Miss Barnett’s book is a very clear exposition of the British system of Industrial and Reformatory Schools for taking care of children fallen, or in the danger of falling, into criminal ways. As such an exposition it very properly gives, after a few introductory statements as to the chief causes of juvenile delinquency, the legal basis of the system at present in vogue which is found in the Children’s Act of 1908, by which the existing schools and their accessories take their proper places in the scheme provided or sanctioned. Thus far the book is merely the description of the fundamental determinants, in a legal way, for a particular place—Great Britain. With the description of the schools themselves, their physical conditions, financing, management, difficulties of personnel, discipline, methods of elementary, industrial and religious education, of social training, of employment, inadequate facilities of proper aftercare, the methods of administration of single institutions and of the whole system of institutions, their inspection, and a horde of other things, we get into territory that is as pertinent to our own problems in this field as it is across the sea. The book shows that the author has had an extended and intimate acquaintance with her subject, and has made good use of her gift of observation. As one would expect, there are numerous weaknesses in the system for which remedies should be found. Such suggested remedies are included in the last chapter of the book, in a resume of the findings and conclusions of the Departmental Committee appointed in 1911 to look into the matter of these schools. To give a complete list of all the recommendations of that committee would be out of place here. But its most important features should be, if only briefly, mentioned. First appears the need for a special central authority, expert and responsible, to set a standard and maintain it; there should be woman members on the boards of managers; employees should be properly pensioned. The chief cause of unsatisfactory conditions is found to be inadequate finances. In reference to the children themselves, the principal demands are for more intensive classification, particularly by age, more education, especially physical training, less drudgery, less punishment, more individual attention. Definite methods for rendering reports, for extending after-care, for utilising voluntary aid are suggested, and the uselessness is shown of some of the petty yet harmful restrictions, as for example silence at meals.
Miss Barnett discusses conditions in a different land, but the greater part of her discussion can be applied directly to our own conditions. The book should be in the hands of every member of the board of managers of a reform school.
P. K.
Prostitution in Europe. Abraham Flexner, New York, The Century Co., 1914. Publication of the Bureau of Social Hygiene. Pp. 455.
A splendid contribution to the subject, especially useful to American penologists and criminologists, who have been obliged to put up with sporadic and often inaccurate reports of this very important and social evil in Continental countries. Mr. Flexner promises a study shortly of prostitution in the United States. Let us hope that it will meet the high standard of the work under discussion. It is almost trite to say that no library of a social worker should be without this book. Mr. Flexner’s treatment is dispassionate, careful, thorough, and broad. He has persistently gone after the facts. The book is commendably free from propaganda. He defines prostitution, discusses the demand and supply, and after showing the relation of prostitution to law and law enforcement gives several chapters to the discussion of regulation, after which he treats with equal detail the method of treatment commonly called “abolition”. The last chapter, summing up the outcome of European experience, is for Americans cognizant of the many surveys of the social evil in American cities, of especial interest and importance. “Prostitution is a modifiable phenomenon, arising out of the complicated interaction of personal factors and social conditions. The attempt to stamp it out completely by summary, even though persistent action, cannot be hopefully regarded. Repression requires an abundance of institutional facilities such as nowhere exists. Although important good is achieved at the moment (by repression) and still more in the long run, prostitution as a formidable problem will still remain. Repression is what the physicians call symptomatic treatment.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Flexner, having shown that “regulation” does not regulate, and that repression does not wholly repress, says in conclusion that a direct frontal attack in the repressive spirit would accomplish much. “It is well worth doing; it is, humanly speaking, a possible undertaking. Let us not, however, deceive ourselves into thinking that such a frontal attack absolves us from effort in other and different directions. Further achievements depend upon alterations in the constitution of society and its component parts.” And after outlining the important social factors that make for prostitution, such as ignorance, mental or moral defect, natural impulses, alcohol, illegitimacy, broken homes, bad homes, low wages, wretched industrial conditions—and their potential offsets through education, religion, science, sanitation, enlightened and far-reaching statesmanship, he continues: “Civilization has stripped for a life-and-death wrestle with tuberculosis, alcohol and other plagues. It is on the verge of a similar struggle with the crassest forms of commercial vice. Sooner or later, it must fling down the gauntlet to the whole horrible thing. This will be the real contest—a contest that will tax the courage, the self-denial, the faith, the resources of humanity to their uttermost.”
O. F. L.
Why Crime does not Pay. Sophie Lyons. J. S. Ogilvie, New York. pp. 268.