Book Review: Jurkanin, T. J., & Hillard, T. G. (2006). Chicago Police: An Inside View: The Story of Superintendent Terry G. Hillard. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. xiii, 237 pp

• Date: 01 June 2009
• Author: John M. Hagedorn
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808326373
• Published date: 01 June 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Reviews 267

groups, such as Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, from traditional ones like the Irish

Republican Army. One of the important factors of new terrorist groups is that they indis-

criminately target the general public to cause mass destruction.

The handbook provides a comparative perspective among the nations with Anglo-Saxon

tradition. However, it would have been better if the authors discussed victim protection sys-

tems in non-English speaking nations like Germany, France, Japan, and so on. Also, the book

did not present a detailed discussion on the victimization from a wide array of crimes, such

as murder, robbery, child abuse, school violence, and sexual harassment. Thus, it might not

be an ideal victimology textbook for undergraduate students. However, victimology class

instructors may use the handbook as a supplemental resource. Also, the handbook should be

helpful for the researchers who are interested in getting detailed information on such areas as

the relationship between feminism and victimology, theoretical perspectives on victimology,

measurement issues in victimization, comparative studies of victim protection laws and poli-

cies, and victimization from hate crimes, corporate crimes, and terrorism.

Don Chon

Keiser University, Tallahassee, FL

Jurkanin, T. J., & Hillard, T. G. (2006). Chicago Police: An Inside View: The Story of

Superintendent Terry G. Hillard. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. xiii, 237 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016808326373

“To write,” C. Wright Mills says, “is to raise a claim for the attention of readers.” Mills

goes on to ask three questions of an author: “1. How difficult and complex after all is my

subject? 2. When I write, what status am I claiming for myself? 3. For whom am I trying

to write?” Despite the fact that Chicago Police: An Inside View: The Story of Superintendent

Terry G. Hillard is not a work of social science, Mills’s notes on intellectual craftsmanship

are useful.

The book’s answer to the first question is that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is

a straightforward organization of dedicated professionals who “have a long history of work-

ing proactively with the community to identify problems and to find solutions” (p. 158). Cops

are the thin blue line that keeps us from barbarism. “We curse them until we need them.

Then we call them heroes” (p. 183). While racism is still a problem and police make mis-

takes, brutality and corruption are “isolated incidents” (p. 159). During Terry Hillard’s time

as chief “there was not a hint of scandal” (p. 192).

If that reads like a press release, you get the flavor of the book. The text intersperses an

iconographic tale of Terry Hillard’s life with superficial history, anecdotes of major Chicago

crimes, and bad poetry. Unfortunately for the authors, this is a story of the Chicago police,

and we have a substantial public record that suggests that things may be a bit more com-

plicated than the rosy portrait painted by Jurkanin and Hillard.

Terry Hillard is called a “cop’s cop.” He rose through the ranks to become superinten-

dent in 1999, retiring in 2003. Although the book does not mention it, one measure of his

influence may have been a decline in police killings. From 1999 to 2003, Chicago police