Book Review: Sydney in Ferment: Crime, Dissent and Official Reaction
| Author | R P Roulston |
| Published date | 01 December 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587801100410 |
| Date | 01 December 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS 255
Adelaide
Notwithstanding my criticisms, which
may
in
fact
overshadow the excellence
of much of the text, I believe that Police in Australia will become astandard
reference book on a subject which is
yet
to
be
fully explored.
PETER
McAuLAY
Sydney in Ferment: Crime, Dissent
and
Official Reaction. Peter NGrabosky,
Canberra, Australian National University Press 1977 xii and 205
pp;
$12.95
(cloth); $9.50 (paperback).
This is an excellent
and
important book. Although primarily focused on
New
South Wales it will
be
of great value
and
significance to those interested in crime
and
criminality
both
interstate
and
internationally.
The
author, interestingly enough, is
not
an Australian,
but
an American - a
member
of the
Department
of Political Science at the University
of
Vermont
and
aspecialist in comparative criminal policy. This in itself perhaps says
something
about
the present very tentative development of criminological study
and
research in Australia. Certainly there is no comparable
work
by
any
Australian author.
The
project was sponsored
by
the Centre for the Study of
Crime
and
Delinquency of the National Institute of Mental Health, US
Department
of
Health Education
and
Welfare. It forms
part
of
alarger comparative study of
public order in four such disparate cities as Sydney, Stockholm, London
and
Calcutta. This larger
work
was also published last year under the title The
Politics of Crime and Conflict: A"COmparative Study of Four Cities
but-was
unfortunately not obtainable
by
me at the time
of
writing this review.
If
the
other volumes are of comparable quality to this one they will form an invaluable
quartet.
The
book
is divided into 12 chapters covering the period from the first
establishment of Sydney as a remote penal colony in 1788 to the turbulent years
of a large metropolis in
the
1960s
and
early 70s. It also contains an abundance of
the available statistical material, historical plates, maps
and
an invaluable
selected bibliography
much
of which has hitherto gone unnoticed or
been
seriously neglected.
In describing the successive stages in the
development
of Sydney the author
has carefully
and
painstakingly reviewed the demographic, social
and
economic
factors involved, the relevant political reactions to criminal activity,
and
the
dissent and protest movements as well as tracing the fluctuating changes in
judicial, penal and police developments
and
attitudes.
One
important insight, amongst many,
that
the
author clearly demonstrates is
that, contrary to
popular
misconception, that in
bygone
eras all was
feace
and
tranquility as
compared
to the lawlessness, disruption.
and
dissent 0
today-
this was not the case.
He
concludes that so
far
as law
and
order
are concerned
Sydney has, viewed in historical perspective, displayed adistinctively stable
pattern
and
by international standards
of
comparable cities Sydney's criminal
activity
and
disruption is,
and
was, of "relatively low magnitude". Although it is
not possible to single
out
anyone
chapter for particular commendation Ifound
chapter
seven dealing
with
the period 1870-1900 fascinating. It shows
that
so
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