Review: The Child and the Court
| Published date | 01 January 1960 |
| Date | 01 January 1960 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201836002400112 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Review
THE
CHILD
AND
THE
COURT, by W. E. Cavanagh. Victor Gollancz
Ltd.
Price
21S.
Having read eulogistic reports of this book we approached it with some
interest to find whether the authoress had anything new on
the
ever topical
question of juvenile delinquency.
We must confess that we found the first four chapters rather dull.
They
set
out
the law of summary jurisdiction in Magistrates' and Juvenile Courts in
a pleasing enough style and one that no doubt will be acceptable, if not
enjoyable, to laymen.
There
are, however, a number of mis-statements of
law, and the method of treatment of the subject has inevitably meant that
much detail has been omitted; this section of the book is not one for lawyers.
The
remainder of the book is concerned with the relationship between the
Juvenile Court and the child and between the Court and the social services and
here Miss Cavanagh is on ground more familiar to her as Lecturer in Social
Studies at Birmingham University. She does, however, display some
confusion of thought about the role of a police officer. "Police Officers", she
says,
"are
not concerned with and have no official status in regard to immoral
or anti-social behaviours as such,
but
only such behaviour as is against the
law". Miss Cavanagh bases on this a criticism of Police Juvenile Liaison
schemes,
but
she has apparently overlooked the fact that the primary duty of
the police officer is to prevent crime; he is, indeed, a social worker of
the
highest importance.
The
work of the women police alone exposes the fallacy
of
the
authoress's argument. She may be right in opposing police
"supervision" of unconvicted persons,
but
surely not for
the
reason she gives.
Miss Cavanagh has no serious criticism of the way our Juvenile Courts
work,
but
she makes some interesting objections and suggestions on points of
detail.
In
particular she emphasises the fact that many children have little
idea of what is happening in Court and no understanding at all of the
procedure. This, of course, is true and a more generous granting of legal aid
might perhaps be the remedy.
We think, too, that Miss Cavanagh is absolutely right in her condemna-
tion of the use by Juvenile Court Chairmen of words beyond the understand-
ing of the children before the Court. Words like
"adjourn",
"adaptable",
"justification" convey little to a nine-year old and are far too freely used.
Indeed, Miss Cavanagh shows a great deal of insight into the working of a
child's mind.
With
all this, however, little
that
is really new is contributed to the
solution of the problem of juvenile delinquency and we commend
the
book
more for its extremely fair and thorough study of the working of a Juvenile
Court and of the young folk who come before it, and for some interesting
suggestions for a closer liaison between
the
Courts and
the
Welfare Services.
80
To continue reading
Request your trial