Book Review: Complexity in the Law and Structure of Welfare
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
| Author | Michael Adler |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663914538583a |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
attention of any researcher who has engaged in work examining the trajectory and treat-
ment of allegations of lone perpetrator rape in the courts. Its findings suggest a higher
rate of conviction in multiple perpetrator rapes (or at least in those that make it to trial)
than applies in relation to lone perpetrator allegations, but there is little evidence of this
translating into an increased penalty for group assailants when it comes to judicial
sentencing.
There is much to commend in this book – its range of contributors, its efforts at multi-
disciplinary engagement, its call to attend to an area of social and sexual politics that as
yet has attracted remarkably little scholarly attention, and in particular, its clear-sighted
and honest appraisal of what is known, what can be hypothesized and what as yet can
barely be contemplated. This is a book that poses questions – often difficult and uncom-
fortable ones – far more than it provides answers, but it is by no means less valuable for
it. As a reader who has spent over a decade reflecting on the topic of rape, it subtly – and
quite rightly – cautioned me for a tendency to focus on the lone perpetrator as the para-
digm and provoked a keener interest in what we might learn about sexual violence, crim-
inal justice policy, concepts of responsibility, patterns of socialization and
normalization, and constructs of masculinity, gender and sexuality by focussing directly
on multiple perpetrator rape.
VANESSA E MUNRO
University of Nottingham, UK
Reference
Horvath MA and Kelly L (2009) Multiple Perpetrator Rape: Naming an Offence and Initial
Research Findings. Journal of Sexual Aggression 15: 83–96.
NEVILLE HARRIS, Complexity in the Law and Structure of Welfare. Oxford/Portland: Hart Publishing,
2013, xxxiv þ275 pp., ISBN 9781849464451, £25 (pbk).
I looked forward to reading Neville Harris’ latest book on social security law, both
because he is the doyen of social security lawyers in the United Kingdom and because
of the high regard in which his published work, much of it written from a ‘law in context’
perspective, is held in the sociolegal community. This book sets out to explore the com-
plexity inherent, on the one hand, in social security policy and, on the other, in social
security law. It covers both these topics, considers the complexity associated with
detailed rules, with applying for benefit, with challenging benefit decisions and with
fulfilling the obligations placed on those in receipt of benefit as social security
becomes more and more conditional. It takes some brief sideways looks at social secu-
rity in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Sweden, but the major focus of the book
is on social security in the United Kingdom. It is also on the present rather than the
past. Thus, it does not question whether, and if so why, social security policy and social
security law in the United Kingdom is more or less complex than in comparator
Book Reviews 471
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