Managers as Third-Party Dispute Handlers in Complaints about Hospitals*

Drawing on a study of 399 hospital complaints entering the National Health Service's formal complaints procedure and twenty-five interviews with managers who deal with complaints, this paper reviews the nature of the roles played by the managers. Emphasis is placed on the variety of roles they adopt according to the nature of the complaint made, the person complained about, and the implications of the allegations. The managers, viewed as important legal actors in the management of disputes, are also representatives of the organization being complained about. The implications of this are explored in the context of their claims to be able to adopt independent or impartial third-party dispute resolution roles.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: STRIKES: Studies in Twentieth Century Australian Social History. Edited by John Iremonger, John Merrit and Graeme Osborne. THE STUART AFFAIR. By Sir Roderic Chamberlain. THE EVIDENCE OF THE BIGGE REPORTS: New South Wales under Governor Macquarie. Selected and edited by John Ritchie. HISTORICAL RECORDS OF PORT PHILLIP: The First Annals of the Colony of Victoria. Edited by John J. Shillinglaw. THE MACQUARIE DECADE: Documents illustrating the History of New South Wales 1810–1821. AUSTRALIAN NAVAL ADMINISTRATION 1900–1939. By R. Hyslop. CRISES AND AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMACY. By C. Bell. BRITISH DEFENCE POLICY EAST OF SUEZ. By P. Darby. DEFENCE PERSPECTIVES. Edited by K. Keith. THE MODERNISATION IMPERATIVE AND INDIAN PLANNING. By Baldev Raj Nayar. INDIA'S DEMOCRACY. By A.H. Hanson and Janet Douglas. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972. Pp. 236. Two tables. $9.65, $4.35 paper. GANDHI'S RISE TO POWER: Indian Politics 1915–1922. By Judith M. Brown. EVERY FIFTH CHILD: The Population of China. By Leo A. Orleans. THE CHINESE YOUTH PARTY 1923–1945. By Chan Lau Kit-ching. WAGE PATTERNS AND WAGE POLICY IN MODERN CHINA 1919–1972. By Christopher Howe. THE INTERNAL POLITICS OF CHINA 1949–1972. By Jüirgen Domes. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, 1826–67: Indian Presidency to Crown Colony. By C.M. Turnbull. VITI: An Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands 1860–1861. By Berthold Seemann; edited by Philip A. Snow. Colonial History Series Number 85. THE FOUNDERS OF CANTERBURY. Edited by Edward Jerningham Wakefield; and an introduction by Peter Burroughs. Colonial History Series Number 86. A VOYAGE TO AND FROM THE ISLAND OF BORNEO. By Daniel Beeckman; and an introduction by Chin Yoon Fong. Colonial History Series Number 87. CONFLICT BEHAVIOUR AND LINKAGE POLITICS. Edited by Jonathan Wilkenfeld. POLITICAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES: Studies in National, Comparative and International Politics. Edited by Dusan Sidjanski. THE POLITICS OF MOTION: The World of Thomas Hobbes. By T.A. Spragens jr. DEPENDENCE AND OPPORTUNITY: Political Change in Ahafo. By John Dunn and A.F. Robertson. THE PRICE OF LIBERTY: Personality and Politics in Colonial Nigeria. By Kenneth W.J. Post and George D. Jenkins. FROM RESISTANCE TO REVOLUTION: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776. By Pauline Maier. ELITE ACCOMMODATION IN CANADIAN POLITICS. By Robert Presthus. THE SELECTION OF NATIONAL PARTY LEADERS IN CANADA. By John C. Courtney. THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES ON CANADIAN DEVELOPMENT: Eleven Case Studies. Edited by Richard A. Preston. ANGLO-AMERICAN POLITICS, 1660–1765: The Relationship between Parties in England and Colonial America. By A.G. Olson. THE ECONOMICS AND POLITICS OF SOCIALISM: Collected Essays. By Wlodzimierz Brus. THE SOVIET UNION IN WORLD AFFAIRS: A Documented Analysis, 1964–1972. By W.W. Kulski. HITLERS STRATEGY 1940–41: The Balkan Clue. By Martin L. van Crefeld. HITLERS FREE CITY: A History of the Nazi Party in Danzig, 1925–39. By Herbert S. Levine. FRENCH CAPITALISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. By Guy P. Palmade. Translated with an Introduction by Graeme M. Holmes. THE POLICE AND THE PEOPLE: French Popular Protest, 1789–1820. By R.C. Cobb. TURGOT ON PROGRESS, SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS. Translated, edited and with an introduction by Ronald L. Meek. LAFAYETTE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: From the October Days through the Federation. By Louis Gottschalk and Margaret Maddox. THE MEN OF THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC: Political alignments in the National Convention of 1792. By Alison Patrick. THE PRO-BOERS: The Anatomy of Antiwar Movement. Edited with an introduction by Stephen Koss. THE BALANCE POINT BETWEEN LOCAL AUTONOMY AND NATIONAL CONTROL. By S.E.M. Sadek. UMNAO AND THE PRICE OF LASTING PEACE. By Edgar Ansel Mowrer and Lillian T. Mower.     

CASTE,CLASS, AND VIOLENT CRIME: EXPLAINING DIFFERENCE IN FEMALE OFFENDING*

During the past decade, criminological research has targeted gender as an important discriminator of criminal participation and persistence. Yet, the research question too often contrasts the criminality of males and females without taking into account key differences among female populations. In this paper, race and class combine to produce uniquely situated populations of females (e.g., “underclass” black females) who, when compared with their gender and racial counterparts, also appear to have unique patterns of criminality. Using the extant literature, black female violent crime is juxtaposed against that of white females and black males in order to show how crime varies across groups and the potential sources of those differences. Three theoretical perspectives (neo-Marxian, powercontrol, and socialist-feminist theory) are reviewed and evaluated for their intragender/racial inclusivity. Directions for further empirical research and theoretical development are suggested. Class-oppressed men, whether they are white or black, have privileges afforded them as men in a sexist society. Similarly, class-oppressed whites, whether they are men or women, have privileges afforded them as whites in racist society… . Those who are poor, black, and female have all the forces of classism, racism, and sexism bearing down on them (Mantsios, 1988:66–67).