Status offenses are non‐criminal infractions that are offenses simply because of the offender's age. In the United States, where the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) of 1974 created guidelines on how to process youths for their non‐criminal behavior, status offenses still largely fall under the purview of the juvenile justice system. States typically can take three approaches to dealing with status offenders: treatment, deterrence, or normalization. Current research is sharply divided as to whether the deterrence or normalization approach is best.