For freshman/junior-level courses in Sociology, Criminal Justice, Criminology, Social Work, Administration of Justice. Fully focused on the important issues, emerging trends, solid research base, and the special challenges facing juvenile justice today, this comprehensive exploration of the American juvenile justice system covers the history and philosophy of juvenile justice, the current practices for processing youthful offenders, the detention of juveniles, and the diversion of youth from the juvenile justice system. Unique in its approach, it gives students an up-close and personal view of the fascinating and sometimes tragic world of the juvenile offenderand the personal, psychological and thinking processes that characterize juvenile misbehavior. From this vivid reality base, it describes the jobs and problems of those practitioners in the justice system that work with youths and the workings of the important components of the juvenile justice system that brings both together.