The Challenge: Extending the Limits of Restorative Justice. Table, notes, references