Book Review: Police Institutions and Issues: American and Australian Perspectives
| Author | Paul R Wilson |
| Date | 01 September 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486588001300311 |
| Published date | 01 September 1980 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
222
BOOK
REVIEWS
ANZJ
Crim
(1980) 13
manifestation of
the
success which corporations have had in
turning
concern over
white collar crime into public expenditure to protect corporations from individuals
who
prey
on
them,
to
the
relative neglect of public expenditure to
protect
individuals
who fall
prey
to corporations.
I do not mean to imply that Purvis's work is conservative. In some respects
the
opposite is true.
One
can find in
the
book support for "capital punishment" for
consistently criminal corporations (that is, revoking
their
right to trade) (p
50),
support for public
interest
directors
being
placed on
the
boards of certain
corporations (p 591), and advocacy of nationalization of corporations which are
flagrant in
their
law violation (p 601).
On
the
crucial question of corporate versus individual criminal responsibility,
Purvis does little to relieve
the
conceptual confusion which we all feel.
Indeed
Purvis
further muddies
these
already murky waters by falling victim to some unsophisti-
cated common sense views:
"On
the
other
hand
when we use
the
penal process to
deter
delinquency we should recognize
that
companies are not delinquent, only
people are" (pp 397-8). Durkheim would
turn
in his grave.
The foregoing criticisms should not
detract
from
the
fact that Purvis has provided
us with a most valuable contribution to some of criminology's most conceptually
difficult terrain. It is a goldmine of resource material and thoughtful observations.
JOHN
BRAITHWAITE
Canberra
Police Institutions
and
Issues: American
and
Australian Perspectives. Bruce
Swanton, Australian Institute of Criminology.
Canberra
(1979)
pp
409, $5.
Bruce Swanton is clearly establishing himself as Australia's most informed
commentator on police administration. His passion for his topic is
evident
to all:
attention to detail, good bibliographical searches and an
empathy
with
the
policeman's lot. Police Institutions
and
Issues exemplifies all these virtues. In seven
chapters he explains some contemporary issues in policing including police boards
and commissions, police labour relations, police health problems and related
questions.
Those industrial advocates, police administrators and students of police matters
who wish to
get
some insights into these topics could do well to buy Swanton's book.
It arose from a field
trip
to various parts of
the
United States coupled with his intense
knowledge of Australian conditions.
While
the
book has virtues it has considerable weaknesses, not
the
least of which is
the
lack of a unitary
theme
that unites
the
seven issues he considers.
It
is almost as
though
the
author flung
together
seven disparate issues in an almost
indecent
haste
to notch
another
publication for his masters,
the
Australian Institute of Criminology.
There
is no grand or critical analysis here. None of
the
issues are related to viewing
police in a wider perspective by relating, for example, their role and function to social
structures and social change. All of
the
issues could have
been
usefully conceptual-
ized in these ways: if nothing else this would considerably broaden
the
intellectual
base of what was
presented
in
the
report.
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