In the case of juvenile offenders, the arguments in favour of the indeterminate sentence are even more powerful than in the case of adults. The aim of imprisonment is to exercise an educative influence upon the child, and it is impossible to determine beforehand how long a time will be required to complete the necessary education. The indispensable foundation of every sound penal system for juvenile criminals is the institution of the indeterminate sentence. We find, in fact, that in the United States of America the reformatory system is inseparably associated with the indeterminate sentence; and in many European countries, when a child is sent to a reformatory, no definite term is specified beforehand. _Should Punishment be Rendered more Severe._--The classical legal system is defective. But to many it appears that its present failures depend upon the excessive mitigation of punishment; such persons contend that we can expect a diminution of crime only if we render punishments more severe. Many even demand the reintroduction of corporal punishment. More severe sentences are indispensable in the case of the habitual criminal; but in the case of occasional criminals and juvenile criminals, no good results are to be expected from any such measure. _The Coercive Reformatory Education of Youthful Criminals._--The coercive reformatory education of youthful criminals has in essentials the same character as the compulsory education enforced by the ordinary processes of the civil law. Its central idea is the following. The child which for one reason or another stands in need of a coercive reformatory education, whether that need is manifested by the commission of some punishable offence or in any other way, and whether the need arises in consequence of neglect on the part of the child’s parents or in consequence of that of some other person or persons, must receive the education it needs. The child that requires a coercive reformatory education because it has committed a punishable offence does not differ in any important respects from a child which has not committed any such offence, but is in a state of neglect. The latter child also should be subjected to a coercive reformatory education; on no account should we wait until it has committed a punishable offence, and has in this way manifested its neglected state in a manner that cannot be overlooked. Besides, neglected children and juvenile criminals belong to the same class of society, and in the case of both the need for a coercive reformatory education arises out of like conditions. Thus, the question of the coercive reformatory education of juvenile criminals is not one appertaining merely to the province of criminal law, but, in conjunction with the question of the coercive reformatory education of neglected children, it is also a matter of civil law and local administrative activity. The care of youthful criminals is, in the