IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD II

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Abstract
This article analyzes interactional strategies used by a probation officer to secure the acquiescence of a delinquent youth in a quasi-voluntary placement. These strategies offered the juvenile a relatively positive self-concept by providing more benign, positive definitions of placement than those typically provided early in the career of probationers when institutions and placement are depicted in extremely negative terms to induce cooperation with the probationary program. Yet in the actual use of these strategies, the probation officer had to balance two conflicting pressures. On the one hand, he had to undermine the youth's attempts to defend the credibility of an in-home alternative to placement; on the other hand, he had to both avoid direct assault on the youth's moral character and generate at least a minimal degree of cooperation in the project.

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