Book Review: Australians at Risk
| Author | Jocelynne A Scutt |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587901200210 |
| Published date | 01 June 1979 |
| Date | 01 June 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
58
BOOK
REVIEWS
ANZJ Crim (1979) 12
Australians at Risk, Anne Deveson. Cassell Australia
Ltd
(1978) 446
pp,
$5.95.
The
history of the Royal Commission into
Human
Relationships is
best
described
as "turbulent".
The
reception of its final report, a five
volume
document
containing 511 recommendations,
was
in
the
words
of Anne Deveson,
one
of the Commissioners, "like aVictorian melodrama".
Condemned
as
"appalling", a"horror
document"
by
members
of the
Government
who
acknowledged
not having
read
it, the
Report
appeared
to
be
destined for
rapid
despatch
to the archives.
Today,
more
than
one
year
since its release,
the
Federal
government
is
considering various sections of
the
Report
with
a
view
to implementation.
The
publication of Australians at Risk, placing as it does
the
recommendations of
the
Commission, evidence given to the Commission,
and
commentary
on various
portions of the material
covered
by
the Commission, in a
more
wieldy, less
costly
one
volume, hopefully,
may
inspire
the
public
to
demand
that
more
attention
be
paid
to
the
findings of
the
Commission in toto.
Indeed,
persons
conducting
courses in criminology
and
sociology
may
assist in this
hope
by
prescribing Australians at Risk for their students.
The
Royal Commission
dealt
with avery
broad
range
of topics.
Those
chosen
by
Anne Deveson for inclusion in
her
book
are
of particular
concern
for
the
contemporary
criminologist.
Part
one deals
with
changing
male/female
roles
and
the
basic social structure within which those roles
are
perpetuated:
the
family; it
covers the types of
crime
which
appear
inevitably to arise out of
the
roles
and
the
structure: spouse assault, child abuse, rape.
Part
two
covers sexuality - or
ignorance of sexuality -
and
sociological
and
criminological implications arising
from
this
important
aspect
of
human
living;
contraception
and
abortion. In
part
three
four major areas of discrimination
are
dealt
with: black Australians,
homosexuals, migrants
and
the
handicapped;
each
of these groups has, at
one
time
or another,
been
subjected
to traditional criminological theorising.
Certainly the
book
may
be
criticized on several levels. On technical grounds,
the
large
number
of
typographical
errors
appearing
between
the
covers of
Australians at Risk
demands
comment;
also, a subject index
would
have
been
helpful.
On
substantive grounds, there is
both
alack of critical analysis of
evidence
given to the Commission
and
afailure to indicate the basis
upon
which
evidence
was selected for inclusion: is it representative of the views
put
to
the
enquiry? What
percentage
of evidence is
published
in the
book
as
compared
with
that submitted to
the
enquiry?
Yet it
would
be
unfortunate
were
these criticisms seen as warranting exclusion
of Australians at Risk
from
the
curriculum. As a
compendium
of Australian views
on
the
current state of
antipodean
society,
the
volume
could
promote
in students
a
new
perspective on
customary
views of
crime
and
its causes.
Indeed,
in
perusing evidence such as
that
of anthropologist
Dorothy
Parker
on
black
Australians
and
criminality in Western Australia:
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