Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-236) and index.

Childhood and public law before the Revolution -- Modern adolescence as a learner's permit -- The problem of individual variation -- The common thread : diversion in juvenile justice -- Penal proportionality for the young offender : notes on immaturity, capacity, and diminished responsibility -- Kids, groups, and crime : some implications of a well-known secret -- Two patterns of age progression in adolescent crime -- The case of the disappearing superpredator : some lessons from the 1990s -- The jurisprudence of teen pregnancy -- Juvenile or criminal court? : a punitive theory of waiver -- Reducing the harms of minority overrepresentation in American juvenile justice -- Choosing a coherent policy toward juveniles and guns -- The hardest of the hard cases : the young homicide offender.