This book examines what is wrong with the U.S. juvenile court system and proposes an alternative model for youth crime control and child welfare under which states would try all offenders in an integrated criminal justice system with appropriate modifications to accommodate younger offenders.

Chapters:
(1) "The Social Construction of Childhood and Adolescence"
(2) "The Juvenile Court and the 'Rehabilitative Ideal'"
(3) "The Constitutional Domestication of the Juvenile Court"
(4) "Procedural Justice in Juvenile Courts: Law on the Books and Law in Action"
(5) "Social Control and Noncriminal Status Offenders: Triage and Privatization"
(6) "Delinquent or Criminal? Juvenile Courts' Shrinking Jurisdiction over Serious Young Offenders"
(7) "Punishment, Treatment, and the Juvenile Court: Sentencing Delinquents"
(8) "Abolish the Juvenile Court: Sentencing Policy When the Child Is a Criminal and the Criminal Is a Child."