About Mechanic

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Medical Sociology: A Selective View by David MechanicReview by: Peter K. ManningThe Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Summer, 1970), pp. 421-424Published by: Wileyon behalf of the Midwest Sociological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4105360.

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Book

Reviews

421

delinquency

mark

Hirschi as

an articu-

late

theorist of

genuine

promise.

His

comparison

of

strain

theories,

control

theories, and cultural deviance theories,

while

brief,

provides

an

impressive

frame

from

which

the

author

launches his

own

control

theory

and

subsequent

empirical

testing.

Control

theories,

he

asserts,

as-

sume

that

delinquent

acts

result when

an

individual's bond

to

society

is

weak

or

broken.

Four

elements of

this bond are

(a) attachment,

(b)

commitment,

(c)

involvement,

and

(d)

belief.

These

are

discussed

separately

and

in

relation to

one another.

Hirschi concludes his

the-

oretical

underpinning

with

the

following

statement:

In

the

end,

then,

control

theory

remains

what

it

has

always

been:

a

theory

in

which

deviation

is

not

prob-

lematic. The

question

'Why

do

they

do

it?'

is

simply

not the

question

the

theory

is

designed

to

answer.

The

question

is,

'Why

don't

we

do

it?'

There

is

much

evidence

that

we

would

if

we dared.

(2) A second value lies in Hirschi's

discussion

of

delinquency

definitions.

For

this

study,

he decided

that delin-

quency

would be defined

by

acts,

the

detection

of which

is

thought

to result

in

punishment

of the

person

committing

them

by agents

of

the

larger

society.

Clearly,

Hirschi

emphasizes

the act

rather than the

actor;

deeds rather

than

doers. His

contrast of official

delin-

quency

records with

self-reported

items

represents

no small contribution in it-

self.

Unfortunately,

this

particular

chap-

ter is

marred

by

a

confusing

presentation

of

his choice

of

an

index of

delinquency.

The

difficulty

is

not

so

much

the

measure

but a

clumsy

description

of its deriva-

tion from

the

earlier works of

Ivan

Nye

and

James

Short

plus

that

of

Robert

Dentler and

Lawrence

Monroe.

(Read-

ers who

plan

to

replicate

the work

are

advised to compare Hirschi's presenta-

tion

with

the

ASR

articles cited

on

pp.

54

and

55.)

(3)

Another value is in the

excel-

lence

of

the

empirical

study

itself

which

most

assuredly

will

stimulate

many

additional efforts by others. Hirschi's

data

on

attachment

to

parents,

at-

tachments to

the

school,

and

attach-

ment

to

peers

shed

exciting

new

light

on

these old work

horses of

delinquency

causation.

Valuable as

these

are,

per-

haps

an

even

more

important

contribu-

tion

lies

in

Hirschi's

testing

of

the Tech-

niques

of Neutralization

proposed

by

Gresham

Sykes

and

David

Matza

and

the

lower

class

focal concerns

suggested

by

Walter Miller.

(4)

The fourth

value is the

appen-

dix

which

provides,

among

other

things,

a

complete

set of

instruments.

These,

of

course,

are not

indepen-

dent of

one another.

Hirschi shows

him-

self

to

be

a

taskmaster

in

continuously

returning

to

his

theoretical

formulations

with

which he

integrates

the

whole.

A

book of

this

significance

should

invite the finest criticism. Surely the

strain

theorists

will

counterattack,

the

advocates of

cultural

deviance

theory

will

rejoin,

and

typologists

will

take

exception

to

points

and

positions.

In-

deed,

there is

much to

take

exception

to.

But Hirschi knows

this.

Accordingly,

he

is

very

often his

own best

critic.

Perhaps,

on

the trite

side,

this

re-

viewer

wondered

if much of this

book

were

written

prior

to

Delinquency

Re-

search.

While

a

publisher's

card

shows

a

publication

date of December

15,

1969,

the author's

preface

is dated

four-

teen months

earlier,

October,

1968,

and

relatively

few

references

are dated as

recently

as

1967.

This

is

less

a

commen-

tary

on

quality

and

more a

complaint

about

lag

between

conception

and

deliv-

ery.

The

loss

is ours.

JOSEPH

W. ROGERS

New Mexico

State

University

Medical

Sociology:

A

Selective

View.

By

DAVID

MECHANIC.

New

York:

The

Free

Press,

1968. 504

pp.

No

price

indicated.

MECHANIC

ivides

his selective

view

of

the

field

of

medical

sociology

into

three

parts

and

two

appendices.

In

the

first

part,

he demonstrates

the

many

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424

THE SOCIOLOGICAL

QUARTERLY

and

in

medical

education.

The

bibliog-

raphy

is

excellent,

containing nearly

500

items.

However,

the

use of

the

bibliog-

raphy as a list of citations makes for a

great

deal

of

fumbling

to the

rear

of

the

book

and back

again.

The indexes

are

comprehensive

and there are

no

an-

noying typographical

errors.

PETER K. MANNING

Michigan

State

University

REFERENCES

Freidson,

E. and

B.

Rhea

1965

Knowledge

and

judgment

in

professional

evaluations.

Administrative

Science

Quarterly

10

(June):107-124.

1964

Physicians

in

large

medical

groups

Journal

of

Chronic

Diseases

17

(April):827-

836.

1963

Processes

of control in

a

company

of

equals.

Social

Problems

11

(Fall):119-131.

Goss,

M.

E.

W.

1961

Influence

and

authority

among

physicians

in

an

outpatient

clinic. American

Sociological

Review

26

(February)

:39-50.

Kutner,

L.

1962

The

illusion

of due

process

in

commitment

proceedings.

Northwestern

University

Law

Review

57

(September-October):383-399.

Scheff,

Thomas

1966

Becoming

Mentally

Ill.

Chicago:

Aldine.

Szasz,

Thomas

1968

Law,

Liberty

and

Psychiatry.

New

York: Collier Books.

The

Peter

Principle. By

LAWRENCE

.

PETER nd

RAYMOND

ULL.

New

York:

William Morrow &

Company,

Inc.,

1969. 179

pp.

$4.95.

PETER

and Hull

combine

sharp insight

and humor in

a

style

much

like

that of

C.

N.

Parkinson.

The

Peter

Principle

is

simply

stated: In

a

hierarchy every

employee

tends ro rise

to his level

of

incompetence (p. 25). Given sufficient

time

and

the

existence

of a

hierarchy

having

many

rather than few

ranks,

Peter's

Corollary

ollows:

In

time,

every

post

tends to be

occupied by

an

em-

ployee

who

is

incompetent

to

carry

out

its

duties

(p.

27).

Students of

large

organizations

have

long

noted

that

how-

ever low

morale

may

be

among

particip-

ants

in

a

given organization,

the

es-

sential work

still

gets

done. Peter and

Hull observe:

Work

is

accomplished

by

those

employees

who

have

not

yet

reached

their

level

of

incompetence

(p. 27).

A

major

problem

in

any large

organ-

ization

is

maintaining

open

lines

of

pro-

motion for

competence,

in

spite

of block-

ages

by

incompetence

at

any

given

level. Two

major strategies

are

widely

known:

percussive

sublimation,

and

lateral

arabesque.

A

case

of

percus-

sive sublimation

is one in which

the

victim

is moved

from

his

present posi-

tion of incompetence to one at a higher

rank.

Such

a move

is

designed

to

de-

ceive

people

outside the

organization.

Peter

and

Hull

quite

clearly

indicate

that success

here

requires

that

the

im-

mediate

super-ordinate

is

still

at

his

level

of

competence.

This

move saves a

poor

promotion policy,

supports

the morale

of

competent

others

still at lower

levels

in

the

organization,

and

above

all,

re-

duces

the

possibility

that the

victim will

take his critical

knowledge

with him and

become a

threat

from a

competitive

organization.

When

this

is

actually

done,

such

persons

are

viewed

as traitors.

Even

if

a

government

organization

has

no internal

competitors,

there are

other

governments

outside.

The

lateral

ara-

besque

is

applied

by

Peter

and Hull to

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