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We have been gratified by the response of students and faculty to the first two editions of this book. This text has sought to highlight core insights into acts that are defined by the law as juvenile delinquency and to extend them by adding and integrating the most recent statistics, theoretical statements, and the results of a wide range of quantitative and qualitative studies. The book also places developments in juvenile law and responses to it into a historical context. We like to believe that each edition improves on its predecessor because we have the added advantage of student and faculty comments and the time to refine points that we think are important for a thorough understanding of the subject. Revising a textbook is an intriguing task and it might be worth a few paragraphs to convey some sense of the process—at least as it bears upon this book. Even as an individual edition is finished, we continue to collect lists of articles and books that might add new and relevant information. At revision time, we gather this material and read it carefully. We also monitor major newspapers because the sophistication of investigative and beat reporters has increased so dramatically in recent decades that what they write on the scene can provide important insights that supplement formal research probes. Cutting material—that is, eliminating discussions that appear in earlier editions is perhaps the most difficult part of revising because what was included earlier was done so with the belief that it was essential information. It sometimes is a hard choice between retaining what is in the book and adding new material; there is a tendency to incorporate something …