Book Review: Juvenile Justice in South Australia
| DOI | 10.1177/000486588401700212 |
| Published date | 01 June 1984 |
| Date | 01 June 1984 |
| Author | Matthew Goode |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS 125
location of police employee organizations within the wider union movement. And
this reader would have liked a more critical assessment of the ideological sources
of police union philosophies and operations, and the consequences ofvarious union
positions on criminal justice functioning. While it is necessary to underpin these
understandings with a detailed analysis of structures, strategies and settlements,
questions need to be answered about the nature of the union role in the conduct of
social order. That Protecting the Protectors does not undertake such a task is not
really meant as a criticism. Swanton's important work has fleshed out the bones of
Australian police unionism, and will teach us much about how the police protect
themselves. Hopefully, the "second generation" of police union scholarship will
teach us more about the meaning that protection has for the functioning of social
order.
STEVE
JAMES
Melbourne
Juvenile Justice in South Australia, John Seymour, Law Book Co (in association
with the Australian Institute of Criminology) (1983) xix, 146pp.
This short book is an account and description of the workings of the South
Australian system of dealing with young offenders. It therefore deals in detail with
the provisions of the South Australian Children's Protection and Young Offenders
Act 1979-1982. The author shortly details such matters as police procedures,
screening panels, children's aid panels, the Children's Court, appeals, penalties,
and the handling of serious offences. It is intended to be, and is, a handbook of the
basics of the system. In this aim it is successful, and this review has no doubt that
the book will grace the shelves at least of those who have contact with the system
in South Australia.
The author has been most thorough in his researches. He has, for example,
sought out and integrated into the text such statistics as are available on the
operation of the system, and has secured and reproduced some of the relevant
Police General Orders. This is all most praiseworthy and useful.
Systems of dealing with young offenders have a habit of being subject to a certain
amount of controversy, and hence seem to be in a constant process of change. That
is certainly the history of the system in South Australia. This reviewer thus
expresses the hope that Dr Seymour will keep an eye on us, with a view to an
updating when that course becomes necessary. There is nothing worse than an out
of date handbook. It is in that context that the following criticisms are offered.
First, the point of a handbook is that it serves as a reference, or a point from
which further research can be done. Crucial to such a function is a good index. The
index to this book is hardly adequate. /
Second, some of the text is missing at page 34. Perhaps the missing part could be
published in this journal and added by book owners to their own copy.
Third, an author must be most careful in this day and age with what is generally
known as "sexist language". While this reviewer has little sympathy with some of
the excesses of this movement, (the horrors of "ombudsperson" spring to mind),
nevertheless, major infelicities should be avoided. For example, at p 30 of the
book, the author describes the general method of operation of a children's aid
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