Book Reviews : The Social Consequences of Conviction Martin and Webster Heinemann. £4.50

Abstract

It is less of a bad book than a frightening one. It brings big business ideas in a half-baked way into social work. One feels a mild dread at having to work in the kind of department the authors outline, and a positive horror at being one of its clients. Here is giantism personified; megalomania run riot. One is reminded irresistibly of the Megalopolis of which Lewis Mumford warned us. &dquo;Panting, choking, spluttering, cringeing, hating, the dweller in Megalopolis dies ...&dquo; So too eventually will the …