Paul A. Strasburg. Violent Delinquents : A Report to the Ford Foundation from the Vera Institute of Justice. Pp. xvi, 272. New York: Monarch Publications, 1978. $8.95

• Published date: 01 January 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944100144
• Date: 01 January 1979
• Author: James L. Paul
• Subject Matter: Articles

223

sian

and

Chinese.

The

presentation,

however,

is,

finally,

bewildering

and

misleading

in

terms

of

historical

reality

and

actuality.

This

is

especially

true

for

China

where,

for

example,

the

social

convulsions

and

violence

of

the

&dquo;Cul-

tural

Revolution&dquo;

of

the

late

1960’s,

with

their

baleful

effects

upon

educa-

tion,

are

almost

completely

ignored.

The

author’s

admiration

for

Chairman

Mao

is

plain.

Indeed,

the

late

Mao

Tse-tung

could

evidently

say

or

do

no

wrong

in

Mr.

Price’s

view-incidentally

to

read

this

book

one

would

not

even

realize

that

Mao

is

dead!

In

conclusion,

let

the

author

speak

for

himself:

&dquo;Marxism

in

the

USSR

has

in

the

main

degenerated

into

official

apologetics,

or

a

technicism

of

economic

growth

and

bureaucratic

planning.

The

goal

of

free,

classless

man

has

been

embraced

only

to

empty

it

of

real

content.

In

China

the

Marxist

vision

reappears

in

Mao

who

both

understands

the

distant

future

of

its

possible

realiza-

tion

and

the

need

to

struggle

for

it

now.&dquo;

Such

a

book

needs

to

be

read

with

the

greatest

caution.

DAVID

HECHT

Pace

University

New

York

City

PAUL

A.

STRASBURG.

Violent

Delin-

quents :

A

Report

to

the

Ford

Founda-

tion from

the

Vera

Institute

of Justice.

Pp.

xvi,

272.

New

York:

Monarch

Publications,

1978.

$8.95.

Human

violence

is

one

of

the

greatest

threats

to

modern

civilized

society.

One

can

take

comfort

in

the

apparent

reality

that

violence

and

rumors

of

violence

are

always

with

us.

The

spiritual,

economic,

moral,

psychological,

and

social

com-

ponents

of

the

problem

of

violence

are

extremely

complex.

The

causes

and

con-

sequences

of

violence

are

welded

into

a

complex

dynamic

social

system

that

will

not

stand

still

for

the

analysis

of

the

social

behavior.

In

an

advanced

technological

society

with

finite

resources,

most

of

the

re-

sources

spent

on

violence

are

spent

on

dealing

with

the

legal,

social,

and

eco-

nomic

consequences

of

violent

acts,

and

attempting

to

protect

society

from

them.

Comparatively

little

is

committed

to

un-

derstanding

the

nature

and

the

causes

of

violence.

It

should

not

surprise

anyone,

therefore,

to

find

our

knowledge

of

vio-

lence

and

the

efficacy

of

interventions

to

prevent

or

deter

crime

very

thin.

In

Violent

Delinquents:

A

Report

to

the

Ford

Foundation

from

the

Vera

Institute

of

Justice,

Paul

Strasburg

has,

in

my

opinion,

made

an

important

contribution

to

the

literature

on

vio-

lence.

Its

importance

rests

not

only

in

the

data

he

presents

but

also

in

his

thoughtful

analysis

and

discussion

of his

findings.

Strasburg

was

primarily

interested

in

the

frequency

and

seriousness

of juvenile

violence,

and

the

patterns

of

behavior

of

the

juvenile

justice

system

in

dealing

with

that

violence.

Strasburg’s

study,

on

which

his

book

is

based,

was

an

effort

to

bring

some

understanding

to

what

is

behind

or

beneath

the

problem

of

juvenile

violence.

He

conducted

an

extensive

review

of the

literature

on

the

causes,

treatment

and

official

responses

to

juvenile

violence.

When

he

found

the

literature

contained

little

reliable

infor-

mation

on

the

size

of

the

problem,

Stras-

burg

decided

to

study

juvenile

court

records

in

three

counties

in

the

metro-

politan

New

York

area

in

an

effort

to

obtain

descriptive

data

on

the

number

and

nature

of

violent

criminal

acts

com-

mitted

by

youth.

He

was

interested

in

the

number

of

violent

crimes,

the

num-

ber

of delinquents

committing

them,

and

the

seriousness

of the

consequences

of

crimes

committed

by

juveniles

brought

before

the

courts

in

these

three

coun-

ties.

In

addition

to

analyzing

five

hundred

(500)

court

records,

Strasburg

interviewed

many

individuals

whose

work

directly

or

indirectly

interacts

with

the

problem

of

juvenile

violence.

He

also

visited

many

programs

for

juvenile

offenders.

Strasburg

is

very

careful

not

to

over-

state

the

reliability

or

the

validity

of

his

study.

It

is

a

descriptive

study

and

does

not

claim

to

present

data

on

the

causes

of

juvenile

violence.

There

are

impor-

tant

substantial

methodological

con-

straints

on

his

study

which

he

is

careful

to

point

out.

Noting

the

philosophical