An examination of the influx of delinquent minors highlights the major trends resulting from the activities of different services concurrent with an increasing penal response. But above all, the results of this examination illustrate the growing diversity of types of delinquency and of juridical and institutional paths that may be taken. The most common case is that of delinquent minors who go through the judicial system once and do not re-offend. On the contrary, cases of delinquent minors who commit the most serious crimes or are « repeat offenders » are more rare. All these cases call for specific treatments carried out in accordance with the characteristics of the minors in question and the underlying psychological dynamic of the actions and their consequences.
Adolescence, 2013, 30, 4, 843-855.