Book Review: Law Enforcement, An Introduction to the Police Role in the Community
| Author | David Biles |
| Published date | 01 June 1971 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587100400214 |
| Date | 01 June 1971 |
AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (June, 1971): 4, 2 125
DAVID
BILES,
Melbourne.
it avaluable Cook's
tour
encompassing
many
of
the
social
problems
which
are,
or
will be, of concern
to
them
in
their
professional capacity,
whether
they
be
lawyers, social
workers,
clergymen, prison
officers, policemen,
teachers,
psychologists
or
from
some
other
discipline.
Criminologists
are
aware,
from
perusal
of statistics. on crime,
that
contrary
to
what
the
news
media
emphasises, crimes
of sex
and
violence
are
not
as
prevalent
as offences
against
property.
As Dr.
Jones
points
out,
"many
newspapers
are
less
concerned
with
supplying
news
than
with
attracting
readers,"
and
the
purpose
of
the
book is to enable
the
reader
to achieve
a less emotional
and
more
objective
attitude
towards
criminal deviance
and
the
imposition of
penal
sanctions
as a
method
of
treatment.
Many
of the
ideas
that
are
deeply em-
bedded
in
the
thinking
of
the
public
are
explored.
For
instance,
there
are
many
in
the
community
who
still
regard
criminality
as an
heredity
factor,
or
who
are
inclined
to
the
belief
that
"all criminals look
alike".
Both
these
myths
are
discounted by
reference
to
studies
carried
out
by Dr.
Goring
and
Professor
and
Mrs. Glueck
respectively,
although
it is
noted
that
Dr.
Jones
makes
no
reference
to
recent
developments in
genetics
which
indicate
that
achromosomal
maladjustment
can
be
of significance in
determining
an indivi-
dual's
propensity
for
violent
behaviour.
Throughout
the
book
the
reader
is
asked
to question his preconceived theories.
For
instance,
should
imprisonment
of offenders
be
the
only
method
of
treatment?
Why
does society
regard
other
sanctions
such
as fines
and
probation
and
parole as
acts
of leniency? Dr.
Jones'
belief is
that
society
must
be
aware
of
research
into
causal
factors
in
order
to
attain
a
more
enlighten-
ed
attitude
towards
punishment.
In
the
process of doing this, we
must
seek
to
re-evaluate
the
role
of
the
courts.
While, this
book
is
written
with
the
English experience in mind, it is equally
of relevance to
Australian
conditions. In
the
chapter
entitled
"The
Delinquent
Sub-
culture",
reference is
made
to
research
conducted
to
determine
the
origins of so
called "delinquency
areas",
and we
would
be well advised
to
investigate
one
of
the
views
advanced
that
it
is
"the
symptom
of a sickness in
the
local community, a
degree
of
immaturity
in
the
inter-personal
life of
the
neighbourhood". In
other
words,
there
is a
relationship
between
delinquency
and
transference
of
people
from old
slum
areas
to
new
housing
estates.
In
the
old
areas
community
life is
disintegrating
and
in
the
new
areas
there
is
an
emotional
isolation.
In his final chapter, Dr.
Jones
considers
that
society is changing; it is
more
affluent,
yet
increasingly
dependent
upon
the
wel-
fare
state.
There
are conflicts
which
we
must
strive
to
understand
for, as
the
author
states
in his closing
remarks:
"We
cannot
afford to
abandon
the
analysis
of
this
aetiological
complex,
although
its elucida-
tion
may
take
a
very
long time. Mean-
while, it is
open
to us to
take
some
action
of
a
prophylactic
kind.
For
if
we
wait
until
all is known,
we
may
wait
too
long."
Obviously in a
book
of
this
size, it is
impossible to
outline
all
the
theories
and
surveys
to
which
Dr.
Jones
refers. Iwould
remark
that,
while
the
"Further
Reading"
guide
lists
some
150 books, it
does
not
list
the
works
of all
authors
noted
in
the
text;
but
apart
from
this
minor
criticism, I
consider
that
Dr.
Jones
has coped
with
his
task
remarkably
well. This is a
book
which
should
be widely
read
by
those
seriously
interested
in
the
problem of crime
and
crime
control in
modern
society.
LYNNE FOREMANI'
Melbourne.
Law
Enforcement, An
Introduction
to
the
Police,
Role
in'
the
Community,
Adams,
Thomas F., Prentice-Hall, N.J., 1968,
pp. 256.
ESSENTIALLY a
text
for
trainee
police
officers, this book is
not
likely to excite
the
interest
of academic criminologists or
sociologists. It would be
easy
to
describe
it as
mundane,
repetitious
and
pompous,
but
to do so would be
unfair
to
the
author,
who
obviously perceives his book as a
prescribed
text
in police
training
colleges
and
academies
throughout
the
United
States.
Mundane
detail is unavoidable in
a
training
manual
and
some
degree
of
repetition
is good teaching practice. And if
the
author
stresses
the
superior
personal
qualities of policemen until
they
seem
like
super-beings, his motives
are
surely
clear.
This book, however, goes
beyond
the
simple what-to-do and how-to-do-it for-
mulation
of a training
manual.
It includes
useful
but
brief discussions of
the
history
of
law
enforcement
and
theories
of crime
causation.
Some worthwhile
comments
are
made
on
the
police role
with
juvenile
offenders, and
the
problems of police ethics
and
prof'essionalization
are
also
consider-
ed.
In
these
areas
Adams displays a com-
mendable
breadth
of
understanding.
He
is
tolerant,
thoughtful
and
reasonable. He
is a good policeman. His
book
may
go
some
way
towards
pouring oil on
the
troubled
waters
of American law enforce-
ment
today.
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