Book Review: Proceedings of the Institute of Criminology 1969, No. 1
| Author | Allen A. Bartholomew |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587000300415 |
| Published date | 01 December 1970 |
| Date | 01 December 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
252 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Dec., 1970): 3, 4
Proceedings of
the
Institute
of Criminology
1969,
No.1.
Obtained from
the
Secretary
of
the
Institute, University of Sydney.
Pp. 127.
THIS number of
the
Proceedings is a
worthy
follower in
the
footsteps of
the
earlier publications
and
is of
particular
interest in
that
the
first 80 pages
report
a
Judicial Seminar on Sentencing held on
the
10th February, 1969. The overall plan
of the seminar is
set
out
in
the
foreword:
The morning session consisted primarily
of a meeting of Supreme Court Judges
and Chairmen of
Quarter
Sessions. The
session opened
with
an address by
the
Chief Justice of New
South
Wales.
Papers
prepared by Mr. Justice Taylor, Mr.
Justice Allen
and
Judge Levine
and
circulated to participants
were
then
spoken to by
the
authors. Following a
brief discussion of
these
papers
the
par-
ticipants divided
into
three
panels
and
retired to deliberate upon cases 1, 2
and
3, which had previously been circulated
to them for individual consideration.
When
the
seminar
re-assembled
later
in
the morning
the
chairman of each panel
reported on
the
sentences prepared
and
the dominant principles
and
reasons
underlying
the
conclusions
they
had
reached.
The afternoon session followed asimilar
pattern,
but
the
participants represented
abroader
spectrum
of those concerned
with
the
sentencing process. In addition
to the participants in
the
morning session
there was a
very
substantial
number
of
Stipendiary Magistrates
and
also Crown
Prosecutors, Defence Counsel, Probation
and Parole Officers
and
others profes-
sionally interested in
the
sentencing pro-
cess. The session opened with an address
by
the
Minister of Justice,
after
which
further
papers
prepared
by Mr. G. J.
Hawkins, Mr. W. J. Lewer, S.M.,
and
Mr. M. F. Farquhar, S.M., were spoken
to by
the
authors. The judicial partici-
pants in
the
seminar
were
once again
divided into panel
and
retired to de-
liberate upon cases 4, 5
and
6. These
panels subsequently reported
back
to
the
re-assembled
seminar
the
sentences
they
proposed
and
the
dominant considerations
leading to
their
conclusions.
This
number
of
the
Proceedings sets out
the papers prepared,
the
cases
for
con-
sideration
and
the
sentences proposed by
the syndicates. This "half" of the Proceed-
ings is of
very
great
clinical interest.
The second
part
of
the
publication con-
sists of
the
progress
reports
made to
the
Walter
E. Meyer Research
Institute
of
Law
of New York in March of 1968
and
1969
with regard to a long-term research project
sponsored by
them
-"The Sydney Project
on Sentencing"
undertaken
by Mr. P. G.
Governor Ronald Reagan, Momboisse
defines violence "roughly as
the
illegal
employment of methods of physical
coercion for personal or group ends."
(p. 127). Presumably, because law enforce-
ment
can be defined crudely as
the
legal
employment of methods of physical coer-
cion for
personal
or group ends, Mom-
boisse sets out, for
the
purpose of knowing
one's enemy,
Revolutions
(3 Chapters),
The
Revolutionary
Party
(7 Chapters)
and
Tactics
(15 Chapters). The book will
thus
be useful to
the
unsystematic revolutionary
leader (who needs acheck list for his
programs) as well as to
the
conservative
members of
the
community for
whom
it
was intended. Let us hope
that
this
appeal
to
the
vigilante traditions of
the
grand-
fathers of
both
sets
of readers will
not
irreversibly legitimise violence all round:
Antonioni's Zabriskie Point
was
filmed in
the
author's
home town. Although he
sustains
the
usual arguments for
gradual
reforms, Momboisse's final injunction will
have afamiliar ring to criminologists in-
volved in deterrence-type arguments:
If the policy of cowardness
and
fear
prevails,
the
whole foundation of order,
reason
and
confidence which sustains
our
civilized community will crumble
and
with it
our
society. (p, 306)
The
History
of
Violence
in
America
follows
a long list of publications by
Praeger
con-
cerned
with
violence elsewhere.
Authors
published
earlier
include Milovan Diilas,
Ho Chi Minh, Vo Nguyen Giap, Che
Guevara
and
Mao Tse-tung, as well as
commentators on almost every
attempt
at
rapid social-political change since Spain.
Its 22 learned
papers
-
prepared
by
way
of submission to
the
National Commission
on
the
Causes
and
Prevention of Violence
(formed in
June
1968; chaired by Dr.
Milton Eisenhower)
and
featuring an un-
usual collaboration between lawyers
and
social scientists -provide a
most
useful
source of ideas
and
research projects.
Aunity of purpose emerges which is
well summed up by
John
Herbers (of
the
New Y
ark
times) in his special Intro-
duction:
...
the
New Left
students
in
their
use
of force to
change
the
structure
of
the
educational
system
are
resorting to an
old-fashioned American tradition, one
that
everybody
understands
.
..
All
across
the
land violence is being
used
for
one purpose or
another
without
qualms
of conscience,
just
as it always
has
been . . .
Perhaps
there
must
be a
new
tradition before
there
can be a New
Jerusalem.
KIM
WYMAN,
Student
Counsellor,
Caulfield
Institute
of Technology, Victoria.
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