Recent Book: Attendance Centres: Attendance Centres
| Author | A. Glaister |
| Date | 01 November 1962 |
| Published date | 01 November 1962 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6203500614 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
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ATTENDANCE CENTRES
F. H.
MCCLINTOCK,
in collaboration with M. A.
WALKER
and N. C.
SAVILL:
Attendance Centres. Edited for the Institute of Criminology, University of
Cambridge, by Leon Radzinowicz,
LL.D.
Macmillan. 28s.
THIS
BOOK
IS
about attendance centres and covers almost every conceivable aspect
of the subject.
It
is the report of an exploration by the Cambridge Institute of
Criminology into the whole subject of attendance centres. Having had practical
experience as an officer-in-charge of one of these comparatively modern innova-
tions, the present writer has read and reviewed the book with more than
passing interest.
It
is necessarily a factual survey and some of the results and analyses are extra-
ordinarily detailed. The many tables of statistics can be accepted unreservedly;
they reveal a remarkably close study of facts and figures from which useful
conclusions may be drawn.
Many persons connected with the centres, magistrates and their clerks, police,
probation officers and children's officers were interviewed and much detail
was abstracted from case papers and records culled from research carried out
at nine attendance centres in different parts of the country.
Everyone connected in any way with the work of juvenile courts is well aware
that
s. 19 of the Magistrates Courts Act, 1948, introduced this fresh approach
to the treatment of young offenders; and for knowing this single fact, together
with a few more meagre details such as hours of attendance, age and other
qualifications, many would obtain full marks in an examination. But is it
sufficient to be so complacent, to know just so much and no more? How many
have taken pains to find out just exactly what an attendance centre is, how it
functions, how it can best be utilized and how it is geared to the present trend
in dealing with juvenile delinquents? This book provides all the answers.
The opening chapters are devoted to work done behind the scenes both in and
out
of Parliament for upwards of 20 years before 1948, which eventually resulted
in the establishment of the centres.
The reactions of the courts to this method of treatment have been studied,
showing their thoughts on how they considered theory should be translated
into practice and on what they expected the centres to achieve. The staffing
and actual operation of the centres have received careful scrutiny; whilst from
the nine selected areas the social backgrounds of the offenders and their records
have been meticulously examined.
It
is possible to conclude from this almost
microscopic investigation
that
the predictions made and the views expressed on
the effectiveness of the centres shown in the concluding chapter are worthy of
acceptance.
The volume makes useful reading, creating as it does a general picture of the
whole complex problem posed by the recalcitrant juvenile together with the
thoughts and ideas in the minds of those so intimately connected with the sub-
ject. Attendance centres are thus presented with a full background of inter-
related material putting them in the proper perspective which is so vitally
necessary.
It
is a
book
which ought to be read by everyone who is even remotely con-
nected with the treatment of young offenders. A minor criticism is of the
number of footnotes scattered liberally about the pages. Although fulfilling a
service, to break off in the middle of a sentence to finda footnoteand from there
to another reference in the
book
is frustrating and prevents continuous thought
and concentration. A.
GLAISTER
November-December 1962 432
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