Book Reviews : The Shadow Jury at Work
| Date | 01 June 1975 |
| Published date | 01 June 1975 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057502200216 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The
Shadow
Jury
at
Work
Sarah
McCabe
and
Robert
Purves
Basil
Blackwell,
Oxford,
£1
This
is
the
last
of
three
papers
arising
from
a
study
of
contested
trials
undertaken
by
the
Penal
Research
Unit
at
Oxford
University.
It
describes
the
deliberations
of
30
&dquo;shadow&dquo;
juries,
which
were
recruited
in
a
similar
manner
to
their
authentic
counterparts,
and
proceeded
to
hear
the
same
evidence
in
trials
at
Courts
of
Quarter
Sessions
and
Assize.
The
shadow
juries
disagreed
with
the
&dquo;real-life&dquo;
verdicts
in
25
per
cent
of
the
cases.
There
is
a
disappointingly
brief
attempt
to
compare
the
record-
ings
made
of
the
&dquo;shadow&dquo;
juries’
proceedings
with
research
literature
concerning
the
functioning
of
small
groups.
In
other
ways
the
paper
is
fascinating,
and
answers
many
of
the
speculations
aroused
by
the
sight
of
a
jury
retiring
from
the
courtroom.
It
is
short,
readable
and
liberally
illu-
strated
with
quotations
from
tran-
scripts
of
&dquo;shadow&dquo;
juries
at
work.
PKF
The
Family
as
Patient:
The
Origin,
Nature
and
Treatment
of
Marital
and
Family
Conflicts
Dr
Horst
Richter
Souvenir
Press,
£2.00
Understanding
family
dynamics
through
home
visits
was
the
simple
methodology
of
the
early
court
missionaries.
Dr
Richter
describes the
developing
concepts
of
the
American
family
therapists,
who
have
used
their
psychoanalytical
understanding
of
the
individual
to
demonstrate
that
family
conflicts
and
conditioning
produce
symptom
and
character
neuroses
which
make
the
group,
rather
than
one
person,
the
patient.
He
hopes
thus
to
heal
the
rift
between
socio-
logical
interpretations
of
responses
to
stress
(delinquency)
and
those
centred
on
Freudian
psychotherapy,
and,
as
in
group
theory,
finds
scapegoats
in
&dquo;the
paranoid&dquo;
and
&dquo;hysterical&dquo;
family,
etc.
Dr
Richter
is
refreshingly
encouraging
to
social
workers
whose
less
formal
counselling
often
occur
in
the
crisis
intervention
work
of
probation,
or
marriage
reconciliation,
although
he
suggests
that
growing
experience
and
insight
enable
one
to
differentiate
between
the
relevant
appropriateness
of
conjoint,
con-
current
or
collaborative
therapeutic
techniques.
Like
most
specialists,
he
does
not
evaluate
other
new
interpre-
tative
theories,
such
as
therapies
based
on
transactional
analysis,
behaviourist,
Gestalt
or
Rogerian
concepts,
so
the
choice
for
the
student
is
as
great
as
the
correspond-
ing
responsibility
for
the
tutor.
Ulti-
mately,
at
the
heart
of
family
relationships
lies
the
need
to
love,
understand
and
accept
each
other
with
warmth,
patience
and
humour.
Maybe
the
constant
friendly
family
visitor
with
commonsense
and
com-
passion
is
still
the
best
peacemaker,
although
those
who
favour
confronta-
tion
will
find
Dr
Richter’s
book
a
cogent
stimulant.
YJC
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