Book Reviews 1033

Lobley and Smith state that ‘the book’s single most important message’ is
that ‘welfare and voluntarism’ (p. 7) can achieve positive results; their research
clearly supports this. Persistent Young Offenders strengthens the calls for
children’s welfare to remain a paramount consideration when considering
responses to youth crime. It should be essential reading for academics, students
and practitioners alike.

References
Evans, A. (2007) Persistent Young Offenders: A Study of Children Identified as Persistent
Young Offenders in Scotland (2003 – 4, 2004– 5, 2005 – 6), Stirling, Scottish Children’s
Reporter Administration.
Newburn, T. (2002) ‘Young people, crime, and youth justice,’, in Maguire, M.,
Morgan, R. and Reiner, R. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, Oxford,
Oxford University Press.
Whyte, B. (2007) ‘Youth justice: Developments in Scotland for the twenty-first century,’,
in McIvor, G. and Raynor, P. (eds), Developments in Social Work with Offenders,
London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Rose Parkes
Senior Lecturer in Community and Criminal Justice,
De Montfort University, Leicester
doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn091

Cognitive –Behavioural Strategies in Crisis Intervention,

Frank M. Dattilio and Arthur Freeman (eds),
New York, Guilford Press, 2007, pp. xx þ 556, ISBN 1 59385 487 0, £41.00

Crisis intervention, based on crisis theory, is one of the most widely used types
of brief treatment employed by mental health professionals working in commu-
nity settings. Dattilio and Freeman set the scene in the opening chapter, saying
that, for most individuals, crises are immediate, transient and temporary. For
other individuals, however, the temporary nature of crisis may lead to years
of upset and their life crisis may become part of a post-traumatic stress that
is long-term and chronic. What produces or fuels a crisis is not simply
defined by a particular situation or set of circumstances, but rather by the indi-
vidual’s perception of the event and his/her ability (or inability) to effectively
cope with that circumstance. In the same situation, different individuals deal
with the potential crisis with varying degrees of competence or success. This
impressive third edition provides a comprehensive overview of a number of
different crises that individuals may face in today’s society and approaches
for understanding and helping those involved. As well as providing sound
theoretical overviews relevant to each of the areas, practical intervention strat-
egies are also discussed, based on cognitive – behavioural therapy with an
emphasis on short-term and time-effective techniques. The book is divided
1034 Book Reviews

into five sections: psychological crises, medically related crises, child and family
crises, environmental and situational crises, and general issues in crisis work.
The vast majority of contributors are experienced clinicians based in
America and, on the whole, the text is clear, comprehensive and accessible.
A huge variety of topics are covered, including depression and suicide, panic
disorder, substance misuse, traumatic brain injury, crises intervention strategies
for treating law enforcement and mental health professionals, the crises-prone
patient, medical crises such as acute and chronic pain, child sexual abuse,
spousal abuse, couple problems, families in crises, aggression in children and
adolescents, older adults, rape trauma, terrorism, disaster trauma, traumatic
stress disorders and legal and ethical issues in crisis intervention.
The book is a weighty 543 pages of text and is by no means a ‘quick read’.
The information is detailed yet retains its accessibility, and the topics covered
are of great significance to the contemporary practitioner. In particular, the
use of case studies helps to bring the issues ‘to life’ and add colour to the
issues at hand. There are numerous references to other work throughout
the text for the interested reader to pursue at their leisure, although each
of the chapters stands alone as good summaries of the current knowledge
base relating to each crisis and cognitive– behavioural therapy. In
summary, I would recommend it as a valuable source of information useful
to clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counsellors and other
practitioners working in the area of crisis intervention, as well as post-
graduate students.

Helga Sneddon and C. Psychol

Senior Research Fellow,
Institute of Child Care Research,
School of Sociology,
Social Policy and Social Work,
Queen’s University, Belfast, N. Ireland
doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn092

Children in Trouble: The Role of Families, Schools and Communities,

Carol Hayden,
Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. xix þ 177, ISBN 978 1 4039 9486 2, £55.00 (hbk)

Children in trouble or troubled children? This is a central theme throughout

this book. The former may be those children in trouble with the law or those
being excluded from school, the latter those with emotional or behavioural pro-
blems that impact upon their life. This tension between the two conceptions is
something that will be revisited later in this short review.
The book opens with a comprehensive introduction to the historical, sociologi-
cal and legal conditions surrounding children in trouble spanning pre-industrial
Britain to the 1990s. The following chapter examines more contemporary
conceptualizations of children in trouble in England, including consideration
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