Book Reviews : Five Women Tony Parker Hutchinson 25s
| Date | 01 June 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455056601200218 |
| Published date | 01 June 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
the
view
of
the
authors
that
if
the
Church
in
social
work
in
the
future,
is
to
be
more
than
just
an
historical
anachronism,
it
needs
to
find
a
wider
scope
for
its
activities,
to
pioneer
new
ventures
so
that
these
may,
in
the
future
as
in
the
past,
lead
ultimately
to
the
pro-
motion
of
legislation
and
statutory
provision.
This
is
a
publication
to
be
read
by
Anglicans
who
care
about
what
their
Church
is
or
ought
to
be
doing
in
the
field
of
social
work,
but
it
is
not
a
book
which
I
would
necessarily
expect
to
find
on
the
shelves
of
a
library
in
a
probation
office.
H.
N.
GRINDROD
Five
Women
Tony
Parker
Hutchinson
25s.
This
is
a
book
about
criminals
- by
criminals,
since
the
author
allows
them
to
tell
their
own
stories.
As
the
title
suggests,
five
women
con-
victs
are
the
subject
of
study.
Their
ages
range
from
nineteen
years
to
sixty
years:
between
them
they
have
spent
a
total
of
nearly
one
hundred
years
in
prison.
The
author
interviewed
each
upon
her
discharge
and
again,
where
practicable,
after
six
months,
with
the
object
of
trying
to
assess
and
to
throw
into
relief
the
effect
upon
each
of
long
incarcera-
tion.
As
an
addition
to
the
plethora
of
cur-
rent
writing
on
the
topic
of
habitual
offenders,
this
book
may
have
little
that
is
new
to
contribute
to
the
knowledge
of
the
professional
social
worker,
but
it
may
by
its
human
appeal
make
a
consi-
derable
impact
upon
the
lay
public
who
may
be
tempted
to
think
of
long-term
prisoners
not
as
individuals
but
as
a
category
apart.
Here
in
its
stark
naked-
ness
is
revealed
the
tragedy
of
the
social
misfit
who
has
no
desire
for
rehabilita-
tion
and
who,
having
scant
capacity
for
forming
human
relationships,
is
content
to
remain
a
burden
upon
society
of
which
she
is
already
a
reject,
preferring
the
security
of
prison
to
the
resumption
of
responsibility
in
the
world
outside.
The
one
common
factor
which
the
author
reveals
in
the
background
of
all
the
women
he
interviewed
after
their
release
in
1963
is
a
deprived
childhood
in
one
form
or
another;
the
experience
shared
by
all
of
them
is
loneliness.
The
point
is
made
that
loss
of
a
sense
of
per-
sonal
value,
even
identity,
has
driven
some
of
them
into
an
isolationism
which
imprisons
them
as
surely
as
do
the
walls
of
a
penal
establishment;
for
others
the
sub-cultural
group
is
the
norm
to
which
they
drift
back
and
which
offers
a
career
only
too
likely
to
lead
to
recidivism.
Some
seek
punishment
for
a
long-
repressed
shame;
others
court
rejection
- a
state
with
which
they
are
more
familiar
and
therefore
more
able
to
cope
than
they
are
with
acceptance.
The
author’s
criticism,
implied
and
occasionally
overt,
of
penal
legislation
and
the
philosophy
which,
he
believes,
motivates
it
carries
with
it
no
construc-
tive
alternative
suggestion
of
policy.
Per-
haps
this
omission
is
wise,
since
Mr.
Parker
claims
no
expert
knowledge
or
scientific
study
of
criminal
behaviour.
The
challenge
which
he
presents
springs
from
personal
contact
with
discharged
prisoners
rather
than
from
any
deep
experience
in
the
field
of
criminology.
He
is
content
to
paint
a
compelling
pic-
ture
and
to
leave
the
next
step
with
the
reader.
The
book
is
very
readable.
If
not
a
weighty
contribution
to
the
social
wor-
ker’s
knowledge
and
guidance,
it
never-
theless
justifies
a
place
on
his
bookshelf.
J.G.S.
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