Book Reviews

• DOI: 10.1177/003288556504500108
• Published date: 01 April 1965
• Date: 01 April 1965

50

BOOK

REVIEWS

CHANGING

THE

LA WBREAKER,

by

DON

C.

GIBBONS.

Prentice-Hall,

Incorporated,

Englewood

Cliffs,

New

Jersey,

1965.

306

pp.,

$9.25.

In

spite

of

many

excellent

observations

and

some

valuable

critical

com-

ments

on

current

treatment

programs

in

corrections,

Changing

the

Lawbreaker

does

not

accomplish

what

it

sets

out

to

do,

namely,

provide

the

diagnostic

tools

or

the

prescriptions

for

treating

the

individual

offender.

It

is

not

a

&dquo;Materia

Crimina&dquo;-to

continue

the

analogy

with

medicine

set

forth

in

chapter

one.

Basically,

it

provides

merely

another

classificatory

arrangement

of

24

criminal

types

(9

delinquent

and

15

adult

types,

pages

74-128)

which

are

descriptive

in

general

terms

based

on

many

observations,

most

of

which

are

valid.

However,

such

classifications

do

not

provide

the

proper

basis

for

a

diagnostic

technique.

&dquo;Skill&dquo;

and

&dquo;informed

judgment&dquo;

are

not

sufficient

if

the

end

result

is

merely

to

put

offenders

into

&dquo;diagnostic

pigeon-holes&dquo;

based

on

the

crime

a

person

commits

instead

of

on

the

basic

maladjustment

which

underlies

the

crime.

Such

basic

maladjustments

can

be

classified

and

offend-

ers

rated

accordingly

after

which

the

three

steps

in

diagnosis

suggested

on

page

127

will

apply.

However,

the

criminal

type

classifications

offered

do

not

provide

this

basis.

This

is

a

fundamental

weakness

in

Gibbons’

thesis.

Again,

in

presenting

the

subject

of

treatment

(Chapter

6

and

7,

pp.

228-

282),

these

descriptions

of

criminal

types,

while

valuable

as

background

in-

formation,

do

not

provide

treatment

techniques

for

attacking

either

basic

causes

or

current

problems.

The

presentation

of

the

elements

of

individual

and

group

psychotherapy

and

of

environmental

change

and

milieu

manage-

ment

although

offering

many

excellent

generalities

and

some

concrete

ele-

ments

(see

pp.

145-148),

does

not

provide

an

adequate

treatment

technique

because

again

they

are

not

applied

to

basic

maladjustments

in

offenders.

(Incidentally,

Gibbons

seems

not

to

have

heard

of

&dquo;behavior

therapy.&dquo;)

There

are

several

reasons

for

these

conclusions.

Three

are

important:

(1)

These

classifications

assume

that

the

crime

which

a

person

commits

is

the

basis

for

diagnosis

and

treatment

when

as

a

matter

of

fact

the

crime

is

only

a

symptom

of

the

basic

difficulty,

and

only

one

symptom,

and

possibly

the

least

important

symptom.

For

example,

of

three

thieves,

one

man

may

steal

because

he

can’t

get

a

job,

another

because

he

can’t

hold

a

job,

and

a

third

because

he

doesn’t

want

a

job.

Treatment

of

the

obvious

basic

maladjustment

of

such

types

is

not

included

in

any

of

the

sections

dealing

with

the

professional

thief,

the

semi-professional

property

criminal,

or

the

property

offenders,

&dquo;one-time

loser&dquo;

presented

by

Gibbons.

(2)

In

spite

of

the

wide

coverage

of

these

24

criminal

types,

they

omit

many

well-recognized

criminals

in

the

classes

listed

as

well

as

one

entire

class,

namely

those

whose

basic

difficulty

is

biological

or

medical-the

handicapped,

the

sick,

the

epileptic,

the

brain

damaged

criminal,

those

with

glandular

dis-

turbances,

and

the

like.

In

addition,

it

is

difficult

to

fit

the

neurotic,

the

psychopath,

the

pre-psychotic,

and

the

whole

group

of

mentally

ill

or

retarded

persons

into

these

groups

altho

their

treatment

obviously

may

have

little

or

no

relationship

to

the

particular

criminal

category

into

which

they

happen

to

fall.

(3)

While

the

descriptions

of

the

24

types

of

offenders

in

chapters

3,

6,

and

7

present

many

cogent

observations

about

these

different

classes

of

criini,