Article I of the Constitution of America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Article I of the Constitution of America - Essay Example In this context, Article-I is the most significant of the provisions of the Constitution of the US that vests the powers on the â€Å"Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives† and specifies the â€Å"unique and limited powers of the Congress† (Ritchie 50). The legislative branch is the most important branch of the government and as such Article-I, which defines their powers, is a very significant part of the US constitution. Article-I is divided into 10 sections, each defining the constitution, powers and functions of the legislative body of the government. The first section stipulates the bicameral division of the Congress into two houses, such as the â€Å"Senate† and â€Å"House of Representatives† to ensure a â€Å"compromise between the power of the state and the power of the people† (50). Such a balancing of power, through the provision of Article-I ensures that power is not misused. Thus, it can be construed that Article-I of the Constitution facilitates a appropriate rights to the people so that any chances of misuse is obviated, which is important in a democratic set up. Section 2 of Article-I defines the term and qualification of the House of Representatives and thus plays a key role in determining that only suitable persons are selected for governance. On the other hand, Section 3 stipulates the terms, qualifications and functions of the members of the Senate. Both these sections of Article-I contain important provisions relating to the basic functions of the legislative branch, which is the most significant of the divisions of the American government. Thus, Article-I is very important. Section 4 of Article-I, prescribes the conditions and procedures of holding the elections Senators and Representatives, which, again, is a highly significant aspect of democratic set up. Section 6 describes the compensation of

Poem and Short Story Essay Example for Free

Poem and Short Story Essay Mill of the Gods (Estrella Alfon) Among us who lived in Espeleta – that street that I love, about whose people I keep telling tales – among us, I say, there was one named Martha, and she was the daughter of Pio and Engracia. To all of us, life must seem like a road given us to travel, and it is up to Fate, that convenient blunderer, whether, that road be broad and unwinding, or whether it shall be a tortuous lane, its path a hard and twisted mat of dust and stones. And each road, whether lane or avenue, shall have its own landmarks, that only the traveller soul shall recognize and remember, and remembering, continue the journey again. To Martha, the gods gave this for a first memory: a first scar. She was a girl of twelve, and in every way she was but a child. A rather dull child, who always lagged behind the others of her age, whether in study or in play. Life had been so far a question of staying more years in a grade than the others, of being told she would have to apply herself a little harder if she didn’t want the infants catching up with her. But that was so dismal thing. She had gotten a little bit used to being always behind. To always being the biggest girl in her class. Even in play there was some part of her that never managed to take too great a part – she was so content if they always made her â€Å"it† in a game of tag, if only they would let her play. And when she had dolls, she was eager to lend them to other girls, if they would only include her in the fascinating games she could not play alone. This was she, then. Her hair hung in pigtails each side of her face, and already it irked a little to have her dresses too short. She could not help in her mother’s kitchen, and could be trusted to keep her room clean, but she was not ready for the thing her mother told her one night when she was awakened from sleep. It was a sleep untroubled by dreams, then all of a sudden there was an uproar in the house, and she could hear her mother’s frenzied sobbing, and it was not sobbing that held as much of sorrow as it did of anger. She lay still for a while, thinking perhaps she was dreaming, until she could hear her father’s grunted answers to the half – understood things her mother was mouthing at him. Then there were sounds that was clearly the sound of two bodies struggling in terrible fury with each other. She stood up, and like a child, cried into the night. Mother? She wailed the word, in her panic finding a little relief in her own wailing, Mother? And she heard her mother’s voice call her, panting out, saying, Martha, come quickly, come into this room! Martha got up and stood at the door of the room, hesitating about opening it, until her mother, the part of a terrible grasp, said Martha! So Martha pushed in the door, and found her mother and her father locked in an embrace n which both of them struggled and panted and had almost no breath left for words. Martha stood wide – eyed and frightened, not knowing what to do, just standing there, even though she had seen what it was they struggled for. A kitchen knife, blade held upwards in her mother’s hand. Her arms were pinioned to her sides by her husband, but her wild eyes, the frenzy with which she stamped her feet on his feet, and kicked him in the shins, and tried to bite him with her teeth, these were more terrible than the glint of that shining blade. It was her father who spoke to her saying urgently, Martha, reach for her knife, take it away. Yet Martha stood there and did not comprehend until her mother spoke, saying No, no; Martha, your father deserves to be killed. Then it was Martha who realized what she was to do, and slowly, hesitantly, she went near them, her fear of both of them in this terrible anger they now presented making her almost too afraid to reach up for the knife. But reach up she did, and with her child’s fingers, put her mother’s away from the weapon. And when she had it in her hands she did not know what to do with it, except look at it. It wasn’t a very sharp knife, but its blade was clean, and its hilt firm. And so she looked at it, until her father said. Throw it out of the window, Martha and without thinking, she went to a window, opened a casement and threw it away. Then her father released her mother, and once her mother had gotten her arms free, she swung back her hand, and wordlessly, slapped him; slapped him once, twice, three times, alternating with her hands, on alternate cheeks, until her father said. That’s enough, Engracia. And saying so, he took her hands in his, led her resisting to the bed, and made her sit down. And Martha was too young to wonder that her father, who was a big man, should have surrendered to the repeated slapping from her mother who was a very small frail woman. Her father said, â€Å"Aren’t you ashamed now Martha has seen? † And immediately her mother screamed to him, â€Å"Ashamed? Me, ashamed? I’ll tell Martha about you! † Her father looked at Martha still standing dumbly by the window out of which she had thrown the knife, and said, â€Å"No, Aciang, she is just a child. † And to her: â€Å"Martha, go back to bed. † But now her mother jumped up from the bed, and clutched at Martha, and brought her to bed with her. And deliberately without looking at Martha’s father, she said, Martha you are not too young to know. And so, the words falling from her lips with a terrible quiet, she told Martha. The words that were strange to her ears, Martha heard them, and listened to them, and looked from her mother to her father, and without knowing it, wetting her cheeks with her tears that fell. And then her mother stopped talking, and looking at her husband, she spat on him, and Martha saw the saliva spatter on the front of the dark shirt he wore. She watched while her father strode over them, and slowly, also deliberately, slapped her mother on the cheek. Martha watched his open palm as he did it, and felt the blow as though it had been she who had been hit. Then her father strode out of the room, saying nothing, leaving them alone. When her father had gone, Martha’s mother began to cry, saying brokenly to Martha, â€Å"It is that woman, that woman! † And making excuses to Martha for her father, saying it was never completely the man’s fault. And Martha listened bewildered, because this was so different from the venomous words her mother had told her while her father was in the room. And then her mother, still weeping, directed her to look for her father and Martha went out of the room. Her father was not in the house. The night was very dark as she peered out of the windows to see is she could find him outside, but he was nowhere. So she went back to her mother, and told her she could not find her father. Her mother cried silently, the tears coursing down her cheeks, and her sobs tearing through her throat. Martha cried with her, and caressed her mother’s back with her hands, but she had no words to offer, nothing to say. When her mother at last was able to talk again, she told Martha to go back to bed. But it wasn’t the child that entered who went out of that room. And yet the terror of that night was not so great because it was only a terror half – understood. It wasn’t until she was eighteen, that the hurt of that night was invested with its full measure. For when she was eighteen, she fell in love. She was a girl of placid appearance, in her eyes the dreaming stolid night of the unawakened. She still was slow to learn, still not prone to brilliance. And when she fell in love she chose the brightest boy of her limited acquaintance to fall in love with. He was slightly older than herself, a little too handsome, a trifle too given to laughter. Espeleta did not like him; he was too different from the other young me n on the street. But Martha loved him. You could see that in the way she looked at him, the way she listened to him. Martha’s pigtails had lengthened. She now wore her braids coiled on the top of her head like a coronet, and it went well with the placid features, the rather full figure. She was easily one of our prettier maidens. It was well that she was not too brilliant. That she did not have any too modern ideas. The air of shyness, the awkward lack of sparkling conversation suited her Madonna – like face and calm. And her seriousness with love was also part of the calm waiting nature. It did not enter her head that there are such things as play, and a game. And a man’s eagerness for sport. And so when she noticed that his attentions seemed to be wandering, even after he had admitted to a lot of people that they were engaged, she asked him, with the eager desperation of the inexperienced, about their marriage. He laughed at her. Laughed gently, teasingly, saying they could not get married for a long time yet; he must repay his parents first for all that they had done for him. He must first be sure to be able to afford the things she deserved. Well turned phrases he said his excuses with. Charming little evasions. And if she did not see through them while he spoke them, his frequent absences, where his visits had been as a habit; his excuses to stay away when once no amount of sending him off could make him stay away; these but made her see. And understand. And then the way neighbours will, they tried to be kind to her. For they could see her heart was breaking and they tried to say sweet things to her, things like her being far too good for him. And then they heard that he had married. Another girl. And they saw her grief, and thought it strange that a girl should grieve over an undeserving lover or so. She lost a little of the plumpness that was one of her charms. And into her eyes crept a hurt look to replace the dreaming. And Espeleta, with all the good people, strove to be even kinder to her. Watched her grief and pitied her. And told her that whatever mistakes she had committed to make her grieve so, to make her suffer so, they understood and forgave. And they did not blame her. But now that she had learned her lesson, she must beware. She knew her own father as much as they knew about him. And it was in the Fates that his sins must be paid for. If not by himself, then by whom but she who was begotten by him? So, didn’t she see? How careful she should be? Because you could, they said it to her gently, kindly, cruelly, because she could if she were careful, turn aside the vengeance of the implacable fates. And she believed them kind although she hated their suspicions. She believed them kind, and so she started, then, to hate her father. And that night long ago came back to her, and she wished she had not thrown that knife away. Espeleta saw Martha turn religious. More religious than Iya Andia and Iya Nesia, who were old and saw death coming close, and wanted to be assured of the easing of the gates of heaven. Espeleta approved. Because Espeleta did not know what she prayed for. Because they saw only the downcast eyes under the light veil, the coil of shining hair as it bowed over the communion rail. Yet Martha’s mother and father still lived together. They never had separated. Even after that night, when she was twelve years old and frightened, and she had called for him and looked for him and not found him. The next day he had come back, and between her mother and him there was a silence. They slept in the same bed, and spent the nights in the same room, and yet Martha and Espeleta knew he had another bed, another chamber. Espeleta praised Martha’s mother for being so patient. After Martha had fallen in love, when she began hating her father truly then also she began despising her mother. You did not know it to look at Martha. For her coil of braided hair was still there, and the shy way of speaking, and the charming awkwardness at conversation. And Martha made up her earlier lack of lustre by shining in her class now. She was eighteen and not through high school yet. But she made up for it by graduating with high honours. Espeleta clapped its hands when she graduated. Gave her flowers. Her mother and father were there, too. And they were proud. And to look at Martha, you would think she was proud too, if a little too shy still. Martha studied nursing. And started having visitors in her mother’s house again. Doctors this time. Older men, to whom her gravity of manner appealed, and the innate good sense that seemed so patient in her quiet demeanour. Espeleta was now rather proud of Martha. She seemed everything a girl should be, and they cited her as an example of what religion could do. Lift you out of the shadow of your inheritance. For look at Martha. See how different she is from what should be her father’s daughter. But what they did not know was that all of these doctors Martha had to choose someone slightly older than the rest. And where the girl of eighteen that she had been almost a child unschooled, now she was a woman wise and wary. Where the other nurses knew this doctor only as someone who did not like their dances as much as the younger ones, who did not speak as lightly, as flippantly of love as the younger ones, Martha knew why he didn’t. Between the two of them there had been, form the very start, a quick lifting of the pulse, an immediate quickening of the breath. From the very start. And where he could have concealed the secrets of life, he chose the very first time they were able to talk to each other, to tell her that he was not free. He had a wife, and whether he loved her or not, whether she was unfaithful to him or not, which she was, there had been the irrevocable ceremony to bind them, to always make his love for any other woman, if he ever fell in love again, something that must be hidden, something that might not see light. She was a woman now, Martha was. Wise and wary. But there is no wisdom, no weariness against love. Not the kind of deep love she knew she bore him. And as even she him, she found within herself the old deep – abiding secret hate. Against her father. Against the laws of man and church. Against the very fates that seemed rejoiced in making her pay for a sin she had not committed. She now learned of bitterness. Because she could not help thinking of that night, long ago, when her mother had sat on the bed, and in deliberate words told her just what kind of a father she had. It had been as though her mother had shifted on to her unwilling, unready shoulders the burden of the sorrows, the goad of the grief. Espeleta, that was so quick to censure, and to condemn; even Espeleta had taken the situation in Martha’s house as something that could not be helped. And as long as there was no open strife, Espeleta made excuses for a thing that, they said, had been designed by Fate. Martha’s father came home. Acted, on the surface, the good husband. And since he was married to Martha’s mother, so must Martha’s mother bear it, and welcome him home again. Because she would rather he came home, then went to the other one, wouldn’t she? Espeleta cited heavenly rewards. For Martha’s mother. And Martha went to church regularly, and was a good nurse. And still called her father, Father. You have heard that one of course, about the mill of the gods, how they â€Å"grind exceedingly fine, and grind exceedingly slow. † Espeleta hadn’t heard that one, nor had Martha. But Espeleta of course would have a more winded version of it. Anyhow, one day at the hospital, Martha was attendant nurse at an emergency case. A man had been shot. There were three bullets through his chest, but he was still alive. Martha laughed queerly to herself, saying I must be dreaming, I am imagining that man has my father’s face. It was the doctor she loved who was in charge. With a queer dreaming feeling, she raised her eyes to meet his, and was shocked to see him drop his gaze, and over his face steal a twist as of pain, as of pity. They were instantly their efficient selves again, cloaking themselves in the impersonal masks of physician and nurse. It was as if he who lay there beneath their instruments and their probing fingers was any man, the way it could be any man. Not her father. But all while, training and discipline unavailing. Martha said to herself, but it is my father. He died on the table. He never gained consciousness. Martha drew the sheet over his face and form. And watched as they wheeled him out of the room. She still had the instruments to put away and the room to put in order. But this did not take long and when she went out into the corridor, she found her mother weeping beside the shrouded form on the wheeled table. There was a policeman beside her awkwardly trying with gruff words to console the little woman over her loss. Beside the policeman stood also the doctor, who passed an arm around the shoulder of Martha’s mother, saying simply, we tried to save him. Martha joined them, knowing that she should be in tears, yet finding that she had none to shed. It would ease the tightness within her, would loosen the hard knot in her heart to cry. But you cannot summon tears when you feel no grief, and the pain you feel is not of sorrow but of the cruel justness of things. She could not even put her arms around her weeping mother. When the doctor told her that she would be excused from duty the rest of the day, that he would arrange it for her, she did not thank him. She did not say anything for indeed she no longer had any words, nor any emotions that required speech. Or should be given speech. For one cannot say, how right! How just! When one’s father has just died. Her mother and she took a taxi together to accompany the hearse that took her father home. There was a crowd awaiting them. Espeleta in tears. Espeleta crying condolence and opprobrium in the same breath. It was from them – their good neighbours, their kind neighbours – that Martha learned how â€Å"God’s justice had overtaken the sinner. † Colon is not as intimate as Espeleta. For it is a long street and broad street. But where the railroad crosses it, the houses group together in intimate warmth and neighbourly closeness and its families live each other’s lives almost as meddlingly as Espeleta does. And is as avid for scandals as Espeleta is. Among the people in Martha’s house were some from Colon. And it was they who supplied the grimmer details, the more lucid picture. In that other woman’s house – and Martha did not even know the other woman’s name there had existed the stalemate state of affairs that had existed in Martha’s house. Only where in Martha’s house it had been a wife who was patient, in that other woman’s house it had been the husband who had bided his time. And yet the neighbours had thought he had not cared. For indeed he had seemed like a man blind and deaf, and if he raised his voice against his wife, it was not so they could hear it. Yet today, he had come home, after he had said he was going away somewhere. And had come upon Martha’s father in the house, and had, without saying anything, taken out his revolver, and shot at him. Martha heard all these. And thought you know often life seems like an old – fashioned melodrama, guns and all. And yet the gun had not gone off. It had jammed, and Martha’s father had been able to run. And running, even as he seemed far enough from the house to be safe, the gun in the husband’s hand had come right again. The man had gone out in the street, aimed at the fleeing figure. That explained why the bullets had gone in through his back and out through his chest. They said that the street was spattered with blood and where he fell, there was a pool of gory red. The killer had surrendered himself at once. But everyone knew he would not pay with his life he had taken. For the woman was his wife and he had come upon them in his own home. Martha stayed with the kind condolers only a while. She left her mother for them to comfort as best as they could. They would have praises like â€Å"The good God knows best;† they would have words like, â€Å"Your grief is ended, let your other grief commence. † She went to look at her father lying well arranged now in his bier. Already in spite of the manner of his death, there were flowers for him. Death had left no glare in the eyes that the doctor at the hospital had mercifully closed, over the features lingered no evidence of pain. And Martha said, Death was kind to you. In Martha’s room there hung a crucifix. Upon the crossed wood was the agonized Christ, His eyes soft and deep and tender, even in his agony. But as Martha knelt, and lighted her candles, and prayed, in her eyes was no softness, and on her lips no words appealing for pity for him who had died. There was only the glitter of a justice meted out at last, and the thankfulness for a punishment fulfilled. So she gave thanks, very fervent thanks. For now, she hoped, she would cease to pay.

The Crime Survey For England And Wales Criminology Essay

The Crime Survey For England And Wales Criminology Essay The National Statistician in 2011 acknowledged that the exclusion of crimes against children from the BCS estimates has been considered a major gap. As a result, in 2009 the survey was extended to include children aged between 10 and 15 (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 2010/11, p. 20). This may help in gaining further knowledge of the full extent of crime in Britain, although this process also comes with its own limitations. The children may not be entirely accurate in their accounts, or fear what may happen to them after responding. The Crime Survey for England and Wales measures the extent of crime in England and Wales by asking people whether they have experienced any crime in the past year.  The survey has measured crime in this way since 1982 and is an important source of information for the government about the extent and nature of crime in England and Wales. It also aims to enquire information regarding the location and timing of crimes, the offenders characteristics and the relationship between victims and offenders (Office for National Statistics, 2012).    A separate survey (the Scottish Crime and Justice survey) measures the extent of crime in Scotland. The survey is conducted by TNS-BMRB on behalf of the Office for National Statistics. Evidence in support of this argument comes from The Home Office (2011) which stated: the BCS offers a more dependable measure of trends in crime as it has a consistent methodology and is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police, recording practice or police activityHowever, the BCS does not aim to provide an absolute count of crime in England and Wales, but to produce estimates of crimes experienced by adults aged 16 and over resident in households. (Home Office Statistical News Release: Crime in England and Wales, 2010/11). Therefore, the survey is not representative of the whole population of Britain and cannot be used to give an overview picture of crime, due to the nature of its sample. Moreover, the survey does not cover all offences such as homicide, fraud and drug offences. On the other hand, police recorded figures have a greater coverage of offences compared to those of the BCS. For example, homicide is not covered by the surveys. Sexual victimisation questions are asked in a separate form, and results are not included in the main total of crime collected by the BCS, due to their delicate nature (Home Office, 2011). Office for National Statistics, 2012): Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for the year ending June 2012 show a 6 per cent decrease in overall crime against adults compared with the previous years survey. This continues the downward trend in recorded crime, seen since 2004/05. (Ref 6, the Guardian) There were 9.1m reported crimes in 2011/12, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, but less than half as many 3.9m were recorded by the police. (Ref 13 Home Office, 2010/11, p. 15-16) Police recorded crime has been subject to major changes in recording practice over time, making interpretation of long-term trends for this series is difficult. The BCS and recorded crime provide generally good coverage of crime committed against the public, particularly for offences involving physical harm, loss or damage to property. Recorded crime is limited to those offences which come to the attention of the police, and is affected by changes to reporting rates, recording practice and police activity. Thus for the crime types and population it covers, the BCS is the best long-term measure of crime trends. However, the BCS is limited in its coverage to crimes against those residents in households and so cannot cover all crime types (for example, homicide, crimes against businesses and other organisations and drug possession). Crime is recorded according to the victims account of events, rather than requiring criminal intent to be proven. Th e BCS asks about individuals experience of crime, irrespective of what action was subsequently taken. For police recorded crime, the victim-focused approach is enshrined in the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS).The NCRS states that all incidents reported by a victim to the police should be recorded, if the events described amount to a crime in law and unless there is credible evidence to the contrary. The drop in crime since the mid-1990s is because of improved property and vehicle security, economic influences, social change, use of CCTV and other local crime reduction initiatives and changes in policing and the wider criminal justice system. Pg. 22: A range of non-notifiable crimes may be dealt with by the issuing of a Penalty Notice for Disorder, a Fixed Penalty Notice or prosecution at a magistrates court. Along with non-notifiable offences dealt with by the police (such as speeding), these include many offences that may be dealt with by other agencies for example, prose cutions by TV Licensing or by the DVLA for vehicle registration offences. These counts only relate to offences where action has been brought against an offender and guilt has either been ascertained in court, or the offender has admitted culpability through acceptance of a penalty notice. These crimes generally only come to light through the relevant authorities actively looking to identify offending behaviour. However, they do illustrate that, taking the broadest definition of crime, the main BCS and Recorded Crime statistics only cover a fraction of total criminal behaviour. Crime and society in Britain, Hazel Croall, 2011, p. 40: The role of victims and the public varies with the offence. Some maybe relatively invisible or the victim is totally unaware of any harm or actions regarded abnormal. For example the sexual abuse of children takes place in a private and children are often unaware that something is wrong. Some incidents such as theft at work may result in dismissal only and not involve criminal proceeding. Such incidents are therefore missed out in total crime accounted for by the police records and CSEW. Croall, 2011, Pg. 51: victim surveys use standard classifications of crime missing out white collar and financial crimes, the CSEW is based on households omitting organisations such as businesses, hospitals, schools and care homes, omitting young teenagers and kids, respondents definitions of crime are limited by their memory and restricted to crimes which they are aware of and miss out those they cannot detect themselves, the surveys capture s ingle incidents and underestimate the full extent of repeat victimisation. Pg. 52: self-report surveys that find out how many times the population have participated in criminal activity, provide more detail about the class, age sex or race of those that have admitted to offending. They are often used with young people and therefore provide extremely valuable information about participation in crime. However respondents, particularly children, may be afraid to answer properly as they fear parents might see their answers, or others may exaggerate, hence affecting the accuracy of responses given. These surveys have been restricted to young people making it harder to question other groups of people such as senior executive about embezzlement. Pg. 60: Muir 2010 found that crime has always been and remains higher in England and Wales than in Scotland and Northern Ireland having much lower levels of crime, using a comparison of crime surveys across the UK for 2008/9 figures. Pg. 61: Moreov er, Higgins and Millard 2009 argue that Wales which is generally combined with England has lower rates for most types than England. Tierney, 2006, Pg. 34: before 1992, the BCS used to survey households randomly chosen from electoral registers, however thereafter, the Postcode Address File was used. Pg. 35: Although the BCS provides large numbers of crime incidents not present in police recorded crime figures, this only applies to certain offence categories, rather than crime in general. Pg. 38-39: victim surveys just like police recorded crimes; do not pick up all criminal offences, such as for those under 16 years. Including corporate and organised plus occupational crimes; theft from businesses (shoplifting, insurance fraud), criminal damage, or crimes without victims, plus taxation and social security fraud. Victims may be scared, embarrassed or unaware they are victims. Pg. 41: according to class conflict theories, statistics provide an insight into the class based nature of the criminal justice system, as well as being manipulated to suit the interests of the powerful plus provide indicators of the inequalit ies and biases inherent in the system itself and in a capitalist society in general. Also one must consider the links between criminal activity, police clear up rates and various community-based initiatives. Tierney, 2006, Pg. 44: changes to counting rules in 1998 mainly affected violent crime and led to some previously less serious, non-notifiable assaults being categorised as notifiable. In 2002, police had to take victims account at face value, until proven otherwise, resulting in increasing the number of offences recorded. This is a further illustration of the socially constructed nature of criminal statistics. Pg. 20: Maguire 1994 suggests crime itself is a social contrast and statistics that relate to it are socially constructed. Croall, 2011, p. 42: the higher rates of reporting property crimes, especially car thefts, result from the requirements of insurance policies. Potential crimes come to the attention of police and other law enforcement agencies by being directly encountered or reported, with the majority being reported to the police by the public (Maguire 2007). Law enforcement decisions affect all subsequent stages when a crime is encountered or reported. Not all complaints are recorded, creating a distinction between offences reported to and recorded by the police. Offences may not be recorded because they are not regarded as sufficiently serious or defined as involving no crime (Coleman and Moynihan, 1996). Croall, 2011: Changes were made in police recording procedures following the introduction of the national crime recording standards (NCRS) in 2002. These have a major impact on the reliability of official statistics, especially as recording practices in different areas and jurisdictions may vary , complicating any comparisons. They also affect overall increases and decreases and changes can create apparent crime waves. Recorded crime series were affected by new counting rules from 1998 onwards and by the NCRS from 2002 onwards. Pg. 44:.most police forces are encouraged to be cost effective and as a result successive governments have introduced diversionary schemes where offences are dealt with out of court such as on-the-spot fines. This underlines the existence of an unknowable dark figure of crime which is never recorded in the official statistics. Therefore officially recorded crimes and convicted offenders are those that have survived the process of attrition and are not representative of all who break the criminal law. Pg. 45: crimes which are more visible and take place in public are more likely to be processed than those taking place in private. For example street crimes of young people are more likely to be counted than crimes of white collar offenders which take pl ace in the offices or crimes which take place in the home, further distorting the relationships between age, gender or social class and offending. Variations in the proportions of crimes counted means that it can rarely be said with any certainty that any particular kind of crime is rising or falling, as any apparent increases or decreases could merely represent a change in the proportion of crimes reported to or recorded by the agencies. Changes in police recording practices can create crime waves or alternatively reductions in crime. On the other hand, more policing can increase crime rates, by catching more and recording more crime. Home office, stats bulletin, 2010/11, Pg. 24: Together they provide a more comprehensive picture than could be obtained from either series alone. However, neither the BCS nor police recorded crime aim to provide complete counts of crime. The coverage of police recorded crime statistics is defined by the Notifiable Offence List1, which includes a broad range of offences, from murder to minor criminal damage, theft and public order offences. However, there are some, mainly less serious offences that are excluded from the recorded crime collection. These non-notifiable crimes include many incidents that might generally considered to be anti-social behaviour but that may also be crimes in law (including bye-laws) such as littering, begging and drunkenness. Other non-notifiable offences include driving under the influence of alcohol, parking offences and TV licence evasion. The survey also excludes some other offences for which it may not be possible to collect robust estimates of crime l evels (such as sexual offences). However, the BCS does capture other information about such offences. The BCS is a face-to-face victimisation survey in which people resident in households in England and Wales are asked about their experiences of crime in the 12 months prior to interview. Until recently the BCS did not cover crimes against those aged under 16, but since January 2009 interviews have been carried out with children aged 10 to 15. Experimental statistics for children are shown separately. Pg. 26: For the crime types and population it covers, the BCS provides a better reflection of the extent of household and personal crime than police recorded statistics because it includes crimes that are not reported to or recorded by the police. The BCS is also a better indicator of long-term trends because it is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or by police recording practices. Although the focus of ensuring comparability over time means that the BCS does no t include some relatively new crimes in its main crime count, such as plastic card fraud, these are asked about and presented. BCS estimates for 2010/11 are based on face-to-face interviews with 46,754 respondents. The BCS has a high response rate (76%) and the survey is weighted to adjust for possible non-response bias and to ensure the sample reflects the profile of the general population. Being based on a sample survey, BCS estimates are subject to a margin of error. Police recorded crime statistics are administrative data based on notifiable crimes that are reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales. Unlike the BCS, recorded crime includes crime against commercial and public sector bodies, and so-called victimless crimes (such as drug possession offences). Recorded crime figures provide a good measure of trends in well-reported crimes (in particular, homicide, which is not covered by the BCS), can be used for local crime pattern analysis and are important indicators of police workload. However, there are also categories of crime whose numbers are heavily influenced by the extent to which police proactively investigate. Police recording practice is governed by the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS). The NCRS was introduced nationally in April 2002 to ensure greater consistency and transparency of crime recording between forces, together with a victim focus where crimes reported by the public are recorded unless there is credible evidence to the contrary. Crime data are collected from police forces for each crime within the Notifiable Offence List and according to Home Office Counting Rules. Police recorded crime figures should be seen as a product of an administrative system where rules can be subject to different interpretation a nd, for some categories of crime, can reflect police workload and activity rather than underlying levels of crime. Pg. 27: While the coverage differs both in terms of offence types and population groups, property crime accounts for the majority of both BCS and recorded crime (77% and 70% respectively) with violence, including robbery, accounting for most of the remainder 23 per cent of BCS crime and 22 per cent of recorded crime. Pg. 17; the introduction of the NCRS in April 2002 considerably increased the recording of less serious violent crime by the police and figures are not directly comparable across this break in the series. Philip Schlesinger Howard Tumber, 1999, Pg. 7: new forms of crime have emerged: hard drug trafficking, terrorism and corporate fraud. Page 144: developments in police work such as computer use and forensic science, this allows for more crime to be detected. Newburn, 2012, the guardian: theft has become much more difficult.  Then there is surveillance. While the impact of CCTV is generally much less than one would imagine given how widespread it has become, it is effective in some areas and is an aid to the police and private security. There are now more police officers than there were 20 years ago. Add in  Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) security guards and the gradual re-emergence of other jobs with a partial safety and security focus (ticket inspectors, caretakers, park keepers and the rest) and you have a substantial expansion of the eyes and ears available for crime prevention. Home Office Statistical Bulletin, 2010/11: Pg 29-30: BCS crime fell markedly between 1995 and the 2004/05 BCS. Since 2004/05 the underlying trend in BCS crime has continued to be downward, although at a slower rate and with some fluctuation in year-to-year estimates. Recorded crime fell each year until 1998/99 when the expanded coverage and changes in the Counting Rules resulted in an increase in recorded offences; this was followed by the introduction of the NCRS in April 2002, although some forces adopted NCRS practices before the standard was formally introduced. The introduction of NCRS led to a rise in recording in 2002/03 and, particularly for less serious violent crime, in following years as forces continued to improve compliance with the new standard. From 2001/02 to 2003/04 there was considerable divergence in the trends for BCS and police recorded crime, mainly associated with police recording changes (which particularly influenced violence against the person). Since 2003/0 4, despite some fluctuations, trends have been more consistent between the two series.

Sex and Drugs Have Always Been in the Music Essays -- Exploratory Essa

It seems as if someone is always complaining about popular music on the market.   References to illegal drugs and sexual conduct are two of the most common complaints.   Adults claim that rock and roll stars are bad influences to children.   The lyrical content of songs and the examples set by musical idols are not suitable for minors.   Today's music, especially, tests the limits of good taste.   Objections to artists like Eminem, Lil' Kim, and Fred Durst are everyday occurrences, but what the judgmental public and media do not discuss is that these complaints are anything but new.   Songs by the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Doors have also been objects of this type of condemnation.   Even as far back as operas by Germany's Richard Wagner in the late 19th century, there exist examples of sexual behavior in music.   Perhaps these scornful antagonists should look into their own music collection before they burn their children's at the stake. The Beatles were English heartthrobs that took America by storm.   Songs like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," and "When I Saw You," were teenage girls' anthems. The Beatles were the picture of a good role model.   Who would imagine that these clean-cut boys with harmonious voices would sing about drugs in some of their later work?   It is well known that after a while some of the band began to abuse illegal drugs.   "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which was so well known that archeologists were naming findings after it, was actually a tribute to LSD.   "Hey Jude," which was publicized as a song written by Paul McCartney to John Lennon's oldest son Julian at the time of his father's remarriage, was rumored to actually be about heroin.   "The minute you let it under your skin, the... ...rence. Indianapolis, Indiana, 03-24-95, Presentation. Chappell, Kevin. "Ebony." Vol. 162, Issue 3, p.60, 6c. 01-98. Eminem. Slim Shady lp.1999. Gates, David. Woodstock Testival, 1969. "Newsweek." Vol.124, Issue 6, p.38, 12c, 4bw. 08-08-94. Hall, Dana. "Billboard." Vol.112, Issue 33, p.69, 3/5p, 2bw. 08-12-00 Holland, Bill. "Billboard." Vol.111, Issue 19, p.73, 2/5p. Innaurato, Albert: Levine, Joshua. "Forbes." Vol. 162, Issue 12, p.400, 1/3p, 1c. 11-30-98. Krenske, Leigh; McKay, Jim. Gender Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography. Vol. 7, Issue 3, p.287, 18p. 09-00. Mandel, Charles. Alberta Report."Newsmagazine." Vol. 25, Issue 22, p.28, 1p, 1bw. 05-18-98. Wilson, Janelle. "ETC: A View of General Semantics."   Vol. 57, Issue 3, p.290, 14p. Fall 2000. Wilson Quarterly. Vol. 19, Issue 1, p.148, 2p. Winter 1995.

Literary Analysis and Criticism of “The Tell-Tale Heart” Essay

Human beings have all experienced guilt, the consequence of committing a wrong, and the manipulation it has on decisions. In the short story â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart,† author Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates the theme that guilt is strong and has the power to overcome conscience; he uses characterization, the conflict, and symbolism to communicate this message. The characterization of the narrator most clearly shows this theme. In addition to Poe’s use of characterization, his decision to show the struggle the narrator endures with himself reveals the causes of the narrator to succumb to his guilt. The use of symbolism throughout the novel draws attention to the narrator’s guilt and his insanity. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† is told by a first-person narrator who tells of a story in hope of convincing the reader of his sanity though throughout the story, he shows the strong control his guilt has over him and his mind, and ultimately proves his insanity. The narrator describes his plot to kill an old man whom the narrator didn’t hate, but who he desired to kill due to the old man’s â€Å"Evil Eye† (Poe 1). The old man’s eye was pale blue and covered with a film. It gave the narrator chills in his blood. The narrator began his plot to commit the murder. He crept into the old man’s room every night at midnight for seven nights, but finding the eye closed as the old man slept, the narrator couldn’t bring himself to commit the deed. The narrator described himself as being â€Å"never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before† he killed him (Poe 1). On the eighth night, the old man awoke to the sound of the narrato r chuckling as he was in the process of entering the room. When the narrator opened a gap in the lantern, the ray of light revealed the vulture eye. The narrator began to hear a sound which he believed to be the old man’s heart beating, and as the beating grew louder, the narrator’s anxiety grew which led the narrator to commit the murder by pulling the mattress over the old man. The narrator dismembered the corpse and buried them under planks of the flooring of the old man’s bedroom. The police arrived at the house, a neighbor having heard the old man’s scream during the murder, and found nothing out of place in the house. While chatting with the police, the narrator began again hearing the beating of what he believed to be the old man’s heart. The beating grew louder and louder, and no longer to able bear the sound, the narrator confessed to the police of committing the deed. The characterization of the narrator made the narrator’s insanity and sense of guilt vastly palpable. The narrator of the st ory is a first-person unreliable narrator as he is surmounted with insanity, and the reader is unable to know how much of the story the narrator tells is true. The characterization of the narrator helps prove his madness as well as his guilt, leading to his confession. He â€Å"strongly believes in the need for making methodical and calculated decisions but is eventually overcome by inexplicable psychological forces that stem from his irrational, unstable nature† (Historical Context 1). The narrator is spiraling into folly as he recounts the story of committing the murder of an old man. He begins the story saying that he is â€Å"VERY, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?† (Poe 1). The narrator admits to being nervous while committing the murder and now in the present. He doesn’t believe himself to be a madman as he tries to convince the reader of this by describing his reasons for murdering the old man and his precise and cautious steps he took throughout the murder. He explains being extremely kind to the old man as to trick him into never suspecting the murder. His precise plans included his slow and careful steps to enter the old man’s bedroom each night for eight nights before committing the murder without disturbing the old man in his sleep and the steps he took to conceal the corpse by accurately dismembering the body and hiding the parts under the floor board so as â€Å"that no human eye—not even his—could have detected any thing wrong† (Poe 2). The narrator’s reasons for killing the old man provide as much trivial proof of his sanity as his precautions do. The narrator â€Å"has no rational reason for wanting to kill the old man† (Chua 1). He declares to have desired to kill the old man as to rid himself of the old man’s vulture eye. The description of the old man’s eye as that of a vulture is the narrator’s attempt to defend his actions by comparing himself to a vulnerable being defenseless to an unsightly scavenger. The narrator claims, â€Å"Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!† (Poe 1). The narrator declares love for the old man whom he brutally murdered and dismembered, chuckling at his cleverness in doing so. In an effort to divide the person of the old man from the old man’s allegedly evil eye, which prompts the narrator’s hatred, the narrator discloses his insanity. This delusional partition allows the narrator to be oblivious to the irony of claiming to have loved his victim. The first-person narration of the story helps reveal the narrator’s mental illness to the reader. â€Å"The particular standpoint from which the ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ is told provides the reader with insight into the major character’s motivation in carrying out the murder and in telling us about it† (Moore 1). The narrator speaks of â€Å"mortal terror† that the narrator says many nights at midnight â€Å"has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me† (Poe 1). â€Å"The reason for the crime lies exclusively in the narrator’s disturbed mind† (Moore 1). The narrator’s explanation of the murder reveals that he heard the beating of a heart, what he believed to be the old man’s heart. This beating heart twice caused him to act irrationally during the story as his actions were in hope of stopping the sound of the beating heart: it caused the narrator to finally commit the murder and it caused him to confess to the police. This shows his guilt he feels for killing the innocent old man as he confesses to the murder though he had clearly gotten away with it, as did his nervousness that he conveys that he is overcome with throughout the story. The conflict of the story helps to reveal the strong prevalence of guilt experienced by the narrator. The main conflict of the story is an inner conflict, character vs. himself, as the narrator struggles with his own disturbed mind. The narrator, after deciding to murder the old man due to his vulture eye, experiences the forceful sound of a heart beat. His struggles with himself cause him to kill the old man whom he loved. The narrator in the beginning of the story confesses to the reader that he suffers from a â€Å"disease† that apparently â€Å"sharpened† his senses, specifically his sense of hearing acute (Poe 1), in an attempt to rationally explain why he believed he heard the old man’s heart beating. The narrator attempts to fight his conscience while experiencing this sound, specifically when he tries not to confess the murder to the police and reveal the secret location of the corpse. The murder of the innocent old man causes the narrator to feel guilt such that he ends up confessing the deed in the end. A minor conflict is the conflict of the narrator vs. the eye which causes him to commit the deed in the first place. The vulture-like eye gives the narrator’s blood chills and vexed him so that he had to be rid of it. The narrator acts as a helpless creature to the powers of the eye. The narrator, in hatred of the eye, thus conceived the plan to murder the old man so he would never again be disturbed by the eye. Symbolism is ever so dominant in â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart.† The most apparent symbol in the short story is the sound of the beating heart. The narrator believes the sound is the old man’s beating heart brought on by his nervousness on the eighth night and heard by the narrator due to his â€Å"disease.† The sound of the beating heart represents the guilt and remorse the narrator feels for committing the deed as it causes him to confess the deed to the police. The narrator’s growing agitation to the intensifying sound causes him to confess as he can no longer bear the sound, revealing his guilt. The narrator had clearly gotten away without suspicion of the police with the deed, but in the end, he was his own worst enemy as he admitted himself as the murderer. Another obvious symbol is the vulture eye of the old man. The narrator possesses the idea that an old man is staring at him with the Evil Eye and placing a curse on him as he gets chills in his blood. The narrator also obsesses over the eye as he desires to separate it from the old man as to spare the man from his aggressive response to the eye. The narrator reveals his incapability to distinguish that the â€Å"eye† is the â€Å"I,† or identity, of the old man (Chua 1). The eyes represent the spirit of human identity, which can’t be alienated from the body. The eye can’t be destroyed without bringing about the old man’s death. The watch that the narrator speaks of symbolizes time and the narrator’s obsession with time. Time is a very important factor in the story as it controls the narrator’s every move. The narrator routinely entered the old man’s room at midnight and described his actions as moving slower than the minute hand of the watch (Poe 1). The lantern that the narrator uses in his nightly routine in the old man’s bedroom represents the narrator’s hatred for the eye. The narrator sees the old man sleeping and with the eye closed, he’s unable to commit the murder. On the eighth night, the ray of light from the lantern reveals the Evil Eye, which is the narrator’s enemy, and sets off the narrator’s delusional hatred for the vulture eye, making him able to kill the old man. The theme of the story is that guilt is a powerful emotion that can cause one to succumb to their guilt, in this case, the narrator. All the carefully planned elements of the story work to create an overall unity, from the narrator’s denial of his insanity to his confession, the delusional conflict of the narrator, and the abundance of symbolism throughout the story. The heart symbolizes the narrator’s guilt and causes him to confess to the police. Even when no one knows one committed a bad deed, that person themselves knows of the deed, so they will have to live with the guilt and the consequences of their actions, or succumb to their guilt and confess. Works Cited Chua, John. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart: The Twin and the Doppelganger.† Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 15 December 2009. . Moore, R. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart: The First-Person Narrative Viewpoint in the ‘Tell-Tale Heart.’† eNotes: The Tell-Tale Heart. Ed. Penny Satoris. Seattle: Enotes.com Inc, October 2002. eNotes.com. 15 December 2010. . Poe, Edgar Allan. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart.† 2009 eNotes.com, Inc. Web. 15 December 2009. â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart: Historical Context.† Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 15 December 2009. .

Behavior Therapy in a Multicultural Setting

Behavioral approach is based on the principle of explaining one’s behavior through observation. Through observation an individual is able to mimic the behaviors of others – a process more commonly known as learning. It is further believed that behavior is affected by our environment. Since behavior is learned, it can also be unlearned. This is one of the benefits of the behavioral approach.Therefore, behavior which is harmful to the society or runs against socially accepted norms may still be unlearned. As for behavior which serves to improve the state of the person, such behavior can be enhanced.The process of learning and changing a person’s environment are strong tools of behavioral therapists enabling them to address the particular needs of their clients. There are four major aspects of behavior therapy – (1) classical conditioning, (2) operant conditioning, (3) social learning theory, and (4) cognitive behavior therapy. Classical conditioning is the u se of significant associations to moderate behavior. Operant conditioning is the use of consequences to alter the condition and form of behavior. Cognitive behavior therapy is based on altering mental processes and behaviors, with the aim of influencing disturbed emotions.These can be applied in the work because these methods are not culture-specific. In a culturally diverse population, all except the social learning approach can be used for counseling. Social learning theory gives prominence to the reciprocal interactions between an individual’s behavior and the environment. This theory requires that individuals mimic observed actions after undergoing a process of understanding and internalizing the observed behavior. Since people coming from different cultures are exposed to different kinds of accepted behaviors, their internalization and understanding of social norms are also different.When counseling multi-racial individuals therefore, a view as to the particular culture from which the individuals came from must be taken. References Dayan, P. , Kakade, S. , & Montague, P. R. (2000). Learning and selective attention. Nature Neuroscience 3, 1218 – 1223. Kirsch, I. , Lynn, S. J. , Vigorito, M. & Miller, R. R. (2004). The role of cognition in classical and operant conditioning. Journal of Clinical Psychology 60, 369 – 392. McSweeney, F. K. , Hinson, J. M, & Cannon, C. B. (1996). Sensitization-habituation may occur during op