Books Received
| Published date | 01 December 1969 |
| Date | 01 December 1969 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486586900200417 |
| Subject Matter | Book Recieved |
AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Dec., 1969): 2, 4 253
able or realistic in the light of current
thinking:
"The first," he says, "is a knowledge,
more intensive
than
that
of his lay
brethren, of every form of
treatment
it is
in his power to order . . . (The second is)
that
the
professional sentencer needs an
appreciation of the social and economic
conditions
that
tend to breed crime, the
motivation of
the
criminal and some per-
ception of his psychological make up."
(pp. 102-3).
This is a refreshingly far
cry
from the
old
theory
that
judges (and, I suppose by
implication, magistrates too) should con-
sider themselves
set
apart
in some almost
god-like
way
from
the
ordinary traffic of
social life in
the
community, in order to
preserve their objectivity and guard their
infallibility.
An example of this attitude is
the
qualification which Watson mentions was
required by lay magistrates up till 1906
in England, namely
that
they
should have
at least £100 ayear in income from land.
This also served in effect
to
restrict
appointments to members of one political
party.
Another opinion of Watson's which is
worthy
of note is his objection to the
practice of police officers prosecuting in
juvenile courts. He advocates asystem
"where the prosecution is entrusted to
counsel briefed by
the
police . . . or by
the Director of Public Prosecutions."
(p. 216). He questions the objectivity of
the
police in juvenile cases,
not
their
integrity, and points
out
that
apoliceman
is not an officer of
the
court. He draws
attention to the proposal
put
forward in
the 1968 Home Office
White
Paper,
"Children in Trouble",
that
seems to go
some
way
towards achange such as he
suggests. This proposal is
that
the
police
before prosecuting ayoung person between
the ages of 14 and 17 in a juvenile court
should be required to obtain amagistrate's
approval, and
to
notify the local child
welfare authority, who would have
the
power to object to a prosecution if they
thought it inadvisable.
The last chapters of
the
book dealing
with
the
author's official visits to Germany
and Italy during
the
chaos and grimness
of the immediate post-war years appear
somewhat out of place, although the
purpose of the visits was
to
report and
advise on judicial and correctional pro-
cesses for young offenders. This seems
to be historical
rather
than
criminological
material, and adds nothing to the par-
ticular value and interest of the book,
which lie in
the
reflections on juvenile'
offenders and juvenile "justice" under
normal conditions in peacetime England.
J.
CLUNIES-ROSS,
Senior
Tutor
in Criminology,
University of Melbourne.
BOOKS
RECEIVED
Bassiouni,M.
C., Criminal
Law
and Its
Processes. Charles Thomas, Illinois,
1969, 623 pp., $14.50.
McNall, S. G., The Sociological Experience.
Little, Brown &Co., Boston, 1969,
218 pp.
Walker, N.,
Crime
and
Insanity in England,
Vol. 1 - The Historical Perspective.
Edinburgh University Press, 1968,
302 pp.
Wolfgang, M. E., Crime
and
Culture:
Essays in Honor
of
Thorsten Sellin.
Wiley, New York, 1968, 457 pp. $12.10.
Any
books
for
review should be
sent to the Ed.itor,
Department
of
Criminology,
University
of Melbourne,
Parkville,
Victoria, 3052.
The
Editor
and the
Advisory
Edi-
torial
Board do
not
accept respon-
sibility
for
any
views or
criticisms
expressed
regardin~
any
books re-
viewed in this section.
To continue reading
Request your trial