Book Review: Society, Crime and Criminal Careers
| Author | Cheryl McKinna |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486588001300210 |
| Published date | 01 June 1980 |
| Date | 01 June 1980 |
152
B()OK
REVIE\VS
ANZJ
Crim
(1980) 13
and
spontaneous fashion
and
with
more
credit
for insight
than
many
of
Corrigan's fellow sociologists,
whom
he rightly castigates for obfuscation.
It is
relevant
to
speculate
how
readers
of this journal might
react
to Corrigan's
thesis. Again
and
again
in
the
words of
the
originators of
the
system
a
century
ago
and
the
charges of
the
Right today,
Corrigan
details an
image
of
education
as class
control
-
and
again
and
again in the eyes of
the
lads themselves
there
emerges
a
picture
of total
agreement
from
the
other
side
"Aye,
but
yer
can't
make
us do it,
can
yer?"
This is a radical
picture,
but
one
given solid
foundation
by
the
author. Its implications for policy
about
delinquency
are
probably
quite
unacceptable
unless
one
is
committed
to substantial social change.
For
those
prepared
to envisage
quite
radical changes in society,
and
ultimately in law, it
will
be
welcomed
as a lucid
work
that does
not
evade
urgent
issues
nor
lapse
into
avulgar millennial version of Marxism
which
supposes on
the
one
hand
that
"until
the
Revolution"
nothing
can
be
done,
and
after
it,
nothing
will
need
to
be
done.
On
the
other
hand
for those in
the
centre
this
book
will jar
their
liberal
consciences,
but
not, Ifear,
prevent
them
from
putting
it
down
and
returning
to
their
assumptions
about
"better"
education
and
more
"enlightened"
policies,
quite
unaware
that if
Corrigan
is right
they
are
merely
whistling in
the
dark.
At a
practical
teaching
level
the
book
would
be
immensely
valuable
in
undergraduate
courses in criminology, sociology
and
education. Students will
a
pprecia
te its clear, forceful style
and
it
cannot
fail to
provoke
discussion.
STEPHEN
MUGFORD
Canberra
Society,
Crime
and
Criminal Careers,
3rd
ed.
Don
CGibbons. Prentice-Hall
Inc
New
Jersey
USA (1977)
pp
582 $18.96.
This publication is yet
another
introductory
criminology
text
from
the
United
States. In favour of this
particular
book, it must
be
said that
both
the
order
of
presentation
and
the
perspective
from
which
it is
written
differ
somewhat
from
the
traditional
introductory
books
on criminology.
After an
introductory
section on society
and
the
criminal law,
the
author
proceeds
to look at the process
which
"converts suspects into criminals".
The
two
components
of
the
criminal justice
system
highlighted in this section
are
the
police
and
the courts.
These
areas
are
dealt
with
early
in
the
book
so
the
reader
is
made
aware
of
the
fact
that
they
both
play
far
more
than
aminor role in
criminology.
The
author believes that
"offenders
who
fall into
the
hands
of
the
police
may
have
difficulty
withdrawing
from
criminal
careers"
and
so
study
of
the
police
should
be an
important
component
in
any
criminological inquiry.
The
author
also believes that
under
the
American
court system,
the
needs
of
the
bureaucracy
and
machinery
of
the
system
are
paramount
while
the
rights of
the
accused
are
of
only
secondary
importance,
thus this
part
of
the
system
may
also
contribute
to
the
development
of criminal careers.
In a section on the
epidemiology
of
crime
and
theories of causation a
token
gesture, six pages, is
made
to radical criminology. This
topic
is
new
to
the
third
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