Book review: Asperger’s Syndrome and Jail: A Survival Guide
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Iain Dickie |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550519881914b |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
alternatives to short prison sentences and to limit the reliance on imprisonment for
fine default, questions relating to the practical use of fines must be examined, such
as the study of the wealth of the individual being fined or granting homeless people
the chance to work in order to pay fines, thus limiting default imprisonment to people
who do not want to pay.
Faraldo’s monograph is an important contribution to literature on punishment.
Fines, the most common form of punishment, have been largely underresearched,
perhaps because the spectacular growth of imprisonment coincided with the
decades in which punishment and society literature became more established
(on the other hand, traditionally, philosophers of punishment did pay attention to the
fine, as Faraldo illustrates). As the book shows, there is a close relationship between
fines and imprisonment, and further research in this area is needed. For example,
the author seems to suggest that the fine is the main form of punishment – the norm –
according to quantitative data. However, if we focus on the symbolic and cultural
dimension of punishment, and in particular of prison, it is hard not to see prison as
‘the norm’, against which the rest of punishments are compared; it is after all the
material guarantee that those who can pay the fine will prefer to do so (even though
the author shows that Sweden has a system that does not rely on imprisonment for
fine default).
Without a doubt, this book will be well received by anglophone and European
audiences, as it is one of the most relevant recent contributions to penological lit-
erature about fines. The book manages to critically review what the leading authors
say, but using data from a range of countries by virtue of moving beyond the
anglophone context. In this respect, we celebrate Patricia Faraldo’s efforts to make
a great number of relevant contributions accessible to anglophone audiences,
which are often ignored because they are not available in English.
Asperger’s Syndrome and Jail: A Survival Guide
Will Attwood
Jessica Kingsley; 2018, 20 pp. 304; £17.99, pbk
ISBN: 9781785923715
Reviewed by: Iain Dickie, Lecturer, University of Cumbria, UK
Will Attwood’s book, Asperger’s Syndrome and Jail: A Survival Guide, offers an
important lived perspective on the challenges that an individual prisoner who
identifies as being on the autism spectrum could potentially face in attempting to
navigate a prison or custodial setting. Although the book’s title makes specific
reference to Asperger’s syndrome in reference to the author’s own diagnosis and
personal experience, reference is made throughout the book to autism spectrum
disorder. This rightly recognises Asperger’s syndrome as a diagnostic condition that
is part of a wider umbrella of conditions comprising the new diagnostic criteria of
autism (APA, 2013).
Book reviews 471
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