Book Review: The Police: Six Sociological Essays
| DOI | 10.1177/000486586800100311 |
| Date | 01 September 1968 |
| Published date | 01 September 1968 |
| Author | Ray Whitrod |
AUST. &
NZ.
JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (1968): 1, 3 189
is
more
than
an undertow agitating for
the
re-introduction of
hanging.
This book
is
thus
a most timely publication even
though somewhat
"politically"
motivated:
although termed on
the
cover
"a
portable
Royal Commission" it was published in
association
with
the
Anti-Hanging Council
of Victoria. The abolitionists became an
effective force in Victoria in 1962
when
a
prisoner, Tait,
was
in considerable peril
of his life
but
between 1962
and
1966
the
organization
appeared
to
slumber. In
1966-7
the
Ryan
Case
gave
renewed life
to the abolitionist
cause
and
Barry
Jones,
the
secretary
of
the
Victorian Anti-Hanging
movement, has now edited this book.
The book
attempts
to
present
the
case
for and against capital punishment in terms
of
the
writings of
various
persons. .The
result is both interesting
yet
irritating.
Interest
is immediately aroused',when one
notes contributors of
the
calibre of
Beccaria, Sellin,
and
Camus
not
to mention
the
comments of
such
as Darrow, Hoover
and
our
own
experts
-
Sir
John Barry,
Sir Eugene Gorman
and
Stanley W.
Johnston. The irritation is produced by
the
unevenness of
the
standards of
the
contributions and
the
fact
that
these
various contributions
are
not
integrated
into a whole.
The
very
tirst chapter, by
Dr.
Max
Charlesworth, is particularly
worth
reading in
terms
of its
attempt
to
clarify some of
the
confusion so frequently
found in
the
debate
between
the
retentionists and
the
abolitionists. One
of
the
longest contributions,
and
most irritat-
ing, is
that
by
the
editor,
Barry
Jones.
This section is packed
with
information
but
it grates on
the
reader
with
its unnecessary
jibes and
minor
debating points -these
to some
extent
weakens
the
impact of his
general thesis. However, for all the minor
faults
that
can be found
the
book, overall,
is
very
well
worth
reading, and possessing
in
the
case of
the
professional
worker
in
the
correctional and criminological field.
This is arewarding book for $1.75.
AlLLEN A. BAR11HOLOMlEW
Melbourne.
The
PoIiee: Six Sociological Essays,
David J. Bordua, (ed.),
John
Wiley &Sons
Inc.,
New
York, 1967, 258 pp., $7.50.
PROGRESS
towards
the
professionaliza-
tion of
the
police services in this
country
has
been hindered
by
the
absence of
scholarly discussion of
their
structure
and
functioning. However,
more
recently we
have
been able to benefit from a
number
of overseas contributions whose usefulness
has not been seriously diminished by their
trans-Pacific application.
One of these
was
reviewed by
Walter
N.
Williams in
the
last
issue of this
journal-
J. H. Skolnick's
"Justice
Without
Trial·'.
Another
is
this
collection of
six
essays,
part
of a group of publications
prepared
under
the
direction of Morris Janowitz.
The
nine
authors
and
co-authors are
academic sociologists mainly
from
the
University of California
at
Berkeley.
Apart
from Jerome Skolnick, who, it is
understood, had
some
service
as a
detective officer, the
authors
have
relied
for
their
information principally on
observer-participation
and
questionnaires.
One author,
John
H. McNamara, was
apparently
involved for some
three
years
in researching
the
selection
and
training
methods of
the
New
York
City Police
Department.
American
culture
and police organization
differ significantly in
some
respects
with
ours, so
that
an Australian reviewer
comparatively unversed in American police
practices,
has
difficulty
in
deciding
the
validity of
the
various
authors'
observa-
tions, predictions and conclusions. Never-
theless, overall
the
six essays' make
absorbing reading, and
each
one deserves
a
more
adequate
review
than
can be given
here.
Allan Silver's opening essay on some
themes
in
the
history
of
urban
crime,
police and riots. is especially topical, and
he
draws
an
interesting
comparison
between
the
reaction of
the
eighteenth
century
English elite
to
mob
violence and
the
increasing intolerance in
the
modem
response to negro rioting in
the
United
States
of America.
The
skilful examination of ametro-
politan police
department
by Reiss
and
Bordua produces a
number
of interesting
observations
and
what
appear
to
be
perceptive conclusions.
It
is therefore
unfortunate
that,
except
for
an initial
explanation,
"the
facts
are
gleaned from
general observation,
research
under
way,
and
literature
on
the
police", little sup-
porting
evidence is given
for
a
number
of,
what
are
to
the
reviewer, controversial
statements.
They
mention briefly
the
administrative problem
of
departmental
resource capacity
related
to
crime
clearance rates.
Werthman
and Piliavin's essay, "Gang
Members
and
the Police", based on
an eighteen months' observation
of
Californian police officers
and
gang
members, concerns
negro
adolescents,
but
it also contains avaluable description of
Californian police investigative tech-
niques. Again
the
authors
make
apparently
controversial statements,
e.g., "a
great
many
gang
boys
are
tricked
into confessions"
without
producing sup-
porting
evidence.
Perhaps
these
state-
ments
are
generally accepted as factual in
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