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Vol. 72, No. 8, August 1999 |
Book Reviews
This Month's Featured Selections
Essential Criminology
By Mark M. Lanier and Stuart Henry
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998).
Paper. 250 pgs. Retail $25.
Reviewed by Michael L. Ernest
This book presents an overview of the study of crime. It is
not intended solely for lawyers; in fact, it is geared towards
professors and undergraduate students of crime. Legal practitioners
still will find it interesting and informational. Its interest
lies in the many diverse theories it presents regarding the causation
of crime.
Authors Lanier and Henry begin with a definition of crime,
taking care not to forget crimes of the white-collar variety.
They then describe crime as a continuum, ranging in severity
from terrorism to truancy. The authors present an original prismatic
concept of crime that incorporates white collar and street crimes.
They then delineate the various official and unofficial ways
of gathering crime statistics, highlighting the strengths and
weaknesses of each.
The remainder of Essential Criminology discusses the
many physiological, sociological, and economic theories regarding
why people commit crimes. It often is difficult to keep the various
theories from blending together. The authors solve this problem
by providing many charts throughout the text and summaries at
the end of each chapter. They also use flowcharts and graphs
when necessary.
The theories vary so greatly that it is impossible to reconcile
them all. Thus, the reader must read critically. The theories
range from insightful to barely plausible; from sound policy
to naive; from credible to the downright laughable. Of particular
interest are the theories on crime from the Marxist, feminist,
radical feminist, Marxist feminist, abolitionist, and anarchist
points of view. For example, the abolitionist theory calls for
the abolition of the practice of incarceration and calls for
the closing of all prisons. It does not, however, offer any realistic
ways to deal with violent criminals.
Essential Criminology is a wonderful introductory textbook,
and should one desire a more in-depth study of criminology, it
offers 43 pages of reference materials.
Michael L. Ernest is a Marquette University
Law School student with a projected graduation of May 2001.
Countdown Y2K: Business Survival
Planning for the Year 2000
By Peter de Jager and Richard Bergeon
(New York, NY: Wiley Computer Publishing, 1999).
330 pgs. Retail $23.99.
Reviewed by Terry F. Peppard
The "Year 2000 Problem," also styled "the Millennium
Bug," is so much in the news today that even those who might
wish desperately to avoid the subject can't. Because of
the media attention, a discussion of a Y2K-related technology
meltdown can be about as inviting as another talking heads debate
over a certain White House intern's impact on the fate of
the nation. The difference is that Y2K genuinely has the potential
to bring the country, indeed the world, to the point of crisis.
Hence this book.
The authors of Countdown Y2K are technology wonks who
currently spend a good deal of their time filling the airwaves,
and the Internet, with advice aimed at preparing businesses for
the coming crunch. Their book, one among scores on the subject
(an appendix to this one lists 29 others) was plainly written
by nonlawyers for nonlawyers.
The target audience is the community of business owners and
managers, not themselves technologically initiated, who need
to know enough about the topic both to ask the right questions
of their technical staff and vendors and to understand the answers.
The book succeeds in this objective in part because it's
written in a pleasingly nontechnical style. It also indulges
in just enough repetition and recasting of the authors'
essential theses so that a newcomer to the field can find useful
information in any of several chapters without much difficulty.
The lawyer reader of Countdown Y2K will find it thin
in its examination of the legal issues that will attend the arrival
of the Y2K "event horizon," Jan. 1, 2000. In fact,
only one of the book's 13 chapters is devoted to the legal
implications of the problem. Still, this volume has value for
lawyers who want to understand what their clients are, or should
be, going through to exterminate the Millennium Bug.
If there's a conspicuous omission in this work, it's
the absence of even the most cursory mention of how business
people and their lawyers might deal with the legal disputes that
will inevitably arrive with Y2K. The authors fail to note, for
example, that the very nature of the problem will likely make
court-based legal solutions useless because they're simply
too time-consuming.
The book would have benefited from an explanation by the authors
that, as business people and attorneys realize that Y2K legal
remedies must be found within weeks, or even days, the solution
may lie in fast-track mediation, supplemented as necessary by
expedited arbitration.
Terry Peppard, U.W. 1973, a former member
of the State Bar's Technology Resource Committee, practices
in Madison and serves on the American Arbitration Association's
national panel of mediators and arbitrators for technology and
Y2K-related legal disputes.
Managing Notorious Trials
By Timothy R. Murphy, Paula L. Hannaford,
Genevra Kay Loveland, and G. Thomas Munsterman
(Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts, 1998).
225 pgs. Retail $30.
To order, call (888) 228-6272.
Reviewed by Jason T. Studinski
Despite innovative thinking coupled with the emergence of
new techniques and technologies, the rules of trial law remain
governed by established precedent. However, that precedent often
is ill equipped to deal with the varied and considerable challenges
of a notorious trial.
Managing Notorious Trials provides a detailed examination
of the special issues judges, court personnel, lawyers, parties,
and the media face in high profile trials. In this text you will
not find a philosophical debate about issues like the efficacy
of cameras in the courtroom. Instead, Notorious Trials offers
an easy-to-follow practical guide to dealing with pretrial matters,
media coverage, jury considerations, and security.
The authors present these substantive areas in a user friendly
format. Each chapter begins with a listing of "Lessons Learned"
that also serves as an outline of the chapter, thus allowing
readers quick reference to topics of interest. The book concludes
with multiple appendices, including sample forms that address
topics including rules concerning media coverage, special juror
questionnaires, and judge's instructions.
The reader cannot help but conclude that taking part in highly
publicized trials is the province of a select few, most of whom
have only done so a few times. Given the high stakes, drama,
and lack of experience in this setting, participants need to
identify all the issues in advance and deal with them most advantageously.
Managing Notorious Trials provides an excellent starting
point for would-be actors in such a drama.
Jason T. Studinski, U.W. 1998, is the
founding member of Studinski Legal Group LLC, Madison, and practices
plaintiff's employment, civil rights, and personal injury
law.
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