Book Review: Law and Society
| Author | Paul R. Wilson |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587000300311 |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
AUST. & N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Sept., 1970): 3, 3 191
historical
study
of
tortures
and confes-
sions, a case for
the
use
of suspended sen-
tences' amanagement-oriented discussion
of personnel
recruitment
in corrections
and
alengthy psychological
research
report
on
the
effect of length of imprisonment
and
subjective distance from release on
future
time perspective
and
time
estimation of pri-
soners. Two
papers
deal
with
aspects of
delinquency, and, in one of these, David
Reifen (well
known
for his The Juveline
Court in Israel, 1964)
argues
for special
courts
and
new
treatment
methods for
young
adult
offenders in 18-21
years
age
range.
The final
paper
in
the
volume is by
statistician U. O. Schmelz
and
deals
with
differentials in criminality
rates
between
various groups in
Israel's
population. He
demonstrates
with
very
full and easily
readable tables
that
criminality
rates
for
1960-1965
are
much
higher
for
non-Jews,
especially Moslems,
than
they
are
for
Jews, those of Afro-Asian origin
have
higher
rates
than
those of European origin.
Schmelz is no sociologist, however, and
he leaves
the
interpretation
of
these
phenomena to others.
Throughout this volume
many
papers
make
fruitful use of
statistical
tables
and
thus
the orientation is empirical
and
analy-
tical
rather
than
speculative or philosophi-
cal. The Australian criminologist
must
per-
force ask:
how
can Israel
with
apopulation
considerably smaller
than
Victoria
and
plagued
with
economic
and
political prob-
lems unknown in this
continent
(yet
barely
hinted
at
in this book), afford to produce
criminal statistics of a
breadth
and
quality
seemingly beyond
the
resources of
this
country?
DAVID
BILES
Law
and Society, Edwin M. Schur, Ran-
dom House, New York, 1968, 239 pp.
ED'WIN SCHUR,
both
a
lawyer
and
a
sociologist, examines in this provocative
book several
major
areas
of
law
as they
relate
to sociology. Some of the topics
touched upon include an analysis of
the
nature
and
meaning of law,
the
law's
relation to social change,
the
structure
of
the
legal
profession, sociological aspects of
the
courts
and
the
place
of social science
evidence in
the
legal system.
Much of
the
above, unfortunately, is
limited to an
account
of
the
role of
law
in
American society.
Thus
such
issues as
the
effectiveness of civil
rights
legislation,
poverty-programmes
in
the United
States
and
other
matters
may
seem
irrelevant
to
Australian law, criminology
or
sociology
students. On the
other
hand,
there
is a
great
deal of material in
this
book
which
is
invaluable for both students, academics
and
practitioners in criminology and re-
lated
fields in this country.
There
is for
example two excellent
introductory
chap-
ters
dealing respectively
with
jurisprudence
and
sociology
and
law and order. In par-
ticular,
the
chapter
on
law
and
order
pre-
sents
a
most
lucid discussion on
the
ques-
tion
where
law
or legal
norms
begin
and
end.
Schur
attempts
to
answer
this
ques-
tion by referring
not
only to
the
writings
of lawyers and philosophers
but
also
to
the
works of
contemporary
anthropolo-
gists
and sociologists -Parsons, Bohan-
nan
and Bredemeir for example.
On
the
less theoretical
more
practical
side,
Schur
discusses the empirical studies
that
have been
undertaken
with
a
view
to
understanding
the
real workings of
the
modern
legal system.
Four
areas
are
used
to
illustrate
contemporary
sociological re-
search
into
the
legal system. These
are
firstly
the
Chicago
Jury
Project; secondly,
research
into "enforcement discretion" -
the
discretion accorded officials
at
the
work
patterns
of
the
legal profession, and,
various
stages of enforcement; thirdly,
finally,
research
into
the
somewhat
elusive
studies
into
the
organization
and
routine
interplay
between public opinion and
the
law.
While
the
areas
selected by
Schur
to
illustrate
empirical
research
are
represen-
tative
enough,
this
reviewer
finds
the
discusion of
the
research
in
each
area
somewhat
superficial. References to studies
abound
but
no
attempt
is
made
to discuss
critically
the
research
done
in
each
area
or indeed to
present
a
systematic
account
of
the
empirical findings.
The
reader
is
given
only
a
swift
and
somewhat
cursory
glimpse into each of
the
research
areas
-
aglimpse which
may
not
be
sufficient to
motivate
him to investigate
them
further.
One feels also
that
it is a
pity
that
Schur
did
not
mention
in
any
detail
other
research
into
the
relationship
between
law
and
society.
For
example
the
extremely
im-
portan
tissues of
the
effects of
law
as a
deterrent
and
as an
instrument
of social
change
receive acomment occupying only
t\VO
or
three
lines.
Overall, though, Schur's
book
is valuable
pioneering
work
into a
hitherto
neglected
area
-
the
sociological analysis of law.
With
a
dearth
of
introductory
works
on
the
topic,
this
reviewer
would
recommend
Law
and
Society as invaluable rnaterial
for
social.
science and
law
students
interested
in
the
interplay
between
legal rules
and
procedures
and social behaviour.
PAUL
R.
WILSON
Senior-Lecturer in Government,
University
of
Queensland.
To continue reading
Request your trial