Book notices

LAW AT WORK SERIES. General Editor, Paul O'Higgins. [Sweet &; Maxwell. 1980. £1.95 each.]

GOING TO LAW, by John McIlroy

TRADE UNIONS, by Richard Kidner

UNION MEMBERS, by Gillian Morris

SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES, by Roger Benedictus

EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS, by Ian Smith

WAGES AND SALARIES, by Gerry Rubin

LAW OF EMPLOYMENT. Third Edition. By N. M. Selwyn. [Butterworths. 1980. 388 pp. (inc. appendices). £8.95.]

MODERN EMPLOYMENT LAW. Third Edition. By M. Whincup. [Heinemann. 1980. 305 pp. (inc. appendix). £8.50.]

NATHAN AND MARSHALL ‐ CASES AND COMMENTARY ON THE LAW OF TRUSTS. Seventh Edition. By D. J. Hayton. [Stevens. 1980. xxxix and 736 pp. (inc. index). £16.50.]

LAW OF TRUSTS. Second Edition. By L. B. Curzon. [Macdonald and Evans. 1980. xxxi and 316 pp. (inc. index). £4.50.]

CEDRIC D. BELL.

LAW AND ACCOUNTS OF EXECUTORS, ADMINISTRATORS AND TRUSTEES. Twentieth Edition. By B. G. Vickery. [Cassell. 1980. 371 pp. including glossary and answers to exercises, plus 6 pp. tables. £8.95.]

PROBATE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE. By A. K. Biggs and A. P. Rogers. [Fourmat Publishing. 1980. 157 pp. inc. 35 pp. precedents, 7 pp. index and 8 pp. contents. £6.95.]

CONVEYANCING OF FREEHOLD PROPERTY. By Phyllis E. Newman. [Fourmat Publishing. 1980. 53 pp. inc. list of forms and index, plus 7 pp. tables, etc. £3.95.]

CONVEYANCING LAW. By P. H. Kenny and C. M. Bevan. [Macdonald &; Evans. 1980. 284 pp. inc. glossary, bibliography, note on examination technique, and index, plus 14 pp. tables, etc. £3.50.]

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR SOLICITORS. David S. Porter with Sir Desmond Heap. [Waterlow Cassettes. 1980. One hour running time, available only from publishers. £7.50 plus VAT and p&;p.]

REMEDIES FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT. By Hugh Beale. [Sweet &; Maxwell. 1980. xxiv and 248 pp. (inc. index). £10.85 (hardback); £7.40 (paperback).]

CONSUMER LAW. By M. J. Leder. [Macdonald and Evans. 1980. xxiv and 208 pp. (inc. index). £2.50.]

THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF COMPROMISE. By David Foskett. [Sweet &; Maxwell. 1980. 198 pp. inc. 19 pp. precedents and 6 pp. index, plus 22 pp. tables, etc. £18.50.]

CONSTITUTIONAL FUNDAMENTALS. By H. W. R. Wade. [Stevens &; Sons. 1980. x and 83 pp. (inc. index). £3.35.]

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. By Lynda Banks. [Sweet &; Maxwell. 1980. vii and 84 pp. (inc. index). £1.50.]

DE SMITH'S JUDICIAL REVIEW OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION. Fourth Edition. By J. M. Evans. [Stevens, lxviii and 626 pp. (inc. index). £24.00.]

LAW AND SOCIETY IN ENGLAND. By B. Roshier and H. Teff. [Tavistock Publications Ltd. 247 pp. (inc. index). £4.95.]

JUSTICE AND WELFARE IN DIVORCE. By M. Murch. [Sweet &; Maxwell. 1980. viii and 307 pp. (inc. index). £10.75.]

SWEET &; MAXWELL'S SOCIAL WORK STATUTES. Edited by Richard M. Jones. [Sweet &; MaxwelL vii and 168 pp. (inc. index). £4.60.]

COMPANIES ACTS. Editor Maurice Kay. [Sweet &; Maxwell. 1980. 561 pp. (inc. index). £10.50.]

COMPANY LAW HANDBOOK. Editor Keith Walmsley. [Butterworths. Second edition. 1980. ix and 705 pp. (plus index). £11.96.]

HARRAP'S GERMAN AND ENGLISH GLOSSARY OF TERMS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW. By G. Gilbertson. [Harrap Books. 1981. xi and 355 pp. £25.00.]     

Book reviews,etc.

Welfare Law and Order. By P. Alcock and P. Harris. [Macmillan Press. 1982. xvi and 219 pp. (inc. index). £5.95.]

Law of Child Care. By B. I. Slomnicka. [Macdonald & Evans. 405 pp. (inc. index). £9.95.]

Swift v. Greenshire County Council, Q.B.D. [Audio‐Visual Department, London University. 40 minutes. Sales prices: (VHS or Sony U‐Matic video cassette + 10 copies of the accompanying documents). Educational institutions in the U.K.: £95 + postage and V.A.T. Government bodies: £150 + postage and V.A.T. Others: £250 + postage and V.A.T. Additional copies of the documents: £2.50 each.

The Sunday Times Case

[Audio‐Visual Centre, University of Warwick. 1981. 16mm colour film. 30 minutes £260 or (hire) £20 for one day + £5 for each day thereafter; video version: £60 + cost of cassette.]

Criminal Procedure. Third edition. By Celia Hampton. [Sweet & Maxwell. 1982. lxi and 472 pp. (inc. index). £16.50 (hardback); £8.95 (paperback).]

The Police in Society. By Ben Whitaker. [Sinclair Browne. 1982. 331 pp. (inc. index). £4.95 (paperback).]

Hanbury and Maudsley's Modern Equity. Eleventh edition. By R. H. Maudsley and Jill E. Martin. [Stevens. 1981. cvi and 796 pp. (inc. index). £27.50 (cloth); £16.50 (paperback).]

Company Law. By Kenneth Smith & D. J. Keenan. Fourth edition. [Pitman, x and 506 pp. (inc. index). £7.50.]

Company Law. By M. C. Oliver. Eighth edition. [Macdonald & Evans. xxx and 386 pp. (inc. index). £3.95.]

Cases in Company Law. Third edition. By M. C. Oliver. I Macdonald & Evans. xv and 396 pp. (inc. index). £4.95.]

Rent Acts and Regulations Amended and Annotated. By J. T. Farrand and A. Arden. Second edition. [Sweet & Maxwell. 1981. xl and 435 pp. (inc. index). £16.50.]

‘O’ Level English Law. By D. M: M. Scott. Fourth edition. [Butterworths. 1981. xvi and 269 pp. (inc. index). £4.95 (paperback).]

‘O’ Level Law. By W. J. Brown. Second edition. [Sweet & Maxwell. 1982. xiv and 227 pp. (inc. index). £4.75 (paperback).]

Danish Law. A General Survey. Edited by Gammeltoft Hansen, Bernhard Gomard and Allan Philip. [G.E.C. Gads, Copenhagen. 395 pp., no index.]     

Heterogeneity in the Frequency Distribution of Crime Victimization

Objectives

Tests the idea that the frequency distribution typically observed in crosssectional crime victimization data sampled from surveys of general populations is a heterogeneously distributed result of the mixing of two latent processes associated, respectively, with each of the tails of the distribution.

Methods

Datasets are assembled from a number of samples taken from the British Crime Survey and the Scottish Crime Victimization Survey. Latent class analysis is used to explore the probable, latent distributions of individual property crime and personal crime victimization matrices that express the frequency and type of victimization that are self-reported by respondents over the survey recall period.

Results

The analysis obtains broadly similar solutions for both types of victimization across the respective datasets. It is demonstrated that a hypothesized mixing process will produce a heterogeneous set of local sub-distributions: a large sub-population that is predominantly not victimized, a very small ‘chronic’ sub-population that is frequently and consistently victimized across crime-type, and an ‘intermediate’ sub-population (whose granularity varies with sample size) to whom the bulk of victimization occurs. Additionally, attention is paid to the position of very high frequency victimization within these sub-populations.

Conclusions

The analysis supports the idea that crime victimization may be a function of two propensities: for immunity, and exposure. It demonstrates that zero-inflation is also a defining feature of the distribution that needs to be set alongside the significance that has been attached to the thickness of its right tail. The results suggest a new baseline model for investigating population distributions of crime victimization.     

The puzzle of constituency service

British legislators face overloaded schedules with conflicting priorities: the puzzle is to explain why they devote so much of their time to constituency service. This paper aims to compare the incentives facing members due to their career structures, role orientations, social backgrounds and constituency demands. This paper re‐examines these explanations based on the British Candidate Survey and personal interviews with MPs in the 1992 British general election.     

Local E‐Government in the United States: Transformation or Incremental Change?

In this article, the authors address the recent trajectory of local e‐government in the United States and compare it with the predictions of early e‐government writings, using empirical data from two nationwide surveys of e‐government among American local governments. The authors find that local e‐government has not produced the results that those writings predicted. Instead, its development has largely been incremental, and local e‐government is mainly about delivering information and services online, followed by a few transactions and limited interactivity. Local e‐government is also mainly one way, from government to citizens, and there is little or no evidence that it is transformative in any way. This disparity between early predictions and actual results is partly attributable to the incremental nature of American public administration. Other reasons include a lack of attention by early writers to the history of information technology in government and the influence of technological determinism on those writings.     

The influence of vehicle model and colour on assessments of speed and culpability: the case for (and against) Computer Generated Exhibits (CGE)

Computer Generated Exhibits (CGE) are frequently deployed in legal contexts under the rubric of demonstrative evidence, i.e. to facilitate juror comprehension. However, a number of legal and academic commentators have suggested that the nature of the computerised moving image could exert undue prejudice on decision makers, e.g. judge and/or jury. The current study aimed to assess the manipulation of vehicle characteristics (make and colour) when a road traffic accident was presented in the format of a computer generated animation (CGA). In experiment 1, two groups of subjects watched two different makes of car, a Range Rover Sport and a Volkswagen Touran in a black-and-white format; no significant differences emerged over vehicle model with regards to vehicle speed or overall responsibility for the accident. Experiment 2 presented the same vehicles to four groups of participants in full colour, with the cars in contrasting red or beige; significant differences emerged with regards to culpability for vehicle make only. The findings could have implications for the format and style of CGE used in legal settings.     

Punishing Benevolence: The Criminalization of Homeless Feeding as an Act of State Harm

The homeless population in the United States increased substantially since the 1980s. As a result, research into homelessness and its effects, as well as policies aimed at addressing this vital social problem, have also grown. While criminologists have examined state actions to control the homeless from a critical perspective, we are not aware of any research that addresses the issue of restricting homeless feeding. Because such state actions extend the criminal justice system by criminalizing benevolent acts, restrictions on feeding the homeless are ripe for critical examination. In this article, we examine such restrictions in American cities and argue that they can be conceptualized as a form of state harm. These government practices target homeless advocates engaged in charitable work by prohibiting feeding in particular locations and/or requiring expensive permits and licenses in order to provide food. Using the theoretical framework of state crime we argue that these policies are a recent evolution of laws that target the homeless, and suggest that these polices represent a disturbing trend of policies that attempt to regulate grassroots and community efforts to combat injustice and inequality. We finish by offering new directions for research and action in order to reduce the harm incurred by these policies.     

Constructing universal multiplex PCR systems for comparative genotyping

Analysis of length polymorphisms at STR loci in the human genome has become a standard approach for comparative genotyping in many areas including disease research and diagnostics, parentage assessment, investigations of human diversity, and forensic science. The simultaneous analysis of multiple STR loci through multiplex PCR and multicolor fluorescence detection offers sample conservation, high throughput, and automated genetic analysis. Careful design and optimization of tetranucleotide STR multiplexes has led to reliable, standardized systems that powerfully differentiate and distinguish individual human DNA profiles. The development of these multiplex systems involved a rigorous experimental strategy that included careful selection of PCR primer sequences (for yield, specificity, and multiplex compatability), along with optimization of PCR component concentrations, thermal cycling parameters, and fluorescence detection conditions. This developmental approach rendered well-characterized DNA typing systems that are high performing (sensitive, specific, and balanced), optimized to universal parameters (same reaction conditions), resilient to fluctuations in reaction conditions, and simple to implement and use routinely.