The individual case provides an adequate unit of analysis for social control decisionmaking only if social control agents themselves examine and dispose of cases as discrete units, treating each on its own merits independent of the properties and organizational implications of other cases. The central thesis of this study is that under a variety of circumstances, the individual case is not the sole or even the most important unit for categorizing and disposing of cases. Particular cases are processed in ways that take into account the implications of other cases for the one under consideration and vice versa. These wider, holistic concerns are an important organizationally based factor shaping decision outcomes. For social control agents handling a stream of cases, cases may be handled against the background of case classifications established by organizational policy or practice. Further, many control agents, notably probation and parole officers, organized their work around caseloads. In this context, the focus of much routine decisionmaking is not so much the individual case as the larger set of cases for which they are administratively responsible. Any given case must be assessed in relation to the competing demands of other cases in the caseload. Also, the fact that a particular case is the first of a known or anticipated sequence of cases can have major implications for how it is handled. Forty-six references and 14 footnotes are provided.