Book Reviews : Violence and Responsibility Ed. Robert L. Sadoff John Wiley & Sons Ltd, £21 (Hard- cover), £10.50 (Soft)
| Author | Peter R. Day |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057902600112 |
| Published date | 01 March 1979 |
| Date | 01 March 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
34
Violence
and
Responsibility
Ed.
Robert
L.
Sadoff
John
Wiley
&
Sons
Ltd,
£21
(Hard-
cover),
£10.50
(Soft)
This
is
a
collection
of
nine
papers
given
at
two
conferences
held
in
Phil-
adelphia,
USA,
in
1976.
They
were
given
by
a
group
consisting
of
a
law
professor,
judge,
neurologist,
crimino-
logist
and
five
psychiatric
specialists;
the
editor
is
a
forensic
psychiatrist.
The
principal
themes
are
violence
in
families
and
general
violence
in
rela-
tion
to
individual
and
communal
res-
ponsibility.
As
the
editor
points
out,
some
of
the
papers
are
addressed
to
the
medical
profession
mainly
and
I
should
add
that
two
chapters
are
con-
cerned
with
the
need
for
new
legal
procedures
in
the
USA
aimed
at
pro-
tection
from
and
prevention
of
phys-
ical
abuse
(Chapter
7)
and
medical-
legal
aspects
of
violence
towards
children
(Chapter
8).
But
I
found
these
papers
relevant
to
British
ex-
perience
and
will
refer
to
one
of
them
again.
Most
of
the
papers
make
the
book
of
interest
to
non-medical
and
British
readers.
For
example,
the
psycholog-
ical
and
social
roots
of
violence
are
analysed
and
biological,
psychological
and
socio-economic
perspectives
on
violent
behaviour
are
discussed
in
an
introductory
paper
by
a
psychiatrist
(Psycho-social
roots
of
violence,
Chap-
ter
1).
Psycho-dynamic
aspects
are
discussed
by
Seymour
Halleck,
an
ex-
pert
on
law
and
psychiatry,
and
he
refers
to
social
and
cultural
factors
(Chapt~r
4).
The
paper
by
the
judge
is
worth
mentioning
here.
It
is
based
on
her
experience
of
people
vulner-
able
to
violence-the
institutionalised,
the
old,
and
the
mentally
disordered.
Her
paper
(Chapter
7)
challenges
pro-
fessionals
to
work
with
and
in
co-op-
eration
with
the
law
and
is
relevant
to
important
controversies
and
search-
ing
discussions
in
this
country.
I
hope
my
account
of
this
collection
and
the
selection
I
have
made
is
suffi-
cient
to
justify
recommending
this
book
at
least
for
library
or
office
pur-
chase.
I
found
it
an
illuminating
and
scholarly
collection
which
was
clearly
adressed to
practical
issues.
PETER
R.
DAY
Prisons
Past
and
Future
Edited
for
the
Howard
League
by
John
C.
Freeman
Heinemann,
£12.50
In
one
of
the
essays
in
this
book,
Terence
Morris
describes
succinctly
the
parlous
state
of
our
prisons.
Firstly,
he
says
that
because
of
the
confusion
in
their
objectives
they
achieve
virtually
nothing-neither
det-
errence
nor
reform;
secondly,
they
are
often
not
able
to
make
even
a
basic
provision
for the
physical
decen-
cies
of
life;
and
thirdly,
the
prison
system
contributes
to
social
divisions
because
of
the
differential
liability
of
particular
social
classes
to
suffer
im-
prisonment
at
all.
This
confirmation
by
an
eminent
criminologist
of
what
common
sense
has
always
told
us
about
imprison-
ment
may
be
initially
gratifying
but
it
is
also
enormously
depressing.
Moreover,
it
is
a
depression
that
is
immediately
re-inforced
reading
Pre-
ben
Wolf’s
essay
on
&dquo;The
Effect
of
Prison
on
Criminality&dquo;.
Preben
Wolf
is
a
professor
of
sociology
at
the
University
of
Copenhagen
and
in
his
contribution
to
this
book
he
refers
extensively
to
the
work
of
Ulla
Bond-
eson
in
Sweden.
Mrs
Bondeson
has
carried
out
a
series
of
empirical
in-
vestigations
since
the
middle
sixties
and
her
basic
hypothesis
has
been
that
the
negative
effects
of
imprison-
ment--stigmatisation,
alienation,
etc.
-by
far
outweigh
any
positive
at-
tempts
at
rehabilitation.
Wolf
thinks
that
Mrs
Bondeson’s
hypotheses
have
been
borne
out
by
her
empirical
work,
and
he
notes
that
they
have
led
her
to
endorse
Leslie
Wilkins’
1969
dictum-&dquo;the
least
that
it
is
pos-
sible
to
do
with
offenders,
the
better
the
outcome!
&dquo;
Does
anyone
now
doubt
that
this
is
in
fact
the
case?
Or
that
current
attempts
to
develop
new
forms
of
welfare
involvement
in
institutions-
increascd
counselling,
the
develop-
ment
of
prison
officer
schemes,
etc
are
any
more
than
window
dressing?
Without
wishing
to
belittle
either
the
work
or
the
motivations
of
those
who
continue
to
try
and
humanise
these
institutions,
it
is
difficult
to
avoid
the
hard
conclusion
that
our
society
has
placed
them
in
an
impossible
situa-
tion.
Daily
we
expect
them
to
prop
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