Introduction Over the last decade, child abuse and neglect has been on the increase. This fact comes with its challenges and right now juvenile justice system is facing challenges and some unique issues that if not well addressed would plunge this system into crisis in future. It is unfortunate that, this system has not undergone restructuring to accommodate changing trends in society. Laws have not been reviewed to address the ever-changing societal trends in justice matters. Ignoring the facts does not change them, and whether the juvenile justice system acknowledges it or not; there are numerous challenges and unique issues facing the juvenile justice system, in the 21st century regarding the increasing numbers of child abuse and neglect. Increasing Child Abuse and Neglect As aforementioned, child abuse and neglect has been on the increase over the last decade. According to Nation Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NCPCA) (2007), “Child abuse reports have maintained a steady growth for the past ten years, with the total number of reports nationwide increasing by 45% since 1997” (p. 5). This depicts how grave the issue of child abuse and neglect is. According to National Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research (2000), the year 1999 was the climax with 3,244,000 reports of child abuse and neglect reaching the Child Protective Service (CPS). Neglect is the prominent form of child maltreatment causing over 43% of child fatalities in a year. These statistics are alarming and they pose great challenge to juvenile justice system. In 2001, the Third National Incidence Study (NIS-3) compiled results on child abuse in 25 states showing that, “62% involved neglect, 25% physical abuse, 7% sexual abuse, 3% emotional maltreatment and 4% other. For substantiated cases, 31 states gave the following breakdowns: 60% neglect, 23% physical, 9% sexual, 4% emotional maltreatment and 5% other” (Reid, 2001, p. 6). These figures, compared to say figures of twenty years ago are very different. Most recent results are more revealing. According to Lung and Daro (2009), “information from 34 states representing 67.3% of the U.S. population under the age of 18, an estimated 1,215 child maltreatment deaths were confirmed by child protective service (CPS) agencies in 2008” (12). Interestingly, these statistics show deaths only. Logically, not all the abused and neglected children die; therefore, the numbers of the abuse and neglect cases has to be higher than the deaths. Moreover, these statistics represent only the reported cases, meaning that the actual number of cases is higher than the documented ones. Therefore, extrapolating these statistics to cover all cases of abuse and neglect and including the unreported cases, child abuse, and neglect has up surged in the recent past. What does this mean to the juvenile justice system? Challenges in Juvenile Justice System The fact that more children are being abused and neglected means that more children will end up in criminal practices. According to National Child Abuse (2010), “Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime.” This is the nightmare facing t