Administering justice to juvenile offenders has largely been the domain of the states, and as a result of this the laws that pertain to juvenile offenders can vary widely from state to state. There is no federal juvenile justice system. Although the federal government does not play a direct role in administering juvenile justice, in the 1960s, the federal government began establishing federal juvenile justice agencies and grant programs in order to influence the states' juvenile justice systems. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) of 1974 created many of the federal entities and grant programs that continue to operate today, including the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the State Formula Grants Program. Over the ensuing decades, the JJDPA has been modified a number of times, broadening the mandate of the agencies it created and adding to the grant programs it established. This report analyzes the current federal legislation that influences the state juvenile justice systems. Although the report provides some background information on the evolution of juvenile justice in the United States, the main focus of the report is the major federal legislation that impacts state juvenile justice systems, including the JJDPA. As the major provisions of the JJDPA expired in FY2007 and FY2008, several issues pertaining to its reauthorization may be of concern to Congress, including, but not limited to, the following: Should the core mandates associated with the state formula grants be expanded or modified? Are the current grant programs effective? Is there adequate oversight over states' use of federal grant funding? Is there sufficient coordination occurring at the federal level? Should the federal approach to juvenile justice focus on rehabilitation, accountability, or both philosophies? The original JJDPA and its major revisions through the end of the 109 th Congress, when it was most recently reauthorized, are addressed in Appendix A and Appendix B . Juvenile justice in the United States has been predominantly the province of the states and their localities. The first juvenile court in America was founded in 1899 in Cook County, Illinois. Twenty-five years later, all but two states had enacted legislation establishing a separate juvenile court system for young offenders. The mission of these juvenile courts was to attempt to turn young delinquents into productive adults rather than merely punishing them for their crimes. This led to marked procedural and substantive differences between the adult and juvenile court systems in the states, including a focus on the offenders and not the offenses, and on rehabilitation instead of punishment. The federal government began to play a role in the states' juvenile justice systems in the 1960s and 1970s. In the Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Offenses Control Act ( P.L. 87-274) , Congress provided funds for state and local governments, through the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), to conduct demonstration projects to research improved methods for preventing and controlling crime committed by juveniles. In 1968, Congress passed additional legislation to provide direct assistance to state and local governments and to train juvenile justice personnel. To receive funding, states were required to designate a single agency to take the lead in improving delinquency prevention and control programs. Also in 1968, Congress for the first time placed juvenile justice grant authority within the purview of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Despite these congressional efforts to provide assistance to the states as they attempted to rein in juvenile crime, juvenile arrests for violent crimes increased by 216% between 1960 and 1974. This increase in juvenile violent crime outstripped the growth in the juvenile population; the under-18 population grew from 47 million in 1950 to 70 million in 1970—an increase of only 49%. It seemed apparent that the technical assistance and financial aid that Congress had provided the states was not enough to address the growing problem of juvenile crime, and many commentators maintained that there was a need for a distinct federal entity to manage the federal government's response to juvenile delinquency. In 1974, Congress addressed the issue by passing the first comprehensive piece of juvenile justice legislation, the JJDPA. The JJDPA created a number of grant programs and established a new federal agency within DOJ—OJJDP—to oversee these grant programs and to coordinate the federal government-wide response to juvenile delinquency. In the 1980s, many states responded to the public perception that juvenile crime was increasing by passing more punitive laws for juvenile offenders. Some of these laws removed certain types of juvenile crimes from the juvenile court system altogether, mandating that they be handled by the adult criminal system instead. Other laws instituted mandatory sentences for juvenile offenders convicted of certain crimes. This movement toward punishing juveniles and away from working to rehabilitate them accelerated in the 1990s, with all but three states passing laws that modified or removed traditional juvenile court confidentiality agreements, all but five states passing laws easing the transfer of juveniles into the adult criminal justice system, and a majority of states passing laws expanding sentencing options for juveniles. During this period, more punitive measures were incorporated into the accepted federal funding streams for juvenile justice programs through a series of revisions to the JJDPA. These revisions are described in Appendix A and Appendix B . The early criminal justice system in America did not include a separate juvenile justice system. The colonists brought the British criminal justice system with them to the new world. This system included forced apprenticeship for poor and neglected children. If a juvenile committed a crime, they were first warned, shamed, or given corporeal punishment and then returned to the community. If a child committed a major criminal act, however, they were treated and tried as adults. Trials and punishment were largely based on the offender's age; anybody over the age of seven was subject to a trial in criminal court. These early American laws had three fundamental features: establishing local control of the justice system, giving families the responsibility (and legal liability) for their children's actions, and distinguishing between deserving and undeserving poor people. The first juvenile court in the United States was established in Chicago in 1899. By 1925, all but two states had established separate juvenile justice systems. The Juvenile Court of Chicago was based on the British doctrine of parens patriae , or the notion of the state acting in the nature of a parent. This doctrine was used to explain the state's interest in distinguishing between adults and children in its dispensation of justice. Because children are not fully imbued with developmental or legal capacity, the parens patriae doctrine held that the government could provide protection and treatment for children whose parents were not providing adequate care or supervision. The Juvenile Court of Chicago became the model for the various state juvenile justice systems that followed it. Its key features were the definition of a juvenile as a child under the age of 16; the separation of children and adults in correctional institutions; the establishment of special, informal procedural rules, including the elimination of indictments, pleadings, and jury trials; the provision of probation officers to monitor juveniles released into the community; and the prohibition of the detention of children below the age of 12 in a jail or police station. Although delinquency among children was punished, key elements of the juvenile justice system as it was originally conceived were the welfare of the child and the concept that delinquent children could be transformed into productive citizens through treatment. This benevolent mission was clearly stated in most laws that established juvenile justice systems, and led to substantial procedural and substantive differences between juvenile and adult criminal justice systems in the states. For example, juvenile court intake considered extra-legal factors—such as the child's home situation—as well as legal factors when deciding whether to bring a case to trial, and had the discretion to handle cases informally. Additionally, these early juvenile courts did not incorporate the procedural due process protections afforded adult criminal defendants, which were deemed unnecessary as a result of the court's benevolent mission. Attorneys for the state and the youth being tried were not considered essential to the system's operation, especially in less serious cases, and judges had a broad range of dispositions at their disposal that were tailored to the best interests of the child. Judges' dispositions became part of a treatment plan for the juvenile, and this treatment continued until the juvenile was considered cured or became an adult at age 21. In 1914, the practice of diversion , or the official halting of formal criminal proceedings against a juvenile offender, was established with the creation of the Chicago Boy's Court. The goal of diversion was to provide treatment for juveniles outside of the formal juvenile justice system. To this end, the juvenile court in Chicago released juveniles to the supervision and authority of various community service agencies, who evaluated the youth's behavior and reported back to the Court. If the evaluation was satisfactory to the judge, the court officially discharged the juvenile without any formal record of the proceedings. By 1930, only the federal government continued to treat children who were charged with a crime as adults. This situation led the U.S. Attorney General to recommend that juveniles charged with violating federal laws be returned to their home state's juvenile justice system, a proposition that Congress agreed with. The earliest federal government involvement in juvenile delinquency occurred in 1909, when the White House held a Conference on the Care of Dependent Children. The goal of this conference was to share information about needy children across the United States and to emphasize the immediate need for action. This conference led directly to the creation of the U.S. Children's Bureau in 1912. The Children's Bureau was authorized to investigate and report on all aspects of child welfare, including the juvenile justice system. In 1936, the Children's Bureau began providing the first federal subsidy program that provided child welfare grants to states. These grants were used to care for a wide array of at-risk youth, including juvenile delinquents. The first major federal legislation addressing juvenile delinquents was enacted in 1938.