36th International course on criminology

Date01 December 1985
DOI10.1177/000486588501800411
Published date01 December 1985
288
BOOK
REVIEWS (1985) 18
ANZJ
Crim
criminological researchers: to what extent official statistics accurately reflect true
crime rates or represent police practices. In an extensive field study of three British
regions, involving a crime victimization survey and study of official police records,
they are able to quantify the contribution of real trends versus reporting bias in each
area. Joan McCord's brief contribution deals with another major issue: whether
court sanctions have a deterrent or a labelling effect on juveniles. The results, based
on a longitudinal analysis of the famous earlier study, do not support either major
theory, but unfortunately, no comprehensive theoretical explanation is proposed to
account for these findings.
Ross and Sales provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of clinical training
programmes in the United States. However, both the general issue and the specific
content of this chapter have little relevance to the Australian reader. An excellent
review of the effects of prison crowding on prisoner behaviour is given by Paulus,
McCain and Cox. This article summarizes a number of high quality policy relevant
research projects and will be of particular interest to penologists and correctional
staff.
Farrington and Gunn state that the aim of the series is to report the results of
"substantial programmes of empirical research", together with literature reviews
and theoretical articles dealing with the contribution of psychiatry and psychology
to all aspects of crime and offenders. The current volume certainly fulfills this aim
by providing some excellent topical articles on awide range of issues. Some readers
may question why the material is published in this format, rather than appearing as
standard journal content. Farrington and Gunn claim that the series is designed to
complement rather than compete, by presenting lengthier articles and theoretical
contributions which are often longstanding. This may be more a criticism of the
current volume than of the series as a whole, as it provides a more heterogenous
collection of articles than is implied by the themes of the other two books in the
series.
The Australian reader may benefit less from this than the European or American
counterpart, since some of the articles deal with issues specific to that country, and
some are oriented towards local content. However, there is certainly enough to
stimulate and inform both criminologists and researchers in related fields.
Melbourne
MONlKA
HENDERSON
36th INTERNATIONAL COURSE ON CRIMINOLOGY
Sponsored by the International Society for Criminology, the 36th International
Course on Criminology will be held in Tubingen, Federal Republic of Germany
from 1-6 September 1986.
Subject:
APPLIED
CRIMINOLOGY
For further information contact Professor Dr H Goppinger, Direktor des Instituts
fur Kriminologie der Universitat, Tubingen Corrensstr 34, D-7400 Tubingen 1
Federal Republic of Germany.

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