CRIME AND SOCIAL HISTORY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

CRIME AND SOCIAL HISTORY - Essay Example Since vigilantism has its focus on the control of crime and other social standards, its manifestation is likely to occur in atmospheres rife with crime problems and social inequities (Dumsday 2009, p. 50). When the public watches as their government fails to sufficiently uphold the values and norms it was designed to protect, they are likely to engage in acts of vigilantism (Dumsday 2009, p. 50). The vigilante group form and function because they understand that some established rules are threatened or could possibly be threatened and transgressed (Dumsday 2009, p. 55). Vigilantism also surfaces after a period of organization, rather than by spontaneous eruption (Dumsday 2009, p. 50). South African vigilantism reflects these descriptions. As Buur (2006) describes, South African vigilantism arose in response to the failure of formal law (p. 735). Paradoxically, the one element the vigilantism was primarily responding to was crime (Buur 2006, p. 736). The public’s view of the law enforcement capabilities of their government was very poor, and so they lacked confidence in the accepted and institutionalized norms. In South Africa, a long history of vigilantism exists, including the formation there of a group of vigilantes that rose up to fight a group of hijackers that wore police uniforms in order to more effectively accomplish their goals (Buur 2006, p. 741). The Irish Republican Army (IRA) organized itself to carry out vigilantism in response to British occupation of Northern Ireland (Pruitt 2007, p. 1521). The people resented British presence there for many years, but didn’t organize vigilantism until 1968, after four decades of tension had built (Pruitt 2007, p. 1521). The people of Ireland who shared this common goal of eliminating British rule and reuniting Northern Ireland with the rest of the country organized at nonviolent demonstrations at that time (Pruitt 2007, p. 1521). When the police responded violently to the demonstrations, chaos ensued

Global and regional environmental Essay Example for Free

Global and regional environmental Essay People across the globe are being affected by global and regional environmental changes. The drastic environmental problems such ozone layer depletion and climate change are as a result of over consumption, unsustainable life styles and unhealthy patterns of development (Harris, 47). Environmental problems are likely to hit the marginalized and the poor first often with drastic consequences but latter they will also affect the privileged. Unless these environmental problems are curbed they are threatening to cause havoc to the life support systems and the ecosystems. This will therefore lead to an immense and unprecedented crisis for the whole humanity. To achieve sustainable development and the health of the environment it requires drastic changes in the current global order and formulation of the alternative ways of thinking. Within environmental movements there are huge wealth of experiences, ideas and visions of what an alternative environmental sustainable and people oriented societies can look like. Environmental destruction has always been part of the human history (Harris, 48). Throughout time the problems of the environment have been important factors affecting the health of people both at regional and global level. The pressure on the environment has increased enormously as a result of changing scales of the human society increases and development of the technology. This problem is fuelled by the runaway global economic systems which have created over consumption (unprecedented affluence) and enormous level of poverty. The environmental problems now threaten to cause irreversible harm to the ecosystems and increase inequalities on a global scale (Pickering Owen, 117). Some of the environmental problems are immediate local problems whose their causes can be known and their solutions be identified. On the other hand other environmental problems are incredibly complex and they are often complex to handle. Such environmental problems involve much uncertainty and affect the whole globe and are the result of combined human behavior. These problems are maintained and embedded on the societal structures (Harris, 50). Some critics argue that environmental problems are as a result of the present day population growth especially in the third world countries and natural resources depletion in the highly industrialized countries (Harris, 50). Alarmist argue that the explosive population growth in less developed countries and overexploitation of the non renewable resources by the highly industrialized countries are combining to produce sets of condition which cannot be sustained in the long-run by our finite world. The population problems of third world countries constitute an impediment to social economic development and can pose a threat to depletion of natural resources. However relatively low crude population densities in many third world countries with exception of some few areas they do not produce population pressure on the natural resources (Harris, 52). Most of the third worlds countries have an even population distribution and few urban centers are becoming overcrowded. High rates of population growth in third world countries is as a result of high and constant fertility that have possibilities of reducing mortality due to the improved health facilities. Because of high proportion of children and high patterns of fertility heavy dependence burden is produced within the populations in most third world countries. The heavy dependence implies large expenditures of provision of employment and education for the growing population (Pickering Owen, 134). Most bureaucrats, economists and political leaders in third world countries especially in Africa argue that third world countries in Africa have abundant resources which have not yet been tapped. They also argue that large area in Africa have not been inhabited and therefore the political question that population growth put pressure on the limited natural resources should not be taken seriously (Harris, 53). There is need for the political leaders, economist and bureaucrats to know the prospect of the third world countries in terms of the resources base that can absorb the population problems of the third world countries (Harris, 54). In comparison to other industrialized countries for example Europe nations the land under cultivation in third world African countries is three times higher per capita, the livestock per capita is two times higher, the grazing land per each unit of livestock is a bout seven times higher while the mineral resources out put of third worlds countries in Africa constitute one tenth of the mineral output of the whole world (Harris, 54). The primary energy resources of the third world countries are enormous which are comprised of natural gas and petroleum product coal and hydro power for example 32 percent of world hydro power which can be exploited, 12 percent of reserves of uranium and 60 percent of thorium reserves are found in Africa third world countries. Despite the abundant resources of the third world countries most countries in Africa are under developed (Harris, 57). It would be a weak argument to suggest that the high population growth in the third world countries is the root cause of their underdevelopment. However the high population growth of the third world countries is an important factor that impedes development. The rapid population growth constitutes pressure on the arable land. Several million hectares of land are being degraded in third world countries (Pickering Owen, 204). The degradation of land can be linked to population pressure and poverty, values and attitude of people weak tenure systems and land management and drought which often results in over exploitation of the natural resources such as the trees used for fuel wood, overgrazing deforestation and unsustainable agricultural activities. Degradation has decreased land productivity, increased desertification and causes loss of arable land in most third world countries (Pickering Owen, 206). As a result of degradation in the third world countries there is less food than can be produced in degraded lands and also the availability of biomass is greatly reduced. Land degradation also makes the ecosystems to be less resilient and increases chances of malnutrition and susceptibility of diseases in the local populations. Third world countries like china, Ethiopia, Brazil, Nepal, India and most African countries have caused much of environmental degradation. In recent time the respective government has began to introduce policies to minimize the extensive environmental degradation that their countries are facing (Pickering Owen, 213). The environmental policies have been developed soon after formation of and applying pressure by several activist groups in the field of environment. Initially before the activist groups applied pressure the governments in the third world countries did not see any needs to develop environmental policies. Environmental degradation is only the problem of the third world countries and most often thirds world countries have make do with what they owns and usually they compete with large populations (Pickering Owen, 208). Once a natural resource for example water is degraded it become of little use to the people. On the other hand western or industrialized countries have a higher standard of living than third world countries or less developed countries. In developed countries the communities have access to electricity, clean water, housing, employment, refrigeration, clothing, food, heating, hospital, schools, medicines, machinery, manufacturing, communication and road thus in the process they consume much of the resources (Pickering Owen, 209). The communities of the third world poor countries do not have access to these things and they rely on what they can hunt, gather or grow. People in the third world countries acquire other things if they have surplus produce to sell and therefore are disadvantaged to gain access to power supply, telecommunication, railways and roads thus becomes difficult to access the few schools hospitals etc and therefore third world countries are not degrading the environment as much as the developed nations (Pickering Owen, 210).

The Recent Negative Effect Of Technology On Society Essay example -- e

The Recent Negative Effect of Technology on Society   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ever since the Industrial revolution, technology has been changing at a fast pace. People are always wanting a better lifestyle therefore there is always something new arising so humans can cope with their physical environment. One of the most important breakthroughs for technology was the agricultural system. The agricultural system was the basis for the technology of the future. The agricultural system brought on the need for transportation, workers and even, battles over land. The need for transportation brought vehicles into the market. The need for employees brought mechanical robots into society. Battles over land brought on the need for sophisticated weapons. The agricultural system brought on a revolution. The invention of the television can bring media and other forms of entertainment into your house with video and audio combined. Before 1950, newspapers and radio were the only ways to bring media or entertainment into the house. Mass production and other job opportunities brought many people from the suburbs and farms into the city. We can now have forms of electricity directed into our houses for heating and light. Humans are more reliant on technology then ever before. All of these technological advances sound great, however, there is a negative effect to all this technology. Technology can serve to actually harm humans rather then help them. Competition between companies or even cities can sometimes make lives for humans even worse. Take for example when a city builds better and more roads to attract tourists. This actually creates more traffic, not less. Technology also changes our sense of common purpose. New inventions such as the personal computer and machines can change our lifestyles. Even things we take for granted such as the automobile have negative effects on technology. The oil needed for a car to run needs to be imported and sometimes accidents such as the Exxon Valdez incident spills many gallons of oil into the ocean. All of these examples show how technology has negative effects on society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, competition can lead to a negative effect of technology. When a company in the U.S. produces shoes and a company in Great Britain produces shoes as well, they must fight for their market share... ...n conclusion, society has recently seen the negative effects of society. Competition between cities and companies has taken away jobs and brought unwanted and costly projects into pleasurable areas. A change in lifestyle among almost every human being is yet another negative effect of technology. What has happened to people since supermarkets came to town? People do not want to hunt for food anymore. They find it much easier to walk into a store and purchase it. A third reason why technology has a negative effect on society is the advent of highly reliant possessions such as the automobile. Many people count on traveling to work everyday by car. If the car was somehow taken away from people then there would be chaos. It is much too late to take it away. Humans are much too reliant on it. There is not enough mass transit to transport all of the present car users. Hopefully, future technologies will be fully considered. We must look at the advantages and consequences and measure if society will benefit or suffer from the technology. Past technologies weren't fully considered and if they were, there is a chance that the automobile never would have went into production.

Groups Opposing Active Euthanasia For Robert Wendland :: Euthanasia Physician Assisted Suicide

Groups Opposing Active Euthanasia For Robert Wendland On September 29, 1993, Robert Wendland, then age 42, was involved in a vehicle accident. He was in a coma for 16 months. In January 1995, Mr. Wendland came out of the coma, but he remains severely cognitively impaired. He is paralyzed on the right side. He communicates using a "Yes/No" communication board. He receives food and fluids through a feeding tube. During rehabilitation, he has been able to do such activities as grasp and release a ball, operate an electric wheelchair with a joystick, move himself in a manual wheelchair with his left hand or foot, balance himself momentarily in a "standing frame" while grabbing and pulling "thera-putty," draw the letter "R," and choose and replace requested color blocks out of several color choices. The Probate Court appointed Robert Wendland's wife, Rose, as conservator of his person under the Probate Code. Rose sought authorization from the court to remove the feeding tube, thereby starving him to death. Robert's mother (Florence Wendland) and sister (Rebekah Vinson) objected. Various groups opposed to active euthanasia became involved in the case with amicus briefs: Not Dead Yet is a national grassroots organization of people with disabilities formed in response to the increasing popularity of, and laws permitting, physician assisted suicide and euthanasia in the United States and around the world. Not Dead Yet's mission is to advocate against legalization of physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, and to bring a disability-rights perspective and awareness of the effects of discrimination to the legal and sociological debate around euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Formed in 1996 in Illinois, Not Dead Yet has worked to educate, support, coordinate and lead the disability community's effort to stop the "right to die" from becoming a duty to die or a right to kill. While it is impossible to determine how many people with disabilities, family members and allies, call themselves members of Not Dead Yet, members have undertaken specific activities in the name of the organization and in support of its mission in at least 30 states. Not Dea d Yet has given invited testimony before the U.S. Congress three times, once before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and twice before the Constitution Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. When Not Dead Yet members attended the long awaited 1999 trial of Jack Kevorkian (the first after three years of non-prosecution, and scores of assisted suicides of people with non-terminal disabilities) and silently demanded the equal protection of the law, he was convicted.

Reservation Blues Essay

Sherman Alexie, author of the novel Reservation Blues, explains that at the start of an Indian’s life on a reservation, he or she is destined to be hopeless. First, parental guidance is infrequent leaving many infant Indians with an insufficient childhood. After that, Indian children experience poor education revolved around heaps of stereotyping and bullying from their white classmates and teachers. Next, any sort of entertainment such as television, music, and books are extremely rare. Then leaving their life with a lack of stability and sustainability, an Indian grows up on a reservation with little to no job opportunity. On top of that, reservations are subjected to commodity food; food hardly sufficient and plentiful enough to satisfy a human’s basic needs. All of these factors fill the lives on the reservation with despair, causing most Indians to indulge in alcohol, violence, and suicide. And so, hopelessness within modern Native Americans ultimately leads to sel f destructive behavior. Hopelessness eludes few Indians on the Spokanes Reservations, and Samuel Build-The-Fire profoundly exemplifies lost hope. Alexie asserts that when Builds-The-Fires was young, he was named Player of the Year and was interviewed by Walter Cronkite because of his significant basketball talent. Samuel became a hero because of his success, and his fellow tribe members wanted him to become more than just an average Indian on the reservation. Until, that is, Alexie describes that after a crooked basketball game with the Reservation’s white policeman, Samuel’s basketball ability was lost. This loss in Samuel’s life created a void, leaving him empty. After dragging his old, drunken, helpless father in from the lawn outside, Builds-The-Fire’s son, Thomas expresses that â€Å"His basketball days [are] over, he [doesn’t] have much else.† Finally, Samuel’s destructive behavior of being an alcoholic and a constant public disturbance articulates that he has no hope in life. Victor’s life reveals a life without family, education and income. Alexie explains that Victor watching his dead mother being stuffed into a trunk by his step-father invokes the start of Victor’s hopeless life. This depicts the sort of troubled life Victor has lived. The only spawn of hope Victor formulates is within his friendship with Junior; however, that hope soon dies as Alexie reveals that Junior committed suicide. In being too inept to  obtain a job due to his lack of education, Victor maintains a full-time career in being a hopeless drunk just like Samuel Builds-The-Fire. Alexie suggests nothing else is left for Victor to do in life except to be destructive. Alexie elucidates that Junior failed at being successful at life outside of the reservation and could not handle living with his failure so he committed suicide. In being one of the intelligent Indians on the Reservation, Junior sought a college education. Junior had hope that he could escape life on the Reservation. Nevertheless, he dropped out of college and fell in love with a white-woman named Lynn. Alexie discloses that Junior got Lynn pregnant and she rejected Junior as a suitable life partner and father to her child because Junior was Indian. These series of events made Junior feel not only very forlorn in general, but also ashamed to be an Indian. Alexie then conveys that Liz’s abortion of the baby evokes suicidal thoughts within Junior. In the end, Junior becomes so distraught with what has become of his life that he kills himself. The modern Native American has a life where there is no hope and a great amount of self destruction. Samuel, Victor, and Junior all had things that supplied them with some sort of hope. Samuel had basketball, Victor had Junior, and Junior had his own intelligence, but in the end each individual lost their source of hope. Alexie’s writing is a rare and honest interpretation of the many different factors and issues the modern Indian comes to terms with during the course of their life. The lack of hope within Native American Reservations is just one of many tribulations faced, but it produces some of the most self-destructive results.

Testing Your Perl Installation

Testing Your Perl Installation In order to test our fresh installation of Perl, well need a simple Perl program. The first thing most new programmers learn is how to make the script say Hello World. Lets look at a simple Perl script that does just that. #!/usr/bin/perl print Hello World.\n; The first line is there to tell the computer where the Perl interpreter is located. Perl is an interpreted language, which means that rather than compiling our programs, we use the Perl interpreter to run them. This first line is usually #!/usr/bin/perl or #!/usr/local/bin/perl, but depends on how Perl was installed on your system. The second line tells the Perl interpreter to print the words Hello World. followed by a newline (a carriage return). If our Perl installation is working correctly, then when we run the program, we should see the following output: Hello World. Testing your Perl installation is different depending on the type of system you are using, but well take a look at the two most common situations: Testing Perl on Windows  (ActivePerl)Testing Perl on *nix Systems The first thing youll want to do is make sure youve followed the  ActivePerl Installation tutorial  and installed ActivePerl and the Perl Package Manager on your machine. Next, create a folder on your C: drive to store your scripts in for the sake of the tutorial, well call this folder  perlscripts. Copy the Hello World program into C:\perlscripts\ and make sure the filename is  hello.pl. Getting a Windows Command Prompt Now we need to get to a Windows command prompt. Do this by clicking on the  Start  menu and selecting the item  Run.... This will pop up the run screen that contains the  Open:  line. From here, just type  cmd  into the  Open:  field and press the  Enter  key. This will open (yet another) window which is our Windows command prompt. You should see something like this: Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. C:\Documents and Settings\perlguide\Desktop We need to change to the directory (cd) that contains our Perl scripts by typing in the following command: cd c:\perlscripts That should make our prompt reflect the change in the path like so: C:\perlscripts Now that were in the same directory as the script, we can run it simply by typing its name at the command prompt: hello.pl If Perl is installed and running correctly, it should output the phrase Hello World., and then return you to the Windows command prompt. An alternate method of testing your Perl installation is by running the interpreter itself with the  -v  flag: perl -v If the Perl interpreter is working correctly, this should output quite a bit of information, including the current version of Perl you are running. Testing Your Installation If you are using a school or work Unix / Linux server, chances are Perl is already installed and running when in doubt, just ask your system administrator or technical staff. There are a few ways we can test our installation, but first, you will need to complete two preliminary steps.​ First, you must copy your Hello World program to your home directory. This is usually accomplished via FTP.   Once your script has been copied to your server, you will need to get to a  shell prompt  on the machine, usually via SSH. When you have reached the command prompt, you can change into your  home  directory by typing the following command: cd ~ Once there, testing your Perl installation is very similar to testing on a windows system with one extra step. In order to  execute  the program, you must first tell the operating system that the file is OK to execute. This is done by setting the permissions on the script so that anyone can execute it. You can do this by using the  chmod  command: chmod 755 hello.pl Once youve set the permissions, you can then execute the script by simply typing its name. hello.pl If that doesnt work, you might not have your home directory in your current path. As long as you are in the same directory as the script, you can tell the operating system to run the program (in the current directory) like so: ./hello.pl If Perl is installed and running correctly, it should output the phrase Hello World., and then return you to the Windows command prompt. An alternate method of testing your Perl installation is by running the interpreter itself with the  -v  flag: perl -v If the Perl interpreter is working correctly, this should output quite a bit of information, including the current version of Perl you are running.

Coming to the New World essays

Coming to the New World essays Coming to the New World was a major advancement in the lives of many Spanish, French, and English people between the years of 1942-1629. The migration effected the lives dramatically. They will come to see that in the coming years almost everything will change from religion to their types of settlement. The role of religion was very important, for it had an immense power over the European society. Christianity converted all of Europe including the Spanish, French, and English. Christian doctrine provided a common understanding of God. The church provided authority and discipline in the society. Every village had a church, which thought that Satan constantly challenged God by tempting people into evil. Christianity had played an important role in Portugal and Spain, but it divided Europe into Catholics and Protestants. A protestant rebellion in the Spanish Netherlands drained the wealth of the Spanish and gave resources to expand into North America and brought a new impact of European and Indian people. Over time, the Catholic Church had become very large and wealthy, controlling resources throughout Europe. In 1517, a German monk and professor, Martin Luther, sold indulgences. These were church certificates that pardoned a sinner from punishments in the afterlife. He was excommunicauhujuujjujjted by the pope and threatened with punishment by King Charles I of Spain. He was protected by a northern German princess and could not be arrested. After Luther, came a French theologian from Switzerland named John Calvin. He stressed omnipotence of God and the corruption of human nature. He preached the doctrine of predestination, the idea that God chose certain people for salvation even before they were born. He appeared to Christians and said to people that they needed a personal relationship with God. Calvin believed in a God that gave what he received and also that saintly people could change government. People starte...