"People in neighborhoods like Harlem are so terrified of young criminals that normal, everyday transactions--like crossing the street or selling goods--have become fraught with fear," says Associate Editor Edwin Warner, who wrote this week's cover story on the growing American scourge of juvenile crime. The article profiles a new breed of delinquent--youngsters who casually commit murder, rape, assault and arson. It discusses the reasons for their delinquency, and describes the floundering juvenile justice system that must deal with them.

Warner has had more than his share of run-ins with young criminals. Active in his Manhattan block association, he has intervened in numerous street crimes and has then gone to testify in court. He once helped pursue four youths who had jumped a man in Riverside Park, and was commended by the grand jury for his assistance. For the cover story, Warner spent a night in Harlem, accompanying New York Homicide Detective Jim Wilson on his beat.

Thirteen correspondents in seven bureaus worked on the story, along with Reporter-Researchers Anita Addison and Edward Adler. They interviewed youths and their victims, police and judges, sociologists and social workers. The young offenders were often happy to discuss their records; one youngster even posed for photos. The juvenile court justices, wary of confidentiality statutes, were more reluctant, but finally let some of our correspondents visit their courtrooms.

While TIME'S cover art has changed dramatically over the years, the cover design has remained essentially the same since 1927, when we adopted the famous red border. But there have been occasional alterations in the TIME "logo" and in the way we bill our cover story. Again this week we introduce a somewhat streamlined cover format. More often in recent years, we have wanted to announce to our readers an important second feature. In the shop parlance here at TIME, this is known as an "inside cover." To bill this feature consistently! clearly and (we hope) attractively, we have devised the flap in the upper right-hand corner of this week's cover. Another new element is not a matter of design: the symbol in the lower left-hand corner is a universal product code that will help TIME'S distributors keep track by computer of their volume of sales.

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