The object of the conference was to promote the exchange of information between research groups participating in the research program of the General Delegation for Scientific and Technical Research, to present ideas developed by the research program to French colleagues, and to clarify difficulties encountered. Participants were French researchers and academics mainly from the fields of criminology and sociology. Papers related to the effectiveness of a Parisian center for difficult juvenile delinquents; liberal views of individuals who deal with delinquents in institutions (e.g., doctors, psychologists); types, frequency, and procedures of police intervention in disturbances of public order; attitudes of the French public toward deviance; theoretical considerations concerning referrals; and reflections on the relationship of deviance to power and society. Also covered are the nature of the major types of group therapies for treating deviant behavior (i.e., Balint groups and encounter groups); the operating procedures and political structure of Les Eglantines, a residential rehabilitation center for juveniles; public attitudes toward deviance as determined by subjects' place of residence and methodological observations on determining attitudes; the course of crime in Montpellier during the 19th and 20th centuries; and the meaning of formal and informal social control. The syntheses of group discussions pertain to specialized social control institutions and contradictions among them; control practices and everyday regulation; and the complexities of the referral system for delinquents. Notes, tables, and bibliographies are supplied for a number of the papers. For individual conference papers, see NCJ 72424-28.