The concepts of determinism, compatibilism, and libertarianism Essay

The concepts of determinism, compatibilism, and libertarianism - Essay Example Moreover, it is a difficult theoretical issue with regards to different worldviews that individuals hold. This essay discusses, compares and contrasts, and analyzes the concepts of determinism, libertarianism, and compatibilism. The last section discusses the best perspective among the three. Comparison and Contrast Philosophers have long debated the nature of free will. Three schools of thought have emerged from this debate: determinism, libertarianism, and compatibilism. Determinism is defined as the belief that for every occurrence there are circumstances which guarantee that nothing else could occur. One variety of determinism describes it as the belief that every occurrence is caused by prior occurrences and the important conditions needed for the creation of that occurrence. Every occurrence is the inevitable consequence of a series of occurrences resulting in that occurrence.1 Hard determinism supports libertarianism in claiming that determinism is irreconcilable with free wil l. Hard determinists refute the presence of free will and libertarianists believe in the existence of free will and rejects determinism as regards human freedom. ... Because everything is indispensable, predetermined, and imposed, individuals cannot be held responsible for their behaviors. Hard determinism accepts the intuitive character of free will but claims that it is a false impression.3 The pure impossibility of free will can be viewed in how hard determinism characterizes freedom. According to hard determinists, real freedom cannot have a source. Since everything is an outcome of causation, free will is ruled out. Hard determinists view human beings as physical entities and human behavior is determined by natural laws. In contrast, while taking into account the deterministic nature of some forms of reality, libertarianism fully accepts moral responsibility and the intuitive character of free will. This perspective does not disregard the existence of causation and natural laws in the physical realm but argues that it is not applicable to everything, especially to human actions. Libertarianists believe that free individuals act for reasons. Causes explain human actions but do not determine or create them.4 Libertarianism willingly accepts that some occurrences could be necessitated but refutes the idea that every action is the outcome of an antecedent cause. Therefore, libertarianism recognizes the causation model in the physical realm but argues that human actions should be understood in terms reasons, intentions, or internal conditions. Basically speaking, external forces could influence the action, but in the end it is up to the individual to choose between several available alternatives. Compatibilism, on the other hand, is presented as a way of reconciling the opposing views of determinism and libertarianism. This perspective establishes a totally deterministic view of

The darkness of mans heart Essay Example for Free

The darkness of mans heart Essay The question I have chosen to do this essay on is to discuss the way the novel is described; it is described as exploring the darkness of mans heart. The novel is set in the not too distant future where war is waging between nuclear powers in the world. Because of these circumstances a large number children have been evacuated from their homes but before they reach their destination their plane is shot down and the survivors land on a tropical almost paradise like island, unspoiled by man. This island is a microcosm representing the world. On the island the survivors all meet together and create a chief Ralph. Things soon go wrong due to members of the original group creating trouble and they decide to form their own tribe with a new chief Jack. I am going to look at how the events on the island have created an idea that the novel is exploring the darkness of mans heart. There are many areas within the novel which give evidence to support the view that the main theme is about the darkness of mans heart.. The first part of the novel is a very important part as it sets the scene of how these boys have such beautiful surroundings and how they are keen to think of ways to be rescued and just the pleasures of day to day life they enjoy. During the opening stages you can sense that the boys still have a strong memory of law and order and how to conduct themselves. One thing that shows this is when Roger an almost non existent character with little dialogue throws stones at a small child, not to hit him as he is circled with the taboo of old life Another time when we are shown the way the children have been restricted in their basic instincts due to the fact that they have been subjected to societys rigid rules, is when they go on their first hunting expedition. Jack could not bring himself to kill the pig because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood. All these games are all right to begin with but the darkness of mans heart ie the evil which many are capable of but lies hidden, needs to be controlled or else it will flourish. This shows us how we need to have rules in society or else anarchy and savagery will reign. The way in which the children remember the rules and power of the old life is  through the conch. The conch is just a shell to you and me but through it they see power and authority as whoever holds the conch has the right to speak. The conch represents in our own world today the mace in the House of Commons; this mace has the greatest of importance, as without its presence the House of Commons cannot begin. The conch I think holds them all together for a while, but its when they try to bend its rules by suggesting to remove its power in different areas of the island and eventually destroy it along with Piggy. Then I believe the darkness of mans heart becomes clearer as the conch symbolises law/order and authority. Another important part of the novel is when the beast takes on a physical persona. The beast we learn at the start is non-existent and only an empty shell that the younger children and some of the elders talk about. But it is when Ralph appeals to the adult world for help, if only they could send us something grown-up a sign or something, then from the sky a dead airmen falls from the sky. The sign the adult world gives them is one of death and destruction and we soon realise that it is not a beastie they are afraid of it is themselves, its mans own nature. This is confirmed by Simon later what I mean is maybe its only us, he is the only one to make the connection and he pays dearly for trying to communicate it to others. The deterioration in the boys sense of moralitys through the novel are ever so clear. And when we reach towards the end of the novel we see how that has happened, through the lack of authority and law. The boys have now become savages, they have gone through a massive transformation because of their surroundings and their ability to destroy and kill, and this is shown through the scar made in the island. It does this by showing mans destructive powers he is capable of. There are many things each of the characters symbolise at the end of the novel, Roger is evil a Satan like creature who has no conscious, Jack is savagery and anarchy, the beast is the inner evil in everyone (darkness of mans heart). The whole novel is symbolic in nature except the rescue in the end where adult life appears, dignified and capable, but in reality enmeshed in the same evil as the symbolic life of the children on the island. The officer  having interrupted a manhunt, prepares to take the children off the island in a cruiser, which will presently hunting its enemy in the same way. And I believe the cruiser is very important as it makes you think who will rescue the adult and his cruiser. This novel message about the darkness of mans heart means that society holds everyone together, and without these conditions, our ideals, values and basic choices of rights or wrong are lost. Without societys rigid rules anarchy and savagery can and will come to light. This novel is valuable not that it tells us of the darkness of mans heart, its valuable as it shows it by allowing us to enter into the island.

Examining Media Discourse And The Amounts Of Crime Criminology Essay

Examining Media Discourse And The Amounts Of Crime Criminology Essay Media discourse is sutured with crime. Crime consumes an enormous amount of media space as both entertainment and news. Much of our information about the nature and extend of crime comes to us via the secondary source of media. We should expect then, that as distributors of social knowledge, they play a significant role in our perception and understanding of the boundaries between order and disorder. (Surette, 1998: 11) Because of the importance of media in everyday life, the study of crime and the media becomes a vital concern of sociology and media studies. Since media has the ability to interpret and give meaning to events through dramatization, this places it at the pinnacle of all social institutions in its ability to shape perception and reactions of its readership. It has been criticized over years by enormous sociologist that media is responsible for fomenting moral sensibilities and anxieties about crime and disorder. (Cohen, 1963; Young, 1971; Hall, 1978; Reiner, 1997; Munice:2001) The media manufactured of news (Cohen and Young, 1973/1981), created moral panics (Cohen, 1973) and fear of crime (Gerbner et al: 1980; Carlson: 1985) about folk devils, stigmatized outsiders, and amplified their deviance (Young, 1971) thus legitimating the drift to a law and order society (Hall et al, 1978) and a more authoritarian style of policing the crisis. (ibid.) In this assignment, I will discuss how and why these consequences of representation of crime are develop, and how they will affect the society. Fear of crime: In recent years policy debates have focused increasingly on fear of crime as an issue as serious s crime itself. As Home Office working party noted that fear of crime as an issue of social concern; it has to be taken as seriously as crime prevention and reduction. (Home Office, 1989: ii) When the media representation of crime is compared to real world crime as measured by official crime statistics, it appears that the media images exaggerate the probability of danger. This is said to cultivate a misleading view of the world based on unnecessary anxiety about levels of risk form violent crime. According to the BCS 1983, people are concerned most about those crimes which they are least likely to experience. (Hough and Mayhew 1983:23) The BCS data show a discrepancy between peoples fear of being a victim and their chances of being that victim. (Reiner 1997: 210; Munice, 2001: 59; Hewitt, 1995: 19) This has engendered a debate about why there should be such a disparity between the perception of risk and the actual risk. Most commonly, the media are accused of exaggerating the risk of crime, representing an image of the world which is scary and mean, (Carlson 1985) (Sparks 1992: Chapter 1) which lead to publics fear of crime in an unreasonable fashion. (Reiner 1997: 199) Most analyses of newspaper crime reporting have been concerned with the potentially distorted impression is created by the high proportion of reports of violent crimes. Ditton and Duffy (1983) analyzed the crime content of three Scottish newspapers concludes that the proportion of violent and sexual crimes are far more than those reported in the official statistics. (Ditton and Duffy, 1983) Many British studies also showed the same pattern of over representation of violent and interpersonal crimes. The risks of crime as portrayed by the media are both quantitatively and qualitatively more serious than the official statistically recorded picture.  [1]   Although media representation of crime is biased and they present crime in an exaggerated way, we cannot simply conclude that fear of crime is associated with media presentation of crime. The reason why people can be easily influenced by media is because they are lack of knowledge about crime. It is rare for people to experience or witness crime. Therefore, they need to rely on media as source of information to understand crime and use it as a guideline in assessing probability of being a victim. Furthermore, people are tended to use a simplistic way and the most available information to make assessment without reviewing other alternative source before they make judgment, this can lead to people use newspaper and television as source of information to understand crime and construct perceptions of crime. (Williams and Dickinson, 1993: 36) Base on these assumptions, it is sensible to say that medias representation of crime do have influence peoples perception about crime. The media biases associated with public misperceptions argument is confirmed by the study of relationship between newspaper crime reporting and fear of crime by Williams and Dickinson and 1996 BCS. According to Williams and Dickinson, there was a significant relationship between reading newspapers with more emphasis on violence crime and measure of fearfulness expressed in a survey. This association survived control by a number of demographical variables. (William and Dickinson, 1993) Thus, the research concludes that readers of those newspapers that report crime in the most dramatic and salient fashion have the highest levels of fear of crime. (William and Dickinson, 1993) Moreover, in the 1996 British Crime Survey, Hough and Roberts also concluded that there are some strong associations have been found between media biases representation and public misperceptions. (Hough and Roberts, 1996) These study both evident the media have direct influence on constructing fear of crime. The news media may constitute biased perception of crime, however, some scholars have a controversial view on the association between media representations and its effects. Increasingly, it is acknowledged that media representations are unlikely to be received passively, but rather interpreted by an active audiences but as one element in their lived experience. (Ericson, 1991; Livingstone, 1996, Reiner, 1997) Many studies show that the media is not the crucial agent in accounting for fear of crime, increasingly, it is more widely accepted that demographic factors such as age, sex, class, background, level of education, area of residence are significant determinants of anxiety about crime and violence. (Gunter, 1987; Sparks, 1992; Ericson, 1991: 287; Schlesinger and Tumber, 1994: 188) Crawford and his fellows (1990) also support such argument that fear does indeed accord to peoples real life circumstances. It may be generated by any number of personal, cultural or environmental factor s. Box et al also concur with Crawfords opinion, he further suggested that fear of crime depends on an interactive complex of vulnerability, environmental conditions, personal knowledge of crime, confidence (or lack of ) confidence in the police. (Munice, 2001: 59) Since there are many factors can affect the perception of crime, we should bear in mind that fear of crime is extraneous, generated by social and personal factors other than risk of crime per se. Moreover, we should remain alive to ability of the public to differentiate and interpret the information they receive. Though there is evidence concerning media partiality and distortion, it cannot by any mean be assumed that media representation are always received uncritically. (Munice, 2001: 62) The issue of media effect on perceptions of crime remains controversial. It is because of the difficulties in rigorously establishing straightforward casual relationships between images and effects. (Reiner, 1997: 191) Since the association between tow factors are remain unknown, it is plausible to conclude that media may have influence on perception of crime. What is more important about the issue of fear of crime is not whether it has any rational basis or it is solely cultivated by media, but rather how far its emotiveness as a topic can be used for ulterior and political motives. (Munice, 2001: 62) Moral Panic: During the 60s to 70s, the British public was riveted by magnified coverage of highly unusual crime stories of violence crime committed by youth that turned into what some news outlets described as an all too familiar story. Rather than providing context, the medias labeling of these youth violence as symptom of social decline has tended to exacerbate peoples moral sensibilities about youth violence. The result is that misdirected public policy is being generated to increase social control, even though the real threat is minimal. Study of Mod and Rockers by Cohen: The first systematic empirical study of a moral panic in the UK was Stanley Cohens research on the social reaction to the Mod and Rockers disturbance of 1964. (Cohen 1973b) (Munice, 2001: 50) A group of youths broke out sabotage in the seaside resort of Clacton over the Easter bank holiday in 1964. The events were to receive front page outrage in the national press. The media spoke out of a day of terror of youngsters who beat up entire town. Youth were described as organized gangs who deliberately caused trouble by acting aggressively towards local residents and destroyed a great deal of public property. In Cohens research, however, found no evidence of any structured gangs within that area, thus, the total amount of serious violence and vandalism was not as great as media described. (Cohen, 1973) According to the Cohens analyses, it is obvious that media have exaggerated the seriousness of the Clacton event, in terms of criteria such as the number taking part, the number involved in violence and the amount and effects of any damage or violence. Such distortion took place primarily in terms of the mode and style of presentation characteristics of most crime reporting: the sensational headlines, the melodramatic vocabulary and the deliberate heightening of those elements in the story considered as news. (Cohen, 1973) The frequent use of misleading headlines and vocabulary like riot, beat up the town, attack, screaming mob which were discrepant with the actual story and left an image of a besieged town from which innocent holidaymakers were fleeing to escape a marauding mob. Medias distorted reporting not only exaggerated the seriousness of the initial events in 1964 but also amplified the youth deviance. The incessant news coverage of Mod and Rockers initiated a wider public concern, youth are labeled as a symptom of social decline. They are portrayed as being outside the central core values of our consensual society and as posing a particular threat to society. (Cohen, 1981: 273) Once youths have been identified with negative labeling, they will believe themselves to be more deviant and segregating out from the community, which will create a greater risk of long term social disorder. Thus, overreaction of the police and general public will contribute to further polarization between youth and the society. As a result, more crime would be committed by stigmatize group and lead to less tolerance of deviants by conforming groups.(McRobbie and Thornton,1995: 561) (Munice, 2001: 52) As Cohen shows in Mod and Rocker study, The continuing disturbance attracted more news coverage would increase police activity and further public concern. Media exaggerate the problem can give rise to local events seem ones of pressing national concern, and an index of decline of morality standards, which obliged the police to step up their surveillance. Consequently, the stepping up of controls lead to further marginalization and stigmatization of deviants which, in turn, lead to more calls for police action and into a deviancy amplification spiral. (McLaughlin, 2001: 176) Study of Mugging by Hall et al Hall et al (1978) reused the concept the moral panic in identifying a series of major social problems to do with permissiveness, vandals, student radicals and so on, culminating with the moral panic of mugging. Hall and others revealed that the media make use of moral panics to both define and distort social problems was fleshed out into a general critique of the medias construction of social reality. (Munice, 2001: 52) In Halls study of mugging in Policing the crisis, the media regarded mugging not as a particular type of robbery but rather a general social crisis and rising crime. (Hall et al., 1978: 66) The media presented mugging as a new and rapidly growing phenomenon. In fact, the crime was not new, only the label was, and official statistics did not support the view that it was growing rapidly, however, with a name for the crime now in existence old offenses were categorized as such, creating the impression of growth. The medias generated new category of crime created the impression of a crime wave, it further whipped up a moral panic around the issue which served to legitimate an increase in punitive measures; they conclude that the media played a key role in developing and maintaining the pressure for law and order measures-for example, police mugging squads and heavy sentences. (Munice, 2001:52-53) (Hewitt, 1995: 17) In this regard, moral panic can strengthen the powers of state control an d enabling law and order to be promoted without cognizance of the social divisions and conflicts which produce deviance and political dissent. (Munice, 2001: 55) It is not just a new category of crime has been defined by media, the media misrepresentation of crime also stigmatize the black youth as the cause of mugging without further explaining the structural reason of the crime, like poverty, social deprivation and class and racial inequality. (Munice, 2001:53) This ready application of stereotypes in mugging crime reporting portray crime in a way to be depicted in terms of a basic confrontation between the symbolic forces of good and evil. The process of deprivation and modes of social organization are rarely provided. (Chibnall, 1977: 79) As Hall concluded, crime reports tend to undo the complexities of crime by constructing a number of easy categories into which each type of crime can be placed. (Hall et al, 1978:13-15) (Munice, 2001: 47) After the analyses of issue of moral panic or fear of crime, there is one common element between two consequences of media representation of crime-both are generated by the media biased representation of crime. In order to investigate cases of apparent moral panic and fear of crime, it is necessary to understand how news is developed and the structural relationship between media and source of crime stories. The element of newsworthiness: The media appear to be involve in a continual search for the new unusual and dramatic. This is what makes the news. Under the market model (Cohen and Young, 1981), because of the business concern, news content needs to be generated and filtered primarily through reporter sense of newsworthiness to produce what makes a good story that their audience wants to know about in order to engage audiences and increase readership. The core elements of these are immediacy, dramatization, personalization, titillation and novertly. (Chibnall, 1977:22-45; Hall et al., 1978; Ericson et al., 1991) Thus, there are five sets of informal rules  [2]  of relevancy which govern the professional imperatives of popular journalism: these are visible and spectacular acts, sexual or political connotations, graphic presentation, individual pathology and deterrence and repression. (Chibnall, 1977: 77-79) These rules help us to understand how news values are structured and explain why there is a predominant e mphasis on violent offences. Organizational pressures: Besides the element of newsworthiness, there are a variety of concrete organizational pressures, for example, the periodicity, or timing, of the events and how they match the scheduling needs of the agency, cost effectiveness and efficiency, all these factors not only determine what is reported, they also lead to an unintended consequences- that is bolstering the law and order. (Reiner, 1997: 142) For example, numerous police personnel are available and willing to provide comments about an incident, which resulting in frequent citation of police sources in all types of crime stories. (Chermak, 1995: 38) Thus, court cases are frequently used by media, because lots of newsworthy cases are expected to recur regularly, therefore, court cases are an economic use of reporting resources. (Reiner, 1997: 221) Because police and courts resources are easily accessible and constantly available, media become more habitually rely on them as the main source of news information, and over time, the s tructural dependence of media on between criminal justice bureaucracies will be established, which permits the institutional definers to establish the primary interpretation of the topic in question. (Hall et al, 1978: 58; Chibnall 1977: chaps. 3, 6; Schlesinger and Tumber 1993) The notion of impartiality and the use of accredited source: The notion of impartiality and the news source used by journalists are the crucial reason to explain media biased representation of crime and the tendency towards institutional definers ideology. (Hall, 1981: 341-343) The media reporting is underwritten by the notions of impartiality, balance and objectivity. (Hall et al., 1981: 341) The practical pressures of constantly working against the clock and the professional demands of impartiality and credibility resulted in constant use of accredited representative of major criminal justice institutions- the police, the courts and the Home Office as the main source of news. These institutional representative agents are accredited because they are in a position to provide initial definitions or primary interpretation of crime and locate them within the context of a continuing crime problem. Because they control over material and mental resources, which news media have little direct access to, and their domination of the major institutions o f society, this classs definitions of the social world provide the basic rationale for those institutions which protect and reproduce their way of life. This control of mental resources ensures that theirs are the most powerful and universal of the available definitions of the social world. (Hall, 1981: 343) As a result, these rules which are originally aim to preserve the impartiality of media turn media as an apparatus to reproduce the definitions and ideology of primary definers. The study of Crimewatch UK-case illustration of relationship between Media and source of crime news The study of Crimewatch UK by Schlesinger and Tumber (1993) is a modern example to illustrate the above argument. The production team of Crimewatch UK has heavily used the information provided by the criminal justice institutions as the main source of crime stories. It is partly because of the notion of cost effectiveness, more importantly, it is because they want to make the program as documentary reconstruction rather than merely a crime drama without a realistic and documentary basis. (Schlesinger and Tumber, 1993: 24) However, the police as the source of crime stories broadly define the terms of reference within which Crimewatch UK may operate. It can be shown by the two basic ground rules of productions requested by the police in exchange for information: first, anything filmed would be embargoed and could not be used again unless the force involved gave its permission, and second, the police must reveal all the known facts and their suspicions to the Crimewatch team. (Schlesing er and Tumber, 1993: 23) Although the production team exercise editorial judgment over how the cases that they reconstruct are to be presented in television terms in order to maintain their impartiality, it is inevitable that their decisions are still within the criminal justice bureaucracies defined framework. (Schlesinger and Tumber, 1993: 30) From the above analyses, we can see how the notion of impartiality lead to the use of accredited source, and how the source provider- the criminal justice institutions turn a documentary program into the polices public relations program to reproduce the definitions of primary definers. Furthermore, this study also demonstrated the asymmetrical relationship between the news and source of information. Journalists are always in an inferior negotiating position in the negotiation process regarding to the definition and presentation of crime. News media are constrained to sacrifice their relationship with the police personnel because they fear losing information access. Reporters rarely challenge the police perspective because of the information police can provide. As what Chibnall described, The reporter who cannot get information is out of a job, whereas the policeman who retains it is not. (Chibnall, 1977: 155) This asymmetrical relationship between media and the source is evidently demonstrated in the case of Crimewatch study. Since the production team is heavily dependent upon the police to provide information of crime cases, they realize that if the police do not provide such information, the program can never be successfully produced. Therefore, editorial judgmen t is limited and the presentation of crime stories are constrained within the polices basic grounded rules and their defined framework. Representation of crime and definition of criminal justice bureaucracies Most commonly, the media are accused of exaggerating the risk of crime, representing an image of the world which is scary and mean, creating crime waves in order to cultivate moral sensibilities and fear among the society. However, such argument ignores the significant influence of the source of crime and overestimates the representation power of the media. It is important to understand that the power to construct social reality rests not merely with media, but also with those who can control the medias raw materials for news-the criminal justice institutions. (Fishman, 1981: 136) Crime news is mutually determined by journalists, whose image of crime is shaped by police concerns and by police, whose concerns with crime are influenced by media practices. However, if criminal justice bureaucracies are not cooperative in providing relevant information as requested by media, media would not have sufficient resource to form crime waves and representation of crime will be changed. In this regard, criminal justice institutions are the crucial determinant to define what is produced and presented. Journalists convey an image of crime wholly accord with the police departments notion of serious crime and social order as orchestrating with criminal justice institutions. Therefore, as long as the routine source for crime news is criminal justice institutions, the presses are inevitable to reinforce the crime definition from criminal justice institutions. Representation of crime and social control According to hegemony theorists, media are regarded as a secondary definer to orchestrate with dominants consent by actively intervening in the space of public opinion and social consciousness through the use of highly emotive and rhetorical language. This exaggerated way of presentation has a effect of requiring that something has to be done about it. Thus, the impartiality notions of media can be served to objectify a public issue. That is, the publicizing of an issue in the media can serve as an independent opinion to a real issue of public concern rather than merely official information or a direct projection of the governments ideology. In this regard, media can be leveraged as a public agenda setting function to translate primary definers definition of crime into a public issue. (Hall et al., 1981: 346) Once the prolonged public agenda concern in particular crime is formed, moral sensibilities and anxiety are cultivated among society, the press can help to legitimate and reinfo rce the actions of the primary definer by bringing their own independent arguments to bear on the public in support of the actions proposed; or it can bring pressure to bear on the primary definers by summoning up public opinion in support of its own views that stronger measures are needed. (Hall et al., 1981: 348) In late 1976, a great deal of publicity and anxiety was generated over an apparent crime wave against the elderly in New York, which led to the setup of a police sponsored community deference program. However, the official statistics did not support the view that violent crime against elderly was rapidly growing at the same time as the media were reporting a crime surge. The US sociologist Mark Fishman used this example to demonstrate the above argument. According to Fishman, the police do play a crucial role in reinforcing journalistically to produce concern about crime waves by selecting further incidents for reporters based on what has been covered before. Furthermore, the police are in a position to intimate perceptions of a crime wave themselves by the way in which they select crime incidents for their press release. (Fishman, 1981) In this regard, media play an orchestrating role to present what is defined by the police in order to create crime wave, the widespread of news cove rage cultivated anxiety among society, as a result, like what we have concluded above, media in respond to public opinion to pressure the police in order to increase social control by forming the deference program. In this case, the initiation of social control can be legitimated as the reaction of the criminal justice institutions to the public opinion Newspaper reports are disproportionately concentrated on violent crimes, even it seems they are not deliberately focus on this particular category of crime due to medias organizational pressures and code of practice, however, as what I have discussed above, without the source of news provided by criminal justice institutions, crime stories can never be formed. Therefore, the criminal justice institutions are also responsible to affect the media representation of crime by manipulating the source of information. Criminal justice institutions and media can generate fear by providing same kind of crimes persistently in epidemic proportions. For instance, media will suddenly focus on crimes that they had previously ignored and report them to the public. (E.g. mugging and violent crimes against elderly) (Fishman, 1976). In this regard, criminal justice institutions and media are both responsible for exaggerating the magnitude of the problem to sustain public attention for prolonged periods , as a result, fear and moral sensibilities can be instilled. What is important to recognition that moral panic and fear of crime are the first link in a spiral of events leading to the maintenance of law in society by legitimize rule through coercion and the general exercise of authority. The sudden defining and focusing of the historically recurring event of street crime have created the impression of a crime wave, this provides government with the justification to introduce repressive legislation in order to increase its control among the society. (Munice, 2001: 53) Since fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard line postures. They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities and other anxieties. (Signorielli 1990:102) (Reiner, 1997: 217) Consequently, the report of crime waves will produce public pressure to call for tough authoritative institutional control, public support can be mustered to institute formal sanctions. The study of Mod and Rocker by Stanley Cohen and the study of muggers by Stuart Hall and his fellows both demonstrate medias exaggeration of crime risks is claimed to increase political support for authoritarian solutions to a crisis of law and order which is largely the creation of media misrepresentation of crime. Media act in a role to stigmatize young Afro-Caribbean as folk devils and generate moral panic in order to created social conditions of consent for the construction of a society more focused towards law and order. The government uncontrollable and structural causes of social unrest can be overlooked, when the public gaze is fixed by stigmatizing young Afro-Caribbean as visual symbols of what was wrong in society, with the increase of social control measures initiated by the government. As a result, the threats of society seems to be eliminated by social and legislative action; the tough punitive measures can be legitimized to control the unstable social environment, the l egitimacy of the government can be reassured by providing public a image of strong government and strong leadership. (Cohen, 1973; Munice, 2001: 52; McRobbie and Thornton, 1995: 562, Hewitt, 1995: 12-16) The media not only exaggerate crimes, on the other hand, they portray the criminal justice bureaucracies, especially the police in a positive light. Routine news reporting about police and crime has a public relations function for police, promoting organizational and occupational ideologies. (Ericson, 1991: 224) The news media dramatize the polices routine works and give the police a ceremonial force. This has promotional value for the police, because it often shows them to be quite effective in fighting crime. (Marsh 1988) (Ericson, 1991:224) Several researchers have examined the relationship between news and police personnel (Chibnall, 1977; Ericson, Baranek and Chan, 1989; Fishman, 1980; Hall et al., 1978) . Most ethnographic research concludes that the police determine what is presented in the news, and describe news media as conduits for police ideology (Chibnall, 1977; Fishman, 1980; Hall et al., 1978) Police frame crime stories in a self promoting way to exaggerate their effectiveness by compiling statistics on performance measures such as the number of offences as well as arrest data. Furthermore, the police can decide when story information should be released, limiting access to reports and diverting attentions from specific events, in order to manipulate medias representation of crime and criminal justice. The US sociologist Chermaks media contend analysis study (Chermak, 1995) and Roshiers study in the UK  [3]  both evident that (Schlesinger and Tumber, reading list: 186) criminal justice bureaucracies, espe cially the police can manipulate the medias representation of crime and criminal justice system by manipulating information in order to provide a favorable image of police and strengthen the states legitimacy. Furthermore, it has been also suggested by Carlson (1985) that such biased representation of criminal justice bureaucracies can lead to support of more social control. He claims to show that heavier television viewers are comparatively ill-informed about legal process; they have a propensity to believe that the police are effective in combating crime and support. As a result, heavy viewers are tended to support more social control. (Sparks 1992, , Ericson, 1991: 283) Criticism of hegemony and Halls theory: The theory of hegemony has been criticized by many scholars that it has paid inadequate attention to the communication process. They argued that the hegemony theory supporters have been characterized by a tendency to treat media as homogeneous, this largely ignores the distinctiveness of particular media and the ways in which such media are internally differentiated. (Schlesinger et al., 1990: 96-97; Ericson et al, 1991) It has been suggested by Ericson et al that there are systematic variations between the presentations of crime in different media and markets.(Ericson et al, 1991) This is partly because of they have different variants to political and professional journalistic ideology according to patterns of ownership and perceived audience. There are interconnected with differences in technological resources, budge

Origins Of Distrust Between Th :: essays research papers

The Arab world has been one of the most confusing areas known to the western world. Because of this confusion, the people of the Middle East have been made to suffer, not only at the hands of the west, but also by their own. Even though Arab and western world relations have been stabalizing, they are still long way off from achieving a lasting peace. â€Å"The roots of all these problems go back to the settlement imposed on the Middle East in 1918-1922†(Field 26). Since before the start of World War I, there was a great Western presence in the area we know today as the Arab world. Britsh and French forces occupied Northern Africa since 1882; British occupied Egypt, at the request of Sultan in Constantinople, and the region we today call the Mahgreb: Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. In addition, to its presence in Egypt, Britain also kept the Gulf states under her protection and held Aden as a colony. According to the â€Å"version of events one hears in the Middle East, is that British and French policy at the time was a straightforward betrayal of the Arabs†(Field 28). Because of the Ottoman rule in the Middle East, the Europeans began to persuade the Arab leaders to revolt by promising them their independence. But what was meant, was independence from Turkish rule with the aid, supervision and/or protection from Britain and France. In simple terms, the Europeans powers would be the new occupiers of the Middle East. The deception came in the form of two documents; one important to the Europeans powers, and the other to the Jews. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of February 1916, was the document that divided the Middle East between Britain and France. The agreement stated that Lebanon and Syria would be set aside as areas of French interests and the British were free to intervene in the Arab region in the South. Sykes-Picot remained a secret to the Arabs till 1917, when after the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia had published it. From 1918 the Europeans began to place monarchs in the countries(lands) they had established. Some remained in power for a short amount of time (Sherif Hussein) and others began a lineage (Abdullah in Transjordan). Nevertheless, the rulers that were placed by Britain, were deposed of due to the nationalistic ideas that were arising in the Middle East. The second form of deception was the Balfour Decleration, in which was stated that the British government favoured and supported â€Å"the establishment in Palestine of a natural home for the Jewish people†(Field 44).

Tradition v.s Common Sense

Traditions are a very Important aspect of human life. They are seen as another way of life. Many traditions teach things of value to children, things which parents hope will be passed on to future generations. In many societies however, traditions have taken over the common sense of the people.Nowadays, humans blindly follow traditions, not knowing or even acknowledging what they are really doing. Whether It Is a celebratory tradition or a tradition that has been followed since ancient times, unmans will not question the motives behind it; they will just continue to follow it. In the short story â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson, villagers blindly follow their annual tradition, one that claims a life every year.All the villagers take part in this event knowing that there will be death yet no one dares to stop and question It, Even when some people do stop and question the reasons that began the tradition, they will not do anything about it because it is a tradition that ha s been followed countless and they do not want to be the only ones to question it or even worse, not follow it. This shows that human beings will tolerate acts of evil and Injustices In traditions, making them unable to step out of that circle and see what is really going on because of their preference of tradition over common sense.It does not matter if the tradition FIFO Traditions have been around for thousands of years, even before civilized human life began. They have been performed all over the world, in all points of time. In the overview by Joyce Moss and George Wilson, it is explained that ancient cultures believed sacrifices were necessary to benefit the community. In fact, during ancient times a tradition similar to â€Å"The Lottery' was such â€Å"a highly regarded mean of decision-making that eventually most civic matters were resolved by. † Joyce Moss & George Wilson) This is because traditions were among the main parts or sections of ancient human life.Even n ow, traditions are still a big part of human life. Many traditions around the world are a huge thing for humans. They will make special foods, decorations, and even rituals. However, many of these traditions are performed without thought. Many traditions are followed because it has been done before, no one has questioned it before, and so there is no reason to stop it now. In â€Å"The Lottery' one can analyze that the original meaning and aspects of the tradition have indeed been lost and that the tradition is followed Just because.The analysis made on study mode suggests that â€Å"Substituting slips of paper for chips of wood, a recital prior to the lottery, and a salute to address each person† are some of the aspects that have changed prior to the original lottery, the first one that began everything. (Analysis of the Tradition in Shirley Jackson's â€Å"The Lottery') It also mentions that the actual tradition has remained a routine. This leads to the conclusion that th e lottery is no longer continued because of the tradition, but because it has been done for so long it Just feels right to continue to follow it.In many societies, rituals are part of the traditions. Many believe these rituals are performed because of religion or a similar idea. What people do not know is that not all rituals are needed or performed because of religion. Many rituals are Just performed because of tradition. It does not matter if the ritual is harmful and has a active impact on society; many societies will still perform them Just to keep the tradition going. The short story, â€Å"The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson, shows a perfect example of this.The people of the town still perform the ritual because of the tradition held every year. They do not care if someone they love or care for dies; they just want to follow the tradition. Even the own family members participate in the ritual, which is stoning one of their own family members to death. These types of rituals are i ncredible acts of evil but humans still participate in them. In the last section of the overview by Jennifer Hicks, she explains very thoroughly the tradition of stoning. In it she explains that it was a standing ritual.She does mention that the â€Å"original paraphernalia for the lottery has been lost long ago. † (Hicks) There is a part in the story where old man Warner stated, â€Å"Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. † This refers to human sacrifices benefiting the community with food, which is something that by the time the story takes place, which is around the 1700 to sass, should be known that it is not real. So why do they continue to do this? It is the simple reasons of following a tradition. There are many concerns on why human beings follow traditions that are inhumane instead of using their common sense.Most of the issues are due to the fact that many rituals followed by humans consist of bloodshed or even death. In many societies, traditions play a big r ole, causing more and more people to be a part of them. The main dilemma is why people accept traditions that sense that traditions that involve bloodshed and death can be no good to societies, especially societies filled with children. Traditions like these will only poison the minds of the young with the idea that a tradition must be followed no matter what. The reason people do not stop them is because they do not want to stand out.In the book â€Å"Shirley Jackson† by Friedman Lineman, it explains that Shirley Jackson was new to a small town when she moved. She did not really know anybody so she did not participate in the town's traditions. This caused other towns people to look at her weird, like an outsider. This can reflect on her short story of â€Å"The Lottery', in which the analysis can be made that Mrs.. Hutchinson was an outsider, not so much of Ewing new but the type that does not do what everyone else does, in this case, the tradition of the lottery.It is clea r that these traditions have taken over the common sense of the people. Now, people do not think before acting. They Just follow traditions to the letter. They do no stop to think about their traditions and if they are beneficial or plain out dangerous. They Just do not want to stand out; they want to be the same as everyone else. It is around these thoughts that the main concern revolves around. Humans will argue that traditions are needed when the reality is that they are not. They have gotten surrounded so much by traditions; it is like a second language to them.The short story â€Å"The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson explains how human beings in the village have been blinded by a tradition, which is the lottery. With careful analysis, it is easy to spot all blind actions carried out by the villagers. Everybody seems nice and Joyful throughout the story until the very end. â€Å"It seems as though Jackson is making a statement regarding hypocrisy and human evil. † (Analysis of the Tradition in Shirley Jackson's â€Å"The Lottery') What Shirley Jackson wants us to realize y writing this story is that people are so blinded by traditions; they might kill someone thinking it is alright.Shirley Jackson uses ideas similar to these to suggest that there is an underlying evil and weakness in human beings. The village, having performed such an act for so many years, continues on with it, with no complaints or questions being asked, and the main purpose being to carry on the tradition. In the story, it states, â€Å"There's always been a lottery says Old Man Warner. â€Å"Nothing but trouble in that,† he says of quitting the event. (122) However, almost all the villagers how some type of anxiety or fear toward the tradition.Comments like â€Å"Don't be nervous Jack† (122) and â€Å"Get up there Bill† (123) indicate that the people may not be entirely comfortable with the lottery. Yet everyone still goes along with it. Nobody openly express es or shows their fear toward the lottery. Shirley Jackson may be trying to show the reader that many individuals are not strong enough to go against or stand up to their disapproval for the fear of being rejected by their own society. Instead, the villagers will continue to risk not only their lives, but the lives of their Emily members as well.She makes suggestions that human beings are not always who they seem and can turn their back on you at any time for the sake of their beliefs, or in this case, tradition. Throughout history, humans have made the choice to choose their traditions over their common sense. They do not think of the effects that will be caused because of their actions. Nowadays, people in societies continue to follow traditions or â€Å"trends† side to watch an argument, accident or incident, rather than stepping in and doing something about it.They do not step in because they do not want to stand out in front of everybody else; they do not want the spotli ght on them. They are frightened that they will be rejected later on. It is the same thing with traditions. Human beings do not care if there is death in the tradition, they will continue to follow it as long as they do not stand out and are not rejected or looked down on. This shows that human beings will tolerate acts of evil and injustices in traditions, making them unable to step out of that circle and see what is really going on because of their reference of tradition over common sense.People need to stop and think about the effects caused by traditions instead of Just blindly following the traditions of their ancestors. If this is not stopped, future generations will continue to make blind choices as well, due to the lack of common sense. Works Cited â€Å"Analysis of the Tradition in Shirley Jackson's â€Å"The Lottery†. † Studded. Com. Studded. Com, 2008. Web. 2008.. Friedman, Lineman. Shirley Jackson. Boston: Twenty Publishers, 1975. Print. Hicks, Jennifer. â €Å"Overview of the Lottery. † Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale, 2002.

Letter to Octavian essays

Letter to Octavian essays When Lepidus retired, why did you choose to take the west and not the east? What strategies did you use to defeat Marc Antony and win the Battle of Actium to become the sole Dictator? Did it feel invigorating to know that you had earned even more power than Julius Caesar? You then were made the one who made all of the final decisions including laws and foreign policy. Was it hard to live up to all of your peoples expectations? Did you return Rome to power and glory like you promised? How did you act to end all civil wars, expand territories, and create more jobs, which you also promised the people of Rome? I think that you were a very positive Emperor and probably the best one Rome has had in all of history. Your popularity with the people must have influenced them in many ways. I am sure that you improving the Roman military helped get you tasks such as expanding territories done. Being the commander of the army and navy must have meant that you were a great strategist. It was extremely smart of you to offer citizenship to anyone who joined the army or navy and doubling the size of the military. How did you think of that? Extending trade routes to Europe, Asia, and Africa must have increased the trade significantly. Did your Empire make a lot of profits from trade? How exactly did you better the living conditions inside the Empire? Who were allowed inside the schools that you founded? Were people excluded because of their gender or race? Did encouraging the arts and literature have a large affect on your people because they adored you? When architecture increased did the cities become more compact? Thank you for all of the great tasks you have succeeded in doing that have effected life everyday up un till this year (2002). I hope that you can and will write back when you get a chance. ...

Great Compromises essays

Great Compromises essays Would the United States of America ever be united if it were not for compromises? I would say the chances are slim. During the early years of the new nation, there was a lot of conflict and turmoil. During the Constitutional Convention of 1786, one of the most essential compromises of the early United States was the Great Compromise. Another compromise that arose at the Constitutional Convention was the Three Fifths Compromise. These two compromises helped to establish the early government issues of the nation. Another compromise that was crucial to the survival of this great nation is the Missouri Compromise. Together these three compromises enabled America to become united. In 1786, fifty-five delegates from twelve of the thirteen states attended the Constitutional Convention. These delegates were there to make changes to the Articles of Confederation, what they did not know was that they would compromise to form a constitution. James Madison from Virginia proposed a plan that called for a three branch government; legislative, judicial, and executive (Notes 2/16/01). This was intended to separate the powers, ensuring that no one group or individual could have too much authority. In this plan was also a system that allowed each branch to check the other. This was instated to protect the interest of the citizen. Much of the controversy surrounding the plan centered on legislation. The plan called for membership in the legislature to be based on population (Tindall Plan. Since the small states disagreed, they formed their own plan. Some fifteen delegates came together and submitted the New Jersey Plan. This plan called for a unicameral legisla ture that had equal representation. It called for each state to have one representative. This legislative branch would have the power to levy taxes, reg...