Book Review: Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior: Social Structure and Corporate Misconduct
| DOI | 10.1177/000486588401700409 |
| Author | John Braithwaite |
| Date | 01 December 1984 |
| Published date | 01 December 1984 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
AUST &
NZ
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY (December
1984)
17
(277-287)
BOOK REVIEWS
277
Public Order and the Law. Andrew Hiller, Law Book Co, Sydney (1983)
xx,
230
pp, $29.50 (hardcover), $19.50 (papercover).
This book,
as
its title presages, covers awide area of law. Part 1, consisting of
63
pages, deals with processions and public assemblies. Part 2, consisting of
25
pages,
deals with unlawful assemblies and riots. Part 3, consisting of
62
pages, deals with
avariety of related police offences, such
as
offensive and disorderly behaviour,
obstructing traffic, and assaulting, resisting and obstructing police. Part
4,
consisting of
20
pages, deals with recent legislation in the area ofthreats ofviolence,
firearms and dangerous weapons, the
25
pages of Part 5deal with Commonwealth
legislation
in
the area of the protection of diplomats and the protection of aircraft,
and the final
13
pages comprise Part 6dealing with military aid to the civil power.
It
is
apparent from published correspondence [(1984) 8Crim LJ
128]
that the law
is stated, at least in some areas, at some date in early
1981.
It
is
difficult to discern the purpose of the book. The preface points out that the
issues involved are timely and important, and so they are, but the fundamental
issues rarely surface above the bare account ofthe law. That account
is
particularly
sparse; the bibliography and table ofcases are miniscule, and so the book
is
unlikely
to be useful to the researcher, the student, or the teacher. The preface mentions
that the book was partly inspired
by
aUnited States Law Enforcement Handbook,
and so one might conjecture that it
is
aimed at non-lawyers such
as
the police. Ifso,
this reviewer would remark that the police officer
will
find this auseful source for
an account of statutory provisions, and little else.
But that has its own dangers, for Iwould prefer
my
hypothetical police officer to
be well-informed beyond knowing what statutory provisions exist and what they
say. Iwould ask that the police officer have anodding acquaintance with Brennan's
excellent Too Much Order With Too Little
Law
(1983), Brownlie's standard text
The
Law
Relating To Public Order (1968) (not, incidentally, referred to), and/or its
second edition published in (1981), the standard Campbell and Whitmore, Freedom
In Australia (1973) (not mentioned) and the consideration of police offences by the
Mitchell Committee in its second and fourth reports (not mentioned either). If I
wanted to know about emergency powers and military aid to the civil power, I
would start with Lee, Emergency Powers (1984).
The text contains its own weaknesses and problems, but it would serve no useful
purpose to pursue them, for this reviewer cannot find it
in
his heart to recommend
the book at all.
MATTHEW
GOODE
Adelaide
Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior: Social Structure and Corporate
Misconduct. Diane Vaughan, University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1983)
174
pp, $USI8 (hardcover).
Vaughan's Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior
is
one of the
10
best
books ever written onwhite-collar crime. Notwithstanding this scholarly excellence,
its major conclusion
is
extreme, and, Ithink, wrong.
"Picture aroom filled with grey metal desks." With this opening sentence
Vaughan grips the reader's attention and holds it throughout amost provocative
analysis. The core of the book
is
acase study of the Revco Medicaid fraud in Ohio
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