This paper presents a two-part study first undertaken in a juvenile detention facility in the Northeast in order to assess the need for programs to increase self-esteem within the facility. In the first part of the study, a self esteem inventory was administered to incarcerated males aged 14-19. In the second part, the inventory was administered to a comparison sample of youth attending high school in three communities. Scores of this sample were compared with scores from 202 members of the same three ethnic groups (Caucasians, Latinos, African Americans) at the detention center, for a total of 399 participants. Findings suggest that there was no evidence to indicate that male juvenile delinquents suffer from low self-esteem, and neither was there evidence to indicate that they suffer from high self-esteem. They report that a comparison of self-esteem scores of incarcerated male juveniles with their nondelinquent counterparts suggest that there is an interaction between ethnicity and incarceration. Overall, results suggest that a single approach to raising (or lowering) self esteem among male juvenile delinquents of any ethnicity is ill-advised. (Contains 20 figures, 8 tables, and 14 references.) (JDM)