The analysis compared these centers, which were developed in 1976 and 1984 and house all the agencies involved in juvenile justice under one roof, to the conventional juvenile processing system. The research used data on nondetained referrals, excluding juvenile status offenses and traffic violations, from July through September 1991. The final sample consisted of 364 arrest intakes with nondetained petitions and 361 cases from the two area offices. To evaluate recidivism, all 550 terminated cases from the two justice centers for the fiscal year from July 1989 and June 1990 were studied. Results revealed that the unified structure was far more efficient than the conventional system of separate agencies handling different stages of the processing of juvenile referrals. However, the emphasis on judicial continuity and closer supervision, brought about by the centralization, did not reduce juvenile recidivism. Findings support the idea that the entire juvenile justice system should adopt the juvenile justice center model to increase its efficiency. However, coordinated efforts were not more effective than the conventional system in suppressing subsequent juvenile delinquency. Thus, efficiency and effectiveness are two separate concepts. Tables, notes, and 11 references (Author abstract modified)