STREET-LEVEL DECISION-MAKING IN ELDER MISTREATMENT POLICY - AN EMPIRICAL CASE-STUDY OF SERVICE RATIONING

Objective. This study examines street-level decision making in the eld er mistreatment policy area. Four types of social workers' decisions a re investigated with regard to the importance of degree of discretion permitted, case load, and level of resources. Methods. This research a nalyzes individual allegations of elder mistreatment collected during 1987-88 by Alabama counties. The four types of decisions are modeled u sing logistic regression. Results. The findings suggest that movement from gatekeeping ''compliance'' decisions to substantive ''regulatory/ distributive'' decisions produces greater rationing of services of the sort predicted by Lipsky. Also evident were racial differences in the filtering of allegations and the level of intervention. Unexpectedly, low case loads produced more cue-taking behavior than high. Conclusio ns. These findings reinforce the importance of decision context in the explanation of street-level decision making. The results will be of i nterest to researchers in street-level cue-taking behavior and issues of equity in service delivery.