Chapter 1 examines the use of police discretionary powers and the development of alternative strategies for dealing with juvenile delinquency in the historical context. This is followed by a chapter that reviews the policy and use of police caution as the predominant means of dealing with young offenders outside the formal court system in England and Wales in the contemporary context. The next three chapters consider the implementation of a multi-agency approach to delinquency control, the organization of police caution decision-making, and its impact on the youth cautioned. One of these chapters argues that the multi-agency approach must be understood as part of a wider redefining of the "ownership" of the problem of crime in the 1990s. Another of the three chapters considers the limits and possibilities of the multi-agency consultative approach by looking at the role of social agencies in cautioning decision-making in four localities; the key issue discussed relates to the police construction of "cautionability." Chapter 5 looks at the hierarchies of knowledge among social agencies and the disputes over clients and resources that occur despite the rhetoric of multi-agency cooperation. The police are left to fill the void created by the desire of social agencies to pursue a policy of minimum intervention in youths' lives. Chapter 6 considers the differing perspectives of cautioning on the part of the police, youth, and their parents. After a summary of the previous chapters, the concluding chapter considers the future of police cautioning under the New Labour Government and the implications for the policing of youth. Chapter notes, a 380-item bibliography, and a subject index