My Family Tradition free essay sample

When I heard we had to write an essay about family traditions, I wasn’t sure what I should do. Should I tell the truth and reveal the fact that my family doesn’t have any traditions? {That would make for a very boring essay.} Should I make one up and BS my way through the entire thing? {You are a horrible liar, don’t even go there!} Should I steal someone else’s family tradition and call it my own? {Next, on â€Å"America’s Most Wanted†, a girl who has made a living off of stealing. Does she rob money, jewels or extra large televisions? Oh no, she takes family traditions from innocent civilians!} As you can probably tell, I was completely stuck. Until an intriguing thought popped into my head—why not just do all of the above? {You are so going to hell for this†¦} Like I mentioned before, my family doesn’t have a special tradition. We will write a custom essay sample on My Family Tradition or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When I was assigned this essay, I went to my mother, hoping that we did have a tradition that I just overlooked! Needless to say, I was back at square one—she couldn’t think of any! I then began to look to my peers for help, which resulted in the usual, â€Å"Just say something obvious, like, ‘On the twenty-fifth day of December, my family opens presents that are left underneath an artificial tree by an obese man who has some strange obsession with red clothes and non-existent animals who can fly’!† That wasn’t much help either. I began to ponder why we didn’t have a tradition to call our own and came up with several logical reasons. One, my dad was in the Air Force while I was growing up, so we always seemed to move from place to place. I feel that many people that have family traditions were around their family most of the time, but since we were on the other side of the world, we couldn’t really spend time with our relatives. I hate saying it, but my immediate family and my extended family aren’t really amigos. There was some sort of ongoing fight with my dad’s side of the family, which eventually spread to my mom’s side. So my family really isn’t much of one. Maybe that could be part of the reason why we don’t have a tradition. I remember one time in a magazine people had sent in letters talking about strange (holiday) family traditions that they had. The ones that got chosen to be proudly displayed to the entire nation really were quite strange. I can vaguely remember one involving pickles on Thanksgiving and playing pranks on an unaware sleeping grandmother during Christmas. I wondered if maybe I could create my own and go into elaborate detail about how we hang old movie tickets on our Christmas tree instead of ornaments or something extremely random like that, but the thought of lying about something as important as family traditions seemed like one of the seven deadly sins. Maybe it is! Maybe Moses came back with the Ten Commandments and one of them read, â€Å"Thou shall not lie about family traditions†. Probably not. Stealing! People steal all the time, right? Jewelry, expensive clothes, electronics, packs of gum and maybe a family tradition every so often! I’ve never stolen before. Well, actually I think I did once when I was about seven years old, but I’m straying off the path here. One of my old friends, Jessica, had a hilarious family tradition. When somebody in their family turned sixteen, the parents (or whoever) would sneak into that person’s room while they were sleeping, pick them up, carry them outside, and throw them into the swimming pool. I remember how nervous my friend was—and she had a good reason to be—her birthday was in January! Lucky for her, the night before her sixteenth birthday was spent at a friend’s house and she was safe from the icy cold wake-up call. Part of me thought it would be a great idea to borrow her family tradition—it was funny, unique, and would make for a great essay—but eventually, my shoulder angel pushed the idea out of my head. All of these ideas really didn’t seem to work. But in the end, I discovered that I had an essay! One talking about how I shouldn’t lie or steal family traditions. One talking about how not every family has a tradition. One showing the world that my family’s tradition, is being completely untraditional.

Technology Review Essays

Technology Review Essays Technology Review Essay Technology Review Essay Teaches kids about their health, and teaches them about their body. ? Technology Review Technology has become an essential part of our school systems. Schools are now launching websites aimed at enhancing school educational activities, supporting student-teacher communication, contributing to school marketing efforts, and parent-teacher communication. Technology it makes it easier to keep parents informed of student activities and classroom assignments. I did some research and came across five different educational websites such as FunBrain. com, Kids Knowit. com, Brain Pop. com, ed. gov, and Kidshealth. com.I found these websites to be very important because they are based around K-6 students. These websites are very beneficial throughout the years for the students as they progress through their K-6 school. The Fun brain website offers educational games for kids of all age groups. The website can help a child if they are struggling with a certain subject like math, grammar, science, spelling, and history (Fun Brain, 2013). It is an educational website that is more interesting to students and grabs their attention. This website makes students want to learn more about a subject, and keeps them entertained at the same time.The game lessons are free for the children to utilize, and the child can also use the website at home. The next important educational website is Kids know it that teaches children more about history, and teach them about who they are today. Kids know it website is to provide the highest quality educational activities, products, movies, music, and so many other programs (Kids Know It, 2013). Children are given the opportunity to learn lessons from Prehistoric Humans to the French Revolution. They can also play educational games like invasion history, hopping through history, and brick buster history game (Kids Know it, 2013).This website is also beneficial because if they are struggling in other subjects there are educational activities to lend a hand. Another website that is beneficial for student’s education is Brain pop. com. This website can help with subjects in Science, Social Studies, English, math, Engineering Tech, Health, and Arts Music (Brain Pop, 2013). The science part of the website offers lessons about diversity in life, energy, and matter chemistry. These websites offers lessons and a review quiz afterwards. I find this website to be very valuable in these subjects. The next website is ed. ov, and it offers research to parents about how the schools work. This website is run by the U. S. Department of Education and it gives information about funding, policies, and any news that is happening in the education system (U. S. Department of Education, 2013). It is a very important website to teach parents and teachers about education, and any changes that are happening. I find this website to profit the parents more than the students. The final website is Kidshealth. org, and it provides information to s tudents about their health. This website teaches kids about their bodies, puberty, cooking recipes, health problems, and illness.It gives children a chance to watch movies, take quizzes, read articles, word puzzles, and many more activities. This is a very important educational website that can teach students about their body, and if they have questions that they do not feel comfortable asking their parents this website can help. I find this website to help when children are going through puberty. All of these websites are beneficial to students in K-6 grades. It teaches them about many different things about their body, and they can also help them if they are struggling in subjects.I am going to try and use as many different websites to help with my classroom, and teach my students that learning can be fun. I think kids today forget that they can still learn and have fun. As a teacher it is our job to educate and teach the students about the things they will need in their everyday life. In conclusion, it is going to be my goal to incorporate technology into my teaching. I feel that as technology is becoming more important in our everyday life that we need to incorporate it into are teaching so that students are better prepared for the future.I hope that these websites can help if a student is struggling in a certain area. Hopefully schools continue forward on trying to keep up with the technology world. ? References Brain Pop. (2013). Retrieved on February 21, 2013 from brainpop. com// Fun Brain. (2013). Retrieved on February 21, 2013 from funbrain. com// Kids Health. (2013). Retrieved on February 21, 2013 from http://kidshealth. org/kid/htbw// Kids Know It. (2013). Retrieved on February 21, 2013 from kidsknowit. com// U. S. Department of Education. (2013). Retrieved on February 21, 2013 from ed. gov//

Early Colonization and Development of Rhode Island Research Paper

Early Colonization and Development of Rhode Island - Research Paper Example In the eighteenth century their dedication to individualism underscored Rhode Islanders taking to business with its inherent risks. Due to the poverty of the land resources trade was practised. The Rhode Islanders were not happy serving under British policies, and became revolutionaries which resulted in the founding of a new nation. Rhode Islanders now come from various ethnic backgrounds. The new questions to be addressed relate to the rights of minorities, and the need for securing individual liberty and economic opportunity (McLoughlin, 1986). The Economy of Rhode Island The conventional manufacturing economy of Rhode Island has diversified to services, retail and wholesale trade, and finance. Despite this shift, several products such as jewellery, silverware, textiles, primary and fabricated metals, machinery and other items for which Rhode Island is well known, still continue to be manufactured. Additionally, tourism and gambling are important to the state’s economy (War ner 41). Most farmland is utilized for dairies and poultry farms, agriculture being unimportant to the economy. Commercial fishing is a declining industry, and naval facilities at Newport contribute to the state’s income (The Columbia Encyclopedia 41148). The Demographic Makeup of the State According to the Census 2010, Rhode Island had a population of 1,052,567 people showing an increase of 0.4% over one decade (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The race and ethnic origin demographics for Rhode Island in 2010 are as follows: Whites form the largest section at 8,856,859. The next largest group of 60,189 is formed by Black or African American, the size being equal to that of ‘some other race alone’. Almost half the number form ‘two or more races’ and Asian alone. There...   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to the Census 2010, Rhode Island had a population of 1,052,567 people showing an increase of 0.4% over one decade (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The race and ethnic origin demographics for Rhode Island in 2010 are as follows: Whites form the largest section at 8,856,859. The next largest group of 60,189 is formed by Black or African American, the size being equal to that of ‘some other race alone’. Almost half the number form ‘two or more races’ and Asian alone. There are only 6,058 American Indians or Alaska native, and 554 people constitute the group Native Hawaaiian and other Pacific islanders (Census Statistics, 2010). Political Characteristics of the Constituency and Leading Industries  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Rhode Island’s present constitution was adopted in 1842 and has been often amended† (The Columbia Encyclopedia 41148). A governor heads the state’s executive branch, who is elected for a four-year term and is eligible for re-election. Elected for two-year terms are the bicameral legislature with a senate of fifty members and a house of seventy-five. Local government functions at the city level, while Rhode Island’s counties have no political roles. The state sends two senators and two representatives to the U.S. Congress, and has four electoral votes. Though Rhode Island is mostly Democratic, various Republican governors have been elected from 1994 till the present. Rhode Island’s political and economic life was dominated by mill owners. The small mill towns with their great numbers of foreign-born residents.

Memo Revision Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Memo Revision - Assignment Example The Vice President’s office wishes to inform all employees that relocation to new the building will commence on Thursday next week. It will not commence on Monday and Tuesday according to initial plans. This decision has been arrived at following planned visits by managers from the central office on Monday and Tuesday. The Vice President’s office does not anticipate experiencing any form of embarrassments when managers visit to find things in disorder. The office wish to express regret, in advance, for any confusion or inconvenience the change might cause. All affected personnel are, through this memo, urged to extend maximum cooperation during the planned move. All personnel will pack their items in standard size boxes during relocation. Monday or Tuesday marks the date of issuing the standard size boxes subject to confirmation after relevant consultations. The reason for it is to make everything proceed smoothly as planned. Issuance of standard size boxes also avoids reoccurrence of horrible scenes witnessed during the previous relocation. All personnel should be present during issuance of boxes and await official communication. The following is the schedule analyzed by the Human Resource manager after thorough considerations and consultations stipulating the order in which personnel and their packed boxes will move from different floors to the new building: 1:00 PM: First and second-floor personnel 2:00 PM: Third and fourth-floor personnel 3:00 PM: Fifth-floor personnel All personnel should take charge of their items as losses or damages incurred shall be upon the individual. Teamwork is hereby encouraged to have a smooth switch to the new offices. The Vice President’s office wishes all personnel an easy relocation to their new offices.

Microeconomics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Microeconomics - Assignment Example However with the reduction of trade barriers in the American market during the 1980’s, the luxury automobile market saw increased competition from European and Japanese automobile makers. In terms of a supply and demand analysis, it is likely that there would be increased variety in the market of luxury automobiles and an overall increase in the supply of vehicles. It stands to reason that there must be a reduction the in price of American luxury automobiles to help increase quantity demanded to meet the new market equilibrium or improvements must be made to reduce the costs of manufacturing vehicles so that company profits can remain the same with a lower unit volume sale. The same kind of situation has occurred in Europe, with an over-supply of vehicles. In Europe, the market appears to be flooded with automobiles now. The supply is high. In order to compete in this crowded market, companies will have to reduce their prices. Demand simply does not match the supply, therefore prices must be lowered. Europe has almost 300 car and engine plants, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (known as ACEA). Their collective capacity is thought to be about 27 million vehicles a year. Sales of new cars last year were just under 16 million and are expected to fall to as low as 14.5 million this year, according to Ford. The capacity was established when demand was high, before the recession. Because car manufacturing is so capital intensive it is harder than other industries to be flexible to economic downturns. Manufacturers are therefore more vulnerable. They will make cars based on information from a year earlier and scale up their factories to do so, when it turns out demand is not as high as they thought it was because people are scaling back their spending on things like cars, they will produce an over-supply. They will then

Different Scientific Theories For Drugs And Crime Criminology Essay

Different Scientific Theories For Drugs And Crime Criminology Essay There are many different social scientific theories about the ever debated issue of the relationship between drugs and crime. The book highlights a few of the major social scientific theoretical perspectives. Although there are many different arguments as to the nature of the correlation, the one thing that is certain is that there is a significant relationship between drug use and crime. The first group of perspectives are from ethnographic and role theory analyses. They see the drug and crime relationship as being associated with subcultures more than directly causal of each other. Society would term these subculture behaviors as extremely deviant. This includes high frequencies of drug use, high crime rates, and high-risk sexual behavior. These are viewed as an integral part of the societal role of a typical street level drug-user. This perspective argues that drug use and crime are mutually reinforcing, not directly linear in cause. Another perspective comes from the ecological theoretical analysis. It argues that the relationship between drugs and crime are because the two activities happen in similar environmental conditions. These conditions include lack of social control, poverty, and economic opportunity. This perspective argues that crime is spuriously related to drug use. The final interpretation is the radical theory. This perspective says that the relationship between drugs and crime is a production of governmental legal policy since 1914, which criminalized many drug using behaviors. These theorists argue that the drug-crime relationship can be fought with the decriminalization of drugs, as well as treating drug use and addictions through social help programs. It is impossible to pinpoint the exact cause of the drug-crime relationship. But by using several different theories, such as the previous mentioned ones, it is possible to begin to develop an idea of the root cause. It is important to remember that one theory may not fit every single situation, but a group of well thought out theories can help us better explain the overall relationship of a particular problem. Chapter 1: Question 3 The Goldstein model is a framework for the linkage between drugs and crime. It attempts to explain the three different causes of violence that is linked with drugs. These three different classifications are; the psychopharmacological explanation, the economic-compulsive explanation, and the systematic explanation. Drug use is proven to be a major factor in crime in many cases. The majority of prisoners in the United States are there because of drugs, whether that be selling or using. The Goldstein model gets down to the bare minimum of how drugs affect violent crime. The first classification is the psychopharmacological violence. In this group, the violence that is committed happens because of the direct effects of a psychoactive drug on a user. This is not motivated by anything except for the compulsive effects of the drug. Drugs cause the body to act differently than normal. Some drugs cause the body to become mellow and calm, while others cause the body to lash out in fits of rage. The majority of people view psychopharmacological violence as mainly due to alcohol rather than any other drugs. The next classification for the drug-crime connection is the economic-compulsive violence. This happens when offenders commit an offense for the purpose of raising money to support their drug habit. Studies show that this classification is especially true for heroin addicts, but that it can be prevalent in other drugs as well. One of the major economic crimes committed for these drug addicts is drug dealing. Drug dealing is an easy way for the addicts to make enough money to support their habit, and at the same time they can keep some of the drugs for themselves. The final classification is the systematic violence. This violence happens in the course of struggles for market power. These drug markets have a high propensity for violence, whether that be from other dealers (turf war) or the buyers. A more in depth view of the violence in drug markets reveals that there are four factors that contribute to the violence. These are: the youth of the participants (youths are naturally more violent), the value of the drugs themselves (killing the buyer allows you to keep their money and still have your drugs), the intensity of law enforcement (potential police informants), and the indirect consequence of drug use (drug users are inclined to more violence due to the drug use). Chapter 2: Question 3 According to Andrew Golub and Bruce D. Johnson there are four phases of epidemics. They argue that drug epidemics usually will follow predictable steps. Their model was originally used to study the Crack Epidemic, but has gone on to be used to study the Heroin Injection Epidemic and the Marijuana Epidemic as well. The four steps are: the incubation phase, the expansion phase, the plateau phase, and the decline phase. The incubation phase is based on the idea that drug epidemics usually grow out of an individual social context (heroin from the jazz era and crack from inner-city drug dealers). During this incubation phase, the new drug practice is developed and perfected among a small group of adult drug users. Research suggests that the new fascination with marijuana was because of the youth inner-city hip-hop movement. They praised marijuana use in songs, clothing, and other venues. The next phase is the expansion phase. In this phase, the drug use spreads rapidly among subcultures. These subcultures are usually newly emerging who embrace the new drug use as hip and their thing. In the crack and heroin epidemics, this expansion phase took place among adults. Only after it spread through the adults was it embraced by youth. In contrast, the marijuana epidemic was first spread among youth. Next is the plateau phase of the drug epidemic. This stage is defined by youths becoming adults and wanting to get involved with the widespread drug of choice, currently that is marijuana. The rate of use of the drug of choice would be at high levels. The rate would be stable at this high rate and even slowly increasing. The final phase is the decline phase. This is just how it sounds. The rate of use for the specific drug would be declining overall, even rapidly declining. These four phases give an outline for the life of a drug epidemic. It is not necessarily a rule, but a general guideline for these epidemics. Chapter 2: Question 4 The gateway theory is a popular theory of drug addiction. It is widely accepted as true in many circles. It is based on the fact that a lot of research has shown that many American youths, who are involved in substance use and abuse, usually have a progression to their substance abuse. This progression of substance use involves four stages: the nonuse stage, alcohol/tobacco stage, marijuana stage, and finally harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The research shows that youths who do not use certain substances in one stage, rarely use the harder drugs in the later stages. However it does not say that every single user at one stage will necessarily progress to the next. This theory has produced the label of gateway drugs for substances such as alcohol, marijuana, and even tobacco. Current policies seek to prevent, or at least delay as long as possible, the youth from using gateway drugs. This is in hopes that if youth do not use gateway drugs, they wont move on to harder, more seri ous, drugs. This theory is not necessarily a strong theory. There have been several studies suggesting that this gateway progression may not be very relevant to mainstream youth of today or to inner-city populations. A study from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that youths coming of age during the 1990s were highly unlikely to progress from the gateway drug, marijuana, to cocaine (powder and crack) or heroin. This was compared to youths born previously in decades before. This leads researchers to believe that substance abuse among youth reflects cultural, or even subcultural, norms among the youth. It suggests that substance abuse is acceptable or unacceptable among youth cultures, and that this cultural norm will reflect substance abuse. These cultural norms vary over time and locations as well. This theory has some credibility, but it is important to realize that theories may be strong one year, but may be weakened by cultural influences the next. Cultures progress and change over time, so it is impossible to assume that trends and patterns will not change as well. Chapter 3: Question 2 According to Lisa Maher and Kathleen Daly, the basic structure of New York City crack markets is an organized system of distribution. This is in contrast to the commonly characterized unregulated markets of individual crack dealers trying to get rich by themselves as crack entrepreneurs. The research suggests that as soon as there is a high enough demand for the crack, the individual freelancers are taken over by a more organized system for distribution. This is evidenced by the crack epidemic in New York City during the late 1980s. During that time many of the neighborhoods had highly organized street-level drug markets. These markets were dependent on each other and they had a hierarchical structure of organization. The organizational structure is much like that of the mafia, a highly organized street gang, or a Fortune-500 business. The drug business owners had many different crew bosses and managers or lieutenants. These managers were in charge of relaying orders from the owners to the street-level employees. They had the responsibility to organize and deliver all the necessary supplies and also for collecting the money made by the street-level workers. These managers could hire, fire, and pay the workers as they saw fit. They also handled problems the lower level employees had with each other or even the upper management. The next level down in the organizational structure, after the managers, crew bosses, or lieutenants; was the street-level drug dealers. These dealers had a specific area that they were in charge of selling to. The dealers were assisted in any way needed by the lower-level members; such as the runners, look-outs, and enforcers. The runners are responsible for having a continuous supply going to the dealers. The look-outs were in charge of warning the dealer of immanent threats (i.e. cops). And the enforcers were in charge of maintaining order, whether by force or presence. This system of drug dealing was extremely organized and sophisticated. It made it a serious problem for law enforcement officials to fight the already impossible war on drugs. This system made it possible for the drug companies to run smoothly and efficiently. Chapter 4: Question 3 In the article Street Youth and Criminal Violence Stephen W. Baron and Timothy F. Hartnagel offer three possible theories that explain youth violence. It is important to understand different possible explanations of youth violence because the criminal justice system needs to know the root cause in order to develop prevention strategies. The theories are the street subculture and lifestyle theory, the economic deprivation theory, and the routine activities theory. The street subculture and lifestyle theory is a popular explanation for violence among youths. It says that peer groups and role models glorify violent behavior rather than shunning it. The highest rates of violence are located in neighborhoods where violent role models are everywhere, such as inner-city neighborhoods with high rates of gang violence. This perspective argues that criminal acts are almost essential to the cultures and subcultures of the street, which slowly make violence more and more acceptable in youths. The economic deprivation theory argues that violent behavior is rooted in inequality, uneven distribution of wealth, and the deprivation of the have-nots compared to the haves. The degree of inequality is all a matter of perception by the individual. If the individual has a negative view of others compared to himself, this will create feelings of resentment and bitterness. These feelings can be manifested in expressions of violence and crime. The routine activities theory suggests that just presenting someone with the opportunity to commit crime can lead to increase in crime, completely dependent of social or structural conditions. This perspective says that violent street crime is merely a product opportunities that are presented to individuals in the daily life on the street. These perspectives differ because they each attribute the root cause of crime to different factors. In the street subculture theory, the crime is attributed to cultural norms, role models, and peer influence. In the economic deprivation theory, crime is attributed to financial unhappiness. In the routine activities theory, crime is attributed to the availability to commit the crime. All three of these perspectives probably are mostly truth, so it is wise to look at all three of them from a broad encompassing perspective. Chapter 4: Question 1 There are many etiological factors that predict young adult drug use and delinquency. These factors are not 100% accurate all of the time, but they serve as a means to help direct prevention and detection efforts. The causal factors are concluded from survey data taken of youth in high school. There are some obvious causal factors to youth delinquency and drug use and some not so obvious ones. There is a gender gap that is noticeable in this data as well. In the data, one of the obvious results was that a significantly smaller proportion of youth had committed a delinquent act in the twelve months prior to the survey than compared to their lifetimes. It also found that women were less likely to get involved in delinquent activities initially, but that after they were involved they were just as likely as men to remain persistent in delinquent acts. Another interesting finding was that about 50% of the individuals who admitted to committing an offense in their lifetime also did so in the previous twelve months leading up to the interview. One consistent finding was the persistence of participation in delinquent acts. If an individual committed an act once, they were much more likely to commit more delinquent acts in the future. The trend of committing delinquent acts differs from the trend of involvement in illegal drugs among youth. For example, persistent use of illegal drugs is much more likely than persistent commission of delinquent acts. Also, the proportion of continual illegal drug users is much lower for women than for men. Women are also much less likely to become initially involved and then to remain persistent users of illegal drugs than men. The disparity between men and women has always been large when it comes to crime. This can be due to a number of reasons. The first potential explanation for the disparity could be that the Criminal Justice System is more lenient on women than on men. Another possible, and statistically proven, explanation is that men are just proportionately over involved in crime compared to women. Whatever the reason, we know for sure that women are less likely to be involved in crime and illegal drugs. Chapter 5: Question 1 An interesting phenomenon has developed over the past twenty to thirty years in the Criminal Justice System. The prison population has more than tripled since the 1980s, while the crime rate has gone down drastically. It has especially dropped significantly since the early 1990s, yet the number of prisoners has steadily grown. There are a few different explanations for this seemingly out of control trend. Lana D. Harrison offers a well researched explanation of this phenomenon. She suggests that this wild rise in prison numbers can be attributed to policy changes and the war on drugs. In the early 2000s, over 2 million people were imprisoned in the United States. This is more than three times the number of prisoners that the United States had in the 1980s. Harrison argues that the majority of these drug prisoners were incarcerated in the 1980s at the beginning of the war on drugs. By 1996, 60% of the federal prisoners were imprisoned for drug offenses, 23% of state prisoners, and 22% of jail prisoners. The changing criminal justice process and new policies have contributed to this rise, including mandatory minimum sentences and the three-strikes laws. In the 1980s, the moral drug panics caused lawmakers to pass extremely strict drug laws. This in turn caused the dramatic increase in the numbers of drug prisoners across the board at all levels. Drug users who were incarcerated because of these stricter penalties went into prison addicted to drugs, and many times they also left prison addicted to drugs. These drug addicts returning to the communities returned no better than when they had gone to prison, still the same person, just older. Since these drug addicts had been to prison beforehand, they were much more likely to be convicted again for crimes they committed. This is a self perpetuating cycle which may be another explanation to the rising prison population. The rising prison population coupled with the decreasing crime rate is a much studied phenomenon in the criminal justice world. Harrison offers the explanation that it is due to the changing policies and the changes that took place in the criminal justice system itself. The war on drugs had far reaching consequences that caused a major crack down on drugs of all kinds, from the lowest of users to the most organized cartels. Chapter 5: Question 3 Douglas Longshore and his colleagues pose five different dimensions of the conceptual framework of drug courts. These dimensions include leverage, population severity, program intensity, predictability, and rehabilitation emphasis. Longshore suggests that the first two dimensions (leverage and population severity) of drug courts are structural characteristics. He says that the final three dimensions (program intensity, predictability, and rehabilitation emphasis) are characteristics of the process, which describe what occurs while offenders are processed through the drug courts. Leverage refers to the seriousness of penalties that offenders face who do not meet the requirements of programs and are dismissed from drug courts. When the participant completes all of the program requirements, the charge is reduced and even sometimes dropped completely. If the offender fails to complete the program, he or she may be sentenced and possibly incarcerated. Longshore suggests that the outcomes will be better when drug courts have more leverage (whether that be actual or just perceived) over the participants. The next structural characteristic is population severity, which refers to the difference in drug courts which are established to handle serious offenders as opposed to minor offenders, or the other way around. Other indicators of severity may include age, gender, or even employment history. Longshore says that courts set up to handle the more serious offenders will have less favorable outcomes. He does say however that there might be other less obvious dimensions that impact population severity as well. Program intensity refers to the requirements set out by the court for the completion of the drug court. These include urine tests, appearing in court, drug abuse classes and treatment. Optional requirements may be imposed as well such as employment, suitable living quarters, education, and paying fines. The next process characteristic is predictability, which refers to how the participant thinks the court will respond to their compliance or noncompliance. Predictability indicators may be drawn from court statistics and records. The final characteristic is rehabilitation emphasis. This is important when viewing the criminal justice system as rehabilitative instead of punishment focused. Rehabilitation is the focus of most drug courts. This emphasis can include how often the judge talks directly to and listens to the participant, time spent with the participant by all parties involved, and how close the participants sit in relationship to the bench. Longshore suggests that outcomes are better when drug courts are emphasized more on rehabilitation. Chapter 6: Question 1 Harm reduction is a goal for some policies and programs concerning drug abuse and other criminal issues. It is not a program in and of itself, but simply a goal of the programs. The two conflicting goals that divide peoples opinions are harm reduction and prohibition (demand and supply reduction). While prohibition seeks to completely do away with the illegal activity (alcohol, drugs, prostitution, etc.), harm reduction seeks to make those activities safer for the people who choose to participate in them. Harm reduction is seen by some people as the lesser of two evils. Peter Reuter and Robert J. MacCoun discuss the attempt at harm reduction with illegal drugs. People who hold the harm reduction point of view believe that it is more beneficial to reduce the harm done by illegal drugs than to try and do away with them altogether. The belief is that people will always be harming their bodies with drugs. The idea of harm reduction accepts this fact that people will always do drugs, and thus tries to make it safer for the people who choose to do so. This is a controversial policy, but may have more merit than it seems to have at face value. For example, in some countries public health services provide prescriptions for heroin users to obtain heroin legally. In some places, there are designated locations where heroin addicts can obtain and use heroin in a controlled and safe environment. Another example of harm reduction is needle exchange programs. These programs allow heroin addicts to exchange dirty needles for clean ones. This is in hopes of reducing the spreading of diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis C, from one user to another. Proponents of harm reduction policies argue that it is much cheaper to provide these drug services to every single addict than to imprison the addict. They also say that by providing the drugs for the addicts, they reduce crime that the addict would need to commit in order to purchase the drugs for themselves. Opponents of harm reduction policies argue that making it safer (and thus easier) for addicts to use drugs will cause an increase in drug use. Chapter 6: Question 6 According to Philippe Bourgeois there are many different regional variations in using methadone as treatment. Methadone is a drug that is used to treat opiate (such as morphine or heroin) addicts. The addicts are given the methadone in small doses to help reduce withdrawal symptoms, and in large doses to block the high that opiates give the user. This method of treatment is not accepted 100% in the United States. For example, in eight states methadone is illegal to use in the treatment of opiate addicts. Even in the rest of the states where it is legal, there are still many divergent opinions about the treatment. Bourgeois argues that this difference in opinions depends on the focus of medical and criminal justice establishments in an area, the amount of street addicts in an area, and the overall culture and politics of the region. Along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, the overwhelming cultural view is that substance abuse is a biological disease that requires medical intervention. Methadone treatment is fairly easy to obtain in these areas. It is also a multi-million dollar industry (for both treatment and research) and has dozens of locations throughout the region. Many of these methadone clinics and research facilities are paid for by the government. San Francisco is in stark contrast to the Eastern Seaboard. This city is dominated by a more New Age type thinking. This culture honors a healthy and drug free person. Some people (conspiracy theorists) even argue that methadone treatment is genocide against non-white people. Because of these viewpoints held by a majority of the culture, methadone clinics are few and far between. The few clinics that are in this region have very strict entrance requirements to be admitted into their programs. Some of the facilities require proof (from medical, police, or other record) that the user has been addicted for over a year with previous failed detox attempts. They fear that some people who really arent addicted to opiates will sneak their way into the program, and consequentially become methadone addicts. Chapter 7: Question 7 According to Lise-Marie VanNostrand and Richard Tewksbury, individuals desire to operate illegal drug enterprises for three reasons. They discovered these three motives by interviewing 20 dealers who were in drug court program. The three reasons are financial need, greed, and addition to the lifestyle. Most of the drug dealers interviewed in this study began their dealing career with a single one of these motives, but slowly over time the three motives began to overtake them. Financial need is a very motivating need. This is what motivated some of the individuals to begin their life of dealing drugs. Many people feel like they have no other option to provide for their responsibilities than drug dealing. Some of the people interviewed said that they had a job, but that it just wasnt able to pay for all of their needs and so they began dealing drugs. The majority of people who said that financial need was their motivation to deal drugs had kids and a family to take care of. These individuals saw drug dealing as the fastest and sometimes the only way to provide their familys needs. Greed is also a strong motivation in some people. These people do not necessarily need more money to take care of their needs, but they crave more money to take care of luxuries. Many of the dealers in the study conducted said that drug dealing appealed to them because of the opportunity to make fast and easy money. They often had legitimate employment or even ran businesses, but the desire for money overtook them and led them down a road to drug dealing. These individuals usually did not need to maintain normal jobs for the money, but they maintained normal jobs as a front or sometimes just to have something to fall back on. An addiction to the drug dealing lifestyle is a unique motivation. Some dealers simply want to live a fast paced lifestyle or have popularity and power. These desires seemingly cannot be filled by legitimate jobs. Many of these individuals believe that they cannot achieve recognition or respect due to their perceived lack of skills or respectable attributes, and so they turn to dealing drugs as a means to earn that respect. After they begin their drug selling careers, they begin to have a self perception that everyone respects and admires them. This, coupled with the immense financial gains, is a self perpetuating cycle that leads them farther and farther into a life of drug dealing.

Democracy and Liberal Socialism :: Politics Government Regime Papers

Democracy and Liberal Socialism This paper deals with the characteristic features of Rawls’ property-owning democracy, and whether a liberal democratic socialism can be compatible with Rawls’ political liberalism. I argue that a property-owning democracy can be compatible with Rawlsian justice while liberal socialism cannot. I understand the choice between property-owning democracy and liberal socialism as the problem of which kind of regime is more compatible with the pluralism of modern democracies. Property-owning democracy is more compatible with Rawls’ political liberalism since it permits a wider variety of the conceptions of the good than liberal socialism while at the same time permitting worker-managed firms; thus I argue that it can be understood as a "mixed" regime. What kind of economic regime is more compatible with Rawlsian justice, private ownership or social ownership of the means of production? Since Rawls has published A Theory of Justice,(1) there has been much debate over this problem. Some argue that A Theory of Justice offers "a philosophical apologia for an egalitarian brand of welfare state capitalism."(2) Others argue that his political and economic regime is completely different from the capitalism in the classical sense of Marxism.(3) But he himself rejects a welfare-state capitalism and illustrates a property-owning democracy and a liberal (democratic) socialism as economic regimes consistent with his justice as fairness.(4) I will deal with the following problems in this paper ; what are the characteristic features of the property-owning democracy as an alternative to capitalism? Can a liberal democratic socialism be compatible with Rawls's political liberalism? I will argue that a property-owning democracy can be compatible with Rawlsian justice but a liberal socialism, particularly concerning his political liberalism, cannot. And I will suggest my understanding of his property-owning democracy as a "mixed" regime. 1. Rawls's conception of property-owning democracy (5) a) the main institutions of Rawls's property-owning democracy Rawls thinks that his property-owning democracy realizes all the main political values expressed by the two principles of justice, but a capitalist welfare state does not. He thinks of such a democracy as an alternative to capitalism. Concluding his survey, Rawls outlines the main institutions of property-owning democracy as follows: i) Provisions for securing the fair value of the political liberties, ii) Provisions for realizing fair equality of opportunity in education and training, iii) A basic level of health-care provided for all.(6) Furthermore, Rawls insists upon two conditions: 1) a regime of competitive markets, and 2) state intervention both to correct market imperfections (e.