The Effective Youth Court is purpose-made for professionals and academics working in the field of juvenile justice to inform them about a new interdisciplinary perspective. The book explores the way juvenile defendants are involved in the courtroom. The leading idea of the book is that a combination of two perspectives is required to be able to react legally correct and adequately to youth delinquency. Knowledge of the legal framework that has been developed in the past decades in the area of human rights, particularly the procedural rights of the child, has to be enriched with social scientific insights in the development and treatment of the child. First, the book develops a normative framework for the application of the right to be heard in the youth court. Then it offers a comparative analysis of the actual practice of participation of juvenile defendants in Europe. In total 50 youth courts have been visited, involving more than 3000 cases of juvenile defendants. Finally, best practices in the youth court procedure are designated regarding the actual participation of juvenile defendants. [Subject: Sociology, Criminology, Criminal Justice, Social Work, Youth Studies, Human Rights, European Studies]