The urgent need to correct inequities and shortsighted rural justice practices, i.e., juvenile delinquency problems, makes it crucial that available resources be used wisely and that careful choices be made among the viable alternatives. Twelve basic economic concepts can be helpful in providing a framework or diagnostic perspective that can be utilized by legislators, administrators, advisory board members, advocacy groups, program workers or volunteers, and professional analysts when planning actions and weighing alternatives related to the area of rural justice. The concepts include diminishing added returns, opportunity cost, complementary relationships, input substitution, size economies, locational considerations, comparative advantage, fixed variable costs, direct and indirect effects, the time value of costs and benefits, risk considerations, and efficiency vs. equity and freedom. After applying appropriate concepts, key decisions should be made by: pinpointing the problem or the direction in which to move; diagnosing the reasons why the problem persists or why more progress is not being made; identifying the viable alternatives for aleviating the situation and predicting the likely results of each; and after weighing the alternatives, deciding what to do, using appropriate criteria. The underlying task environment and how it affects ideologies, values, ethics, and concepts of justic must also be considered in the decision making process. (NEC)