Book Review: The Unequal Scales of Justice

• Author: Rudolf Mathias
• Date: 01 September 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/009385487900600307
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

THE UNEQUAL SCALES OF JUSTICE
JUSTICE FOR OUR CHILDREN. By Dennis A. Romig. Lexington,
Massachusetts: D. C. Heath, 1978. Pp. 205. $18.00
This book presents in two parts an examination of juvenile rehabili-
tation programs: (1) program intervention as treatment and (2) system
intervention as treatment. Romig covers the main topics of his book
in 17 different chapters representing a rather motley blend of subjects.
Within each chapter readers can find certain key items, such as &dquo;nega-
tive specific prediction, positive specific prediction, specific recom-
mendation, general prediction, general recommendation, references,
etc.&dquo; Numerous tables are included.
There is a lack of consistency and cohesion between various chapters
and throughout the book. The author devotes an entire chapter to
&dquo;Therapeutic Camping&dquo; in which he makes some rather remarkable
statements; for example, &dquo;Whatever skills were taught the youth for sur-
vival in the deep woods, similar ones must be taught for success in a
ghetto in the suburb.&dquo; But in another paragraph in the same chapter,
the author points out that &dquo;camping is the most irrelevant setting pos-
sible for teaching delinquents classroom or job-survival skills.&dquo; He
concludes the chapter by suggesting that following a camping program
for youngsters &dquo;who are low in self-esteem&dquo; there should be a transi-
tional community program in which the youth can learn the specific
skills needed to succeed at home, leaving readers befuddled by this
juxtaposition of diametrically opposed concepts.
An interesting analysis of the Massachusetts deinstitutionalization
program is presented. A critique of the program is stated as follows:
&dquo;After putting the state, the youths, and the staff through the turmoil
of the drastic changes in closing down the state’s training schools ...
at best, the new approach with boys is no better in terms of rehabilitation
outcome than the system it condemned. With girls,...