Review: The Roots of Crime
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835501900114 |
| Published date | 01 January 1955 |
| Date | 01 January 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
93
obligations of vehicle drivers generally
and
specific offences;
Part
III with
civil law principles relating to motor vehicles
and
road traffic generally;
and
Part
IV
with
road traffic insurance.
The
whole of the relevant law has been
admirably summarised
and
afeature of
the
work is
the
clarity
with
which
principles are expressed always with reference to supporting cases.
It
is rare,
indeed, to find a book where
such
aconscious effort has
been
made to
systematise road traffic law (so far as it can be systematised),
Of
particular
value are
the
sections dealing with special reasons, vicarious liability
and
contractual rights.
The
licensing of goods vehicles is
not
covered
and
the
title is misleading to
that
extent.
The
book has a really good index.
This
book will be in great
demand
when
its great
worth
has
been
realised.
THE
ROOTS OF CRIME.
Edited
by the late
Sir
Norwood
East,
M.D.,
F.R.C.P.
Butterworth &Co. (Publishers)
Ltd.
30S.
net.
This
book contains five chapters by eminentauthorities, each contributing
from
their
experience views on
what
psychiatry can offer in the
treatment
and
prevention of crime, with achapter on
the
part
played by probation.
It
is, as
the
editor points out, an
"attempt
to assist
the
reader to appreciate
the
significance
of
the social
and
psychiatric perspectives of a complex subject",
and
if no final conclusions are reached certainly
much
thought
is provoked
and
light is
thrown
on a
much
misunderstood science.
Psycho-therapy is not treated as a large-scale alternative to imprisonment;
it is recognised
that
offenders in need of psychiatric
treatment
form only a
small proportion of the whole. A plea is made for more information to be
made available to courts dealing with abnormal offenders
and
for those who
deal with
them
to follow courses of
study
in normal psychology. Care in the
selection of cases for probation is regarded as fundamental to the success of
the
system
and
the
preventive aspects of probation are emphasised.
The
final chapter, by a Metropolitan magistrate, on
"the
Magistrate
and
the
Psychiatrist" suggests
that
rational psychiatry can never be as powerful as
religious psychiatry;
that
the
offender needs
the
healing virtues of
both.
This
book will be welcomed by
the
student
of social science as well as
the
magistrate.
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