LEGAL PSYCHOLOGY

By H. E. Burtt '11. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1931. pp. xiv, 467.

Whether or not the result of publicity given to the use of psychological apparatus in the detection of guilt, there has been of late a considerable interest in the contributions which psychology can make to the practice and execution of law. Many issues essentially psychological are reported here and there in legal journals and records of court proceedings; many facts which have a legal significance are to be found in psychological litera ture. From these varied sources Burtt has assembled relevant facts and relevant cases to compose a book which should be exceedingly valuable to those in the courts, and of human interest to the general reader.

The volume treats four major aspects of legal psychology, testimony, the detection of crime, the criminal, and the prevention of crime.

Probably few people who do not daily face the practical importance of the fact, realize how defective are the observations and memories of the average man. But when one stops to note the various factors that affect testimony among them, acuity of sense organs, after-images, illusions, ability to estimate area, time, or motion, span and fluctuation of attention, rapidity of the curve of forgetting, imaginal confusion, and suggestibility—the low degree of accuracy of testimony is altogether comprehensible. Burtt gives an excellent survey of these factors, making pertinent their application to the courts by citing many cases in which someone such factor was significant.

His treatment of the various methods of crime detection word-association, pneumographs, sphygmomanometers, and the like deals both with laboratory experiments and practical use.

The methods used to prevent crime depend in part on the kind of criminal. There are two chapters treating the mentally disordered and the mentally defective criminal. Since, however, the majority of culprits fall outside of these two categories, it would appear that the book could be enriched by a chapter dealing with normal criminals (paradoxical as that term may sound).

The chapters devoted to crime prevention combine fact-finding with speculation. Prevention of crime is socially of great importance; but despite the many scientists interested in this topic, we have little experimental evidence to substantiate our varied philosophies on the subject.

The next to the last chapter, on trademark infringement, although this subject falls within the scope of the title of the book, seems somehow like an intruder. The chapter describes the interesting psychological method of Paynter, and otherwise justifies its inclusion for most readers.

The concluding chapter summarizes the salient findings of the book.

CHARLES LEONARD STONE

From the Columbia University Press has recently appeared a volume of 115 pages "Five College Plans, Columbia, Harvard, Swarthmore, Wabash, Chicago." The plan of Wabash College is written by President Louis B. Hopkins '08.

The Savings Bank Journal for October 1931 contains an article "How Some 'Thrift Plans' Operate" by Richard C. Plummer '12, Assistant Attorney General of the state of New Jersey.

"Ultimate Fiber Stresses for Wood Poles" by R. H. Colley '09 a pamphlet of nine pages, has been published as one of the technical publications of the Bell Telephone System. In the same series there has been published "Knot Sizes in Wood Poles" by Mr. Colley and R. C. Eggleston.

The January issue of Poetry contains a poem by Marshall Schacht '27 "Envy Under the TA"

Reuel Denney '32 is the author of "Three Declarations—The Hunters, A Defeat, Morning Song" in the January issue of Poetry.