Recent statements by social scientists and legal professionals have pointed to the need for a general research framework within which discretionary practices in the juvenile justice system can be empirically described and evaluated. The present article proposes social judgment theory as one framework suitable for addressing these issues. (Author)

Assessed the attitudes of parents regarding nurturance and self-determination rights for juveniles. Nurturance rights for juveniles were strongly endorsed. Most parents did not believe that juvenile suspects should be allowed to withhold information from police. Results question parents' abilities to provide meaningful protections for juveniles in…

Tested the degree of association between probation officers' sent and received roles and role behavior in four juvenile courts. Found the role communicated to probation officers by their superiors was predictive of the role the probation officers perceived but not of the role as enacted with juveniles. (Author)