Jude McCulloch and Dean Wilson, Pre-crime: Pre-emption, precaution and the future
| Published date | 01 June 2016 |
| Author | James Oleson |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865815616534 |
| Date | 01 June 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
safeguard the public? This chapter revolves around the debate over the single beat vs. the
double beat patrol deployment policy. The double beat patrol deployment policy
requires agencies to assign two officers to handle particular situations/assignments or
patrol specific locations. Several benefits can be attributed to the double beat patrol
policy—enhancement of officer safety, reduction in complaints against the police, and
enhances observational capabilities. The debate over the single beat vs. the double beat
patrol was sparked by the murder of a young HKP constable who was on duty at the
time of his death.
Policing computer crime in Hong Kong is the theme in chapter 5. The chapter exten-
sively examines the emergence and distribution of computer crime in Hong Kong, and as
Wong remarks, ‘‘the most prevalent computer crime category is hacking, or ‘unauthor-
ized access to computer by telecommunication’’’ (p. 172). In chapter 6, the text further
provides a succinct overview of police powers to intercept communication surveillance
ordinance (ICO) in Hong Kong. This discussion brings to the forefront the conventional
Chinese concepts of qing,li, and fa, which mean ‘‘compassion,’’ ‘‘rite,’’ and ‘‘law’’,
respectively, to foster better understanding of the legitimacy of the ICO. The author
concludes that the ICO legislation process and statutory content did not satisfy the
standards of the three conventional Chinese concepts. Finally, in chapter 7, the
author compares the Chinese Public Security Bureau to the HKP. By doing that,
Wong highlights reform measures adopted by the two institutions as well as reflecting
on the institutions’ respective accomplishments.
My overall impression of this book is mixed. The author has to be commended for
producing the first scholarly work on the HKP. In addition, Wong demonstrated exten-
sive knowledge in the system of policing in Hong Kong by providing exhaustive infor-
mation about the HKP. He needs to be applauded because, most often, comparative
writers do not provide much detail about the subject matter. However, there are several
flaws in this book that reduce its value as a comparative policing text. These issues relate
to the organization and presentation of materials in the text. First, the chapters are not
organized in a coherent manner, and the author struggles to present the amount of
information he has about the HKP. This results in a presentation of materials in the
book that sometimes seems arbitrary. Second, the author has a lot of footnotes on each
page, and that interrupts the flow of the text. Third, and relatedly, a few of the footnotes
are in Chinese language, making these references inaccessible to some readers.
Jude McCulloch and Dean Wilson, Pre-crime: Pre-emption, precaution and the future.
Routledge: Abingdon, 2016; 154 pp. ISBN 9781138781696, £90.00 (hbk)
Reviewed by: James Oleson, University of Auckland, New Zealand
The prediction of future crime is one of the enduring challenges of criminology. Ever
since Lombroso linked the median occipital fossa in a brigand’s skull to congenital
criminality in 1872, criminologists have endeavoured to understand the aetiology of
criminal behaviour. Today, the proliferation of risk prediction instruments has revolu-
tionised criminal justice systems around the world, producing a ‘new penology’ of risk
management (Feeley & Simon, 1992). The emergence of pre-crime – science fiction
Book Reviews 301
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