Reviews (Edited by A. R. Brownlie)

TAKING STOCK

Crime in Britain Today Cliue Borrell @ Brian Cashinella (Routledge @ Kegal Paul, London, 1975; 206pp., E4.50)

This book describes in twelve chapters the state of crime in Britain today. Violence, smuggling, terrorism, theft, fraud and vice are illustrated by reference to well known case; and public debate. The authors are two journalists who know how to paint a picture with boldness of stroke and elaboration of detail and they do it well.

Britain suffers a loss through crime of over £500 million per year; school vandalism accounts for £10 million; seven out of ten crimes are never solved; senseless violence at one end of the spectrum and highly skilled crime at the other; the specialty of forensic pathology is doomed unless the Government step in to save it. These and many other p3tential headlines recur throughout the book. Yet there is little in the text to surprise or inform the forensic scientist. The chapter devoted to forensic science does not attempt to describe the administrative system but points to one or two items of current research and in outlining an actual example of' this progressive technology in action supplies one of the more optimistic chapters of the book.

There is extensive discussion of Sir Robert Mark's 1973 Dimbleby Lecture in which for example he referred to the existence of a small minority of lawyers who by doubtful methods "do very well from the proceeds of crime"-a challenge surely which the Law Society cannot afford to ignore.

The authors make some attempt to see where the blame for the present state of crime lies. The conclusion is that very msny contribute to the picture: weak judges, bent policeman, crooked lawyers, publicity-seeking politicians and of course mindless thugs.

And the authors might have added, a complacent public willing to tolerate and sometimes to condone the unprincipled exploitation of violence and greed, the public which we help to form.

Alistair R. Brownlie

GUNMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE

Mac I've Got a Murder John McCafirp (Arthur Barker Ltd., London, 1975; 182pp., £3.25)

John McCafferty, well known to most members of the Forensic Science Society, was for many years the fire-arm3 expert at the Metropolitan Police laboratory and has an enviable international reputation in his field. His book, Mac, I've Got a Murder, is m3re than just the auto-biography of a remarkable ex-policeman cum scientist, for it is also a valuable addition to the historical record of forensic science.

Many of the cases he uses to illustrate points are well known, but many were of concern only to the small circle of those intimately involved. Thus whilst he has something to say about Haigh and the acid bath murders, he can spare a page or so to describe a bizarre incident in Hertfordshire in which a dead

woman's skin was punctured with a multitude of tiny holes. The first was a series of cold hearted deliberate killings, whilst the second turned out to be a natural death followed by the attentions of an affectionate cat "kneading" his dead mistress as he had no doubt done when she was alive.

'Mac', tells of the forensic pioneers whose work revolutionised so many aspects of crime detection, and it is refreshing to know that many of them are still in the service of justice, as enthusiastic as ever.

This book ought to be in the library of everyone connected with forensic science-not to be read as a text book on any particular discipline, but because what a plain simple man has written about science and crime, from a very deep well of experience, is worth reading.

Don Campbell

A SPORT GROWN OUT OF A MARTIAL ART

Combat Handgun Shooting - -

James D. Mason (Springfield Illinois, Charles C. Thomas, 1976; 256pp., about £1.5)

The sport of combat pistol shooting, well established in the U.S.A., is now takin.g hold in Britain and in Europe. The 1976 World Championships were held in Berndorf, Austria when surprisingly, a Norwegian and not an American took first place. Most pistol shooting involves stylised, precise practices utilising highly refined weapons and has little relationship to the defensive or offensive use of the weapon. Combat competitions seek to utilise and develop weapons, equipment and techniques which have a closer relationship to the practical use of the pistol. In the process of their development, these competitions have become a sport in their own right.

In recent years there has been quite a crop of books dealing with 'practical" pistol shooting and most fall into a predictable pattern. There is a catalogue section, often rehashed from periodicals; inyths and half-truths about "Gun- fighters of the Old West"; some mumbo jumbo about ballistics; and then a re-hash of 1920's combat shooting techniques complicated by an infusion of modern target shooting techniques. Mason's book is not one of these. Unusually, this author has set for himself the clearly defined goal of dealing with com- petitive combat pistol shooting. He does not allow himself to be sidetracked into the complexities of top class precision target shooting, nor does he try to produce a police training manual. With his goal clearly in mind, Mason has progressed in an orderly, lucid and extremely well informed manner.

Pistol shooting of any type involves, firstly, a man., secondly a pistol and thirdly a target which has to be engaged in a particular manner. The most complicated factor is, unquestionably, the man, and Mason recognises this in his chapters on the physiological and psychological aspects of competitive shooting under "combat" con.ditions. These will help many people to under- stand for the first time just what is involved in the complex task of 1earnin.g to shoot accurately under stress. Discussion of weapons, and in particular of the long-standing controversy of revolver versus self loading pistol, is clear and without bias. There is a very useful treatment of the special problems involved in the use of lightweight small pistols of the types often preferred for plain clothes police work. Having dealt with the man and the gun, Mason joins them together with chapters on handgun stocks and on the physiological aspects of grip and fire control. Chapters on ammunition, ballistics, targets and styles of competition complete the picture.

In one place, the text becomes difficult to follow when page 11 1 is followed by several pages of photographs and the n.ext paragraph is mixed up with captions on page 116. O n page 246, some of the bibliography has been printed out of place. These are small criticisms to be set against a generally good layout.