ABSTRACT
About one million children a year are estimated to have contact with the police. More than three times as many juveniles under the age of eighteen as appear before the juvenile courts of the country come to the attention of police agencies, according to a United States Children's Bureau estimate. The police officer's role in this respect is to distinguish between the offender for whom a warning is sufficient and the more serious delinquent. The activities of the police in dealing with juveniles should center round a specially trained section of the police department—its bureau for juveniles. The need for concentrated service on the part of the police juvenile unit in areas where there is tension between different ethnic groups has been highlighted by recent happenings in a number of large cities. Another activity entrusted to the police calls for both understanding of youth problems and knowledge of the capacities of available social agencies.
