ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book focuses on agents and agencies of delinquency control, and on the relation between the offender and those who work with him. It addresses the following questions. What are the general characteristics of these processing agencies and systems? What findings about their operation seem to cut across the unique problems of each setting and have meaning for the broader issues facing all of them? The book suggests the important dimensions of variation likely to characterize the different organizations. Put differently, the common mold suggested by patterns of vocational and professional training is not enough, at least in most settings, to override the sources of diversity likely to give each agency a different cast or slant than others. The range of variation may indeed be finite, and the sources of the differences systematic rather than random, but the fact of variation remains.
