Law enforcement agencies refer approximately two-thirds of all youth arrested to a court with juvenile jurisdiction for further processing. As with law enforcement, the court may decide to divert some juveniles away from the formal justice system to other agencies for service. Prosecutors may file some juvenile cases directly in criminal (adult) court. The net result is that juvenile courts for...

Many theories have been advanced to explain the cause of juvenile delinquency. Some are quite sophisticated, whereas others are predicated on rather basic “instinctive” conclusions that may or may not have a basis in fact. Many juvenile curfews are based on an instinctive conclusion that youths are likely to be victimized or get into trouble after certain hours. For example, in August 1994 the ...