Organised Crime and the Criminal Justice Process

Organised Crime and the Criminal Justice Process This essay will begin with a brief outline of the historical work of organised crime. Then the definition of organised crime will be given with examples of areas associated with organised crime. The Criminal Justice Process will then be explained and the role of the Serious Organised Crime Agency including the Assets Recovery Agency with statistics showing the economic and social impact of organised crime. Finally a brief outline of Cohen’s view of organised crime will be given and the role of the victims of crime as key players in the Criminal Justice Process and ending with Box’s clues to understand most serious crimes. According to King et al; (2000) â€Å"the battle over the origins of organized crime is one being constantly fought, and historians have utilized archive data, such as police and judicial reports, economic evidence, pamphlets, diaries and biographies, to disinter the professional and organized criminal†. Furthermore, King et al; (2000) states that â€Å"organised crime seems to have been a feature of British society from Elizabethan times onwards and British studies of professional criminals, some of them displaying elements of organization, indicate a wide range of activities†. However, by the eighteenth century professional and organized criminal gangs, armed with a variety of criminal strategies from petty theft and violence to fraud, were firmly established in Britain (King et al; 2000). Criminals not only established their activities in London where the market place was most affluent and the control of the emerging working class was at its most ineffective, but also in coastal, rural and provincial areas (King et al; 2000). The definition of Organised crime is broadly seen as economically motivated offending which involves more than two people (Hale et al; 2005). Furthermore, Hale et al; (2005) suggests that â€Å"unlike legally defined crimes or predicate offences such as murder, drug trafficking and money laundering, organised crime tends to be confined to its structures and relationships and the general nature of crimes committed by such associations†. According to Hale et al; (2005) Article 2 of the ‘United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime’ states that an â€Å"organised criminal group must have at least three members operating in concert to commit a serious crime as part of an internally structured organization which has been in existence over a period of time preceding and subsequent to the commission of the criminal act†. Whilst such a definition provides a general framework of understanding, it can in practice undermine effective law enforcement responses (Hale et al; 2005). An organised crime group can include anything from a four person, low level racketeering group to a highly complex, international networks involved in human trafficking or money laundering (Hale et al; 2005). Get help with your essay from our expert essay writers Furthermore according to Marshall, (1998) â€Å"organised crime is a term used for situations where a large number of people in a hierarchical structure are engaged in an on-going pattern of criminal activities†. The most common areas associated with organised crime are extortion and the provision of illegal goods and services, such as drink, drugs, gambling, money laundering and prostitution (Marshall, 1998). According to Marshall, (1998) â€Å"these activities involve continuous relations with the victims or clients, who have contact with the lower echelons of the organization†. In order to succeed organised or syndicate crime involves some element of corruption or intimidation of the police or other law enforcement agents (Marshall, 1998). Marshall, (1998) suggests that â€Å"organised crime is often thought to be synonymous with a secret society, such as the Tongs of the Chinese diaspora, the Camorra of the nineteenth century Naples and the Mafia of Sicily and Costa Nostra in the United States†. Although, according to Marshall, (1998) â€Å"it seems more likely that if such societies exist at all, they do not actually run criminal activities, but rather act as a fraternal organisations for some of the racketeers†. On the other hand, according to Marshall, (1998) â€Å"organised crime is associated with violence and threats in the course of extortion, but also in the maintenance of control over subordinates, and struggles for power within groups and the struggles for monopoly control between groups†. Furthermore, Hale et al; (2005) points out that â€Å"organised crime can be argued as primarily a reactive phenomenon, exploiting gaps in a diverse and lucrative market†. Also according to Hale et al; (2005) â€Å"Its clientele are, for the most part, ‘ordinary’ folk who seek, alternative routes to satisfying needs unmet or proscribed by the legislatures of the countries they inhabit or pass through†. However, according to Hale et al; (2005) â€Å"In many cases clients are also victims, obliged or enticed into cooperation, as in the trafficking of women and children and in areas of economic decline and acute social inequality organised crime can provide alternative employment and a reinstatement of status, a situation currently common in former communist states†. According to Kelbie, (2007) â€Å"Human trafficking is a growing trade and it is estimated that around 700,000 people are trafficked in Europe every year, and most of them are women and girls who are forced into prostitution, while others are brought in to work illegally†. Furthermore, Kelbie, (2007) estimates â€Å"that 4,000 women are trafficked into Britain each year and are forced to work in the multi-million pound sex industry†. As more numbers of Eastern European and African Girls are trafficked into Britain, some as young as 12 years old, the traffickers are shifting their trade outside major cities (Kelbie, 2007). Consequently, as a result of this growing trade in Human Trafficking, Glasgow is the only city outside London to provide help and support to victims of sexual exploitation (Kelbie, 2007). Furthermore, according to Kelbie, (2007) â€Å"the city’s organised sex industry is worth approximately 7 million pounds a year, earned from the exploitation of women who are forced to work in saunas, private flats and as escorts†. The women forced to work in these places are regularly sold and re-sold between organised criminals operating in all of Britain’s major cities (Kelbie, 2007). Meanwhile, there are millions of incidences of online crime in Britain each year (Sharp, 2007). Furthermore, according to Sharp, (2007) â€Å"around 3 million internet crimes were committed in the UK last year and one of the most common is identity theft†. In 2004, two people were arrested in connection with an internet crime ring, the Shadow Crew, who planned to defraud consumers and banks out of hundreds of millions dollars (Sharp, 2007). British organised crime has it’s ‘families’ modelled along the lines of Mafia families in the United States. One of the most powerful recent criminal families has been the Arifs from Stockwell, in South London. They were involved in armed robberies and drug smuggling in the 1980s, and also owned a string of pubs, restaurant and clubs, and it is certain that these establishments were bought from the proceeds of their criminal activities (Giddens, 1977). According to Giddens, (1977) â€Å"Bekir Arif was jailed for five years at the end of the 1980s after being convicted of robbery with violence, and the reign of the Arifs ended in the early 1990s, following a series of police operations†. The head of the family, Dogan Arif is currently serving a fourteen year prison sentence for his part in a  £8.5 million drug smuggling deal (Giddens, 1977). In order to regulate and manage the risks that organised crime presents, investigation and law enforcement play important roles in bringing offenders to justice. According to Davies et al; (1998) â€Å"in exploring what a criminal justice aims to do, we need to distinguish between the goals of the system as a whole, and the functions of the different agencies who make up the system†. The cross-system goals of the criminal justice system according to Davies et al; (1998) are â€Å"protecting the public by preventing and deterring crime, by rehabilitating offenders and incapacitating others who constitute a persistent threat to the community, upholding and promoting the rule of law and respect for the law, by ensuring due process and proper treatment of suspects, arrestees, defendants and those held in custody, successfully prosecuting criminals and acquitting innocent people accused of crime†. Furthermore, â€Å"maintaining law and order, punishing criminals with regard to the principles of just deserts, and registering social disapproval of censured behaviour by punishing criminals, and finally aiding and advising the victims of crime†(Davies et al; 1998). The ‘National Crime Squad’ was put into effect by the Police Act 1997 and came into operation on the 1st April 1998 (Newburn, 2003). Furthermore, it merged with all regional crime squads. They targeted serious and organised crime, such as immigration crime, illegal arms and drug trafficking crimes and money laundering and counterfeiting (Davies et al; 2005). Following the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, the Serious Organised Crime Agency was created and the agency officially came into being in April 2006, and its function was to tackle the growing problem of international criminal gangs. (Home Office, 2008). The agency was formed from the amalgamation of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the investigative and intelligence sections of HM Revenue and Customs on serious drugs trafficking and the UK Immigration Service responsible for organised immigration crime (Home Office, 2008). The Serious Fraud Office continues to be a separate agency. According to the (Home Office, 2008) â€Å"the economic and social impact of organised crime in the UK is staggering and statistics show that global profits from people smuggling is estimated to be $10 billion annually, 280,000 problem drug users cause half of all crime, every  £1 spent on heroin is estimated to generate about  £4 of damage to the national economy and there are around 400 organised crime bosses in the UK with an amassed criminal wealth of approximately  £440 million†. The economic and social cost of organised crime is estimated to be in the region of  £20 to  £40 billion per year (Home Office, 2008). Furthermore, the Home Office, (2004) strategic plan for Criminal Justice 2004-2008 was â€Å"the criminal justice process will relentlessly target the top 15-20 prolific offenders in each Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area, and more in bigger areas, and give the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the |Serious Organised Crime Agency the powers they need to take on the most serious and organised criminals†. Also, the police, Crown Prosecution Service, courts and other agencies like the Serious Organised Crime Agency would be able to keep at least 50% of the value of all the criminal assets they help to seize (Home Office, 2004). The recovery of criminal assets would be the role of the Assets Recovery Agency which was set up under the Proceeds of Crime act 2002 and plays an important part in the government’s plans to seize the profit out of crime, and separate and prevent the criminal organizations from continuing with their activities by removing the money which motivates their activities and their major source of income (Assets Recovery Agency, 2008). Meanwhile, the (Assets Recovery Agency, 2008) has three strategic aims â€Å"to disrupt organised criminal enterprises through the recovery of criminal assets, thereby alleviating the effect of crime on communities, to promote the use of financial investigation as an integral part of criminal investigation, within and outside the Agency, domestically and internationally, through training and continuing professional development and to operate the agency in accordance with its vision and values†. As, the Assets Recovery Agency was formed to stop organised criminal activities through the recovery of assets, on the 16th January 2007, the government introduced the Serious Crime Bill to Parliament setting out their suggestion to amalgamate the operational elements of the Assets Recovery Agency with the Serious Organised Crime Agency, and the Agency’s training and accreditation function with the National Policing Improvement Agency (Assets Recovery Agency, 2008). On the 1st April 2008 the operational section of the Assets Recovery Agency merged with the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Commenting on the merger Hughes, of SOCA, (2008) said â€Å"we are gaining important skills and expertise with the arrival of Assets Recovery Agency staff and we welcome them into SOCA. Now that the merger has taken place we will get on with the job that parliament want us to do, namely depriving crooks of their ill-gotten gains†. However, the Home Office minister Coaker, of SOCA, (2008) said that â€Å"assets recovery is critical in the fight against all levels of crime and we are determined to stop criminals profiting from crimes which affect the lives of law abiding majority†. Meanwhile, Goggins, SOCA, (2008) said â€Å"this merger will strengthen the fight against crime in Northern Ireland as it combines the intelligence expertise of SOCA with the hands on practical experience of ARA. This combination will make the recovery of assets even more effective and strengthen our fight against those who profit from organised crime†. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 on 17th January 2008 the Asset Recovery Agency recovered assets worth at least  £4 million from the High Court in Belfast. Also, on 5th February 2008 the agency obtained a Civil Recovery Order in the High Court in London worth an estimated  £750,000 from a couple who had obtained the assets through the human trafficking of people, mainly from Eastern Europe into Britain to work in brothels (Assets Recovery Agency, 2008). According to the Home Office, (2008) â€Å"the Serious Organised Crime Agency Second Annual Report showed another record year in the war against drugs with almost 90 tonnes of class A drugs seized with partners at home and abroad, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year. The cocaine alone, cut to usual UK street quality, could have realised  £6bn†. Furthermore, according to the Home Office, (2008) â€Å"53 disclosure notices, requiring individuals to co-operate with investigations by producing documents or answering questions, and 46 warnings on crime threats issued to over 2,500 private sector organisations throughout the UK. Meanwhile, the Home office, (2008) quotes â€Å"over  £46m criminal assets restrained by the domestic courts†. All SOCA operations now include financial investigations with an additional 35 financial investigators appointed during 2007/2008. According to Wright, (2006) â€Å"For Cohen, it is necessary to map the interactions, processes and patterned relationships both within and outside organisations in a more holistic way. It is necessary to establish the social context of the criminal activities of ‘organised criminals’, as well as the structure of their associations†. Furthermore, for Wright, (2006) â€Å"Cohen points out that criminology has done little work on the nature of organisational processes in crime groups. It has overlooked such things as recruitment, socialisation of members within organisations, and the way in which subcultures are developed and maintained. It has also to a large extent ignored such things as the protection and insulation of participants from the impact of conventional moral definitions†. For Cohen, according to Wright, (2006) â€Å"criminal groups should be subject to assessment of their internal structures and to analysis of all societal activity as it bears upon the production of their criminal behaviour. It is necessary to show that the functional problems of human systems take a distinctive form in criminal enterprise and that this distinctiveness provides a justification for the specialised study of criminal organisation†. Victims of crime are now recognised as key players in the Criminal Justice Process. According to Zedner, (2002) â€Å"without the cooperation of the victim in reporting crime, furnishing evidence, identifying the offender, and acting as a witness in court, most crimes would remain unknown and unpunished. The reliance of the Criminal Justice System on the victim has proved to be a powerful bargaining tool in the recognition of the victims’ interests†. The Victims Charter was first published by the Home Office in 1990 and at the time signified an important way forward in the recognition of victims’ interests, though it had been criticized for offering little by way of enforceable standards (Zedner, 2002). The clues to understanding most serious crimes according to Box, (1983) â€Å"can be located in power, not weakness, in privilege, not disadvantage, in wealth, not poverty†. In conclusion, since the launch of the Serious Organised Crime Agency in April 2006 and the merging of the Assets Recovery Agency in April 2008, the Criminal Justice process in dealing with serious organised crime has had a huge impact on criminal gangs operating within the UK, with the recovery of their assets from their criminal activities and to make it harder for them to continue in their criminal ways. BIBLIOGRAPHY Assets Recovery Agency, (2008), â€Å"Making Sure Crime Doesn’t Pay†. Available at: http://www.assetsrecovery.gov.uk http://www.assetsrecovery.gov.uk/AboutARA/AimsandObjectives/ http://www.assetsrecovery.gov.uk/AboutARA/History/ Box, S. (1983), Power, Crime and Mystification, Tavistock Publications, London. Davies, M; Croall, H. and Tyrer, J. (1998), Criminal Justice: An Introduction to the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales, (2nd Edition), Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow, Essex. Davies, M; Croall, H. and Tyrer, J. (2005), Criminal Justice: An Introduction to the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales, (3rd Edition), Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow, Essex. Giddens, A. (1997), Sociology, Polity Press, Cambridge. Hale, C; Hayward, K; Wahidin, A. and Wincup, E. (2005), Criminology, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Home Office, (2004), Cutting Crime, Delivering Justice: A Strategic Plan for Criminal Justice 2004-08. Home Office, London. Home Office, (2008), â€Å"Organised and International Crime†. Available at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/organised-crime/ Kelbie, P. (2007) â€Å"Kirk acts on human trafficking in Scotland†. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/may/20/humanrights.internationalcrime/print King, D.R; and Wincup, E. (2000), Doing Research on Crime and Justice, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Marshall, G. (1998), Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Newburn, T. (2003), Crime and Criminal Justice Policy, Harlow, Pearson. News Distribution Service, (2008), Home Office (National), â€Å"Tackling serious organised crime in new and different ways†. Available at: http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID=367603NewsAreaID=2Navig.. Proceeds of Crime Update, (2008). Available at: http://www.assetsrecovery.gov.uk/MediaCentre/ProceedsOfCrimeUpdate/2008/ Serious Organised Crime Agency, (2008), â€Å"Merger of SOCA and ARA strengthens Government drive to deprive criminals of their assets†. Available at: http://www.soca.gov.uk Sharp, R. (2007), â€Å"Cybercrime†: Uncovered. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/cybercrime-uncove Wright, A. (2006), Organised Crime, William Publishing, Devon. Zedner, L. (2002), ‘Victims’, in M. Maguire; R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds), The |Oxford Handbook of Criminology (3rd edition), Oxford University Press.

Defense Mechanisms Unruly Id and Neddy Essay example -- Essays Papers

Defense Mechanisms Unruly Id and Neddy The Swimmer The idea of the human mind being composed of both a conscious and unconscious has been around for quite some time. Not until Sigmund Freud elaborated on these structures though were the ideas so popular and accepted. Freud described our conscious mind as what we are aware of in any present situation including our thoughts, ideas and perceptions. Freud also introduced us to the idea of the preconscious mind, which is closely related to the conscious in that it holds thoughts and ideas that are easily available to be brought to the conscious. The most important aspect of the mind, as Freud would tell us, is that of the unconscious realm that holds information not readily available to us. It is proposed that much of the information in the unconscious is stored there because we cannot bear to think about it. Closely related to the conscious, preconscious and unconscious minds are structures Freud believes determine our behavior: the id, ego, and superego. When reading a piece o f literature the main focus is almost always on the characters. We try to understand their thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and drives. In The Swimmer, John Cheever forces us to ask ourselves what it is that compels Neddy to push himself beyond his limits and forget such critical aspects of his life. By analyzing Neddy’s id, ego, and superego, we begin to see a clearer picture of what drives his strange behavior. The id, located in the unconscious, is thought to be the primitive part of our psyche and the source of our motivations that drive us to fulfill our needs immediately. Freud believed that the id consisted of two parts: one driven by the life instinct, or pleasure principle, and the other driven by the death instinct. The life instinct promotes life of the individual and species by motivating him to eat and procreate. The death instinct refers to our desires to be still, at peace, and have no more needs. This instinct manifests itself by alcohol and drug abuse, getting lost in a book, craving sleep, or sometimes as seriously as suicide. Throughout the whole story of The Swimmer, we are constantly asking the question â€Å"why?† We first wonder why Neddy is pushing himself to the point of exhaustion while undertaking this journey, then we begin to wonder what it is that happened to Neddy and his family,... ...his family were probably too much for him to think about. This more than likely led to the unconscious repression of the event, person, or situation. The repression of these things into his unconscious is why he cannot recall anything relating to the situation. After first reading The Swimmer, I was confused as to why Neddy was behaving as he did. After applying Freud’s theories of different levels of consciousness and the id, ego and superego, we start to see a clearer picture of this disturbed individual. Neddy’s problems run far deeper than houses, money, or work related problems. His inability to cope with reality and its stressors is more troubling than any material possessions that he may be lacking. Neddy’s out of control id combined with his overwhelmed ego and resulting abuse of defense mechanisms seem to be at the route of his problem. Neddy’s ego has done a wonderful job of totally distorting his reality in an attempt to reduce stress. I think at at least one time in our lives we have all wanted to forget about some horrible, embarrassing, or troublesome event. The story of The Swimmer allows us ponder if this â€Å"easy way out† is really so easy after all.

How the Colonization Era affected Authors Essay -- English Literature

How the Colonization Era affected Authors The atmosphere of which a writer adapts to affects his/her works. The writer's environment, and the churnings of history that feed the writer, gives him the material whereby he can construct, and create in. History, in this instance the colonization of the American continent, dictates what and how he is to write. Authors such as John Smith, William Bradford, and St. Jean de Crevecoeur are all examples of this. The atmosphere or society these authors were in directly affected the attitude, tone, genre, etc. of their works. This can be shown both by facts in history and their actual writings of that period. During the 17th century Pilgrims, which were a group of Separatist Puritans, disliked being in England and wanted to go to America for the right to practice their religion freely (and in 1620 they received a patent from Virginia which allowed them to settle in New England aboard the Mayflower). In 1606, King James I granted a charter authorizing overlapping grants of land in Virginia to two separate joint-stock companies, one based in London and the other in Plymouth. Captain John Smith planned to conquer New England's "goodly, strong, and well-proportioned (Indian) people" and establish an English colony there. He then led the Virginia Company of London to successfully establishing the colony. His work The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles told about his colonization process and explorations, as he described America as a utopian society. As mentioned in his work, Smith maintained satisfactory relations with the Indians, as shown by his letter to Queen Anne when he says "That some ten years ago being in Virginia, and taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan their chief King, I received from this great savage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his son Nantaquaus. . . .And his sister Pocahontas, the King's most dear and well-beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart, of my desperate estate, gave me much cause to respect her. . . ." Smith prevented Virginia from disintegrating. This is shown in his piece, as he tries hard to persuade people to come to America as shown by his statement "And surely by reason of those sandy cliffs, and cliffs of rocks . . . . who can but approve this a most excellent place, bo... ...erican slaves were worked very hard (many times they were worked to death). They were treated brutally and unfairly. Slavery was the biggest factor in economic prosperity because they cultivated the cash crops. The independence of the colonies was gained when, after a colonial conflict in reaction to British taxes like the Tea Act, the second continental congress declared independence and wrote the Declaration of Independence. Thus all of these events leading to the colonization of America influenced writing during, and after, that time period. The works of Smith, Bradford, and de Crevecoeur serve as a basis for future writings on the history of colonization. The atmosphere created in these works is reflected by the society during that time. That's why the environment an author is in so greatly affects his/her pieces of literature. For example, Smith might not be able to write many of the things he did in his work in today's time because today's society might oppose or disdain some of his ideas or his stylistic approach to his conclusions. Therefore, the society or setting present at a specific time is indicative of pieces of literature, as in the colonization of America.

Winter Moon :: essays research papers

Critique of Winter Moon In Winter Moon by Dean Koontz a cloudy Los Angeles, California day is shattered when a hot Hollywood director turns a city street into a fiery abyss. A heroic police officer, Jack McGarvey, is badly wounded in the inferno and will not be able to walk for months. Little does Jack know that a series of events will lead him and his family to a ranch in Montana. On that isolated ranch they discover their destiny in a horrific encounter with a ruthless and puzzling enemy from which neither the living nor dead are safe. Koontz’s novels seem to have one thing in common. Their themes are about how the human mind and spirit relate to things in life. He doesn’t stray from that commonality in Winter Moon. Koontz’s purpose in writing the book was to show that the power of the mind is yet an unmatched force. Both my mother and I agree that he accomplished this very well. His use of characters also fits a pattern that has developed in his writing. Koontz uses the same two characters in many of his novels: the heroic, faithful male and the strong female. Koontz’s employment of indirect characterization is impeccable, and makes the reader feel as though they really know the characters. At the beginning, the book can seem confusing, whereas Koontz jumps back and forth from character to character. I feel that after the reader has become accustomed to it, the switching between characters creates good stopping points. However, my mom found it annoying and didn’t like the switching. Koontz explodes into action during the first chapter, which grips the reader and holds their attention throughout the rest of the book. The novel starts out as two separate stories: a police officer’s family living in L.A. and an old retired man living in Montana. As the book progresses the two stories become more connected, and finally intertwined. The book can seem confusing at the start. However, the confusion of the reader is used by Koontz to make the ending more intense. Koontz certainly unleashes his vivid imagination in this novel, whereas some of the details and occurrences can leave a weak stomached reader feeling nauseous. My mom said that she couldn’t sleep after reading one of the more disturbing sequences of events. The setting of Winter Moon occurs in two different places. Two places that are complete opposites: Los Angeles, California and a ranch in Montana.

Free College Essay

I personally don’t believe that college should be free. Making it free would only serve to limit the value of the education while filling colleges with students that have no business/need there. College would become nothing more than a 4 year extension of high school if it were free. As things are now, society needs about 25% of the population to have a college degree for the jobs that require one and about 30% of the population has a degree. As a result, you hear from a lot of people that believe that they wasted time getting the degree because it’s not serving them as an employment enhancer. Further, nothing is truly free. Were college free to all students, someone would still have to pay those bills. Public education is already the single largest expense of non-federal governments and a huge part of the federal expense. Increasing the scope of free public education would also significantly increase the costs involved – those costs must be borne by someone. So, you either pay for it now as tuition or you pay for it for the rest of your life in the form of taxes but either way, you’ll pay for it. And then there’s the very valid point that all people aren’t really â€Å"above average† in intellect and therefor all people aren’t capable of attending and graduating from college. Our society would like to pretend that everyone is equal in motivation and intelligence but we know that’s not really true. Don’t we? What would be the result in terms of quality if we made college completely free to anyone? Add to that problem – costs keep some people from attending. This is only bad in-as-much as it limits those individuals personally. But it’s just that barrier that makes it possible for others to attend – college seats are not an unlimited resource of which we have plenty. There are only so many colleges with so many seats and more people would like to have those seats than can. If we removed the cost barrier then the competition for seats would be even greater and we’d still not have solved the problem of universal higher education. We’d need to have as many colleges as we have high schools to truly solve that problem. Then we’d need as many professors to teach in them in. Just a few of the arguments against your position that you might want to prepare to counter in your essay. There are many people that believe the compulsory secondary school education movement (‘create 100% HS graduates†) was a mistake too. While being well educated is very good at the individual level – society still needs people to do jobs that those who keep gaining more education simply don’t want to do.

Evil Inside

Answer each question in a complete sentence. Include textual evidence to support 6 answers. 1. Summarize the plot of the opera, â€Å"Madame Butterfly,† in your own words. Why would Moore include an Depigraph that quotes this opera? In Madame Butterfly the plot of the opera is that a birth mother loses her a child an adoptive mother who later on loses the baby. The whole time Suzuki, the servant, witnesses everything, but can do nothing to help. Moore quoted this opera in the epigraph because much in Madame Butterfly where Suzuki is very relied by Madame Butterfly to do basically everything for her.This is Just like how Sarah relies on Tassie to do everything for her, such as raising Emmie. 2. What do the three epigraphs fit together? Or contrast with each other? The first two epigraphs fit together because they both relate to the subject of servants and both are related to Madame Butterfly. The first two contrast to the third because if you're a servant then you don't see the world from the same point of view as someone that you're a servant for. 3. In addition to her sense of humor and intelligence, what are Tassie's strengths as a narrator? How does Owhat she describes as â€Å"an unseemly collection of Jostling former elves† (p. 3) affect the narrative and Ocontribute to the appeal of her tale? In addition to Tassie's sense of humor and intelligence, her other strengths as a narrator are that she describes everything in great detail such as â€Å"Though the interior of the casket was quilted white, like a beautiful suitcase, what I could see of my brother looked like garbage tossed inside† (Moore 298-299). When Tassie describes herself as â€Å"an unseemly collection of Jostling former selves†, it affects the narrative because she was playing a different role and had a different personality in Troy and Dellacrosse.When she is in Troy she is playing the role of a servant for the Thornwood-Brink family. While in Dellacrosse she's p laying the role of an average college girl, not ready to grow up. She's basically living a double life. 4. How does the initial meeting between Tassie and Sarah create a real, if hesitant, connection Obetween them? What aspects of their personalities come out in their conversation? Tassie and Sarah's first meeting created a hesitant connection between them because they didn't know each other at all and because of this, they did not understand each other's sense of humor and couldn't talk to each other ithout it being awkward.Sarah seemed to bring up everything they could ever talk about except for why they were adopting a child and any other aspects of it. Many aspects of their personalities came through in their conversation. One of the aspects was that they were both extremely talkative, but they both werent using they talkativeness in an appropriate manor for the situation. They couldn't stay on topic at all during their conversation. Another aspect that came out was that Sarah w as overall very proud of her wealth and what she has done.She didn't seem too modest or humble. This showed especially when Sarah randomly said in a conversation â€Å"‘l ou n'† (Moore 1) wltnout even Delng asked. DescrlDe tne aaoptlon process through Tassie's eyes. What aspects of her personality come out during Othis process? Tassie describes the adoption process as â€Å"†¦ Adoption seemed like both a cruel Joke and a lovely day-dream – a nice way of avoiding the blood and pain of giving birth, or, from a child's perspective, a realized fantasy of your parents not really being your parents. † (Moore 16).At the beginning of the novel Tassie didn't really know what to think about the adoption, but at the end Tassie really starts to ecome attached to Emmie and she realizes that it doesn't matter where Emmie came from. 6. Describe the evolution of Tassie's relationship with her brother, Robert, from the beginning of the novel Ountil the end. Tassie's r elationship with her brother Robert changed from the beginning to the end of the book because at the beginning they were really close, compared to other brother and sister relationships. They were both very unguided, while growing up, so Robert would always look up to Tassie.When Tassie went to Troy for college, Robert had a hard time getting through his last ear of high school because he had no one to look up to. When Tassie said â€Å"Robert, it had often seemed to me, failed to apply himself-musically or academically' (Moore 41). They basically grew more and more apart until Tassie received an email from him one day saying that he wants to Join the military. When she shows up in Dellacrosse for his graduation, she finds out that Robert is actually Joining the military. What she doesn't know is that this will be the last time she will ever see him. When Robert dies, Tassie felt more distant from him than ever. . What do you make of Edward? Does Edward's behavior at dinner and the â€Å"small conspiracy' he and 0 Tassie establish (pp. 112-114) offer a more sympathetic (or at least more understandable) view of him? I think Edward was really uninterested in being a father again. He didn't seem very into Emmie at all, adopting her or playing with her after they adopted her. I feel like he Just didn't seem too fond of having a biracial baby. He didn't even come to any of the adoption meetings until the middle of the one with Bonnie. It seemed like he was always missing in action in some sort of way, throughout the adoption process and at home.He seemed to be a big flirt towards Tassie. He would always look at her with a certain look and then all my thoughts were confirmed at the end of the book when he asked her to go to coffee with him. I dont think the â€Å"small conspiracy' offered a more sympathetic view of him. It was kind of weird because from the start of the book basically Tassie and Edward had a secret that they wouldn't tell Sarah. I think Tassie re alized the kind of person Edward was during this conspiracy and how he probably keeps a lot of secrets from Tassie, Sarah, and probably other people.This came up especially when he said â€Å"‘Let's not tell Sarah,' said Edward. ‘She's got a slightly obsessive side'† (Moore 113). Also I think Edward didn't want to get to know the child because I think it brought back bad memories from the first child. 8. Does A Gate at the Stairs accurately reflect the persistence of racism in America? What do the comments Dand encounters sprinkled throughout in the novel (80, 1 12, 151, 167, 229) show about the various forms Oracism takes in our society?A Gate at the Stairs accurately reflects the persistence of racism in America because of how all of the events in the book took place after 9/1 1 . Once 9/1 1 occurred, racism grew in America, yet it was still there before it occurred. When Tassie would take Emmie out for errands, she would be looked down upon for Instance wnen la ssle sala â€Å"l nls was all sala In looks, so tne trutn could not De uttered, but I saw again and again what it was simply to walk into a store for a doughnut and have a wordless racial experience (Moore 167-168).She especially got looks from white people such as when she said â€Å"To the white woman I was a whoring girl messing around with anyone (Moore 167). The comments and encounters in the ovel showed that there are many forms of racism in our society. The first way that I stated was more of a looking down upon way while â€Å"Instead, he glared right at little Mary-Emma and shouted, ‘Nigger! † (Moore 1 51) was more of a verbal way. 9.What is the importance of Tassie's description of Mary-Emma's affection for Reynaldo: â€Å"the colorblindness of Osmall children is a myth; she noticed difference and sameness, with almost equal interest; there was no O'Dilemma of Difference' as my alliteration- loving professors occasionally put it† (p. 169)? The importa nce of Tassie's description f Mary-Emma's affection for Reynaldo is that she didn't care about the color of Reynaldo's skin color or what he looked like and she only cared about his personality. 10.On page 296, Tassie offers a thoughtful explanation of the purpose of religion in people's lives. Are there Oother lessons about the meaning of religion or faith to be found in the novel? Yes, there are other lessons on religion on faith and an example would be when Bonnie Amber wanted to have Mary-Emma raised Catholic. This shows that many people are Judgmental about religion, and even though shes giving p her baby to another family of a possible other religion, they still want their baby to be Catholic no matter if the new parents arent Catholic. 1. Does the novel prepare you for Sarah's dreadful confession (232-242)? What particular incidents or conversations foreshadow the revelations? I think the novel does prepare us for Sarah's dreadful confession because you can tell that somethin g is missing throughout the book. You can tell that they're not telling Tassie something about their past because they never even told her why they were adopting and why they idn't Just have a child on her own.I think the whole hiding something makes Tassie feel on edge throughout the whole book which was probably why Tassie wasn't even that surprised and didn't really have a reaction when Sarah told her the story. I especially saw when Sarah said † † (Moore ) that she was hiding something. Also, Edward always being missing seemed kind of suspicious and it might have been cause of his guilt towards the first child, which we didn't know about then. 12. Was their decision to move and start anew the best solution under the circumstances? It epends on how you look at it.If you look at it like they were Just two parents that made a horrible parenting mistake and it was Just an accident and they deserve a second chance, then yes you could argue that that was probably their onl y chance of getting another chance. If you look at it Just from the fact that they killed their child, then no. They shouldn't have changed their names and moved on Just like that to try and forget their horrible past which was obviously bound to come back and bite them eventually. ** Thank you, Oprah, for many of these awesome questions

Society: Comparison to the Panopticon

According to Wikepedia, a panopticon is a type of prison where the observer is able to watch the prisoners without the prisoner knowing when they are being watched. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners thereby conveying what one architect has called the â€Å"sentiment of an invisible omnisciece. The panopticon was invented by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1785. Bentham himself described the Panopticon as â€Å"a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example. Michel Foucault, a French philosopher and historian of ideas uses this term in his book Discipline and Punish the Birth of the Prison as a metaphor to explain society. I will try to breakdown this metaphor to explain what Foucault means by this. Foucault explains we are living in a system where everything we do is survellience, thus we are living in a panopticon. We may feel that we have total privacy, but if we really sit back and observe we will come to an understanding that we are always being surveillance. Everything we do is recorded and monitored just like in the panopticon. We can not go to the store without cameras watching us or drive down the highway freely speeding without fear of getting caught by a police watching us. As similar to the panopticon we do not exactly know when we are being watched, but when we get the feeling we are being watched, we tend to try and behave perfectly. . â€Å"The Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing; in the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen. But he also proposes that not only prisons but most ordered structures like schools, factories, hospitals, workforces all resemble Benthams panopticon. The purpose of this panoptcicon is to tame ind ividuals in a way of functioning power and discipline in order to have a structured society. Foucault says, â€Å"The panoptic schema, without disappearing as such or losing any of its properties, was destined to spread throughout the social body, its vocation was to become a generalized function†. (Discipline 207) We are under a power because we are forced to behave in a way that is not our own to refrain from being disciplined. In our society we have places for people who refuse to follow the structure of our society they are places of restraints to tame the threats of society like hospitals, correctional facilities, and alternative schools that applies the panoptic schema. Panoptic living not only affects physically but also mentally. We know that we are being watch, because cameras are all around but the point is we do not know when we are being watched therefore we are forced to have good behavior at all times. The workforce can be a good example of this. Take into account a customer service representative in the call center must answer questions and assist with any concerns or complaints a customer may have. Even if a customer is rude, the representative is under a restraint because all calls are recorded at random and the representative is forced to be enthusiastic, kind and patient with the customer even if it results in verbal abuse by a customer. This creates a problem because the person is being forced to be perfect in an imperfect society. We are all under some form of power to conduct ourselves in a way that is acceptable to our society. Therefore we are constantly watching each others’ actions and if society disapproves then we are being disobedient to the power and therefore must suffer discipline. But because most of us fear punishment we continue to try to behave appropriately and then it becomes a norm we are use to doing. When we do something out of the norm, we are then frowned upon at as some type of threat to society. An example of this given is from the book Tess of the Durbyvilles, the character Tess is living in a panopticon because her society is based in a time where she is suppose to have a husband, but her society gossips about her because she has a baby out of wedlock. People looked at her as abnormal because she did not follow the moral structure they are used to. No one bothered to ask any questions they only assumed she was different which is something they did not like. This panopticon serves a good purpose even though it focuses soley on discipline and power. Although we are being watched everyday, if we did not have discipline then our society would not function well, and we would be among murders, thieves, and would fear for our lives. We are among criminals now but because we have institutions to tame them and force them to be a part of society or if they choose not to be then they are kept away from the perfect society we are constantly trying to form and improve. Although we are under power of the panopticon, we are given a sense of protection within our society and therefore we are willing to accept the control we are under.