C U R R E N T PUBLICATIONS ABSTRACTS
the book. The historical significance of
criminal statistics and the inadequacies of
these data are presented next. Quantitative
analyses of crime follow, and a model for
time-series analysis is developed. The police
and crime, including comparisons with other
countries, resources, ratio of police strength
to crime rate, and expenditures are discussed. The role of courts in specific and
total offenses are examined in two chapters.
People tried and convicted among the various states are the focus of offenders in the
higher courts. Imprisonment trends and
cost, long-term correlates of crime, environment and crime, as well as convictions are
presented in the next four chapters. A
concluding chapter discusses crime and socioeconomic change.
There are extensive tables and figures
displayed throughout the volume. These can
be easily located in a contents listing. Seven
appendixes give additional data. Endnotes
and an index complete the book. (OSB)
Victims of Crime by National Institute of
Justice.
U.S. Department of Justice (National Institute of Justice, 1981, 243 pp., soflcover-free.
Eight papers on victim-related research
are presented. These were commissioned by
the Office of Research Programs, National
Institute of Justice, in an effort to stimulate
basic victimology research oriented towards
explaining the causes and nature of the
victimization process or event. Part I provides an introduction that gives background
information on victimology and the development of the present research papers and
workshop. There is a section on research
agenda recommendations. Part II presents
eight papers by authors that include Gottfredson, Skogan, Singer, Block, Garofalo,
Sparks, Schneider, and Biderman. Each
develops an issue in victimology: etiology,
assessing behavior, homogeneous victimoffender populations, victim-offender dynamics in violent crime, fear of crime,
multiple victimization, methodology prob-
19 l
lems in research, and sources of data for
victimology. An appendix that lists the
workshop sessions concludes the book.
(OSB)
Coping with Imprisonment edited by Nicolette Parisi.
Sage Publications, Inc. (275 South Beverly
Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90212),
1982, 160 pp., hardcover--$16.00, softcover--S7.95.
Perspectives in Criminal Justice 3, one of
the Sage Criminal Justice series, focuses on
prisoners and issues involved with coping
with imprisonment. An introduction that
examines pressures of and responses to
imprisonment is followed by four individually authored articles on stress and coping
strategies: John Gibbs looks at going from
the street to jail; Daniel Lockwood discusses the contribution of sexual harassment
to stress and coping in confinement; Sue
Mahan takes on a comparison of prison riots
at Attica and Sant Fe; and Gennaro Vito
and Judith Kaci write about prisoners'
rights. Sentencing and parole issues complete the volume and are the focus of three
articles: Timothy Flanagan examines parole
decisions; Lynne Goodstein presents a
quasi-experimental test of prisoner reactions to determinate and indeterminate sentencing; and N.E. Schafer discusses good
time and prison misconduct. (OSB)
Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and
Law by Larry J. Siegel and Joseph J. Senna.
West Publishing Company (50 West Kellogg
Boulevard, P.O. Box 3525, St. Paul, Minnesota 55165), 1981, 542 pp., hardcover-$20.95.
The American juvenile system is comprehensively and objectively described. The
concepts and theory of delinquency, the
juvenile system, and the rights and responsibilities of children under law are presented
in seven major parts. Each part is devoted
to special issues. Part I discusses juvenile
192
C U R R E N T P U B L I C A T I O N S ABSTRACTS
delinquency in America and presents a
definition and ways of measuring delinquency; Part II focuses on the theoretical
framework--the theories that explain the
cause; Part III examines the environmental
influences on delinquency, i.e., peers,
gangs, schools, family, child abuse; Part 1V
looks at the juvenile justice system, an
overview of the system, history, philosophy,
and analysis of legal rights of juveniles; Part
V devotes attention to how children are
handled by police, courts, and correctional
agencies; Part VI discusses postadjudication, community treatment and institutionalization; and Part VII explores the rights of
minors under the law.
Each chapter begins with a chapter outline and ends with a summary, discussion
questions, suggested readings, and references. Three appendixes are included: Glossary, Excerpts from the U.S. Constitution,
and Children's Rights. Subject and name
indexes complete the book. (OSB)
Political Criminality: The Defiance and Defense of Authority by Austin T. Turk.
Sage Publications, Inc. (275 South Beverly
Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90212),
1982, 231 pp., hardcover--$20.00, softcover--S9.05.
This volume introduces the reader to the
study of political criminality and policing
and emphasizes the point that they are
intrinsic to the process and conflict by which
the ongoing political organization of social
life is accomplished.
In the introductory chapter, the concept
of uniting the ideal and real world is
expressed through the development of political organizations. The resolution of
power within the political organizations
forces solutions for control of violence and
economic, political, ideological, and diversionary resources. Thus, to understand the
process of political organizations at the
societal level, the relationship between political criminality and political policing must
be analyzed.
The relationship of the legal system to
political criminality is developed in Chapter
2. Conventional laws and political offensiveness and political crime laws are discussed.
Laws explicitly defining political criminality
are distinguished by their politicality, vagueness, and permissiveness regarding enforcement procedures. The current term for
revolutionary politics, terrorism, epitomizes
the conceptual arbitrariness of legal definitions of political criminality, in the opinion
of the author.
In Chapter 3, Criminality of Political
Criminals, societal rebels and their implications for political criminality are discussed in
sections entitled, "Stereotyping in Political
Struggles," "Characteristics of Political
Resisters," "Political Resisters and Resistance," "'and "Political Criminalization as
Reaction."
Chapter 4 focuses on political policing and
covers issues of control, intelligence, information, and deterrence.
Finally, in Chapter 5 the trends and
prospects are examined through issues such
as decay of political authority, measuring
success, and looking at patterns of change.
Each chapter has a final summary, There
are references and a subject and author
index. (OSB)