Recent Book: The Amount of Crime: The State of Crime in Scotland
| Author | Philo |
| Published date | 01 July 1965 |
| Date | 01 July 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X6503800709 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
cause resentment and a feeling of
hopelessness-"
What's the good of
trying? They never give you a chance."
She explains with equal care, however,
that
these checks must be made, that
they are
part
of the price that has to be
paid for the former crime; she pays
tribute to the way in which most
members of the C.LD. carry out this
duty. She suggests that those advising
ex-prisoners should warn them that
these checks are inevitable, and pleads
for the checks to be made as tactfully
as possible.
Readers of the
POLICE
JOURNAL
are not going to learn anything from
the earlier
part
of the
book-it
is not
written for
them-and
indeed may
feel the author is a little naive. The
latter
part
of the book equally con-
tains no new information, but Mrs.
Bishop's skilful portrayal of the situa-
tion facing the ex-prisoner is effective
and thought-provoking. There is no
false sentimentality. There is a clear
acknowledgement of all the difficulties,
and clear recognition that many ex-
prisoners will commit further crime
whatever help is given them. Mrs.
Bishop makes no claim to have found
anostrum to convert all ex-prisoners
to an honest life. Yet her argument for
are-orientation of public attitudes
towards the ex-prisoner and for
greater readiness to treat him as a
man needing help and encouragement
convinced at least one cynical reader
that some good could emerge from
this approach, that some ex-prisoners
might indeed be kept straight who
would otherwise have relapsed.
This little book is well worth reading,
and it is well worth remembering when
seeking something which will give an
understanding of the criminal world
to those with no acquaintanceship
with it.
PHILO
THE
AMOUNT
OF
CRIME
J. V. M.
SHIELDS
and
JUDITH
A.
DUNCAN:
The State 0/ Crime in Scotland.
Tavistock Publications. l2s. 6d.
This booklet sets out to give some
assessment of the state of crime in
Scotland in the years 1954-5 and
1961
-2.
The authorscomeimmediately
to the fundamental problems facing
those who seek to use criminal statis-
tics-which
statistics are to be used and
how closely do variations in whatever
series one uses correspond to varia-
tions in the underlying facts? The
value of any analysis of statistics
depends on the answer to these ques-
tions. This study uses the figures of
"crimes
known to the
police"
and
also of
"crimes
cleared
up"
by the
police.
The first series is no doubt the best
choice, for if any other figures are used
a whole range of chance
factors-
changes in the law, changes in magis-
trates' attitudes, to mention only
two-
come into play. Nonetheless, it would
be foolish to ignore the fact that even
the figure of
"crimes
known to the
police"
is far removed from the true
figure
of
crime. Professor Rad-
zinowicz has spoken of the
"dark
329
figure"
of crime, the amount of crime
hidden below the surface like the
great bulk of an iceberg.
But the ratio of the visible to the
invisible
part
of an iceberg varies
between known limitst we as yet have
no idea of the ratio of the visible to the
invisible
part
of crime, nor have we
any ground for thinking that the ratio is
constant from year to year or place to
place. Any study such as this must be
examined with this important qualifica-
tion in
mind-and
it is only fair to say
that this is brought out quite clearly by
the authors themselves.
Once these cautionary remarks have
been made, it can be said that this
booklet is a workmanlike and useful
summary and analysis of the statistics.
It
represents preparatory work for
other research on which the authors
are engaged, and it is this latter which
will really justify the many hours of
labour devoted to these figures. In the
meantime, publication in this form
makes this useful analysis available to
others interested.
PHILO
July 1965
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