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Book Review: Police in Victoria 1836–1980

Book Review: Police in Victoria 1836–1980 BOOK REVIEWS ANZJ Crim (1981) 14 Police in Victoria 1836-1980. Melbourne, Government Printer (1980) $4, paperback only. There is a vogue current in the police community, both in Australia and overseas, of producing force histories Quality varies from professional to enthusiastic antiquarian. This interest, at least in any substantial sense, is a relatively new phenomenon and one greatly to be encouraged. The latest Australian offering in this mould is Police in Victoria 1836-1980. This slim volume presents the origins and development of police in Victoria, across both time and function, from 1836 to the present. The result is a brief, but comprehensive, account of police and policing in Australia's second most populous state. The balance of straight historical fact, development over the decades and the contemporary product is particularly well managed. Topics addressed are well suited to providing readers with a satisfactory and reasonably comprehensive overview of the subject area. Those topics treated in some detail include mounted, detective, female, and traffic police, the police strike of 1923 and, modern operations and communications. The authors, all members of the management services bureau of the Victorian police department, have not contended themselves merely with culling from the official record. They have located elderly retired members who remember what it was like to police Melbourne and environs in the early part of the century. Some of the photographs provided by those retired members represent a valuable historical record in their own right. Police In Victoria 1836-1980 is essentially a descriptive work, rather in the public relations tradition. It does not attempt analysis, for such is not its purpose. Its purpose is to inform and entertain at a reasonable price. It succeeds. Having had their appetites whetted by this particular hors d'oeuvre, readers will be pleased to learn that a more substantial historical account of the department is planned; one which will be written in accordance with the conventions of the academic historian. If the volume under review is any indication, it should prove a repast worth waiting for. BRUCE SWANTON Canberra Mathematical Criminology David F Greenberg. Rutgers University Press (1979) $US19.50. Quantitative research in criminology received a big boost in the late 1960s when the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice published its reports. The Commission's efforts to bring together numerous experts and solicit submissions on specific topics were not only unprecedented in criminological research but also a great source of encouragement. The discipline of criminology has been most eclectic in introducing research methods and techniques. Researchers have borrowed from tools of other disciplines and often expanded them. Recently, several research studies have utilised econometric methods. In the 1970s works by Blumstein, Ehrlich, Votey, Sjoquist, Carr-Hill, Stern, Brenner, Fox and others have demonstrated the application of these methods to problems in crime and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology SAGE

Book Review: Police in Victoria 1836–1980

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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology and Authors, 1981
ISSN
0004-8658
eISSN
1837-9273
DOI
10.1177/000486588101400209
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS ANZJ Crim (1981) 14 Police in Victoria 1836-1980. Melbourne, Government Printer (1980) $4, paperback only. There is a vogue current in the police community, both in Australia and overseas, of producing force histories Quality varies from professional to enthusiastic antiquarian. This interest, at least in any substantial sense, is a relatively new phenomenon and one greatly to be encouraged. The latest Australian offering in this mould is Police in Victoria 1836-1980. This slim volume presents the origins and development of police in Victoria, across both time and function, from 1836 to the present. The result is a brief, but comprehensive, account of police and policing in Australia's second most populous state. The balance of straight historical fact, development over the decades and the contemporary product is particularly well managed. Topics addressed are well suited to providing readers with a satisfactory and reasonably comprehensive overview of the subject area. Those topics treated in some detail include mounted, detective, female, and traffic police, the police strike of 1923 and, modern operations and communications. The authors, all members of the management services bureau of the Victorian police department, have not contended themselves merely with culling from the official record. They have located elderly retired members who remember what it was like to police Melbourne and environs in the early part of the century. Some of the photographs provided by those retired members represent a valuable historical record in their own right. Police In Victoria 1836-1980 is essentially a descriptive work, rather in the public relations tradition. It does not attempt analysis, for such is not its purpose. Its purpose is to inform and entertain at a reasonable price. It succeeds. Having had their appetites whetted by this particular hors d'oeuvre, readers will be pleased to learn that a more substantial historical account of the department is planned; one which will be written in accordance with the conventions of the academic historian. If the volume under review is any indication, it should prove a repast worth waiting for. BRUCE SWANTON Canberra Mathematical Criminology David F Greenberg. Rutgers University Press (1979) $US19.50. Quantitative research in criminology received a big boost in the late 1960s when the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice published its reports. The Commission's efforts to bring together numerous experts and solicit submissions on specific topics were not only unprecedented in criminological research but also a great source of encouragement. The discipline of criminology has been most eclectic in introducing research methods and techniques. Researchers have borrowed from tools of other disciplines and often expanded them. Recently, several research studies have utilised econometric methods. In the 1970s works by Blumstein, Ehrlich, Votey, Sjoquist, Carr-Hill, Stern, Brenner, Fox and others have demonstrated the application of these methods to problems in crime and

Journal

Australian & New Zealand Journal of CriminologySAGE

Published: Jun 1, 1981

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