A Cure for Complacency
| Published date | 01 December 1959 |
| Date | 01 December 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455055900900404 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
51
for
the
supervising
officer
to
apply
for
its
extension,
but
this
was
wisely
rejected
as
it
was
obviously
likely
to
create
difficult
situations.
The
period
of
after-care,
it
will
be
noted,
is
to
date
from
the
date
of
release
which
will
remove
the
present
anomaly
in
borstal
after-care
whereby
the
boy
who
serves
the
longest
period
in
the
institution,
and
is
presumably
the
most
difficult,
has
the
shortest
period
of
after-care
while
the
boy
who
earns
an
early
release
must
face
a
very
long
period
of
supervision.
At
no
point
did
the
sub-committee
discuss
who
should
undertake
the
after-care-it
simply
refers
to
the
Probation
Service
automatically
in
this
connection.
It
considers
that
after-care
following
detention
centre
treatment
&dquo;should
not
be
a
great
additional
burden
once
the
Service
can
be
brought
up
to
strength&dquo;.
The
after-care
of
those
leaving
custodial
training
should
not
in
total
involve
more
than
is
at
present
involved
in
borstal
after-care.
The
committee
makes
no
comment
on
the
suggestion
that
failure
under
supervision
might
be
reported
to
and
dealt
with
by
the
magistrates
in
court,
but
regards
recall
as
still
the
only
appropriate
sanction.
New
Legislation
The
Queen’s
speech
at
the
opening
of
the
new
Parlia-
ment
left
little
doubt
that
these
proposals,
so
thoroughly
endorsed,
will
be converted
into
legislation
and
that
at
the
same
time,
opportunity
will
also
be taken
to
act
on
the
recommendation
of
the
earlier
sub-committee
of
the
Advisory
Council,
with
regard
to
the
extended
use
of
statutory
after-care
for
certain
additional
categories
of
discharged
prisoners.
The
recommendation
in
this
case
was,
however,
that
the
extension
of
after-care
should
be
graded
to
the
availability
of
probation
officers
to
deal
with
.
it,
and
it
is
to
be
hoped
that
the
legislators
will
keep
this
in
mind.
Perhaps
permissive
legislation,
with
the
power
to
invoke
it
when
conditions
permit,
will
be
the
answer.
This
report,
like
the
previous
one
just
referred
to.
is
to
be
welcomed
as
demonstrating
the
determination
of
the
Home
Office
to
continue
on
a
progressive
path
and
not
to
be
driven
by
panic
or
pressure
to
any
return
to
negative
methods
in
the
treatment
of
offenders.
Frank
Dawtry.
A
CURE
FOR
COMPLACENCY
By
PETER
WESTLAND
IF
comprehensiveness
is
a
virtue,
then
Lady
Wootton’s
latest
contribution
to
the
social
sciences,
Social
Science
and
Social
Pathology
(Allen
&
Unwin,
35/-),
is
excellent.
It
is
perhaps
the
most
comprehensive
study
of
social
pathology
and
the
social
scientist’s
attempts
to
combat
it
that
has
yet
appeared
in
this
country,
and
her
book
is
&dquo;a
resounding
self
evident
hit&dquo;.
She
has
elevated
socio-
logical
writing
to
a
high
literary
standard.
One
cannot
however
go
much
further,
for
style
does
not
compensate
for
prejudice
and
this
book,
superb
as
it
is
in
much
of
its
detail
and
content,
is
marred
at
times
by
falling
below
the
standard
of
objectivity
which
Lady
Wootton
so
strongly
demands
of
others.
It
is
not
a
work
of
research
but
rather
an
assessment
of
researches
undertaken
by
others.
She
describes
the
social
pathology
of
contemporary
Britain
and
individual
statistical
studies
are
analysed
in
an
attempt
to
gauge
its
general
extent.
Deviant
behaviour,
from
dangerous
driv-
ing
to
unmarried
motherhood,
is
charted,
but
only
in
the
criminological
field
is
there
sutTcient
information
for
a
detailed
study
of
&dquo;causes&dquo;
and
cures.
Lady
Wootton
examines
twelve
criminological
hypotheses concerning
the
&dquo;causes&dquo;
of
crime
and
for
this
section
alone
the
book
will
probably
become
a
standard
work
of
criminology.
She
goes
to
extraordinary
lengths
to
topple
the
sandcastles
of
theories
and
causation,
a
necessary
procedure
in
the
development
of
her
argument
but
perhaps
not
so
neces-
sary
when
one
knows
that
most
contemporary
crimino-
logists
already
view
causal
theories
of
delinquency
with
considerable
reservation.
The
philosophical
and
scientific
concepts
underlying
these
theories
are
examined
ruthlessly
and
emerge
considerably
battered
at
the
end
of
the
examination.
Cause
or
Association?
If
causal
theories
of
delinquency
have
little
scientific
validity, a
limitation
of
such
theories,
to
a
description
of
phenomena
which
may
be
associated
with
delinquency,
is
proving
much
more
valuable
in
practical
terms
and
is
scientifically
more
tenable.
A
broken
home
may
be
asso-
ciated
with
delinquency
but
we
could
not
say
that
such
a
home
is
the
&dquo;cause&dquo;
of
it
unless
we
could
show
that
there
were
no
children
from
broken
homes
who
were
not
delinquent.
Lady
Wootton
exposes
unsound
diagnostic
thinking
and
irresponsible
labelling
-
what
is
a
&dquo;broken
home&dquo;
anyway’?
Association
theories
are
the
basis
of
prediction
studies
and
there
is
an
excellent
survey
of
different
studies
in
different
countries
and
an
evaluation
of
their
results
and
potentialities.
The
Mannheim-Wilkins
method
which
is
used
in
predicting
the
probable
success
of
borstal
boys
seems
to
be
the
best
we
have;
it
has
been
proved
to
be
more
reliable
than
most
other
prediction
tables
and
decidedly
more
accurate
than
assessments
made
by
borstal
governors,
housemasters,
psychologists
and
other
experienced
judges
of
character.
Lady
Wootton
concludes
from
this
study
that
&dquo;it
is
from
their
success
in
prediction
more
than
from
anything
else
that
the
social
sciences
derive
their
title
to
rank
as
genuinely
scientific&dquo;.
This
raises
the
problem
of
the
type
of
question
that
might
rightly
be
put
to
the
social
scientist
and
there
are
some
valuable
suggestions
for
future
research
on
the
subject.
On
Psychiatry
The
second
part
of
the book
is
much
more
readable
and
controversial.
It
deals
with
&dquo;attitudes
towards
unwelcome
deviants
and
in
particular
with
the
tremendous
revolution
both
in
the
world
at
large
and
among
professional
social
workers
in
particular,
which
is
due
to
the
rise
of
psych-
iatry&dquo;.
She
adds
that
it
is
in
this
section
&dquo;that
the
reader
will
find
the
text
most
strongly
coloured
by
the
author’s
personal
judgments&dquo;.
In
fact
it
becomes
a
full
scale
offen-
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