THE RETURN TO FAMILY INTERVENTION IN YOUTH SERVICES - A JUVENILE JUSTICE CASE-STUDY

After more than a decade of relative neglect, youth services policymak ers in the late 1980s began targeting the family as a primary focus of intervention in the response to a range of deviant behavior. One rece nt example of this return to family intervention has been a renewed em phasis on family services in juvenile courts and juvenile justice agen cies. This case study describes one attempt to implement a new ''famil y-focused'' intervention approach as part of a larger return to treatm ent-oriented probation services in an urban juvenile justice system. B ased on interviews and participant observation data gathered during a nine month field study in a Florida county, this paper describes ideol ogical resistance, role conflict, and the informal adaptations of deli nquency case managers in response to the new demands of this agenda. I mplications for implementation of such policies in juvenile justice an d other social service organizations, as well as conceptual questions about the logic and efficacy of the family focus policy itself, are di scussed.