ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the attitudes of police and probation officers toward a variety of policy questions that commonly arise in the process of controlling delinquency. The results indicate that precious little agreement exists between these two important groups on the procedures that should be used when processing juvenile offenders through the control system. The chapter suggests that the system of delinquency control may be disorganized to a point where it is operating at a considerably less-than-optimal level. It focuses on the way in which police and probation officers define their own and each other's roles. The chapter assesses the opinions of the two groups with respect to police juvenile procedures. Probation departments have also moved in the past quarter-century away from a simple surveillance function and have taken over major responsibilities for the treatment and rehabilitation of offenders. Thus, as suggested earlier, these changing role definitions have resulted in problems related to the integration and coordination of delinquency control efforts.
