These 1976 essays are based on the conceptual premise that the family as the basic societal unit is an institution in transition, undergoing often traumatic changes in interpersonal relations, values, and male and female roles. The family can no longer be ignored in criminological investigations into the causes of young people's alienation and deviance. Individual behavior must be studied within the familial context and within the larger context of society as a whole. Marginal and socially handicapped children are the product of marginal and socially handicapped families. The papers contained in this collection address the issue of marginal families from many different viewpoints, with special emphasis on the problems of foreign workers -- such as North African immigrants in France -- transplanted into an alien society which confronts them with conflicting sociocultural choices. Contributing essays are grouped into four main sections. The first group is written with a historical-sociological approach and the second from the perspective of social workers and social control agents with class backgrounds and values different from those of their clients. Papers grouped under family therapy at juvenile delinquency and marginality within a specific family structure in order to devise appropriate social intervention modes. The concluding section adopts the more traditional legal and correctional viewpoint. Essays analyze the contradictions and necessary adjustments inherent in the application of laws and socio-educational interventions in the domestic relations of marginal families. Individual bibliographies are appended to some of the papers. No summaries or index are provided. For individual papers, see NCJ 73911-27.