Book Review: Parenting and Delinquent Youth
| Author | Christine Alder |
| Published date | 01 September 1985 |
| Date | 01 September 1985 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486588501800305 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
AUST &NZ
JOURNAL
OF CRIMINOLOGY (September 1985) 18 (189-192)
BOOK REVIEWS
189
Parenting and Delinquent Youth, Alice Parizeau, DC Heath &Co, Lexington,
Massachusetts (1980).
Alice Parizeau's previous work as described in this book indicates that she has
published widely in the area of juvenile delinquency and has been active in both
policy and programme development in Canada. In this book, she is essentially
arguing for a delinquency prevention policy which allows for greater state
intervention in "unstable" families. This intervention, she argues, should occur
before there is evidence that the child has problems, that is, it should be apriori and
not aposteriori family intervention. This intervention would consist of educating
parents, but could involve removal of the child from the natural parents preferably
to the care of adoptive rather than foster parents. Unfortunately, the ethical, moral
and legal implications of this recommendation are barely considered by the author.
Early in the book, Parizeau acknowledges that there is no one "recipe" for the
upbringing of children. She recognizes the difficulties in defining and measuring
factors which she considers may be relevant such as parental love, rules of living and
transmission of values. This is apparently forgotten in later chapters where she
asserts that there are certain groups of families who either transmit no values, or
stable norms to their children, or only those values which do not allow the child to
conform. As examples of
(such
groups, she includes first and second generation city
residents, and recidivist prisoners. Families from these groups, Parizeau argues,
should form the "target groups" for state family intervention.
Thus if the work is informed at all by a theoretical framework, it is derived from
an almost classic interpretation of social-disorganization and cultural transmission
theories. However, this body of literature is not acknowledged, nor are the
empirical and theoretical critiques of it which would be directly pertinent to
Parizeau's assertions. In a field of endeavour which has provoked so much
controversy and research, one might expect more careful attention to referencing
and substantiation of assertions than is evident in this book.
Parizeau does draw upon two pieces of research in this work. The first consists
of dossiers of 14 young people who were transferred from juvenile to adult court in
Quebec. The second project involved questionnaires being given to recidivist
prisoners and their families. Material from these projects is ptesented as almost raw
data, and makes up approximately 106 of the 187 pages of text. It is somewhat odd
that there are so many pages of raw data, .with little analysis even in terms of
substantiating major claims in other parts of the book.
Various issues of interest to those concerned with child welfare reforms in
Australia are raised in the book, including such topics as the rights of parents and
those of children; the when, where and how of state intervention; and the
distinction between "care" cases and young offenders. Some readers may find the
volume of interest as the presentation of ideas on these issues by a woman who has
been active in delinquency control programmes in Canada. Overall, however, the
weaknesses of the book limit its usefulness for academics, policy makers or
practitioners in the Australian setting.
Melbourne CHRISTINE
ALDER
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