Chapter 15 of the textbook focuses primarily on juvenile justice. There are many subtopics in this chapter, however there was one in particular that caught my interest. This topic has also been touched on several times in the discussion forum and it concerns Preferential Treatments for Minors. These controversial treatments were created and developed specifically with the best interests of the child as the primary goal. The concept was introduced by the “parens patriae” philosophy which allowed states to intervene and take control of the problem child. This philosophy was later developed and addressed by the Supreme Court around the 1960s and became today's juvenile justice system. In this article I will discuss the issues and main key points related to preferential treatments in the juvenile justice system. First, we need to understand some of the characteristics and purposes of preferential treatments. Preferential treatment was created to specifically help juveniles navigate the justice system. According to “Criminal Justice Today,” Schmalleger (2010) “The Illinois Juvenile Court Act created a juvenile court, separate in form and function from adult criminal courts. To avoid the lasting stigma of criminality, the law applied the term delinquent rather than criminal to adjudicated young delinquents.” (p.552). Since youth are children under the age of 18, they are considered immature due to their age and level of judgment, so it would be unfair to treat them with the same treatments as adults. Children are given a special status under these preferential treatments that allows their cases to be handled differently than adults... middle of paper... information and examples. The six categories of children provided in the textbook provide definitions and details of the six common types of children in the juvenile justice system, including: delinquent child, unruly child, dependent child, neglected child, abused child, and delinquent child. Knowing the categories can help me identify children who need help and also prepare myself to prevent a problem from occurring. In conclusion, I think that adults need to focus and pay more attention to their children and, in my opinion, this would be the most effective solution possible to deal with juvenile delinquency. I believe that preferential treatments for youth are the right thing to do, I also feel that we are going in the right direction in terms of youth treatments as long as we continue to improve programs to keep up with today's ever-changing world.