"Juvenile justice is part of a broader human rights movement that is concerned with far more than society's response to juvenile lawbreaking. Indeed, as globalization, urbanization, industrialization, and communications quickly spread across the globe, the world's attention increasingly is directed to the plight of all children, regardless of circumstances. This concern is extremely late in coming. Approximately twenty-five percent of the world's population today is age 15 or younger, and the magnitude of the problems these youths face is staggering. Poverty, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and religious differences all influence how children are treated. The reality is that in many societies, children are considered to be economic hindrances and expendable. Local, municipal, state, provincial, territorial, and national governments often lump together the needy, the dependent and neglected, the status offender, those who are mentally ill or violent, and the victims of abuse. These children are discriminated against, victimized, persecuted, and sometimes executed by citizens, police, and paramilitary forces. The problems youths face go to the core of cultural thinking, far beyond the needs of societies simply to fine-tune agencies and the rules already in place for the handling of youths in need. English-speaking countries such as the United States provide many of the ideals that are behind current worldwide efforts to reform the world's approach to juvenile justice. Unfortunately, even world leaders often fall far short of their own ideals. In this regard, the United States is an excellent case study of what is and what could be in juvenile justice in the world today.Evidence-based research provides reason to be positive about the future of juvenile justice in the United States. All of the remaining chapters of this text discuss evidence- based practices in juvenile justice. "Gold standard" programs that have recently been developed to benefit youthful lawbreakers are Blueprints for Violence Prevention developed by Dr. Delbert Elliott, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Model Programs guide, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.3 In the midst of these hopeful program innovations in the juvenile justice system, there remains wide criticism of juvenile justice in the United States. Some of the criticism focuses on the juvenile court, as well as on the court's rehabilitative parens patriae ("the state as parent") philosophy. Indeed, one characteristic of juvenile justice today is the proposal, from both liberals and conservatives, to reduce the scope of the juvenile court's responsibilities. Conservatives want to refer more law-violating youths to adult court, while many liberals recommend divesting the juvenile court of its jurisdiction over status offenders ( juveniles who have engaged in behaviors for which adults would not be arrested). Some also believe that the adult court could do a much better job than the juvenile court with youthful offenders"--