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Victimology: The victim and his criminal

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Having taken classes under this esteemed professor in 1969-1970 for a class in criminology, and assigned the book as mandatory reading, the greater scheme of how positives can become negatives are well outlined in this excellent treatise that examines society from the broader brush of choices and priorities of purpose and method, and whether they can be expected to achieve the ultimate goal. The process of social change, fraught with unseen dangers, and unanticipated results are rarely within the scope of protestors, criminals, or even negligent persons when crime is committed, any more than they are within the scope of those who attempt to change society in a positive manner by the quick fix methods they all claim will work like the snake oil salesman (consultants or politicians, do-gooders, or even ministers) they are. The unique perspectives found within the examples of this excellent study of human disasters should make the book required reading for all who would alter society in unconventional ways because even the waves of immediate success have undercurrents and aftercurrents of backwash, much like the backdraft that can accompany the fires made famous in fireman's lore and depicted on screen. The first rescuers in are often the victims of this backlash as they are in entrepreneurial ventures. When solutions are made to capture both the victim and the criminal in the net of either criminal or social science and welfare policies designed to fix one, both often are enveloped within the tangle of not so seaworthy solutions. Of note is the fact that the book was a lifelong effort by the author in many countries and in many expert capacities where he evaluated the potential of the dilemma, and examined the aftermath of the solution, much like a forensic examiner of the trainwreck that once occurred, needs to be explored for the knowledge of prevention in the future. It was also published during the time of civil rights where angry protesting formed the platform for the backlash of resentment and free flow of animosity into which the good efforts at revolution descended, much like the characterization of the Anti-vietnam platform that plagued the nation for so many years. In an engagement that requires two or more, both and all are forever caught among the outcome, whether they prefer to be there or not, and are rarely easily extricated with great success, being both fused into the problem as well as the solution, and inseparable apart from it. Well worth the reading for the insight and the direction so desperately needed in policy programming today.