Recent Book: Contemporary Policing
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8505800315 |
| Published date | 01 July 1985 |
| Date | 01 July 1985 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
remarkably reminiscent of James McClure's Cop World and Spike Island has that
blend of observation of the organisation and reported comment from serving police
officers which makes a good comparative policing book so valuable.
Police officers are above all pragmatists, and operational and organizational
structures are what they want to know about; but it is the comment that adds the
information about the flavour.
Not that the book is without its faults. The sections on training and promotion
are particularly sparse and the abortive attempts of Major General Douglas
MacArthur to impose the American "Police System" on the Japanese during the
occupation of
Japan
after the Second World War, are regrettably skated over. The
photographs are little more than "tourist snaps" and add nothing to the book, save
probably to increase its price, a hefty £19.95 in the UK.
Students of comparative policing are rare in the UK, there being no Colleges of
Criminal Justice and little encouragement for officers, save a few of higher rank, to
seek this type of knowledge. Nevertheless, this is a well written, often entertaining
and most informative book, which has gone a great deal further than to
superficially scratch the surface of the nature of Japanese policing. A psychologist
who knows something about policing is clearly an
author
to be reckoned with.
I. K. McKENZIE
EDITED
BY J. R.
THACKRAH:
Contemporary Policing.
London: Sphere Reference Paperback. £4.95.
This book contains 10 articles written in 1983by members of the academic staff of
the Police Staff College, Bramshill. There does not seem to be any particular
pattern, except concern for the problems of policing in Britain. The editor has
provided an introduction and a conclusion but no linking narrative. The result is
like a bumper version of a learned journal. Some of the articles are rather
superficial, for example, an attempt to justify teaching economics to police officers
raises more questions
than
it answers. Two articles describe research - both
tending to show that most police officers share similar personality traits - they are
"impersonal, matter of fact, emotionally hard, decisive and somewhat reserved".
There must be many police officers who could suggest why this should be so, are
there none of the staff of the Police College who could have offered a view?
A wide ranging article on stress management by
John
Brindley aims to help
police officers to come to terms with stress and highlights the importance of the
relationship between boss and subordinate in determining the stress levels in middle
ranking officers. He advocates physical exercise and a sensible diet as a means of
increasing tolerance to stress - overweight desk-bound seniorofficers take note!
Other writers deal with police-community relations, race relations and public
disorder. The conclusion by
John
Thackrah, apparently written in January, 1985, is
thought-provoking but does not seem to relate to the earlier papers.
That there are a lot of talented people at the Police Staff College who have
something to say isclear, for this is not the first set of their papers to be published.
However, it does seem a pity that there cannot be a more co-ordinated approach to
their writings so that they can deal with the many problems facing the police in
more depth. M.E.D.
HERBERT
ELDERHERTZ,
ROLAND
J. COLE, BONNIE BERK:
The Containment of
Organised
Crime.
Lexington Books. £17.50.
The contents of this book are factual and are based on an independent review and
assessment of the development of the Arizona Organised Crime Project by the
authors, which was included as a provision when the project was established by the
Arizona Legislature in 1980. The authors were then of the opinion that what they
learnt from this Organised Crime Project could well apply throughout the United
States.
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