Book Reviews : A Troubled Area Notes on Notting Hill Pearl Jephcott Faber 25s
| Published date | 01 September 1965 |
| Date | 01 September 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455056501100313 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
117
side
institutions,
and
although
it
is,
as
far
as
it
goes,
a
progressive
and
valuable
tool,
it
does
not
go
far
enough.
It
tends
to
overlook
the
wider
social
context
within
which
people
live.
Chapter
10
sees
an
important
future
for
probation,
but
as
one
part
of
a
many-pronged
attack
on
the
roots
of
the
crime
problem
in
the
community
and
the
group,
as
well
as
the
individual&dquo;.
But
when
one
turns
to
Chap-
ter
10,
the
principal
change
to
be
found
in
the
work
of
probation
officers
is
that
they
should
be
taught
group
work
and
that
they
should
work
alongside
other
social
workers
concerned
with
neighbour-
hood
problems
in
order
to
avoid
over-
lapping
and
conflict.
Dr.
Jones
is,
how-
ever,
alive
to
the
danger
of
the
continual
addition
of
further
responsibilities
to
those
already
held
by
probation
officers.
it
would
have
been
interesting
to
have
had
his
comments
on
the
implications
for
the
service
of
Family
Courts.
There
is
much
to
commend
in
this
hook.
Dr.
Jones
rightly
considers
the
attitudes
of
the
criminals
and
those
who
have
to
deal
with
them,
with
the
implied
demand
that
we
should
discover
how
we
are
regarded
by
the
other
side.
Through-
out
the
book
he
is
suggesting
causes
of
delinquency
in
a
wide
context
and
I
think
that
at
the
end
one
can
see
why
he
writes
that
the
crime
problem
is
very
complicated.
&dquo;Many
causes
are
at
work,
intricately
inter-woven
one
with
another.
We
cannot
afford
to
abandon
the
analysis
of
this
aetiological
complex,
although
its
elucidation
may
take
a
long
time.
Mean-
while,
it
is
open
to
us
to
take
some
action
of
a
prophylactic
kind.
For
if
we
wait
until
all
is
known,
we
may
wait
too
long&dquo;.
Such
action
will
be
accepted
more
readily
by
the
man
in
the
street
who
has
read
this
book.
It
deserves
a
wide
circulation.
H.
HEAP
A
Troubled
Area
Notes
on
Notting
Hill
Pearl
Jephcott
Faber
25s.
For
anyone
who
has
not
had
time
to
read
the
Milner
Holland
report
in
detail,
this
book,
published
last
November,
gives
a
close-up
of
what
overcrowding
and
bad
housing
mean
in
human
terms
to
the
multi-racial
population
of
a
few
streets
in
a
small
area
of
North
Ken-
sington.
It
supplies
facts,
figures
and
illustrations
about
the
residents,
their
rents,
living
space,
security
of
tenure,
amenities
(lack
of),
play
facilities
and
opportunities
for
self-help.
The
survey
on
which
all
this
is
based
was
undertaken
by
Miss
Jephcott
for
the
Committee
of
the
North
Kensington
Family
Study
after
the
1958
racial
dis-
turbances
and
the
revelation
of
the
Rachman
scandals
in
the
area,
which
were
symptomatic
of
the
underlying
depression.
Carried
out
between
May
1962
and
November
1963,
it
includes
a
detailed
analysis
of
20
multi-occupied
houses,
containing
about
124
homes
and
about
342
people.
Miss
Jephcott
has
looked
at
all
aspects
of
their
lives,
from
shared,
lockless,
leaking
lavatories
to
the
fire
risks
of
unguarded
paraffin
stoves,
the
lack
of
taps,
ventilation,
cooking
facilities
and
food
storage
space;
the
misery
of
illness
and
shift-work
for
a
one-room
family
is
not
forgotten,
nor
the
special
poverty
of
the
single
girls
with
babies
who
seek
anonymity
in
the
shifting
population
of
the
area.
Two
things
stand
out
among
the
con-
clusions.
One
is
that
squalor,
frustration
and
unrest
might
be
relieved,
even
while
we
are
waiting
for
more
houses
to
be
built,
by
accelerated
efforts
on
-the
part
of
local
authorities
to
insist
on
adequate
running
water,
water
closets
and
garbage
disposal
on
the
one
hand,
playgrounds,
nursery
schools
and
recreation
centres
on
the
other.
The
second
is
that
little
community
spirit
seems
to
exist
naturally
in
such
a
district,
where
many
families
come
and
go
and
old
people
cling
to
their
rooms
and
mind
their
own
busi-
ness.
Most
households
are
preoccupied
with
their
own
burden
of
problems.
But
Miss
Jephcott
believes
that
a
lot
could
be
done
to
improve
the
situation
through
community
workers
and
authorities
en-
couraging
self
help,
whether
by
forming
play
groups,
Tenants’
Associations
or
local
committees
to
tackle
the
squalor
and
foster
high
expectation.
Probation
officers
will
be
familiar
with
the
kind
of
apathy
and
undirected
aggression
that
this
sort
of
squalor
en-
genders
and
the
survey
comments
that
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