Book Review: Crime in a Changing Society
| Date | 01 June 1971 |
| Author | Lynne Foreman |
| Published date | 01 June 1971 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587100400213 |
124 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (June, 1971): 4, 2
DIANA
DAVIS,
Faculty
of Education,
Monash University.
others, especially
when
cosy ridicule
rather
than
hard
contradictory
evidence is
their
modus
operandi.
By
way
of this scape-goatinz procedure,
Rosenberg
and
Silverstein introduce us to
their "scientific inquiry", of which
the
re-
mainder of
the
book is a record. In
essence,
they
explore the
concept
of
what
they
term
the
"culture
of
poverty"
and
its
relevance to delinquency. They
are
con-
cerned to find
out
whether
there
are
strategic
cultural
differences
between
groups
characterized
by similar economic
circumstances,
and
whether
these
play
a
significant role in determining delinquency.
To this end
they
look
at
patterns
of delin-
quency, especially with
regard
to
the
crime-critical
areas
of sex, violence
and
theft, and
the
relevance of anomie
to
both
the morals
and
aspirations of
their
'sub-
jects.
Although
only
10
per
cent
of Rosenberg
and
Silverstein's 133 subjects
were
delin-
quent
-
at
least
in terms of official
stat-
istics -
these
authors
found
that
"more
than
95
per
cent
had committed
at
least
one delinquent
act".
The subjects of
the
study
came from
three
residential
areas
which
were
chosen on the basis of loca-
tion and ethnic concentration.
Within
each
city
the
authors
studied
"social
blocks", since this unit, according to
these
authors'
claims,
has
the
advantage
that
it
"focusses
attention
on a small, populous,
constricted, lively
and
rather
mysterious
area".
Despite
the
stringent
theoretical frame-
work implied in
their
first chapter,
the
authors
provide
very
little methodological
data. The
data
for
the
study
derived
from "relatively
unstructured,
informal in-
terviews"
conducted
"in
tandem"
and, like
most
material
with
aheavily individual
and
anecdotal basis, it is often intrinsically
interesting. Basically it is used to demon-
strate
the invalidity of the commonly held
notion of
the
"culture
of poverty". In
fact,
"cross-cultural
variations
among
the
poor
are
marked
. . .
not
only in delin-
quency
patterns,
but
in
many
other
social
activities as well". They assert, as a
correlate of this,
that
delinquency
and
de-
viance
are
not
specially
characteristic
of
anyone
class.
Although
the
authors
claim
that
their
book provides achallenge to stereotypic
views of delinquency,
many
of which
they
actively seek to discredit,
their
challenge
seems an essentially limited
one
heralded
by big
cannons
but,
with
the
low-powered
artillery of
their
own
research,
the
on-
slaught
falters and, in the end,
there
seems
to be
very
little with which to
put
it all
together
again. -
With
a
far
more
modest
approach
to
his
subject,
Peter
Boss offers a useful
account
of social policy
and
the
way
its evolution
has affected
the
young
delinquent. Com-
pared
with
the
elaborate
theoretical pere-
grinations of Rosenberg and Silverstein,
Boss's work is nicely unpretentious. He
defines delinquency for
the
purposes of
his
text
without
any
of
the
self-
consciousness which
attends
this exercise
in
many
books. This functional
approach
characterizes
the
whole book, in which
Boss
traces
the
development of social
policy concerning
the
young offender from
the days
when
the
child
was
considered
equal with the
adult
before the law
and
was therefore
subject
to
the
same
punish-
ments - even to
the
extent
that
it
"was
by no
means
considered
unreasonable
that
children should be sentenced to death,
transportation
or imprisonment" - to
the
present
orientation which is, happily, more
concerned
with
the
promotion of
the
indi-
vidual child's
welfare
than
with
the
quid
pro
quo
punishment
of crime. Now
the
emphasis is increasingly on the individual
delinquent,
not
in seclusion or isolation,
but
in
the
context
in
which
his behaviour
originally deviated - in
the
home,
the
neighbourhood
and
the
school.
Boss's book is
remarkable
for its
clarity
of purpose and for
the
objectivity of its
description of
the
various influences
operating on policy-making decisions. He
discusses, for example, the movement
away
from juvenile
courts
as such
and
the
proposals to initiate asystem of "family
councils" facilitating the prescription of
t.reatment for
the
young offender which
would
best
suit his
particular
context.
Yet
he is also able to
present
the opposition
case,
the
case for
the
retention of
the
courts of justice. His
language
is restrained,
his appproach sensible; in all,
the
book,
although it is
perhaps
limited in its aims,
and
in the
depth
at
which these
are
ex-
plored;
and
despite
the
fact
that
it is, in a
sense, an
outdated
publication in a con-
stantly
evolving field, it
can
be recom-
mended for
the
balance
and
lucidity of its
approach.
Crime
in a
Changing
Society, Jones, H.,
Pelican 20692, 1969, Revised edition, 163
pp. $0.70.
DR. JONES
has
done
what
few
others
have, attempted. He
has
written
aconcise
book in simple
language
on
the
subject of
the
causes
and
treatment
of criminal
behaviour.
The purpose of
the
book is to introduce
the
intelligent
lay
reader
to
the
science of
criminology. However, Iconsider
that
it
has a
wider
appeal, for
both
the
profes-
sional criminologist and
student
will find
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