Reviews : After Homicide: Practical and Political Responses to Bereavement Paul Rock Clarendon Press, 1998; pp342; £40.00, hbk
| Author | David Webb |
| Published date | 01 September 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059904600317 |
| Date | 01 September 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
205
agenda
which
values
rights
and
justice
for
all.
I
make
no
apologises
for
sounding
like
a
copy-editor:
this
is
a
bloody
good
book.
Ian
Paylor
Lecturer
in
Applied
Social
Science,
Lancaster
University
After
Homicide:
Practical
and
Political
Responses
to
Bereavement
Paul
Rock
Clarendon
Press,
1998;
pp342;
£40.00,
hbk
&dquo;We
may
not
be
professionals
but
we
are
the
only
ones
who
know
what
murder
is
really
like&dquo;.
Being
a
professional,
not
a
survivor
(I
work
as
a
probation
officer
on
the
lifer
unit
at
Wormwood
Scrubs),
I
know
that
I
have
much
to
learn
about
the
impact
of
my
clients’
offences.
The
question
of
the
authority
of
lived
experience
is
at
the
heart
of
this
compelling
book,
which
begins
by
giving
the
legal
context
of
homicide,
summarises
the
peculiar
phenomenology
of
the
violently
bereaved,
and
then
sets
out
the
history
of
the
key
UK
survivor
groups
(notably
Parents
of
Murdered
Children,
Support
After
Murder
and
Manslaughter,
Justice
For
Victims,
and
Victim
Support).
The
book
therefore
covers
a
sprawling
territory.
The
comprehensive
footnotes
and
huge
range
of
references
indicate
the
scope
and
energy
of
Rock’s
work.
The
opening
chapter,
giving
the
legal
context,
provides
a
useful
summary
for
non-lawyers
of
the
technical
differences
between
murder
and
manslaughter.
The
chapter’s
logic
seems
to
me
to
lead
to
the
conclusion,
borne
out
by
my
own
experience,
that
the
difference
between
murder
and
manslaughter
is
often
so
arbitrary
that
the
mandatory
life
sentence
for
murder
is
more
random
than
just.
The
book
considers
how
homicide
affects
the
victims’
loved
ones,
the
survivors.
Fundamental
is
the
sense
that
if
you
are
not
a
survivor
then
you
don’t
know.
Therefore
survivors
resent
being
told
how
they
should
feel
or,
for
example,
that
it
is
time
to
move
on.
Credit
is
usually
given
to
those
few
offenders
who
plead
guilty
to
murder,
some
of
whom
state
that
they
want
to
spare
themselves
and
the
victim’s
family
the
trauma
of
a
trial.
Yet
survivors
then
feel
that
they
have
not
had
their
day
in
court
and
details
of
the
case
may
be
lost
to
them.
Rock
describes
the
many
practical
and
emotional
problems
facing
survivors,
which
include
being
denied
access
to
the
body
or
the
death
scene;
marginalisation
from
the
legal
process;
and
lack
of
information.
I
was
struck
by
the
parallels
between
the
experiences
of
the
survivor
and
the
offender.
Lifers
often
complain
about
having
been
marginalised
by
their
legal
team,
and
about
the
police
and
prosecution
controlling
and
distorting
information;
their
families
are
also
disrupted
by
their
absence.
A
recurring
demand
of
the
survivor-activists
reported
by
Rock
is
for
at
least
parity
with
the
offender
in
the
way
they
are
treated.
What
cannot
tactfully
be
acknowledged
is
how
much
they
already
share
in
what
they
experience
after
the
offence.
Common
themes
which
permeate
Rock’s
chronicling
of
the
self-help
survivor
groups
are
the
authenticity
of
the
survivors’
experiences,
the
intensity
of
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