The emphasis of social work has shifted from postventive curing to preventive avoidance of delinquency. This preventive orientation should be tied to a reevaluation of the traditional relation between control and support. Social work must at once refer to processes of social change, and ensure adequate access to the different conditions of the clients' lives. The reversion to traditional forms of individual case handling in the interaction with clients is an expression of professional uncertainty and an increasing variety of norms and values. Greater professionalization of social workers is required to assess adolescents' potential for personality development and integration into society and the concepts of normality toward which to orientate their services. In turn, institutional procedures should be modified to make better use of social workers' knowledge. 75 references.