The book contains 14 essays, many of which arose out of work carried on by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. The focus, consequently, is primarily on N.S.W. and is primarily empirical, but there are many references to other jurisdictions and certainly much of the material will be of interest and value to readers outside of N.S.W.

The first two chapters are overview essays. Russell Hogg’s ‘Perspectives on the criminal justice system’ is the only broadly theoretical piece in the book, and in many ways is the most thought-provoking. Hogg briefly details some of the better of contemporary sociologically-oriented analyses of the criminal justice system, including the work of Packer, Blumberg, Skolnick, Balbus, McBarnet and Baldwin and McConville. Ultimately he concludes that a common shortcoming in these varied approaches is the treatment of criminal justice as a coherent system, whereas it is “composed and impinged upon by a range of practices which are diverse and possess some autonomy, internal regularity and efficacy from the point of view of an understanding of power”. Accordingly, Hogg calls fora new programme of study of the interconnections of power and knowledge in and affecting criminal justice.

In Ch. 2,‘Policy research in the criminal justice system’, Jeff Sutton, the Director of the N.S.W. Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, is critical of the formulation of public policy, including criminal justice policy on an ad hoc basis. He details the successes, in Australia and overseas, of more systematic policy formulation efforts through the use of research bureaus and task forces which can be influential in “developing and evaluating innovative, cross-departmental action, facilitating administration and monitoring progress”. Not surprisingly he is adamant that the primary pre-condition for success is that “the research body must command respect for its independence and staffing at a sufficiently high level”.

Chapters 3 and 14 monitor the changes brought about by the repeal of the N.S.W. Summary Offences Act in 1979 and its replacement by a package of new legislation. Public drunkenness was ostensibly decriminalised in the process, with the Intoxicated Persons Act 1979 adopting a treatment, rather than punishment, model. However, as Egger, Cornish and Heilpern point out, the “new” approach’s residual ties with the criminal law (in N.S.W. as well as in other jurisdictions) have caused some very significant problems with respect to the civil liberties of the alleged inebriate, misallocation of police resources, and discrimination in enforcement. Similarly, Gail Travis demonstrates that contrary to police and press assertions that the N.S.W. Offences in Public Place Act s. 5 is “too weak” for the police to effectively protect the public from offensive behaviour, there exists wide discretion for enforcement – typically exercised against language or behaviour directed towards the police themselves, with young Aboriginal males, especially in the Northwest of the state, being prosecuted at incredibly disproportionate rates.

The ill-treatment of Aboriginals by the criminal justice system is also well-examined in Ch. 12, ‘Policing Aborigines’ by Ronalds, Chapman and Kitchener, which is drawn from the authors’ work on behalf of the N.S.W. Anti-Discrimination Board, and Ch. 13, ‘Aborigines and the criminal justice system’ by Trevor Milne.

Problems of domestic violence and related issues in the criminal law are dealt with in Ch. 4, ‘Battered Women’ by Crancher, Egger and Bacon, and Ch. 5 reprints (from Basten et al, The Criminal Injustice System) the excellent Wendy Bacon and Robyn Lansdowne study Women homicide offenders and police interrogation’.

Other contributions include discussions of bail (Ch. 6 by Stubbs and Andrews); vandalism (Ch. 7 by Jan Houghton); sentencing issues (Chs. 8 and 9 by Ross Homel and D.J. Weatherburn, respectively); the politics of prison reform (Ch. 10 by Mark Findlay); and the chilling activities of the political agency within the Police Force, the Special Branch (Ch. 11 by Findlay).