Book Review: Young Offenders
| Author | John Seymour |
| Published date | 01 September 1979 |
| Date | 01 September 1979 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486587901200309 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
182 B()()K REVIEWS
BOOK
REVIEWS
ANZJ Crim (1979) 12
Young Offenders. Dennis Challinger. Victorian Association for the Care and
Resettlement of Offenders (1977) Melbourne
pp
204 $4.50.
This is a very useful book. It provides factual information of great value to the
researcher
and
policymaker,
and
reflects arecognition of the importance of
close examination of the criminal justice system in operation.
The book is an analysis of 12,212 police contacts with juvenile offenders in
Victoria. The children who made up this sample were apprehended in 1975, and
the basic information which the study presents is gleaned from the Forms 276
which the police completed in respect of each child. For 4363 of the sample the
outcome was an official police warning; the remaining 7849 appeared in court.
A wide range of information is provided and a host of issues raised.
Challinger's analysis confirms, for example, that conformity to the delinquent
stereotype can
be
afactor in determining how a case is handled. His statistics
indicate that those warned came from two-parent homes much more frequently
than did those prosecuted: of the children warned 79.7
per
cent were living with
both parents while the figure for children taken to court was 59.6
per
cent.
Further, the data gives limited support to the view that children from higher
status families are more likely to be dealt with by way of a police warning. It is,
of course, possible to interpret figures of this kind in a number of different ways.
Officials who argue that they are acting in the child's best interests will claim
that it is vital to make distinctions between families which can handle problems
themselves and those which cannot; thus class bias can
become
an unfortunate
corollary of paternalism. The opposing view is that Challinger's figures support
the argument that the system operates in such a way as to impose middle-class
controls on the lives of the disadvantaged. But whatever view is taken the
important point is that Challinger provides the hard data which are so often
lacking when issues of this kind are discussed.
There is a useful discussion of the Victorian system of police warnings. On the
basis of Horman's study it is possible to claim a high "success rate" for this
practice, but, as Challinger points out, no Victorian figures exist as to the
re-offending of first offenders who
appear
in court rather than being warned.
Until such figures are available "success rates" will tell us little. What is needed
are figures for comparable groups handled by different means; at the moment
we have no way of knowing, for example, whether the shock of apprehension is
just as effective as a court appearance in deterring children from re-offending.
Challinger raises questions
about
the meaning of the great increase in recorded _
warnings. Between 1960 and 1975 these increased by 559
per
cent, whereas court
appearances increased by 109
per
cent over the same period. These figures
might indicate agenuine increase in juvenile offending, awidening of the official
net so that behaviour that previously went unnoticed or unrecorded now finds its
way into the statistics, or a change of policy resulting in an increase in the
proportion of those warned rather than prosecuted.
The use of police warnings
-is
analysed by age and sex
and
Challinger also
demonstrates great regional Variations in the recording of these warnings.
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