Islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Islam - Essay Example From the reading on The World Religions, one is educated and better informed as a person becomes better informed about the doctrines in Islam. In fact, one can see a lot of logical and realistic beliefs that are applicable in life as opposed to some teachings of other religions. Take the issue on divorce for example, Christianity or at least people who call themselves Christians, are against divorce regardless of a couple’s situation. On the contrary, Islam tolerates divorce although it does not advocate but suggests it to be the last resort for couples. Other religions will also frown on polygamy which is observed among Muslims but understanding the reason behind such tolerance makes a lot of sense. From my point of view, I think it would be better for a man to have two to four wives as long as the man is able to treat the women equally in all aspects of their relationship and is able to provide for all of them rather than have one wife and extra-marital affairs that makes th e relationship imbalanced. With the aforementioned citations, I say there are several doctrines of Islam that people can learn from as they learn from other religions as

Qualitative Review on Psychological Intervention for Young People Research Paper

Qualitative Review on Psychological Intervention for Young People Living with HIV - Research Paper Example It aims to clarify and explicate the necessity of emotional and psychological intervention these young survivors of HIV to provide them meaningful life and motivation to undertake medical services and support to keep them living while bearing this health problem. It will illustrate how psychosocial intervention is provided to share hope for these children and teens, as well as, make them better persons despite everything. This is a qualitative review on psychosocial intervention for young people living with HIV, a transmissible disease that can infect a person through sexual contact or by other means known to many physicians. Researched materials generally used and employed survey, interviews and secondary materials in their studies to support and explicate the conditions of young populace living with HIV. This study is limited and focused only to young people living with HIV, thus, consider only the plight of children and teens. Kumar, Mmari, and Barnes (2012) pointed that there are already 1.7 billion young people within the age bracket of 10 to 24 years in the world that are infected with HIV disease and about 85% of them are living in developing countries. Kumar et al (2012) reported that the mortality rate of HIV infected persons are 3% and most of them reduced their chance of survival at the age of 60 in countries with high percentile of HIV-infected population. Nowadays, young people are the fastest-growing cohort of new HIV infections globally reaching about 40% of new HIV-infected people in 2007 (Kumar et al, 2012). There are about 5 million young people that are nowadays living with HIV and there are an estimated 5,000 youths aging 15 and 24 years that are infected everyday (Kumar et al, 2012). These global figures likely underestimate the total burden of HIV borne by young people, as there has been no systematic evaluation of the numbers of youth who are long-term survivors of perinatal infection. New evidence and estimations of HIV’s effect o n child mortality bared that about 13% of perinatally infected children can only survive up to the age of 10 years. But noting that the global interventions of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs has just been recently introduced in high-risk countries, it is always possible that cohort may contribute significantly to the increasing number of youths living with HIV. Albeit the rigorous efforts for HIV prevention, however the incessant sexuality and the social nature of all persons can increase the numbers of youth living with HIV. HIV-infected persons have dire needs for psychosocial support knowing that this can cause social stigma and can evoke innate anger or shock after being diagnosed positive thereof (AVERTing HIV & Aids, 2012). Relation with immediate families and friends will be altered, thus limits their social nature and level of interactions. Psychosocial therapy for HIV-infected persons can bring about positive outcome. Experts posit that this can help enhance a survivor response to health service; strengthen his behaviour while exercising preventive measures; and, mitigate the possibility that extreme depression may result into suicidal tendencies (AVERTing HIV & Aids, 2012). In a survey conducted by researchers in United States, psychosocial intervention was mentioned many times perceived as the most helpful measure that could help them live with HIV, especially as they progress their lives with

Change Management (Business) Marketing Study Essay

Change Management (Business) Marketing Study - Essay Example The report will also examine the global market relative to marketing situation, including an industry-scoped PESTLE analysis. The report will follow with a recommended framework for change management and continuous improvement. The goal of this report is to serve as an informative analysis that can be utilized from its general structure to develop more specific strategies within the management of the construction industry market. According to the Department for Trade and Industry's (DTI 2007) annual report on the construction industry, there are over 250,000 individual firms operating in the UK construction sector which primarily operate within the residential, non-residential and civil engineering sectors. The construction industry employs two million persons. The focus of the construction industry is the acquisition of construction materials, management of suppliers and manufacturers, building design, service, and installation. This includes private contractors, sub-contractors and advisors in design, building, operation and refurbishing of buildings (DTI 2007). It is important to note that the construction industry is the second largest industry in the EU and contributes to slightly over eight percent of the national gross value (DTI 2007). The nature of t Nature Of Construction Market The nature of the construction industry market is that it is based on the national, and sometimes global, economy. The construction industry exists because the individuals within a community desire the building of certain constructs based on factors such as income, interest rates, value of money (in or EU), and thus the construction industry is at once a good indicator of economic health and subjected to the slowing or increasing of a nation's economic health. The construction market can exist on a local or global scale, increasingly the construction company must be able to function on multiple market levels. In 2005, there were approximately 15,000 million new housing orders in both public and private sectors (DTI 2007), not including refurbishment or maintenance of old houses. In the same year, 25,000 million was requisitioned for contracted infrastructure in private, industrial, and public buildings. According to Market & Business Development (MBD 2007) the construction market is expected to reach its peak in development and sales in 2006 with a growth rate of 4 %. Further market analysis by MBD (2007) shows that the construction industry output has an overall growth rate of 35% between 2002 and 2005, yet the construction market is foreshadowed by the upcoming industry pressure due to earnings growth continues to pick up and energy costs increase, combined with a slowing of public sector contracts. Analysis Of The Global Market The EU construction sector is a

This is a summary of Place Matters Essay Example for Free

This is a summary of Place Matters Essay A community is a place where people around supposed to be able to live and thrive together. When one thinks of a community, the image that most likely is visualized is one of a place where each person lives harmoniously with all the other members of that community. While this may be the typical image of a community, it is not the realistic view. In reality communities can share both good and bad aspects. In Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century Peter Dreier, John Mollenkopf, and Todd Swanstrom make the argument that the place a person lives ultimately matters over all else; the place which a person lives effects the choices that that he/she makes and determines his/her ability to obtain a high quality of life. In the first chapter the authors begin by laying out their thesis: place matters (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 1). The authors look at three different Congressional districts to show how place is different in metropolitan American. Those places include poor central-city in the South Bronx of New York, a district that spans the West Side of Cleveland and its suburbs, and a wealthy outer-ring suburban district west of Chicago (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 3). The first district explored by the authors is the South Bronx. This is one of the poorest and most Democratic congressional districts in the United States. Some of the problems of this district are as follows: high percentages of children, high rates of infectious diseases and violate crimes (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 4). The area has such a high poverty rate because the government pushed thousands of homeless families there. Despite these problems, the South Bronx has a few good aspects to it as well. Immigrants bring rejuvenation to the area, housing units are being built or redeveloped, and there are large numbers of thriving community groups (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 5). This area shows the greatest sense of community. Church groups, neighborhood associations, etc. keep the people in this area close knit to one another. People in this area are more likely to know about and can relate to others in their community. Even with this high sense of community in this area, peo ple continue to flee to the  suburbs. As this suburban flight continues, city areas like the South Bronx will continue to decay no matter how hard they try to keep up with the surrounding suburbs (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 6). One example of type of suburb that people are fleeing to is Ohios Tenth Congressional District in west Cleveland. This area serves as a stepping stone between the city and the exurbs (i.e. the outer-ring suburb of Chicago). This area consists of mostly white socially conservative and economically liberal people; this means that people in this area vote both Republican and Democratic in elections (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 7). This is a rust-belt suburb, meaning that it once had prosperous manufacturing companies but has now lost them and suffers greatly for that loss. This area pits inner-ring suburbs against outer-ring suburbs. The inner-ring suburbs have low property value and are concerned with urban decline; outer-ring suburbs have higher property values and are where many people are being to flee in order to find a better life (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 8). The final and ultimate step that people take on their flight from the urban areas and inner-ring suburbs are the wealthy outer-ring suburbs like the one in Chicago the authors focus on. The authors refer to this as exurbia. Exurbia is a place where there are high levels of income and education among its residents (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 11). There is an increase in population in these areas as the accomplished people try to escape the world of the common people. Using the above-mentioned Congressional districts as examples, the authors begin to make their case of how place truly matters. One argument they make is, The fundamental reality is one of growing economic segregation in the context of rising overall inequality. People of different classes are moving away from each other not just in how much income they make but in where they live. America is breaking down into economically homogeneous enclaves. (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 12) In other words, America has a widening gap between its wealthy and poor. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is a problem emerging: the disappearance of the middle class. Low-wage workers continue to fall behind those who make higher wages, and this only widens the gap between the two. There has been an economic boom in the United States, which has made the country more prosperous than it has ever been. That prosperity does not reach all people; it seems to only favor the rich. Rising economic segregation has taken away many opportunities for the poor to rise in America today. The poor may find that the economic boom has increased their income; however, as their income increase so does the prices they must for their living expenses (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 19). Identifying economic class goes beyond determining how much money a person makes; it is also defined by where a person lives. The lowest people on the economic scale are assumed to live in central cities; the middle-low income people live in the inner-ring suburbs, and the wealthiest live in the exclusive outer-ring suburbs. The authors point out that as one moves outward from the central city to the inner-ring to outer-ring suburbs incomes rise (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 37). The outer-ring suburbs become known as exurbias. The lower income residents of the central city face problems that the residents of inner-ring and outer-ring suburbia do not face: crime, unhealthy environments, inferior public services, heightened stress, higher cost for retail goods besides groceries, and alienation from society and politics (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 91). As people begin to move into the different classifications of places [central city and inner-ring and outer-ring suburbs], politics begins to be affected. One idea is that the rich may become so powerful that they are able to dominate the poor (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 20). Up to the 1900s the idea was that one government runs the center of the metropolitan area, while many different suburban jurisdictions govern the wealthier periphery (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 37). Today every major metropolitan are being split into one or more central-city governments and numerous suburban governments (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 37). Another aspect of politics that economics is affected is governmental policy. As people are becoming economically segregated, the economies of the areas they live in are being affected. As stated early, the poor live in the central city, while the rich are living in the wealthy outer-ring. Living in the central city and being poor can create problems for the residents. Central city residents are left with burden of having to pay taxes in the city. These people are poor and sometimes close, to if not below, the poverty line. If all the rich move out of the city, there will be little revenue for the city to generate and they might be forced to raise taxes to pay for public spending. The poor people of the central city may not have the money to pay the increased taxes so they will only get poorer while they try to get caught up. On the flip side, a person who lives in the outer-ring will enjoy many freedoms. One such freedom may be a lower tax rate simply because his house is outside the city lines. When the rich move out of the city, it leaves the poor to pay the tax burden. One solution to this problem may be to limit sprawl. If sprawl is limited, then people will be forced back into the inner city, and this increased revenue may help to decrease poverty. After the book identifies the fact there is a gap between the rich and the poor of America, it begins to bring out some of the facts of the economic segregation and urban sprawl of American citizens. One of the ideas that is focused on is the inequality among regions. The authors say that the American economy should be understood as a common market of regional economies (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 33). The Bureau of Economic Research identified one hundred and seventy two different economic regions in the United States; wages and house prices tend to track each other within each region (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 33). Since the characteristics in each region are similar only within the regions, inequality is created among the different regions. The book argues, rising inequality among regions is partly a reflection of the bicoastal phenomenon (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 34). The bicoastal phenomenon refers to the idea that cities on the East and West Coasts of the Untied States did better  economically than the ones in the countrys interior. The bicoastal effect occurs as a result of technology and industry; there is not a lot of technology and/or industry in Americas interior so people have begun to move to the coastal areas where these two aspects are abundant. There was once a gap between the North and the South, but one between the coast and the interior is replacing that gap. As regions continue to place gaps amongst themselves, they are also creating something called a clustering effect. The clustering effect is when different regions attract different types of businesses; this is also known as specializations for each region (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 35). Examples of specialized regions are the Rust-Belt cities and the textile states. In some ways it is good to let specialization of regions occur but in other ways it is not. Specialization of a region gives the people in that region something to identify with and develop a livelihood on. However, while people are developing this livelihood, they tend to become dependent on the specialized industry of their region. If the industry figures out that it can move to a new location and produce the same goods for a cheaper price, it will more than likely relocate and leave many people unemployed. Once one manufacturer moves out of a region, other manufacturers [of the same industry] also begin to move out of the region. This creates a domino effect on the people and the economy of the region. The economy begins to suffer as a result of the industrys relocation. Like regions, cities and suburbs place economic segregation between themselves. The authors move back to this notion to point out that as one moves outward from the central city to the inner-ring to outer-ring suburbs incomes rise (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 37). It is argued that lack of transportation makes it difficult for some people to have jobs that they so desperately need. A large number of jobs have moved into the suburbs, and this makes it difficult for people in the city to find jobs because so many lack the transportation necessary to reach those jobs (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 58). Jobs such as manufacturing move into the suburban areas and  away from the city; while professional, white collar jobs remain in the cities. People that need to work in the manufacturing jobs live in the cities, and those who have the skills and education necessary to work the professional jobs live in the suburbs. Jobs and the people who have the skills to work them are moving away from each other (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 59). The lower income families cannot afford to follow the jobs because the houses in the suburbs are too expensive. In terms of the suburbs, they seem to be interdependent on cities for things such as jobs. Yet another effect of economic segregation and urban sprawl is the quality of health that people experience. Economic inequality negatively influences health (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 67). The standard of living in a community is directly effected, and just as important, as the economic aspects of that community. The book suggests that, People living in concentrated poverty areas experience all sorts of detrimental conditions, in particular, poor access to health care, an unhealthy physical environment, and detrimental social relations and lifestyles. (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 68). People who live in the central city are more likely to experience these types of conditions because they are at the bottom of the economic scale and do not have the ability to pull themselves up. Equality in an economic sense gives people more equality in health standards; people with equal amounts of money have equal access to healthcare. Health standards are not the only aspect that is unequal among suburbs and cities. Cities see an increase in the amount of money they spend on living expenses and taxes. For example, studies have been done that show that the poor in central cities pay more for groceries than people in suburbs. The poor city dwellers must purchase food from small convenience stores because there are no supermarkets in the city neighborhoods (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 77). If city dwellers do rely on supermarkets for the food, they must spend even more money commuting to the areas where the supermarkets are located. Cities are poorly served with some of the conveniences (i.e.  supermarkets) that suburbs have available so the cities must in turn pay more for this lack of convenience. While the poor city dwellers find it hard to manage their needs for living, people in suburbia have a surplus. To obtain and keep a high status and to further themselves from urban dwellers and city problems, suburban families find that they must purchase expensive housing on the suburban fringe (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 81). Suburban families must also make investments such as owning one or more cars. This creates problems for suburban families. Families here most of the time purchase things on credit and incur massive mortgages (Dreier, Mollenkopf, Swanstrom 81). Looking at both low income city dwellers, middle income suburbia residents, and wealthy exurban residents, this book explores how the place people live affects the economic, political, and social lives of those people. Dreier, Mollenkopf, and Swanstrom explain their thesis with sound examples and facts. In comparison to Gainsboroughs use of examples, the three authors do not take their examples to extremes. Gainsborough uses so many examples in her book Fenced Off: The Suburbanization of American Politics that the book seems very repetitious and redundant. Unlike Gainsborough, the authors of Place Matters do not use excessive examples to prove their thesis. Even though they cite various examples that do prove their thesis, their examples are too general. The book focuses on only three Congressional districts in their study: the South Bronx, the inner-ring and outer-ring suburbs of Cleveland, and exurbia in Chicago. These places are not representative of the entire country. Each Congressional district that the authors chose to focus is in the northern part of the United States; the southern and western parts of the country are not represented in this study. By excluding central cities, suburbs, and exurbs in the southern and western United States, the thesis of the book is somewhat weakened. There is no evidence to show how suburbs and cities in these areas function in regards to economic segregation. After research is conducted, it may show that the suburbs and cities in the South and West react differently than those in the North and Midwest. Place Matters describes how place effects a person in economic, political, and social terms. Communities in the United States must face reality: they are becoming more and more economically separated. People move into a community because they are seeking a place where they can identify with other people of similar standing. As American citizens face increased economic segregation, they must find new ways to decrease the economic gap in order to provide a greater equality between cities, suburbs, and exurbs. Economic equality will lead to equality among people and their standards of living. In a country that is based on the principle of equality, communities must work to have equal footing so everyone can have the same chances in life. Peter Dreier, John Mollenkopf, Todd Swanstrom. 2001. Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century. Kansas: University of Kansas Press.

The Impact of Literature Essay Example for Free

The Impact of Literature Essay It may go without saying that there are those who will never study, appreciate, or even perhaps consider literature as it is known in academic circles. There are those for whom the written word may have, at best, utilitarian purposes, and for whom any piece of writing beyond a technical manual should, at least, be a work of â€Å"non-fiction,† designed to impart a clearly stated morsel of information or worthy opinion. Part of the explanation for this may coincide with the same general reason that some people never consider religion: the proponents of literature – as is sometimes the case with the proponents of religion – sometimes themselves make their cause a used-up, weary, and trying thing, and may remove from it all the beauty and potential which it might, in the proper hands, convey. Much like religion, literature has a transcendent value, and fulfills an essentially universal need. After all, even the most ardent opponent of the usage of literature in his or her own life embraces forms which complete virtually the same need within him; that is, myths, folklore, stories, movies, television, and even song, occupy essentially the same place and function as literature in the human person, albeit in a form often immeasurably more crude. And, as hotly debated as the following may be in the milieu of post-modern and relativist academic circles, the need to convey truths and explore the human person through story and myth may reach its most sophisticated form in literature. That, of course, raises the implied debate as to just exactly what constitutes literature. Some societies view poetry and theater as â€Å"literature,† could not film, or popular songs also be literature? Along that line of reasoning could folk tales or geographically-oriented stories and Maki 2 myths constitute literature? One runs back into the post-modern worldview when considering that, if the songs of Bob Dylan or the films of Bergman can be considered in any context to be literature, then why not the songs of Madonna or the films of Clint Eastwood? These considerations are relevant as the illustrate that: â€Å"literature,† if defined as relating to the exploration of universal truths and the human person through written or performed language, is relevant in daily human experience. The American child utterly unacquainted with the tales of Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, or Cinderella, is at a vast disadvantage even in understanding many newspaper headlines (a business’ success story may be a â€Å"Cinderella Story;† a poorly chosen infrastructure may be a â€Å"House of Straw. † The list could go on). But, more importantly – and herein lies the great importance of literature – the child may be in danger of lacking the basic, transcendent lessons that society collectively imparts to its youth through the themes of fairy tales: there is danger in the world; stay on the path; obey your elders†¦they might just know what they’re talking about; shoddy effort will bear out a painful reward; arrogance is often misguided. Again, the list could go on. Even then, fairy tales as literature are only a baby step towards grasping the ultimate value of literature as a whole. While some literature function in a given society as a means of forming the parameters of moral uprightness and, essentially, seek to pass down answers, adult literature at its best instead seeks to ask questions that require considerations beyond the formal and accepted confines of social morality, even if at times literature may function in an effort to pull a society back to its forgotten mores. Literature as genuine art probes the human persona Maki 3 and, in order to function well, requires a reader open to growth and change, open to transformation and to a new and perhaps differing(even uncomfortable) perspective on reality. This is not to say that literature does not propose answers to the questions it asks. In fact, literature, like much psychology, may infer that the answers are perhaps inherent in the questions themselves. Literature, has often catalyzed individual change (and it is perhaps indicative of the vapid individualism of the times that the effect of literature on the individual is so much touted, even in this essay, over literature’s relevance to society at large), but of social change as well. Certainly in modern, western history, literature has helped usher in startling levels of social change, be it new considerations of race via the writings of authors like Twain and Stowe, or Upton Sinclair’s impact on something as seemingly subtle as the issue of food packaging safety. Of all the thousands of tracts circulated about communism during the early years of the cold war, what writings continue to influence readers to the degree that Orwell’s two works of utter â€Å"fiction,† Animal Farm and 1984? What political speech concerning the dangers of modernism, both as philosophy and technical practicality, had the chilling impact of Huxley’s Brave New World? What but the well-told tale could arouse sympathy for a group as collectively ridiculed and resented as Depression-era dust-bowl refugees, as in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath? If one considers artfully written non-fiction a part of the class of â€Å"literature,† the list goes on. It is not treatises but human drama that propel writings like John Hersey’s Hiroshima or Elie Weisel’s Night, to name but a few. What is most relevant about literature in such contexts is that it eschews rational argument in favor of its best representation of human experience, for it is most pointedly in the Maki 4 experience of a thing that the truth of it – the human reality of it – comes to life, and it is through experience that people are most transformed. The experiences presented in the above examples – and they are a microscopic selection of relevant examples – may not be those of the reader, but they, in a sense, become those of the reader, and enable the reader to share in some measure of the stories and experiences of â€Å"the other. † If there were no other value to literature – and certainly there is more value to it than that! – that value alone is worth the effort required of literary pursuits. It may be telling, and perhaps a bit saddening, that it is less and less true that works of literature seem to change the course of social and economic events in the world. The post-modern world is becoming less and less a literate world, and television and film – among other mediums – are replacing the written tale, and even the spoken story, as conveyers of truth and means of questioning what seems set in stone. Were it so that film and television, for example, sought to fulfill the same needs as literature – and indeed, at times they do – perhaps this would not be such a disturbing trend. But film and television, and now, following in their footsteps, much written â€Å"literature,† seek mostly to entertain, to lull viewers into a comfortable despondency and create a sense of need for consumption, all of which perpetuates the success of these mediums. A great many movies have been made based on literature. Now I am not saying that this detracts from the value of moving pictures in society, they just lose something in the translation. Movies have time constraints that do not allow them to explain the hidden meanings of cultural differences that written literature can. The vacuous lack of effort required of the viewer by television points to the factor that may simultaneously be literature’s greatest value and its most daunting hurdle to many potential Maki 5 readers. That is, literature invites readers, at its best, to learn a new set of codes and means of digesting language and tales; it may require, as in (for example) opera, learning an entirely foreign collection of meanings, linguistic cues, symbols, and, in effect, a new kind of listening. But those who seem to most appreciate opera, much like those who seem to most appreciate literature, swear that knowledge and self enlightenment is well worth the toil.

Criminology Essays Ecological Crime Criminal

Criminology Essays Ecological Crime Criminal Ecological Crime Criminal Are ecological approaches to criminality appropriate to help preventing crime? For some years, a small group of criminologists have been attempting to understand crime using the ecology of crime (Brantingham, 1993; Stark, 1987; Taylor and Covington, 1988). This is about how criminal opportunities are created in neighbourhoods. Crime prevention seeks to reduce the frequency of criminal behaviour by means that operate outside the Criminal Justice System. Crime pattern theory is particularly important in developing and understanding of crime and place, because it combines rational choice and routine activity theory to explain the distribution of crime across places or locations. In this essay, I aim to evaluate the different ecological approaches and to see how useful they are as a deterrent or actual crime preventer. This will be achieved my looking at the models and theories that make up the ecological or environmental approach. Jock Young identifies a series of linked processes that transformed the way crime was viewed or perceived. Although it was assumed that improved conditions and economic restructure would lead to a drop in crime, it was found that the opposite happened. Despite increasing the size of the police and the capacity of the prison system, crime had been increasing year after year. (Newman, 1972). According to Young, the volume of criminal activity grows in all parts of the world, especially countries where economic development was more vigorous. But following a steady and seemingly harsh rise in recorded crime in England and Wales between 1955 and 1992, the last thirteen years has witnessed an almost unprecedented decline in both police recorded crime and estimates of crime from the British Crime Survey. Jock Young referred to the growth in recorded crime during the years of the Keynesian Welfare state in the UK as an aetiological crisis for criminology. The expectation had been that with rising living standards and increased welfare provision crime would fall. Criminologists have become so used to explaining rising crime that they might now face a second aetiological crisis – explaining falling crime rates Essentially the ecological, or holistic, view is that a neighbourhood is like an ecosystem. An ecosystem has many parts to it, which fit more or less together to give that system some form of balance. The same with safe neighbourhoods. Everything has its own place, just as everyone should feel to some extent that they belong, or are part of, some place. When that ecosystem experiences changes that are too rapid or too extensive, then the system often becomes dysfunctional and out of balance. This might happen when a few extra bars open up that start to create disorder and noise problems in the neighbourhood. It might also occur when large proportions of traditional residents move rapidly out of a neighbourhood and the tenure of local tenancy drops too quickly. Perhaps the number of abandoned buildings in a neighbourhood increased beyond a certain point, a tipping point, and crime begins to climb dramatically. These are all examples of a neighbourhood out of balance. In such neighbourhoods, a niche is created for crime opportunities. (Brantingham, 1993; Stark, 1987; Taylor and Covington, 1988). According to Jacob (1961), the neighbourhood diversity and social mix influences the opportunities for crime, this began the work of CPTED. CPTED is an approach that looks at those who engage in criminal, or nuisance behaviour in public. By watching them carefully you will see they prefer some areas over others, they choose certaintimes of the day and week, and they focus on specific targets while ignoring others. It can reduce the social and psychological impact of crime in neighbourhoods. Most importantly, it improves the liveability and safety of urban places. (Newman 1972). A policy-oriented explanation of crime that states that minor signs of disorder in a neighbourhood, left unchecked, can result in more severe disorder and ultimately serious crime.   This idea was known as the broken windows theory. The term comes from an influential 1982 article in The Atlantic Monthly by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. The theory implies that if the first broken window in a building is not repaired, then people who like breaking windows will assume that no one cares about the building and more windows will be broken. Soon the building will have no windows. The theory endorsed the belief that crime was the result of lax police efforts and that stricter law enforcement policy is the primary ingredient to promoting safer communities. Wilson and Kelling theorized that if rude remarks by loitering youth were left unchallenged, they would be under the impression that no one cares and their behaviour will likely escalate to crimes that are more serious. Ever since Durkheim, many social scientists have subscribed to the premise that deviance and crime are normal properties of naturally functioning social systems. When trying to explain the causes of these behaviours, however, many social scientists typically resort to the idea of pathological origins. Overall, social scientists have yet to explain how and why normal individuals operating in unexceptional social environments deviate and commit crimes; recent developments in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology provide new insights that promise to explain how deviance and crime arise naturally in populations of interacting individuals without necessarily implying genetic influences. We interpret criminal behaviours by which offenders expropriate goods or services from others as expressions of diverse behavioural strategies that derive from normal patterns of population-level social organization and interaction. This view accommodates both explanations that focus on individual causes of crime and those directed toward social factors. Our approach permits the generation of novel hypotheses and fully accommodates, simplifies, and helps unify important and diverse insights and findings amassed by a wide range of disciplines and theories that have tried to account for the nature and distribution of crime. A routine activity approach for analyzing crime rate trends and cycles. Rather than emphasizing the characteristics of offenders, with this approach one can concentrate upon the circumstances in which they carry out predatory criminal acts. Most criminal acts require convergence in space and time of likely offenders, suitable targets and the absence of capable guardians against crime. (Cohen and Felson 1979). Human ecological theory facilitates an investigation into the way in which social structure produces this convergence, hence allowing illegal activities to feed upon the legal activities of everyday life. In particular, the dispersion of activities away from households and families may increase the opportunity for crime and thus generates higher crime rates. (Hope, 1995). A variety of data is presented in support of the hypothesis, which helps explain crime rate trends in the United States 1947-1974 as a by-product of changes in such variables as labour force participation and single-adult households. Also the notion of absence of a capable guardian such as, police or security guards, locks or barriers, alarm systems and CCTV were thought to have also increase the likelihood of crime in that region or environment. The capacity of communities to prevent violence can be examinedfrom three perspectives: youth violence, child maltreatment,and intimate partner violence. The analysis suggests that communitysocial control and collective efficacy are significant protectivefactors for all three types of violence, but these need to befurther distinguished for their relationships to private, parochial,and state controls. It is argued that strong interpersonal tiesare not the only contributor to collective efficacy and violenceprevention. Weak ties, including those outside the community,and organizational ties are also seen as necessary. Violenceprevention programs should be structured in ways that contributeto the communities’ own capacity to prevent violence. Shaw and McKay argued that any city (in this instance they cited Chicago) could be divided into various concentric zones emanating from the centre of the city. You can visualise these zones by thinking about an archery target, for example, with the centre of the target (the Bulls-eye) being Zone 1 and each successive ring being named successively. The middle zone (Zone 1) is the central business district in any city. The next is the inner city (Zone 2), sometimes called the Interstitial Zone or Zone of Transition. This Zone is surrounded, respectively, by: Respectable working class housing (Zone 3), then by the (middle class) suburbs (Zone 4), the city fringe (rural / semi-rural areas) inhabited by the rich (Zone 5). Concentric Zones (Diagrammatic view) (Park and Burgess 1925) In examining crime rates in relation to each zone, Shaw and McKay found that one zone in particular (Zone 2) exhibited higher rates of crime than any other zone. This zone (which Shaw and McKay termed a zone of transition because it was to this area of cheap housing that successive waves of immigrants Irish, Italian, Polish and so forth came), had a consistently higher rate of crime than any other zone, regardless of which immigrant group dominated the cultural life of the area. This led Shaw and McKay (1969) to argue that the high crime rates were not a consequence of the behaviour of any one particular ethnic group (since it did not really seem to make much difference which ethnic group was dominant at particular times). Rather, they argued that something about the fact of living in such a zone was the root cause of the high levels of crime. This something was, according to Shaw and McKay, the fact that no settled community could establish itself in this zone because of the repeated waves of immigration into and emigration out of the zone. In effect, the high turnover of people in the zone of transition resulted in the idea of social disorganisation the idea that a lack of clear, moral, guide-lines deriving from a settled, stable, community structure resulted in a lack of informal social controls and hence a high rate of crime. However, as Felson and Clark (1998) suggest, there are 10 principles of crime opportunity theory. The first being that opportunity plays a major role in all crimes, not just property related crime, for example, studies of bars, and clubs show how their design and management play an important role in generating violence or preventing it. Their concept also notes that crime opportunities are specific (i.e. the theft of cars for joyriding has a different pattern for opportunity than theft for car parts). In addition, crime opportunities depend on everyday movements of activity and that one crime produces the opportunity for another. (Home Office, 2004). But they do suggest that reducing opportunities does not usually displace crime – Wholesale displacement is very rare and many studies have found little if no crime displacement, also focused opportunity reduction can produce wider declines in crimeas prevention measures in one area can lead to a reduction in another nearby, a diffusion of benefits. This is because offenders might overestimate the reach of those measures. To conclude, it is clear that ecological approaches to crime draw on the many different approaches such as, urban planning, decision making models, design, fear of crime and many more. As with many other approaches, they look at how and why is committed, and give the general understanding and in-look to crime but cannot it is not fully known whether such approaches can help to reduce crime. Although we know that crime is committed for many reasons, (e.g. money or gain, revenge, reputation etc.), even with the full understanding and application of ecological approaches, crime may be one of those things that can never be completely eradicated. References Crawford, A. (1998) Crime Prevention and Community Safety: Politics, Policies and Practices. Harlow: Longman. Eck. J.E., Weisburd. D. (1995). Crime Place: Crime Prevention Studies. Volume 4. Criminal Justice Press. Garland, D. (2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press Felson Clark. (1998) cited from http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/learningzone/scpprinciples.htm Accessed 12th January 2005. Hesseling, Rene B.P. (1994) Displacement: A review of the empirical literature. In Crime Prevention Studies, Vol. 3. R.V.G. Clarke, Ed. New York: Criminal Justice Press. pp. 197-229. Hope, T. (1995) Building a Safer Society: Strategic Approaches to Crime Prevention in Tonry, M. Farrington, D.P. (eds) Crime and Justice: Volume 19. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Jacobs, Jane. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage. Kaplan, H.M., K.C. OKane, P.J. Lavrakas, and E.J. Pesce. (1978) Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Final report on commercial demonstration in Portland, Oregon. Washington, D.C. Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Newman, Oscar. (1972) Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design. New York: Macmillan. Sherman, L.W., Gartin, P.R. and Buerger, M.E. (1989) Hot spots of predatory crime: routine activities and the criminology of place. Criminology. 27:27-55 Stark, Rodney. 1987. Deviant places: A theory of the ecology of crime. Criminology. 25:893-909.

The Pros and Cons of Communism :: Communism Essays

Communism: How Bad Can It Be? Everybody in my class liked Mr. Debenedetto the social studies teacher. He barely gave homework and class was fun. Who would not like him? This was one of the few classes for me to be listening intently. I was interested in the topic we were currently studying: communism. We were discussing about how America was always against communism whether it be the Vietnam War or the Cold War. At that time I did not know the true meaning of communism. The textbook definitions were always wordy and confusing. What does â€Å"a theory or system of social organization based on the holdings of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state† (dictionary.reference.com/browse/communism) suppose to mean? In addition, I recall a conversation with my dad. I had asked him, â€Å"Why is communism so bad?† He responded by saying, â€Å"Don’t be stupid. Who told you that? If communism is so bad, why is China so successful nowadays? Did you know that China lends money to America?† Even to this day, I keep thinking about his comment. Who started the idea of communism? What is a communistic society like? Why does America think it is so bad? Through researching, I hope to answer these questions and others that may pop up. My history teacher, Ms. Shuman, while discussing communism, said that China is not meant to be any other type of government: â€Å"A county with that many people can’t be a democracy; the population will not be controlled. China is fit to be communistic.† Obviously, before trying to find out if communism is bad, I have to find out what communism is. To find general information on communism, I browsed the Internet and found a Website on political ideas. A pure communism society would involve everyone sharing everything equally and everybody providing a service for others (www.allaboutphilosophy.org/communism.htm) So from this a new question arose: If countries are trying to be communism, then why is it so bad? Looking for general information on the history of communism, I went to my local library. The librarian looked into the database and found only two books. One of which, Communism by Nigel Ritchie, I thought was going to be an easy read since it was a picture book. However my intuition was wrong. The book gave me a lot of information on communism’s history, but there were so many political words that I needed to look up such as socialism and capitalism.