Recent Book: Criminology
| Published date | 01 April 1980 |
| Author | Ken Russell |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8005300227 |
| Date | 01 April 1980 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
EDWIN
H.
SllTHERI.AND
AND
DONAI.D
R.
CRESSEY:
Criminology.
10th Edition. J. B. Lipincott.
The 10th edition of Criminology,
which runs to 714 pages, is the most
extensive revision undertaken of this
monumental work since it appeared first
in 1934 under the sole authorship of
the late Edwin Sutherland. internation-
ally renowned for his work on White
Collar Crime.
During the last decade the field of
criminology has been changing at an
accelerated rate due to the change in
emphasis from behavioural science to
policy issues. Criminology today is much
more orientated towards law and public
policy.
This
theoretical
area
is
supplemented
by
more
practical
objectives of how to reduce the incidence
of delinquency and crime, how to make
the criminal justice system more rational
or fair, and how to influence legislation.
This edition of Criminology, like its
predecessors
emphasizes
the
organisation and systematisation of
knowledge and has a sound social-
psychology and sociological perspective.
Professor Cressey. the sole
author
since
Sutherland's death, organises knowledge
about
criminological questions to
provide asound theoretical foundation.
Although the text is heavily American
orientated, international sources are
quoted. Amongst the British academics
cited are Box, Cain. Young, Whitaker
and Wilkins.
Policing has a chapter on its own and
this raises all the current issues and
drawing on the appropriate sources. The
book has two major sections: The Study
of Delinquency and Crime and The
Processing of Delinquency and Crime.
That
Criminology has matured and
developed over fifty years is a testimony
to a comprehensive and scholarly yet
readable text. KEN
RUSSELL
FRANK
R.
PRASSEL:
Criminal Law. Justice and Society.
Goodyear Publishing Co.
This introductory text book on
criminal law seeks to explain substantive
criminal law alonside and inter-related to
concepts of justice and in its social and
constitutional setting. It is a bold
attempt, which largely succeeds, to give
perspective to legal measures. So often
writers on the criminal law are content to
set
out
the letter of the law without giving
it perspective which for the police is a
much too narrow approach. The law
after all is not to beseen as an end in itself
but as a social tool to enable society to
manage its affairs, including its inter-
personal relationships, in acivilized way.
Frank
Prassel lists his objectives under
fifteen headings from explaining the role
of law as a means of social control to
delineating the importance of the stateas
both victim and offender. On the latter
point he raises issues of considerable
contemporary importance by pointing
to the overwhelming power of modern
states, even democracies, and the danger
to the civil rights of the individual. A
good example of his treatment of the
subject matter concerns organised crime
as a social phenomenon and the use of
the controversial charge of conspiracy to
combat it.
This book has an excellent glossary of
terms, a bibliography, tables of cases,
articles, readings, and statutes, as well as
asatisfactory index, and although it is set
in the United States system there is much
in it for anyone interested in the
common
law and its modern workings. J.C.A.
THE LADS
KENNETH
W.
ANDREW:
Diary
of
an ex-Hong Kong Cop.
United Writers -Cornwall. £4.25.
Reading this book reminded me of a Inspector in the Hong Kong Force. The
reunion gathering for retired policemen.
author
retired in 1938 and is now in his
On these occasions experiences and eighties. It is no ordinary set of
anecdotes flow liberally
among
those experiences. There are tales of murder
present. This book is a collection of and violence, as one might expect, but
experiences written by a former Chief there is much more. Lessons on the
199 PoliceJournal
April
1980
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