The summary discusses the background and current status of the juvenile justice system and the 10-year development of the comprehensive new Standards. The volume also reviews steps remaining before the Standards can be implemented as well as their anticipated impact. Despite strong support for a medical model, the final product was based on the 'justice model' with rigorous safeguards, expanded representation by counsel, and restrictions on court discretion. Services, treatment, and rehabilitation programs are seen as necessary support systems, but not as the basis of court jurisdiction nor as coerced dispositional alternatives. The Standards are consistent in their view of the roles of juveniles, parents, and counsel; commitment to proportionate sanctions and determinate disposition; and emphasis on community care and small, humane facilities. They repudiate predictive interventions to prevent delinquency and encourage participation of juveniles in decisions, protection of privacy and confidentiality, and accountability of juvenile courts and agencies. The Standards offer safeguards against intervention in the absence of a substantial, specific risk; recognize the need for normal development and growth; and emphasize the right to voluntary treatment programs. About 100 references and an appendix of revisions to the 1977 tentative drafts are supplied.