Social science and social pathology [antikvár]

PREFACEMY original interest in the subject matter of this book (and the same is true of most of the others that I have written) sprang more from practical experience than from academic study. On the one hand it was the unanswerable questions which forced themselves upon my attention as a magistrate, serving in both adult and juvenile courts in London, which first set me thinking about what is really known on the subject of criminality, its nature, its causes and the ways in which it can best be handled; while, on the other hand, eight years' experience as Head of a University Department training students for social work provoked much reflection both about socially unacceptable behaviour in general, and about the changing attitudes of the community towards the 'deviants' who indulge in this.This interest would, however, have remained sterile had it not been for the generosity of the Nufiield Foundation in making it possible for me to prepare this book. No conventional expression of gratitude can do justice to my sense of indebtedness to that generosity, to which, indeed, I owe what has proved to be one of the most intellectually exciting episodes of my hfe.Second only to my indebtedness to the Nuffield Foundation, is my obhga-tion to the University of Birmingham and the Rationalist Press Association for an invitation to deliver the Josiah Mason Lectures in 1955. This enabled me to expose a considerable part of the work, at an early stage, to the criticism of an informed and lively audience. The late Josiah Mason, who was never blessed with children of his own, expressed the hope that he would leave behind him, in the students of the college which he founded, an 'intelligent, earnest, industrious, and truth-loving and truth-seeking progeny for generations to come'students who are 'willing not only to learn all that can be taught, but in their turn to communicate their knowledge to others, and to apply it to useful purposes for the benefit of the community'.^ From my experience as Josiah Mason lecturer, I can testify that this hope, nearly a century later, is abundantly fulfilled in the university which has grown out of Mason's college.The actual text of the book (with the exception of the Appendix II) has been put together entirely by myself, though I have sometimes borrowed whole sentences, with or without modification, from drafts prepared by my colleagues Rosalind Chambers and Vera G. Seal. Both these colleagues would, I think, dissent from some of my emphases and conclusions. But if the writing and the sole responsibility for what is said are mine, chief credit for the solid work upon which my conclusions, right or wrong, are founded is due to the zeal, the insight and the accuracy with which they have pursued their researches. I have incorporated much of their original work; and I am deeply grateful to their watchfulness for the elimination of many errors which would otherwise have found their way into the texts. Miss Seal, in particular, upon whom the heaviest load has fallen, has carried that load throughout with such skill and devotion as to create the illusion that no burden existed. That she' Bunce (1890), pp. 5-6.