Book Review: Which Is the Justice?
| Date | 01 December 1969 |
| Author | J Clunies-Ross |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486586900200416 |
| Published date | 01 December 1969 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
252 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Dec., 1969): 2, 4
diversity and sufficiency and attention to
prevention;
"standard
of
child
care prac-
tice" as reflected in the staffing, structure
and working of
the
child care departments.
The findings of the study revealed
that
a good
part
of the difference in rates was,
in fact, a pseudo-difference. In some
areas there were many more opportunities
to arrange private or voluntary agency
care than in others. The conventional
measures of differences in social need did
not appear to contribute to the differences
in rates, but the "social conditions asso-
ciated with mobility" appeared to be of
some significance. Variations in standards
of children's departments did not seem to
be an important factor by itself and the
author questions how far "good depart-
ments" are able to overcome traditional
ways of acting
.....
"local situations
are
not highly altered by the whims of
individual administrators".
Miss Packman's study had a narrow
focus and her methods of enquiry were
adequate for
her
purpose. Her work is a
warning
that
not too much should be
read into the child care statistics presently
available. Definition of whether a child
is "in care" or not vary from place to
place in no
way
related to the actual
circumstances of the child, or the service
he receives, but according to the auspices
of the caring agency. Despite the interest
in the position of neglected children no
useful statistics
are
available and no
adequate classifications of circumstances
exist.
Further in the coure of her enquiry,
Miss Packman learned agreat deal about
the quality of services. She paints a
dismal picture of divided responsibility,
poor case accountability and the presence
of practices which are disastrous for the
children who
are
meant to benefit from
the children's services.
She notes
great
variations in the beliefs
of child care administrators as
to
what
constituted good child care practice. As
to what can be done, Miss Packman makes
two sensible suggestions: Child care
should be understood as one field and not
many and
the
various organizations should
work together in a co-ordinated fashion.
L. J. TIERNEY,
Reader in Charge of Social Studies,
University of Melbourne.
Which Is
the
Justice? J. A. F. Watson,
Allen &Unwin Ltd., 1969, 242 pp.
THE title of this book will strike an
answering chord in those who, like King
Lear when he watched how "Yon justice
rails upon yon simple thief", have been
moved to ask, "Which is the justice, which
is the thief?" The author, by recounting
his own youthful delinquencies, justifies his
choice of title.
J. A. F. Watson was a children's court
magistrate and chairman of the Inner
London Juvenile Courts for 32 years. The
book is a sensitively written record of
his experiences and work in this field, and
of the conclusions which are the result
of his long association with this
specialized branch of the judicial pro-
cesses.
Trained as a surveyor, the author
graduated to juvenile court_work through
a quite casually aroused interest, first in
the welfare of prisoners, and then in
that
of young offenders in Borstals. Because
of this initiation he avoided a deficiency
which he deplores in magistrates and
judges; more often
than
not, he says, they
are quite ignorant of the "treatment"
processes to which they are continually
consigning men, women and children who
come within
the
orbit of their power.
He deplores, too, the lack of specialized
training for all those who have what one
judge called
"the
dreadful
duty
of
sentencing." (p. 93). His criticisms are
outspoken and relevant, but his con-
clusions, while avoiding irritating dogma-
tism, at times seem unexpectedly con-
servative. For instance, he brushes aside
the suggestion of sentencing tribunals,
although he does consider favourably the
advisability of a panel of experts to help
the sentencer.
He also criticizes unquestioning adher-
ence to the widely accepted beliefs in the
concepts of "deterrence" and "desert":
"Although a not unimportant element in
a judicial sentence," he says, "may be
to deter the offender from repeating his
crime, and others from following his
example, the efficacy of the deterrent
element is sometimes magnified. For the
man in the street
that
is understandable;
for members of a professional judiciary
who have been trained to study evidence
it cannot be excused so readily . . . The
evidence goes to show
that
amere piling
up of penalties by no means always has
the desired result, particularly in its effect
on young people." (p. 94).
As to
the
concept of "desert", Watson
bases his comments on Lord Devlin's
remark
that
the fundamental question he
had always asked himself before passing
sentence was
"What
does this man
deserve?" (p. 87). And his comments are
aneat summing up of the complications
involved in any definition of this prickly
and difficult word "deserve" -almost as
knotty aproblem as defining "justice".
Watson states
two
main qualifications
he considers necessary for the professional
sentencer -demands
that
seem reason-
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