Book Review: Crimes of Violence by Mentally Abnormal Offenders
| Author | Susan Hayes |
| Published date | 01 June 1984 |
| Date | 01 June 1984 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486588401700213 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS 127
The book will no doubt be examined by those in charge of policy in South
Australia. Such idiocies must be brought to their attention. There is no need to
debate the issues at length. A short paragraph would suffice. But having produced
a sound work which will reach the attention of those with the power to recommend
or produce change, this reviewer thinks that the author has some responsibility to
highlight egregious error.
This book represents some valuable work. There is no doubt that social workers,
police, lawyers, teachers and the public will profit from reading it. The criticisms
advanced in this review should not detract from the force of that overall assessment.
MATIHEW
GOODE
Adelaide
Crimes of Violence by Mentally Abnormal Offenders, H Hafner and W Boker,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1982) xvi +384 pp, $52.
This book is essentially adetailed description of a comprehensive epidemiological
study of all mentally abnormal offenders who committed violent crimes in Federal
German Republic between 1January 1955 and 21 December 1964. Whilst this
might imply that it covers a narrow ambit, in fact, because of the painstaking efforts
which the researchers made to avoid the methodological pitfalls of many previous
studies (described in Chapter 2) and because of the interesting and varied
comparisons of mentally abnormal violent offenders with other relevant samples of
criminals, patients, and typical people (Chapters 4-8), the book becomes abrilliant
manual of research design in the field.
There is a particularly interesting section (Chapter 8) describing the mentally
abnormal offender's subjective perspective of the crime, and the relationship (real
and delusional) with the victim. Relevant and well-summarized case studies serve
to illustrate important points. Some fascinating cross-cultural comparisons emerge,
for example, differences in motivation of murderers in the USA and the
FGR.
Other
good points include an excellent bibliography containing awealth of
European data which would normally not be available in UK or North American
sources; inclusion of data sheets in the appendix, enabling clear interpretation of
this study and the opportunity for replication and follow-up study; a chapter
(Chapter 9) reporting qualitative analysis of small diagnostic groups, which
provides valuable background for researchers interested in a specific subgroup; and
asummary of indications of increased risk of violence for various diagnostic
categories.
Adrawback is that
the
study and literature review are now over 10 years old
(although first published in German in 1973). The layout and printing are not well
done, and
the
labelling of tables is sometimes difficult to interpret. Some terms (eg,
"mental defective") are unclear, while others seem not to be directly transferable
to the English-speaking world. Differences between German and British-style legal
systems make some of the data difficult to interpret ·and apply here.
The book makes an important contribution, in terms of the wealth of detail it
provides, the myths which are de-bunked, and the move away from impressionistic
psychiatric case histories towards carefully controlled and documented
epidemiological research.
SUSAN
HAYES
Sydney
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