Social Structure Theory Research Paper free essay sample

The easiest way that I can explain social structure theory is by using examples from my own life. I grew up in the projects with my single drug addict mother and my little sister. From birth I was raised surrounded by drugs, violence, prostitution and many other crimes. My mom has never worked and we grew up on nothing but government aid. All these things were the perfect environments to create criminals. I was a direct product of my environment growing up. Since from when I can remember, I grew up getting into fights, robbing house, breaking into cars, and using and selling drugs. This was all a normal life to me. It is what I grew up knowing. Only knowing this life and was able to justify it full heartedly. I was kicked out of high school for fighting and was just headed down the worse path possible. I was following everyone that I grew up around. We will write a custom essay sample on Social Structure Theory Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Finally I took some advice from someone elder that told me back in middle school that thankfully stuck with me. â€Å"If you want to be like someone and have the things they have, surround yourself with those people and do what they do†. From then on I have been able to take control of my life and become a functioning and successful member of society. I went and got my diploma. Then went to college in Kansas for criminal justice. After that I joined the military. Now I am out and seeking to further my education. I drive the car I dreamt of driving as a kid and about to have my first kid with my beautiful and also successive girlfriend. All of this made possible simply by changing my surrounding environment. Social structure theory is defined Siegel (2011), â€Å"The view that disadvantaged economic class position is a primary cause of crime† (pg. 470). I believe this to be true. Growing up in the projects a lot of things were not viewed as crimes in our subculture. Something as simple as fighting was a daily thing to be in or to watch in a struggle for power and respect, but in societies outside of our realm that is unbelievable. Growing up in the projects you have to become tough fast. According to Anderson (1999), â€Å"These children of the street, growing up with little supervision, are said to â€Å"come up hard. † They often learn to fight at an early age, using short-tempered adults around them as role models† (pg. 49). We grew up doing what we saw and were taught. Growing up I had no clue that these things were even slightly that wrong because it was of our social norms. Norms are defined as Henslin (2012), â€Å"expectations of â€Å"right† behavior† (pg. 45). If someone disrespected my family, my neighborhood, or me I was expected to fight and that is how we resolved things. By doing this I received positive sanctions from my family and the block. Positive sanctions are defined as Henslin (2012), â€Å"a reward or positive reaction for following norms, ranging from a smile to a material reward† (pg. 45). Other social norms that I grew up learning and doing was selling drugs. Growing up this wasn’t frowned upon by any adult on the block and was encouraged by my mother so I could bring some money into the house. Part of the study of the social structure theory and the study of the information gathered is positivism. In the book The Structure of Social Theory it describes positivism as Johnson (1984) â€Å"Positivism is most frequently used to refer to the extension of empiricist models of natural science to the field of human action, by arguing for either a methodological or substantive unity of the two. The claim for methodological unity leads to behaviorism, while the latter implies reductionist explanations, i. e. the explanation of human action in terms of either ‘heredity’ or ‘environment’. † (pg. 32). According to Henslin (2012) â€Å"It was first proposed by Auguste Comte (1798-1857)† (pg. 10). Since we can study people’s actions and be able to understand them as a science, we can understand crime and what causes it. Criminology: The Core says that there are three branches of the social structure theory. When these theories come together in an environment it will be the ideal circumstances for crime to develop in a community. One of the first theories is the social disorganization theory. Social disorganization theory is defined as Siegel (2011) â€Å"Branch of social structure theory that focuses on the breakdown in inner-city neighborhoods of institutions such as the family, school, and employment. † (pg. 142). These theory focuses on the condition in the environment such as: deteriorated neighborhoods, inadequate social control, law-violation gangs and groups, and conflicting social values. This covers a lot of things growing up that there was no real order or even any motivation for order in the aspects of our life. Being surrounded in this type of environment even if a parent wants to set their child on a good path, it is made almost impossible because of the elements of gangs and strain that everyone around them is going through. Which brings me to the next theory. Strain theory is defined as Siegel (2011) â€Å"Branch of social structure theory that sees crime as a function of the conflict between people’s goals and the means available to obtain them. † (pg. 142). Strain theory focuses on conflict between goals and the means such as: unequal distribution of wealth and power, frustration, and alternative methods of achievement. What the strain theory focuses on was a huge part of my anger and justification of why I would commit crimes. I viewed a lot of things as just not fair and how someone could just have an easy road and even if they were a screw up, their parents had money and they were going to be someone in life no matter what they did. What is even more infuriating about that was the fact that they took it for granted and didn’t care. Even if I did stray away from the gangs and the crime as much as possible, I still had to make it out of my environment on my own. I was just a poor kid out of the projects with no skills, no professional references, and no cosigners for college. Just no real help for any direction and I am expected to be a functioning member of society but frowned upon if I didn’t do good in their eyes. In Code of the Street the chapter about the decent daddy goes over really well about how hard it is to distinguish yourself from the community you are associated with even if you are doing all the right things. It was insanely frustrating that even if you did do right, you were viewed the same. Also it was frustrating that you felt that you were stuck in that place no matter how hard you tried so you start to accept that label that you weren’t ever going to be anything and eventually stopped trying. Whenever you combine the social disorganization theory and the strain theory, you get the cultural deviance theory. Cultural deviance theory is defined as Siegel (2011) â€Å"Branch of social structure theory that sees strain and social disorganization together resulting in a unique lower-class culture that conflicts with conventional social norms. † (pg. 142). Cultural deviance theory focuses on what occurs from the combination of the two other theories. It looks at the development of subcultures as a result of disorganization and stress and the subcultural values in opposition to conventional values. Growing up in this environment we did learn to create our own subculture and accept that we were different from them. By doing this, it made me have no remorse for the people that I was committing crimes against. I was labeled as a criminal that wasn’t ever going to be anything and I accepted that role. Labeling theory is Henslin (2012) â€Å"the view that the labels people are given affect their own and others’ perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into either deviance or conformity. † (pg. 197). I did accept the label that they gave me and if I was going to be called something or thought of a certain way no matter what, I might as well do it since I am already considered it. So burglarizing people’s houses or cars didn’t seem like a crime to me because I saw it as they have the money anyways and doesn’t affect or hurt them. I am going to take from them since they have it. I wasn’t viewing these as crimes or showing any remorse for it because I saw them as different than me. Same as robbing people we caught slippin the neighborhood. It was like what ever, his mommy and daddy would just give him more money. I would do these things on a day-to-day basis and didn’t even see them as crimes. This is a huge part of why I believe that crime happens and is the root of crime. These types of environments brew criminals and like on my behalf that the criminals just see it as a normal way of life and don’t really consider most the crimes that they commit to be actually crimes. Crime becomes a way of life and ways of survival to people that grow up in these types of environments. If we want to prevent crimes we need to address the branches of the social structure theory. The reason that I am considered a good functioning member of society now is because I followed the lucky advice that I stumbled upon which was â€Å"If you want to be like someone and have the things they have, surround yourself with those people and do what they do†. Even though I received that advice, that doesn’t mean that it was easy to obtain. I got really lucky with some of the people that stayed in my life. Also, the programs that were established on the block helped out a lot as well. Just the simple fact of seeing a better life and being surrounded by positive reinforcement for people is enough to give you something small to strive for. If we want to help prevent crime we need to get it at the source. By taking care of the lower-class neighborhoods and implementing programs to keep kids busy with good role models or help with resume writing and training for job interviews. You are able to instill positive hope of moving forward and transitioning out of the place that they feel that they are stuck in. From my experience the cards that I was dealt and the environment that I grew up in, I was set to be a carrier criminal. But with the programs they placed on my block and positive people I surrounded with, it alleviated the strain and frustration that I was feeling and made me change my ways knowing that I was actually able to be better.

Research Paper on War

Research Paper on War To write a research paper on war, all you should know is about the war and the writing pattern of a research paper on war. The first thing that you should be aware of is the war. Try to collect as much information from various sources that help you in terms of war information. Read many books, search articles by various authorized and good research paper writers, check journal entries, try to see the news briefings when there was war to write a research paper on war. For writing a research paper on war, one thing that you should know is to be objective although it is quite difficult as everyone is naturally attracted towards the place of his/her abode but you should try to be neutral. Check the facts and figures about all the countries that were involved in a war and then by assessing and evaluating all the facts and figures come to one point as to who was responsible for the war, what were the causes of war, what were the outcomes of the war, which was the advantageous side and who suffered the most, the number of people who lost their lives, the number of institutions and buildings that collapsed and the financial and economic gains and losses by any country involved in the war and also the reputation loss if there is any. You should also inform about the advantageous country if there is any and also inform about the causes of its being advantageous. The research papers on war are of many kinds such as research paper on civil war, research paper on Vietnam War, research paper on war in Iraq, and others, etc. The research papers on the war in Iraq, research papers on the civil war and other kinds of research paper on war must be written with a clear mind about the whole situation of war. You must not take side of one participant of the war and you should write keeping in consideration, the historical evidences regarding any war. For collection of historical evidences about a war and for writing a research paper about war, you should consult to the history books by reputable writers, which are accepted, on international basis. A research paper about war should be informative as well as instructional. The research paper on war should highlight the destructiveness that a war causes and it should also end up in a message that wars should be avoided as much as they can be. Research paper on war is an exercise that needs a studentâ€⠄¢s skill in terms of good reading and understanding. For all kinds of research papers on war, you can take assistance from various websites but you should keep in mind that there are various companies that are interested in their economical benefits and assist you with research papers on war that are not nicely written so, you should try to find an institution that is good for you in terms of writing. Following some useful tips as for how to write a research paper you will succeed in writing. After selection of a suitable institution, you can buy research paper on war from our agency.

Background and Impact of The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Background and Impact of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 The fight against racial injustice did not end after the passage of the  Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the law did allow activists to meet their major goals. The legislation came to be after President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress to pass a comprehensive civil rights bill. President John F. Kennedy had proposed such a bill in June of 1963, mere months before his death, and Johnson used Kennedys memory to convince Americans that the time had come to address the problem of segregation. Background of the Civil Rights Act After the end of Reconstruction, white Southerners regained political power and set about reordering race relations. Sharecropping became the compromise that ruled the Southern economy, and a number of African-Americans moved to Southern cities, leaving farm life behind. As the black population in Southern cities grew, whites began passing restrictive segregation laws, demarcating urban spaces along racial lines. This new racial order eventually nicknamed the Jim Crow era did not go unchallenged. One notable court case that resulted from the new laws ended up before the Supreme Court in 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy was a 30-year-old shoemaker in June of 1892 when he decided to take on Louisianas Separate Car Act, delineating separate train cars for white and black passengers. Plessys act was a deliberate decision to challenge the legality of the new law. Plessy was racially mixedseven-eighths whiteand his very presence on the whites-only car threw into question the one-drop rule, the strict black-or-white definition of race of the late 19th-century U.S. When Plessys case went before the Supreme Court, the justices decided that Louisianas Separate Car Act was constitutional by a vote of 7 to 1. As long as separate facilities for blacks and whites were equal separate but equal Jim Crow laws did not violate the Constitution. Up until 1954, the U.S. civil rights movement challenged Jim Crow laws in the courts based on facilities not being equal, but that strategy changed with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) when Thurgood Marshall argued that separate facilities were inherently unequal. And then came the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, the sit-ins of 1960 and the Freedom Rides of 1961. As more and more African-American activists risked their lives to expose the harshness of Southern racial law and order in the wake of the Brown decision, the federal government, including the president, could no longer ignore segregation. The Civil Rights Act Five days after Kennedys assassination, Johnson announced his intention to push through a civil rights bill: We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for 100 years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law. Using his personal power in the Congress to get the needed votes, Johnson secured its passage and signed it into law in July 1964. The first paragraph of the act states as its purpose To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes. The bill prohibited racial discrimination in public and outlawed discrimination in places of employment. To this end, the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate complaints of discrimination. The act ended the piecemeal strategy of integration by ending Jim Crow once and for all. The Impact of the Law The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not end the civil rights movement, of course. White Southerners still used legal and extralegal means to deprive black Southerners of their constitutional rights. And in the North, de facto segregation meant that often African-Americans lived in the worst urban neighborhoods and had to attend the worst urban schools.  But because the act took a forceful stand  for civil rights, it ushered in a new era in which Americans could seek legal redress for civil rights violations. The act not only led the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but also paved the way for programs like affirmative action.

MHE514 Module 5 Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MHE514 Module 5 Case - Essay Example There is a need to utilize very defensive responses to diminish new terror threats. The only effective response is a dynamic system that can assess and monitor the threat and our vulnerabilities and respond convincingly. The main aim to restore the sense of safety and security available to the public before the September 11 debates. There is a need to monitor potential hotbeds of terrorism. The ubiquitous and continuous, the persistent observation of terrorist locations, combined with precision interdiction of terrorist cells is important. There is a need to neutralize the threat. The governments can invest in small gadgets that have a global positioning locator, sensor, communicator, and a computer. These devices can be distributed by the military to its different outposts throughout the country in order to give a comprehensive picture of enemy movements. Government borders must be highly friendly to trade, yet opaque to enemy transmission of goods or personnel. The tricky action is how to increase the trade flow and legitimate visitors while diminishing the number of harmful gadgets and illegal visitors. The countries can invest in better gadgets and adopt a different way of looking at things - instead of a border, a zone. This global system will track the flow of goods, with cooperation from other friendly countries. A smarter way to minimize damage from future ter

World Views on theism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

World Views on theism - Essay Example Just as Hackett recounts, the absence of the divine Being immediately creates the limitations of cultural relativism. This is because, the notion that a divine Being exists and created the universe and the fullness thereof immediately gives room for moral absolutes or the universal law. Since a personal example suffices, living in America made me note that as globalization continues to render the US and the entire world a cultural melting pot because of multiculturalism, the danger of cultural relativism has certainly become inescapable. This danger has mainly manifested itself in a clash between legislative pieces and cultural values. For instance, because of the constant but radical shifting away from theism, the US government with all its constitutional maturity still remains ambivalent and unsure about the publication of literature such as Phillip R. Greaves II’s The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure, despite the risks it poses to children. Only theism can here by strike this delicate balance between freedom of speech and conscience and that of children’s safety.... The crux of the mater herein is that when stimuli are introduced, there must be a response, as a corresponding action. Personally, I readily identify with behaviorism because I have come to note that results or consequences shape individual or collective action. Action in turn develops into behavior. Particularly, I have come to note that most of my colleagues did not take their assignments seriously until lecturers set deadlines. Reflecting on my past life also reinforce my belief in behaviorism, since we worked hard in high school, mainly upon knowing that entry into college or university learning would be based only on merit. Learning Styles Personally, kinesthetic approaches to learning have proven the best and most fruitful. This is because, this approach proves to be the most practical since it involves learning by performing, and therefore incorporates hands-on approaches such as movements, observing and other physical activities. Alongside note-taking and ensuring physical co mfort, joining study groups, using appropriate technology such as visual aids and reviewing information have catalyzed learning. The foregoing has especially been the case during encounters with cognitive sciences such as linguistics. Particularly, it has been virtually impossible to master phonetics, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA chart), the phonological processes and supra-segmental features thereof, without looking at the mirror to watch the movement of articulators, or feeling the movements of my articulators, or both. In courses pertaining to political science, history and sociology, I have found it most benefiting to my memory when I place the world map before me, as a reference material. Likewise, as one given over to kinesthetic approach, I have found

Pollen Analysis :: essays research papers

The remains of ancient plants can provide a wealth of archaeological information about a site, with many methods being available to the archaeologist engaged in extracting this data. Perhaps one of the most widely-known of these techniques, possibly because of its attractive nature, is pollen analysis - a technique developed in the early years of the twentieth century by, like so many archaeological techniques, a geologist -- the Norwegian Lennart van Post. To understand the technique and the uses to which it may be put, we must first examine the biological nature of the material itself. Because of a hard outer shell - the exine - pollen is particularly resistant to chemical attack and will survive in most conditions; the only environments which are truly hostile to this shell are abrasion, such as may be the case on sandy sites, and oxidation. However, the most favourable conditions for preservation of the pollen record are acidic, anaerobic sites such as peat bogs. This high degree of survivability combines with another factor inherent in the nature of pollen - the large amount produced - to make pollen analysis one of the most important tools available to the archaeologist. Though one further factor in the make-up of pollen enhances its value, namely the wide morphological variation between pollen from different plant species, most of which can be detected and classified using normal laboratory equipment. Pollen analysis is a technique which demands a high level of skill on the part of the excavator, scientist and interpreter to enable it to fulfil its potential. Collection of pollen samples can prove troublesome, the risk of cross-contamination is significant and efforts must be made to minimize the effect of any excavational bias. The number and ratio of pollen grains present in a sample can also be skewed by factors such as the orientation of the site and the nature of the pollen grains themselves, for example, trees such as pine produce much greater quantities of pollen than species such as oak and thus have a tendency to overrepresent themselves in the pollen record. Once collected the pollen is extracted from the soil, usually in the laboratory to avoid contamination, and analysed using a light, or scanning electron microscope (SEM). The wide differentiation in the size, shape and colour of the pollen grains enables identification to be made down to genera level. Following identification, the individual exines in a sub-set of the sample are quantified and plotted on a pollen analysis diagram, usually as a percentage of the whole.

Epitaph on Me Essay

Epitaphs are clear reflections of the life that individuals went through. The experiences mentioned may either be good or bad. However, these experiences greatly affected the way I perceived life, and how I would react towards the numerous things that happen around me. Thinking about how I lived my life made me ponder on how people would remember me even if I have left this earth. I have decided that my epitaph would sound something like this: â€Å"I swam across the sea Paddling for victory, Massive shark on the way Started an entirely different story. † Writing epitaphs is an important part of any individual’s life. I wanted my epitaph to be simple, yet amusing and could showcase the life that I lived. For starters, I was born in St. Louis Missouri in STATE YEAR and was raised in a poor neighborhood. I grew up in an environment where I had to learn the realities of life at such a young age. I was a product of a broken family, with my mother single-handedly raising me and my other siblings. I lived with poverty for seventeen years, before I was given the opportunity to join the United States Navy. Being in the service allowed me to become appreciative of the numerous blessings I receive every day. Poverty never came as a hindrance for me to become someone in society, for I was given the rare opportunity to serve my country and my countrymen. All of the experiences mentioned above played an important role in writing my epitaph. The first line which states, â€Å"I swam across the sea† is both literal and metaphorical in meaning. Swimming across the sea is not as easy as it may seem, and this may be compared to the difficulty I experienced as I grew up. As mentioned earlier, I came from a poor family, with my mother being the only one sufficing for our needs. Like swimming the sea, it was not easy to go through life-much hard work and dedication were needed in order to succeed. The second line which states â€Å"Paddling for victory† shows the degree of determination and hard work I was willing to give in order to become successful with my life. I grew up not having much, and being accepted at the United States Navy was my chance to rise up from poverty. Such led me to choose the word â€Å"paddling† to represent the difficulties and challenges that my family and I went through in life. Paddling was normally done in the sea, and was not an easy task for anyone, especially when done in the middle of the sea. The sea was vast and wide –some would give up trying to get to the other side of the â€Å"paddled† boat, trying to fight the hard current. Furthermore, I also attributed my experiences in life as the â€Å"sea†, which was vast and unpredictable. Although I was not financially secured as the others, I was given the equal treatment of making it big in the United States through my acceptance in the United States Navy. â€Å"Paddling for victory† was not a one shot deal – it entailed much from the paddler in order to be successful in life. Like my personal life, I wanted to make sure that I would be able to accomplish much, and become the best individual that I can be. Furthermore, â€Å"paddling† may also be used as the term that best describes my life in the US Navy. Every time I was deployed, I was putting my life on the line; and similar to my epitaph, I was â€Å"paddling for victory. † Such line was applicable to the life I had in the navy, for I had to make sure that I was able to fulfill my duties, while caring for my own life.