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Policy Is One Thing - Implementation Is Another - A Comparison of Community Agencies in a Juvenile Justice Referral Network

NCJ Number
86693
Journal
American Journal of Community Psychology Volume: 9 Issue: 5 Dated: (1981) Pages: 581-604
Author(s)
S J Frank; D M Atkins
Date Published
1981
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Directors of 38 agencies in a suburban county receiving adolescent referrals from police and court officials participated in a 2 1/2-hour interview.
Abstract
A typology based on agency goals better accounted for program and organizational differences than one based on directors' assumptions about the etiology of juvenile delinquency. Overall, agencies with social systems level goals more actively pursued youth development/youth advocacy strategies than agencies with goals based on individual of family/group level of analysis. The findings suggested ways in which agency goals may be related to power and exchange of resources in the interorganizational field. (Author abstract)