Servant Leadership in the Military

I know my Soldiers and I will always place their needs above my own. The Creed of a Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) validates how leaders in the Army have many characteristics of a servant leader. Servant leaders display qualities and characteristics that most people do not associate with a leader. Most people believe a leader is a command figure that gives orders and only cares about their power. Servant leaders dispel these myths by leading by example and placing their subordinates’ needs above their own. Servant leaders are selfless, humble, and generous.

The major change in leadership happened in 1970. An executive, Robert K. Greenleaf, was the first one to bring the words “servant” and “leader” together. This ignited a complete reconstruction of how leaders engaged with their subordinates. Leaders began moving away from the traditional hierarchical template. They began taking a more active role in their subordinates’ development. In doing so, they ensured there was no interference with the task given. This meant servant leaders need to cultivate trust with their subordinates. The changes that Robert Greenleaf implemented are still prevalent in today’s servant leadership model.

One common misconception about leadership is that leaders cannot connect with the personnel they are over. This myth comes from the assumption that leaders cannot enforce the standard if they are too friendly with the workers. Getting to know your workers and being a leader are not mutually exclusive. NCOs in the Army inspire Soldiers daily because they get to know their Soldiers. The NCO connects with them and understands the issues their personnel are dealing with at any given time. This is why the Army functions at such a high level. The Soldiers trust that the NCO has their best interest in mind. This gives Soldiers greater assurance that their leader makes the best decision possible. This dispels the myth that leaders can only rule with an iron fist and shows that you can lead by caring about your Soldiers.

Servant leaders uphold the standard and lead by example. The Creed of a Noncommissioned Officer states, “I am proud of the corps of Noncommissioned officers and will at all times conduct myself so as to bring credit upon the Corps, the Military Service, and my country regardless of the situation in which I find myself.” This statement is an example of how Army leaders set the standard through action. The statement shows how a Soldier’s actions not only affect them, but three other entities; the Corps, the Military, and their country. Although they are in a position of leadership, NCOs do not blindly bark orders at their Soldiers. All direction given comes from that NCO’s military experience and knowledge. Soldiers can trust that their NCO does not give an order they would not do themselves, or have not already done. NCOs set the attitude for other leaders to follow through their actions, no matter the given situation.

Additionally, in the creed, NCOs vow to earn the respect and confidence of others. This includes officers who rank above them, peers who are in the same position as them, and the Soldiers appointed to them. Servant leaders flip the traditional power pyramid upside down. Most people would think that if you are in a leadership position you have nothing left to prove. This is not the case for leadership in the Army. Servant leaders exist to serve the people. They gain the confidence of their subordinates and motivate them to accomplish any mission or task laid before them.

Lida Citroën describes military Servant leadership as a concept based on duty, service, and self-sacrifice. Servant leaders do not fit the typical mold of a leader. Much of the American population have not served in the military. Those people that have served showed self-sacrifice that others are unable or unwilling to give. This sense of duty and sacrifice are key to being a servant leader. The duty of a NCO is to develop their Soldiers. NCOs may have to sacrifice their time as Soldiers grow and develop their own leadership styles. Leaders must understand the people they are over are watching them. Those personnel are watching to grasp the standard. This is extremely important for leaders in the military because of the various situations those leaders face. In the last paragraph of the NCO Creed it states NCOs will earn the respect and confidence of the Soldiers and will not compromise their integrity. If you do not have the respect and confidence of your subordinates, the mission is not accomplished. It is clear the Army, and the entire military, is changing the common leadership style and moving toward an effective servant leadership.

References

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/servant-leadership-a-path-to-high-performance/2013/04/26/435e58b2-a7b8-11e2-8302-3c7e0ea97057_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.91728291b179
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-percentage-of-americans-have-served-in-the-military/
https://www.military.com/hiring-veterans/resources/understanding-military-servant-leadership-for-civilian-employers.html
https://www.skipprichard.com/9-qualities-of-the-servant-leader/

Did you like this example?

Servant Leadership in the Military. (2022, Feb 06). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Law Enforcement Approaches for Reducing Gun Violence

According to the United States Constitution, the Second Amendment states that, “a well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.' This specific amendment protects the right of citizens of the United States the right to bear arms. However, this Amendment granted individuals rights to possess firearms independent from serving in a militia. Thus meaning, the Second Amendment explores the aspect of gun ownership with regards to one’s liberty by granting a sense of security, rather than vulnerability. When concerning the right to possess firearms on a college campus, legislation varies from state to state granting individuals the ability to step foot on a college campus with a concealed weapons permit.

Sixteen states that ban carrying a concealed weapon on a college campus include California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina and Wyoming (Villalobos, 2018). The problematic issue is that college students do not have the necessary training required to respond to an active shooter situation if present on campus. By arming students, there is no effective guarantee that inexperienced students trying to take down an active shooter will succeed by neutralizing the shooter. In fact, students with a concealed weapons permit and firearm on standby will then make themselves known and become a target by the active shooter. The lack of training to effectively combat active shooters is immensely different opposed to the unmatched skills law enforcement personnel obtain when responding to dangerous situations, such as the presence of an active shooter being on campus. This is exactly why campus police are always making a presence throughout the campus by either walking around, driving squad cars in and out of lots, and engaging with students on campus.

Law enforcement officers’ profession outlines the ability to serve and protect the community and to mediate any given situation with no casualties. However, gun violence is a serious problem across the nation and poses as a critical threat to not only citizens, but faculty that teach various levels of higher education. The sense of security has been violated on numerous levels after incidents involving shootings on college campuses such as, the University of Texas massacre, the University of Virginia Tech massacre, Northern Illinois University shooting, and the Santa Monika shooting that left numerous casualties. It is apparent that these shootings have influenced legislatures to arm faculty, which can help save lives in a positive matter by helping to neutralize a threat before police arrive. For instance, in 2017, two states passed legislation to allow students and faculty to carry guns on college campuses, Arkansas and Georgia (Villalobos, 2018). Dependent on the state one may live in, the concealed weapon carry can either be promoted or prohibited on college campuses.

The rigorous rules and regulations made by legislatures decide whether this idea can be adopted on campuses as certain universities may fail to have a suitable police department that can exclusively respond to any given scenario involving crime, let alone an active shooter. This is specifically why Tennessee allows faculty members with licenses to carry weapons on campus, but the law does not extend to students or the general public (Villalobos, 2018). Therefore, this trend of allowing some form of concealed weapon carry can vary from state to state as the discretion is made souly upon universities if given the clearance at a state level first. The Columbine Colorado shooting that happened on April 20th, 1999, was a turning point for gun control and safety as many lives were taken by both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Their terrible acts of violence left twelve students dead as well as a teacher , while wounding close to twenty other individuals when their plan to place a self-detonating bomb in the cafeteria failed. After realizing that their plan did not go as planned after the timed explosion never took place, the perpetraitors then walked into Columbine high School and began firing rounds relentlessly at anyone in their path. Specifically, Harris and Klebold targeted athletes, minorities, and Christians as a form of selfish retaliation for being bullied. Once the massacre was deemed successful, both individuals committed suicide. It is evident that both Harris and Klebold had the criminal intent as well as the criminal act to cause this horrific damage.

The charge that would have been selected equally for these criminals would have been capital punishment because they both intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly harmed individuals. In a failure to detonate a bomb, which is considered both property damage and physical harm to others, this is classified as a crime against persons. In Colorado, this is classified as a Class I Felony with life imprisonment. This is applicable as these individuals committed serious crimes and killed innocent people who weren’t armed. Both possessed firearms unlawfully, which makes the matter worst. As well as, tried to purposely detonate a makeshift bomb. The totality of the circumstances promotes that they should serve two life sentences, if not seek the death penalty as a result of their actions. Mental insanity should not be deemed necessary as they premeditated their sophisticated plan. I believe that they knew the security system in the school was not safe and that they could kill the most people necessary in the least amount of time they had. They wanted to seek retaliation, which is why it is relevant that they wanted to show their figure of authority even though they were bullied throughout their high school career. They wanted to instill fear in the most violent way and demonstrate their figure of being an anarchist. When in fact they were murderers and didn’t care if they took anyone’s lives no matter what the cost was.

I though it was ridiculous that it took close to forty-five minutes for law enforcement and swat units to show up and mediate the situation after the fact, when everyone was already a casualty. This situation proves that school security is a top priority in not only college campuses, but schools across the nation. There should be two to four armed personnel stationary in every school depending on the school size to deflect any situation like Columbine. These individuals can range from retired law enforcement officers to retired military with extensive training in firearms. If police departments do not have the extra manpower to place their officers within a school, this is the best way to solve the issue at state. This will not only further overtime but help neutralize any potential threat. Overall, the Columbine massacre has helped reconstruct safe security measures while promoting safer school policy in a positive manner.

Did you like this example?

Law Enforcement Approaches for Reducing Gun Violence. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Inequality in the U.S. Criminal Justice System

Disparities in the justice system have been an issue in our society for decades, dissipating our faith in the system. The constitution of the United States claims that everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law, the U.S. criminal justice system is supposed to be an equal opportunity for all individuals, but that is not the case for lower-class or working-class individuals compared to upper-class individuals. Conflict theory: claims society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources. It holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. It proposes that laws and norms reflect the interests of powerful members of society. It suggests that who or what is labeled as deviant depends on who has the most power. Consequently, lower-class or working-class individuals face much more discrimination in the justice system, are not well informed or educated on their rights, and don’t have enough resources compared to upper-class individuals.

Class-based double standards operate in virtually every criminal justice setting, including police behavior, jury selection, and sentencing. The double standards themselves inflict even greater costs on society by compromising the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and by aggravating class divisions nationally. For the same crimes, the poor are more likely than the well-off to get arrested and, if arrested, more likely to be charged and, if charged, more likely to be convicted and, if convicted, more likely to be sentenced to prison and, if sentenced to prison, more likely to receive a long sentence. Many corporate interests donate heavily to both political parties to ensure access to legislators and favorable action on their legislation, regardless of which party wins the election.

The result of this influence can be tax breaks, less regulation, or limits on the extent of punishment. Without some type of disruptive counterforce, the same distortions of crime and criminality are likely to continue in the media because they help divert attention from the actions of questionable corporate citizens like. Also, although real people convicted of felonies lose their voting rights, corporations convicted of multiple felonies lose none of their political rights—and in some cases try to lobby Congress to weaken the law under which they were convicted. Defendants with publicly appointed attorneys are more likely to be detained before trial as well as more likely to be jailed. Facing time and resource limitations, publicly funded attorneys often resort to plea bargains: 90 to 95 percent of defendants represented by a public defender plead guilty. Throughout each level of the criminal justice system, from arrest to sentencing, the likelihood of being treated leniently by the system is greater the better off one is economically.

The poor are treated more harshly in the courts with a poor defendant being more likely to be found guilty than a wealthier defendant. Two crucial factors influence the outcome. The first is the ability of the accused to be free on bail prior to trial, and the second is access to legal counsel able to devote enough time to the case. Since bail and good quality legal counsel cost money, it is hardly surprising that those from lower socio-economic backgrounds fair badly in the court system. The Sixth Amendment requires that “[I]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” In Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court found the Sixth Amendment right to counsel to be fundamental, noting, “In our adversary system of criminal justice, any person … who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.” Despite these words, many defendants who cannot afford counsel in the United States go unrepresented or do not receive adequate and meaningful representation.

In 2004, 41 years after the ruling in Gideon, the American Bar Association published a report titled “Gideon’s Broken Promise,” which concluded that “indigent defense in the United States remains in a state of crisis, resulting in a system that lacks fundamental fairness and places poor persons at constant risk of wrongful conviction. Although people do see some corporate crimes as being as serious as street crime and as deserving of punishment and incarceration, these sentiments are not reflected in the criminal law, because of intervention in the law-making process by the wealthy and the power elite. Most of the harmful and illegitimate behavior of the rich and powerful has not traditionally been defined as criminal, but nearly all the harmful and deviant behavior perpetrated by the poor and the powerless is defined as violating the criminal law. These omitted relations of class justice reveal the importance of two systemic operations in the administration of criminal justice: “selective enforcement” and “differential application” of the law. Selective enforcement of the law refers to the fact that most harms perpetrated by the affluent are “beyond incrimination” (Kennedy 1970). Harms committed by the politically and economically powerful that do come within the purview of criminal law are typically downplayed, ignored, or marginalized through differential application. Prosecutions of corporations are difficult because their financial resources give them access to significant legal expertise. In contrast, the poor are represented by a public defender who frequently has a high caseload. Increasingly, criminal justice not only reflects the class biases in society, but also helps create and reinforce them. The United States continues to enlarge its framework of social control against the poor in society while the rich, especially corporations, continue to grow.

The problem of inequality and the growing gap between the rich and the poor are less frequently part of the “official knowledge” about crime, but they are important nevertheless. Depictions of crime that focus blame on individuals rather than on society also help prevent questions about inequality and the size of corporate personas. The criminal justice system rarely applies its tough-on-crime rhetoric to the executive who harms employees by cutting corners on workplace safety, who knowingly markets unsafe products, or who causes environmental damage to help boost corporate profits. Thus, crime control theory and practice evidence a legal and structural class bias by concentrating the coercive power of the state on the behaviors of the poor. Although certain behaviors may cause widespread social harm, the criminal law does not forbid abuses of power in the realm of economic domination, governmental control, and denial of human rights (Simon 1999, p. 38). For example, being a habitual offender is against the law in most areas, where “three strikes and you’re out” applies to street criminals. But habitual offender laws do not apply to corporate persons that can repeatedly commit serious crimes without being subjected to habitual offender statutes. National crime policies have veered toward harsher punishments, but not more effective ones. Although there is little reason or evidence to suggest that the situation has changed over the past thirty years, the topic is rarely studied and is in danger of slipping from the consciousness of many criminologists.

On June 15th, 2013 there was an incident involving a wealthy 16-year-old that killed four people while drunk driving, his name was Ethan Couch. Couch’s case was dismissed by the court and Judge which decided to sentence Couch to 10 years of probation instead of the 20 year jail sentence he could have received. The reason for this was because Couch’s defense attorney determined that Couch was suffering with something called affluenza. Affluenza is defined as a psychological malaise supposedly affecting wealthy young people, symptoms of which include a lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a sense of isolation. His lawyers successfully argued he was intellectually 18 but had an emotional age of 12. He was able to walk away from the crash with only bruises, minor injuries and eventually, 10 years’ probation. Couch’s terrible actions left four people dead and one boy completely paralyzed. His blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit for an adult and there were traces of Valium in his system when he lost control of his pickup truck and plowed into a group of people helping a woman whose car had stalled.

Another incident involving drunk driving also occurred in Texas. However, this case resulted in an extremely different outcome. Arellano killed a pregnant mother and her unborn baby while drunk driving. Arellano received two counts; intoxicated manslaughter and intoxicated assault. Both counts were the same that Couch, the ‘affluenza teen’ had received. Arellano lived a substantially different life as opposed to Ethan Couch. Arellano and his family illegally crossed the U.S. – Mexico border two years before the incident. He spoke little English and knew very little about the U.S. court system. His case was sent to the adult court almost immediately. He was given two choices; the first was to accept a guilty plea and receive 20 years in prison with the chance of probation after 10 years, or have his trial sent to a jury with the possibility of receiving 50 years in prison. Arellano chose the guilty plea. These cases highlight how socioeconomic status greatly affect the outcomes in court, even in the same state and dealing with the same charges.

Additional resources should be invested into studying (and prosecuting) white-collar crime. The consciousness of all citizens should be raised about this set of harms they are not likely to see on television, and they could ask their representatives for better laws or the equal application of tough on-crime principles. Legislators and policymakers could turn their attention to some of the more serious harms in society and start to seek solutions based on more comprehensive information. Reiman (1998a) suggests that “we must transform the equal right to counsel into the right to equal counsel” so that the quality of legal representation—and thus the quality of justice—depends less on one’s social class than it currently does. Gertner favors eliminating mandatory minimums, restoring discretion in sentencing, and offering judges a robust menu of options from a list of evidence-based rehabilitative initiatives. The legal system has double-standards when it comes to someone’s socioeconomic class. To efficiently target crime, we need effective social services, early education initiatives, access to health care and mental services, and more housing job opportunities.

Did you like this example?

Inequality in the U.S. Criminal Justice System. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Influence of English Concept about Law Enforcement in Producing the United States Modern Law

English concept about law enforcement were instrumental in producing the United States modern police. The influences that the English law had on the law enforcement in the United States was when the Great Britain started bringing their own customs and laws. These invaders intermarried with those they conquered outcome was the Angelo-Saxon. The unit of civil administration (10 families also known as tithing) were self-governed and self-policed. If they’ve caught criminals, they would give them a chance to redeem themselves from the crimes otherwise they would’ve punished them severely.

As time went on the tithing system was establishing the principle of collective responsibility for maintaining the local law and order by those 10 families. Around this time when they had hue and cry this method would not work with current criminal justice system of the United States. Many reasons for example most civilians would do the bystander effect. Recording on their cell phones or the fear of having any involvement. I wouldn’t consider the hue and cry method to completely not work, but the percentage would be very small.

However, if one person from the group is caught committing a crime the rest of their group will be punished as well so all groups had to watch one another. Around this time society was simple and the two law that were made was for laws against murder and theft. In 1066 a Norman by the name of William conquered England he was concerned on the national security creating 55 military districts each headed by a Norman shire-reeve whom only answers to the crown. Normans men also decided to modify the tithing system requiring loyalty to the king law and mutual local responsibility in maintaining the peace also known as the Frankpledge system. William decided shire-reeves should serve as police officers, selected his own judges who traveled handling cases, and separating law enforcement and judicial roles.

The twelfth century influences were when Williams son Henry I ruled English 1100 to 1135 issuing the Leges Henrici document that made law enforcement a public matter and separated offenses into felonies and misdemeanors. When Henry I resign Henry II became king in 1154 establishing the jury system calling it an inquisition requiring people to hand information to panel of judges to determined innocence or guilt. So, for the next 100 years kings designated enforcement officers to meet needs. At some point a man by the name of John became king and abused his power. Groups of barons and church leaders drew up a list of right and the king refused. Since the king refused twice the barons and church leaders raised an army then forced him to meet demands that’s when the king decided to sign a Magna Carta a decisive document contained 63 articles that checked royal power and placed the king under the law.

In 1748 Henry Fielding was a multiskilled man being a lawyer, novelist, and playwright was appointed chief magistrate of Bow Street. Fielding exercised general leniency and wrote books and pamphlets poverty-stricken inhabitants calling for an understanding and lessening of their suffering. During this time in London robbers and thieves moved freely looting and rioting. Fielding then established the Bow Street Runners. I believe the Fielding and the Bow Runner was the most significant influence on law enforcement because even though they were amateurs the volunteer force was proven successful. The London Metropolitan police also known as bobbies or peelers were uniformed for easier identification and their duty was crime prevention and patrol.

The London mob assembled a Parliament attacking and killing a police sergeant and critically injuring two constables. Juries of London citizens heard the clear evidence of the indicative of murder returned the verdict justifiable homicide. The late 19 century women were finally allowed to join the police force even though they were limited on their duties. The first U.S. police forces were developed in Boston, New York, And Los Angeles. Boston (1636) established six-man force to guard the city they were required to call out the time of day and weather. In New York (1643) was once called the New Amsterdam had the rattle watch group of citizens patrolling at night and armed with rattles to call for help the system was very effective.

In Los Angeles (1850) the city established police forces of 100 volunteers called the Los Angeles Rangers later they were replaced by Los Angeles City Guards who maintained the peace. The final change in the police force was in 1869 when the voluntary organization was changed to a paid department. In the south the southern colonies amid concerns about the potential dangers by oppressed slave. They established law forbidding slaves for have weapons, assembling groups, or resisting arrest. The blacks started to outnumber the white colonists and feared about the potential dangers, so they created the slave patrols the special enforcement.

Officers who could enter plantations and break into slaves’ dwellings, search slaves’ person and possessions at will, and beat and even kill any slaves found violating the slave code.

In the 18th and 19th century the slave patrols had black officers to keep the African American in line by enforcing the Jim Crow laws supporting segregation. As the years transpire the evolution of law enforcement agencies local, state, and federal. The five levels of law enforcement are the U.S Marshals the oldest American federal law enforcement agency whom protects the President and providing security for U.S. courtrooms. Immigration & Naturalization Services administered federal immigration law and regulations including the Immigration and Nationality Act. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has many responsibilities this level of law enforcement is considered the most important because of the special services they provide and the having jurisdiction on over 4000 federal crimes that has been categorized in 200 categories.

Bureau of Prisons whom are responsible for holding inmates and having custody for individuals that violated federal law. Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are responsible for inhibiting drug trafficking and smuggling. All five interact with each other by collaboration and helping one another with solving investigations. In frontier regions the law and order were absent causing 500 settlers to take the matter of the law in their own hands making it the vigilante movement. Since there was no respectable sheriff or court in South Carolina the respectable settlers organized regulators vigilantes to attack and break up outlaw gangs and restore order it became the American tradition that sweep to the Pacific.

The tribal law enforcement also known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs oversees the Indian Country, they’re responsible for 55.7 million acres and operates 42 agencies. The agencies provide wide ranges of public safety services and responds and engages to crime prevention activities, warrants, traffic, and serving court papers. The tribal areas started improving the criminal justice system helping law enforcement navigate the federal law and court decisions because of the increasing levels rampant crime. The congress passed the Tribal Law and Order Act. The officers were provided better access to criminal sharing databases and authorizing guidelines for handling violence and assault crimes and more training to improve evidence collections and conviction rates.

The 3 eras of policing were the political, reform, and the community eras has progressed throughout history to meet responsibilities. Policing is a very demanding, intricate and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teaching everyone what is needed to know what does and does not work. As for the last question “Do you agree with the consensus, disagree – why?” I agree with how the evolution of law was created, the choosing of which part of the law to use, how it blends well enough to understand the process and rules as society we all should obey by. However, with technology and how the future is shifting we should always take opinions and ideas in consideration to better the next generations.

Did you like this example?

Influence Of English Concept About Law Enforcement In Producing The United States Modern Law. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Views on Homicide Control in Us

There is a reason why guns have been used in wars for years, it is because they are extremely lethal and good at one thing, killing. The topic of gun control has been debated about for years and there is no perfect solution to trying to save people from being killed or injured by a gun, but giving people more guns isn’t going to do any good. Each year the US has tens of thousands of gun-related deaths whether it’s mass shootings, other homicides, or suicide, the point is that we are losing lives to these lethal weapons. We need a ban on guns or at least stricter gun laws to let people feel safer and not be afraid to go to school. If we can accomplish this then there will be fewer and fewer gun-related deaths each year. The second amendment allows the right for people to bear arms Mass shootings are some of the most horrific events to happen in human history.

According to ABC News, a mass shooting defined by the FBI is “... an in which four or more people, not including the suspect, are killed” (Keneally). Since 1982 there have been over 70 mass shootings in the US (Chuck). From those shootings, 82% of the guns used to commit this horrible crime have been bought legally (Chuck). If there were to have been no way for these people to get access to these guns legally, there would have been significantly fewer shootings. In an article written by Dylan Matthews, he states “Mayors Against Illegal Guns, analyzing FBI data, found that fewer than 1 percent of homicide victims in 2010 were killed in incidents where four or more people died.” This information illustrates how mass shootings, with how much harm they cause, are only one percent of all gun homicides. The amount of violence that comes from guns in the US is unimaginably terrible. According to EveryTown over 100 Americans every day are killed and injured by guns and it doesn’t only affect the victim, but also their friends and family.

EveryTown states that “Access to a gun increases the risk of death by homicide by two times” and “The U.S. gun homicide rate is 25 times that of other high-income countries.” (“Gun Violence in America”). Every year almost two-thousand children die due to gun homicide which mostly occurs at home and is usually connected to family violence. According to the CDC, the second highest leading cause of death for teenagers in the US is homicide. Every year preventable deaths are caused by a combination of violence and extremely lethal weapons. According to “Medical News Today” suicide is one of the top ten leading cause in death and makes 1.6 percent of US deaths killing over 40,000 people a year (Nichols). Everyone goes through hard times and some resort to suicide to solve their problems which is not the path anyone should ever try to take. Although firearms are only used 6% of the time in suicide attempts, they make up over half of all suicide deaths in the US (“Firearm Suicide in the United States”).

The article “Firearm Suicide in the United States” proclaims “Of the most commonly used methods of self-harm, firearms are by far the most lethal, with a fatality rate of approximately 85 percent. Conversely, less than 5 percent of people who attempt suicide using other methods will die, and the vast majority of all those who survive do not go on to die by suicide.” This shows that, although guns are not that common in most suicide attempts when they are used the individual will most likely die than doing anything else to attempt suicide. Guns should never get in the hands of mentally ill people due to what the gun could do to not only the individual, but the other people around him. Some people that advocate for less gun control laws explain that guns are a tool people use for self-defense. They say that they need guns to be able to defend themselves from threatening situations. The NPR states that only 48% of gun owners own a gun primarily of self-defense purposes.

While almost half of gun owners say they own their gun mainly for protection, Samantha Ralphelson shows that between 2007 and 2011, in less than 0.9 percent of crimes people tried to defend themselves with a gun (“How Often Do People Use Guns In Self-Defense?”). For every justifiable homicide where a citizen protected themselves, there are around 36 criminal homicides (Gun Control - ProCon). If only half of all gun owners mainly use their weapon for protection, and there are 36 times more criminal acts with guns than self-defense acts with guns then we shouldn’t allow this kind of access to guns. Guns are dangerous and giving people easier access to them isn’t going to solve or help anything, if we want to make an impact and try and do something to help our country, we need to push harder for stricter gun control laws and maybe even a gun ban. Guns are giving people with mental-health issues a more lethal way to commit suicide which also has a huge impact on friends and family members. Guns are also ending the lives of children and is a big contributor to why homicide is the second leading cause of death for teens. Kids are scared to go to school after school shootings and mass shootings are getting worse and worse. Why do we need guns if all they’re going to do is damage our society.

Did you like this example?

Views On Homicide Control In Us. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Judicial Ethics in Criminal Justice

Contents

Body
Conclusion
Bibliography

The criminal justice professional I decided to research was Judge James Best for the wrongdoings and ethical violations and dilemmas present in the case. Now, I say judge James Best and you probably have no idea who he is, so I’m going to explain some brief history on judge Best so you can have some background on him before anything else. Judge James Best of the Eighteenth Judicial District Court for the parishes of Iberville, Pointe Coupee, and West Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana. Now, speaking about what did Judge Best do wrong and or what ethics did he violate because we don’t hear anything on the news about judges as much as we hear from other law enforcement jobs. We see on the news in today’s world how only the bad and or a juicy story to make it on the news. Back to judge Best “The Commission filed formal charges against Judge Best on May 20, 1997.

Initially, the formal charges against Judge Best consisted of four separate charges. However, the Commission dropped Charge I. The Commission conducted a preliminary investigation of the factual allegations surrounding Charge I and concluded that they were not supported by clear and convincing evidence” (FindLaw's). Hope you can see that even if they dropped the first charge, they still charged him with four. I will now go over the four charges so you can see his wrongdoings and how he violated the ethics of the job. According to our textbook Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice it says that attorneys tend to keep their head down and their opinions to themselves even when judges are clearly in the wrong (Pollock, J. M.). Like a great man Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power” (quoteresearch).

Body

Since charge I was dropped we’ll being going onto charge II judge Best was accused of making public comments concerning two separate pending matters and according to the judge code of conduct “A judge should not make public comment on the merits of a matter pending or impending in any court” (Code of Conduct). Breaking one of the rules in the code of conduct I believe is a wrongdoing and an ethical violation. Judges are not allowed to share with the public things about a case that are still pending that’s why “The Commission charged Judge Best with violating canons 1, 2, and 3 A(8) of the Code of Judicial Conduct, and article V, section 25 C of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974” (FindLaw's). finishing the second charge we go now into the third charge Judge James Best was charged with. Judge Best was charged with violating canons 1, 2, and 3 A (1) and (2) of the Code of Judicial Conduct and article V, section 25 C, of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. Now, you ask yourself why, well judge Best took a poll of the audience as to whether they thought the defendant, who was representing himself, was guilty of battery. When we come to see battery the person could either be guilty or not guilty. That’s where the judge has to take all the evidence into account and see by what the lawyers are saying and what the jury says if he was guilty or not. Why would knowing he could be guilty or not guilty and that it requires your experience and knowledge to determine that would you give it out for the audience to vote whether his is or is not guilty.

The problem I see here that if you ask the audience for their opinion it’s going to be based on assumption. Why do I say assumption because if you’re dealing with someone with a battery charge on a woman and your audience are woman and other people that’ve had bad experiences like son, family, and or friend of someone who has been battered is going to be one sided. Plus, another point is the audience tends not hear what goes against their beliefs and or what they see. “Do not assume anything! This is easy to say, but sometimes tough to do in the moment. It can seem painless to make an assumption from reading someone’s email, but the real question is what is your assumption, and is it correct? That is where the problem lies” (Hunter, M.). Seeing the fourth charge Judge James Best had was for what he said to a juvenile he was charged with violating canons 3 A(2) and (3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct and article V, section 25 C of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. He was charged with this because “Judge Best then released Juvenile P and said: Get over there.2 I can tell you (Juvenile P's mother) what you need to do with him, you need to take him and stick him upside down in a trash can and haul him out to the yard. He is belligerent, he mouthed off at you the whole time you testified. I heard what you (Juvenile P) said under my breath, [s]on, under your breath. You (juvenile P) need to be taken behind a shed and whipped, that's what you need. And I'm just sorry the law doesn't give me the authority to do it right here in this courtroom. ? Yeah, you sneer. ? You're a punk is what you are. ? Go ahead, cry? ? Ma'am (Juvenile P's mother), you got a real problem on your hands” (FindLaw's).

Conclusion

In conclusion what we come to see it that judge James Best committed wrongdoings and violated the ethics of a judge in charge II, a judge shall perform the duties of office impartially and diligently. A judge ought to abstain from public feedback about a pending or impending intending in any court and have to require comparable abstention on the phase of court docket personnel challenge to his or her route and control. In charge III judge best admits that he was wrong for asking the courtroom audience to vote on the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Judge best said that he didn’t use the audience feedback on the decision he made but it still seems unethical to ask the courtroom audience for their opinion. In charge IV a judge should maintain their decorum, their patience and treat everyone in the court room with respect. Judge Best attitude and decisions were not within the judge code of conduct and not ethically right we what judge Best did wrong and for that the following was ordered for judge Best. “For the reasons stated above, it is ordered that Judge James Best of the Eighteenth Judicial District Court for the parishes of Iberville, Pointe Coupee, and West Baton Rouge, be and he is hereby publicly censured for violating canons 1, 2, 3 A(1), (2), (3), and (8), and article V, section 25 C of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. ? It is further ordered that Judge Best reimburse the Louisiana Judiciary Commission $1,575.56, which is the amount of costs incurred during the prosecution and investigation of this case” (FindLaw's).

Bibliography

FindLaw's Supreme Court of Louisiana case and opinions. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://caselaw.findlaw.com/la-supreme-court/1430350.html
Code of Conduct for United States Judges. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/code-conduct-united-states-judges
Hunter, M. (2019, March 29). The Problem with Assumptions. The Sales Hunter | Sell With Confidence and Integrity. https://thesaleshunter.com/the-problem-with-assumptions/
Pollock, J. M. (2019). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
quoteresearch, Author. “Nearly All Men Can Stand Adversity, But If You Want To Test a Man's Character, Give Him Power.” Quote Investigator, 21 Nov. 2018, quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/14/adversity/.

Did you like this example?

Judicial Ethics in Criminal Justice. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Criminal Justice Prosecutor Essay

I am a criminal prosecutor writing to express my concern regarding the current methods of training for prosecutors in law school for the purpose of improving our criminal justice system. America knows that our criminal justice system needs reform. We are aware of the discrimination and targeting of people of color and those of lower-class. However, prosecutors are rarely mentioned when talking about our criminal justice system (we usually only talk about our police, sentence laws, and prisons). Prosecutors actually have the most powerful role in the criminal justice system and many don't realize how big the consequences to their decisions are. As a former law school student, I am aware of the outdated ‘tough-on-crime’ approach that is primarily taught today. We are taught to avoid risk at all cost. This method has failed to address overincarceration and that criminalizes too many individuals struggling with mental illness, drug addiction or the adversity of poverty.

We are the most incarcerated nation on the planet. We spend 80 billion dollars on our prison system, a system that we know is failing. This money could instead go to education, health care, mental health treatment, improving our public facilities. Yet we continue draining it into this system because innocent individuals are thrown in jail when there are other options.

A few years ago, a black eighteen-year-old was arrested for petty crime. His name was Christopher, and he was a senior at a local public school. He had his mind set on college, but worked a minimum wage job, and his parents were not able to provide for his schooling financially. In a series of bad decisions, he stole 20 laptops from a school and sold them online. This one bad decision led to his arrest and thirty felony charges. It led to the possibility of years of jail time and a criminal record that would stay with him for the rest of his life. People like Cristopher enter the criminal justice system in hope of our help, yet law school teaches us to turn them down. If another prosecutor were to decide Christopher’s outcome, they would likely have arraigned him, making it a hundred times more difficult for him to get a job.

Yet when I took on Christopher’s case, I realized that a youthful mistake shouldn’t follow a young person for the rest of their life, stopping them from getting an education or landing a decent job. I chose not to arraign Christopher. Instead, I worked with Christopher on being accountable for his actions. He did community service and wrote an essay on his wrong doings. We were able to recover 75 percent of the computers and set up a financial plan for those not recovered. Today, Christopher is a manager of a large bank in Boston who makes more money than I do. My decision as a prosecutor led to him being able to reach his full capacity and his success. However, there are thousands of young adults like Christopher locked up in prison because they did not receive the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. America needs prosecutors to recognize their situations and protect them.

The truth is that law schools in this country are not really doing the job they need to prepare us to be making the life or death decisions about people. Prosecutors are taught to go about their cases with a method that is actually counterproductive in achieving the goal that we want, which is safer communities. The shift from law school to the professional world is far too rapid. I had eight weeks out of law school before I began my first case. During those eight weeks, I had no hands-on experience with communities I would be prosecuting. I was oblivious to the struggles and the motives of these individuals, as well as the chain of events that placed them in the chair in front of me. Most all other prosecutors are unaware of these things. After this eight weeks, law school students like myself start telling people whether or not to go to jail. As citizens of this community, it is crucial for prosecutors to learn more about the massive impact they have on society.

In order to alter the fate of our criminal justice system, we must implement a new curriculum that will help attorneys move away from our nation’s incarceration-driven approaches. It is the duty of law schools to develop needed training for prosecutors to promote engagement in prevention, alternatives to incarceration, and a deeper understanding of the life experiences of those who find their way into the justice system. I wholeheartedly hope that this council will recognize the importance of taking these measures and advocates for reform in our law schools.

Did you like this example?

Criminal Justice Prosecutor Essay. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Domestic Violence and Social Support

The present outbreak of domestic violence in America endangers not only our physical well-being but as well as the veracity of fundamental communal establishments such as the family, the societies where we live, and our health care organization (Mercy, Rosenberg, Powell, Broome, & Roper, 1993).

Domestic violence is a subject that is profoundly personal for me as I was a victim. Domestic violence abuse can be corporeal, poignant, sexual, financial manipulation and negligence and can include assault and battery with a deadly weapon, illegal trespass, disorderly demeanor, intimidating, abduction, and observer coercion (FindLaw, n.d.). Domestic violence accounts for 21% of all violent oppression and a greater fraction of females were victims than men (US Census Bureau, 2014). Every year, at least 3.3 million children are at risk of experiencing parental violence (Edleson, 1999).

Reported studies have shown that children who witness domestic violence develop problems in two main categories; behavioral and emotional functioning, and cognitive functioning and attitudes (Edleson, 1999). Children with difficulties in behavioral and emotional functioning display more hostile, rebellious, apprehensive, and repressed behavior (Edleson, 1999). Furthermore, amplified violence exposure is linked with reduced cognitive functioning (Edleson, 1999).

The consequences of domestic violence, both in the long and the short-term can be tremendously damaging to the physical, emotional and monetary well-being of the victim. A tenacious topic is the result on the mental health of children who witness marital abuse. While most domestic violence pursues recurring examples, the influences can be particularly demoralizing to all immersed accomplices in the long run.

Subsequently, numerous procedures have been implemented by most countries to fight domestic violence, from presenting awareness about the controversy impending, to prompting victims to come out and communicate their quandary (Mercy et al., 1993). Perpetrators are frequently either penalized by stringent rulings, or recommended counseling and rehabilitation, specifically for isolated, less harsh occurrences (Mercy et al., 1993).

Current interventions and programs include assessment instruments to detect women who have been abused (Wathen & Macmillan, 2003). Approaches that direct male batterers only or with their companions signify the biggest group of interventions (Wathen & Macmillan, 2003).

One survey discovered that a procedure for treatment of battered women displayed some basic helpful changes, such as referrals for additional intervention services (Wathen & Macmillan, 2003).

A study of the use of domestic safety orders and an advanced experimental study of permissible assistance and therapy presented favorable outcomes that these permissible interventions can decrease domestic violence (Wathen & Macmillan, 2003). Additionally, most state laws are no longer limited to a female victim and male offender; they now pertain to couples of any gender order, including same-sex couples (Hall, 2014). Since I reside in California, I chose to research some of the different policies and punishments for domestic violence offenders in California and in Arizona. What I found is that California usually handles spousal abuse more earnestly than other types of abuse (FindLaw, n.d.).

Physical injury on a significant other can result in serving a few years or 25 years depending on if the perpetrator is charged with a misdemeanor or felony based on California’s three strikes law (FindLaw, n.d.).

Spousal battery is considered a misdemeanor and can result in fines of up to $2,000 and up to one year in county confinement (FindLaw, n.d.). Physical injury on a spouse however, can be felonies punishable by two to four years in confinement and a fine of up to $6,000 (FindLaw, n.d.).

Although the consequences of domestic violence may seem punitive enough to some, some feel there should be harsher punishment and rehabilitation facilities that specialize in domestic violence. There is no solitary solution for domestic violence; many factors come into play. Some recommendations and solutions that would address domestic violence and improve marriage and family relationships are better reporting habits, more effective treatment programs, collective law enforcement tactics, home inspection and family provision services, and comprehensive assessments in health care venues. The majority of research on domestic violence is shown amongst women who are now receiving domestic violence assistance and the quantity of women who do not pursue services or admit domestic abuse significantly exceeds those who do obtain assistance Aldridge, 2013).

The National Domestic Violence

Hotline (n.d.), provides several resources for victims of domestic violence such as, beneficial conflict solution, placing limitations, communication, consent, and trust. According to Dr. King (2018), an experienced psychologist and domestic violence activist, valuable domestic violence therapy endorses change for batterers and rebuilding for domestic abuse victims. Dr. King’s book which is featured on her website, provides insight on how emotional and verbal abuse come from the abuser’s defenselessness, not authority, therefore helping the partners in taking the initial step on ending the progression of domestic abuse (King, 2018).

Even though developments in information and comprehension about the influences of domestic violence on females' lives, international studies on violence toward women displays the need for examination that not only stations women in the limelight in research practices, but also includes them more collectively in authentic discourse about their incidents, along with their independent standpoints (Aldridge, 2013). This is primarily the case for disregarded and communally omitted women sufferers of domestic violence, like those who are not recognized and who endure disparaging relationships desolated or with limited external backing (Aldridge, 2013).

Data from studies propose that women's ability to reach out are jeopardized by several significant influences, and that these are also shown in the conflicts amongst small and large studies and awareness of the effect of domestic violence on women (Aldridge, 2013). This is predominantly relevant because the methods for detecting uncorroborated women sufferers of domestic violence, enlisting them to research studies and urging them to expose abuse in order for them to make critical evolutions from casualty to survivor, are oppressed with virtually limitless predicaments and disputes that are held up in the connection between micro and macro realms, between women's individual knowledge as the victims of domestic violence, and the impact of abundant wider societal, ethical and economic gestures.

Women are programmed into thinking they cannot live without their abusive partners, but they need to realize that there are so many resources and ways to get out of abusive relationships. The destruction an abusive relationship can cause is sometimes hard to come back from, but putting yourself and your children first, is the best thing to do.

Surviving an abusive relationship has taught many women how to be content and self-assured without being reliant on a relationship.

Did you like this example?

Domestic Violence and Social Support. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Analysis the Main Principles of Causation and Difficulties to Apply them

Contents

Introduction

Introduction

The broad definition we can give of Causation is the acts of the defendant must be in relationship with the result perpetuated. To clarify the definition, we shall analyse it as the causal link between the actions of the defendant and the results of his actions in order to establish an offence. The criminal law established a set of principles that will I will be analysed in 4 different parts. Firstly, Factual Causation, Secondly Legal Causation, thirdly the eggshell skull rule and last but not least the Novus Actus Interveniens. This paper analyses the main principles of causation and how difficult is to apply them.

Factual Causation

The factual causation is the first element that shall be applied in order to establish it. The ‘but for’ test first applied in the case of R v Pagett [1983] . The defendant shot a police officer who was trying to arrest him. The defendant used as a shield a pregnant woman to defence himself from the police officers. The office open shot as a result to kill the pregnant woman. At his trial, the defendant found not guilty of murder but convicted for a lesser offence (manslaughter). The question that judges make was whether the hostage would not have died ‘but for’ the defendants’ actions. In the case the factual causation applied as: If the accused had not fired first, the constables would not have fired consequently the hostage will not have died.

However, there is an exception in the case of R v White [1910] , In that case, the defendant put poison in the victim’s drink, with having the intention to kill her. The victim drunk a couple of drink and get to sleep. The medical evidence showed that the victim died from a heart attack but not for the poisoning. The defendant present to the court evidence to prove his innocence and stated that he did not have the intention to kill her. Therefore, there was no factual causation and consequently no murder. The outcome of this case was that even if the prosecution fails to establish factual causation, then the accused cannot be liable for an offence on that, but he may be still liable for another offence.

In R v Pagett , Goff LJ stated ‘the judge to direct… in simple terms, in accordance with the legal principles which they have to apply. It would then fall to the jury to decide the relevant factual issues which, identified with reference to those legal principles, will lead to the conclusion whether or not the prosecution has established the guilt of the accused of the crime of which he is charged’.

In Attorney General’s Reference (No. 4 of 1980) , the court held that a failure of the prosecution identifying the cause was not relevant to an acquittal. The court provided that the jury shall be satisfied with the fact that each of the defendant’s actions was sufficient to kill, then they shall convict.

Professor David Robertson has established a five-step test for 'but for' causation. First, the injured party identifies the particular loss for which he is seeking damages . Second, the defendant's breach that allegedly caused the loss must be identified . Third , one must imagine the state of the world if the defendant had performed as promised, but with no other changes. Fourth, one must determine whether the particular loss still would have occurred in the hypothetical state of the world identified in step three . The fifth and final step answers the question of whether there was but-for causation based on the conclusion reached in the fourth step.

It is important to view the factual causation from a philosophical approach. L. Green distrusted all tests of causation. He banished the but-for test from the domain of duty-risk analysis because it was an evaluative, not scientific, test . Green felt that causal connection should be focused not narrowly on the substandard aspect of defendant's conduct, but broadly on the defendant's full pattern of behaviour in its environmental context. Green distrusted 'causation' and its connotations that, in the interest of clarifying the task at each stage of the analysis, he excised the word 'cause' from his phrasing of both the causal-relation and scope-of-duty agendas.

In the other hand, Wex Malone disagreed with Green's atomistic view of factual cause and both of Green's causal corollaries. Malone was aware that the but-for test is too frail a reed to support factual causation in every case. The but-for test cannot identify the cause of harm in two broad categories of cases, namely, those involving omissions and multiple sufficient causes.

Legal Causation

The main principle in legal causation known as the test of the beyond de minimis. It means that ‘‘the contribution of the accused to the result is more than minimal.’’ . which means that if the defendant's act is too trivial as a cause of the proscribed result, too remote to be deemed to have contributed to the result, then the defendant cannot be held to have caused so. However, the cause need not be a substantial cause as this constitutes another test.

In R v Hennigan held that a cause which provides more than a minimal contribution, however small, as long as it's miles more than de minimis, will be sufficient to make get up causation. It wants not to be substantial. The test had been confirmed in R v. Cato , where the defendant's management of heroin to his buddy who died of an overdose, notwithstanding he did not, changed into deemed to be a reason greater than de minimis and led the court to convict him of manslaughter. Also, R v. Malcherek : “it need hardly be added that it need not be substantial to render the assailant guilty” concerning the cause of the result.

The main problem arising, in my opinion, is that such check may encompass causes which might be so small of their contribution to the proscribed result, that one may want to hardly ever say that such purpose was sufficient and now not too remote to the consequence. And this will must do with the problem of the courts to draw the road among what is greater than de minimis and what is no longer (see for instance R v. Adams ).

That is why another main test has been established: this is the test of substantial cause. In Canada, the decision in Harbottle v. The Queen applied this test, holding that the cause needs to be the “substantial and integral cause of death” .

Novus Actus Interveniens rule and the eggshell skull rule

The principle of Novus Actus Interveniens is a principle that could break the chain of causation among the act of the defendant and the proscribed result. The liability isn't imposed at the defendant when his chain of causation is broken by means of the voluntary motion of a 3rd party that does avert the act of the accused as a purpose of the proscribed result. Moreover, the actions of the third party should be unconnected with the ones of the defendant and amount to a new reason.

In R v Cheshire the court held that related to remedy causing death, such must be so extraordinary and unusual that it completely overshadows the original wound caused by the defendant, to enable Novus Actus Interveniens to apply. In R v Smiths The Court of Appeal held that after the defendant's original purpose turned into a giant and operative reason of death, the chain of causation would not be damaged and the precept of Novus Actus Interveniens will not practice, therefore.

In R v Pagett it was held that the act of the third party under the principle of Novus Actus Interveniens must be “so independent of the act of the accused that it should be regarded in law as the cause of the victim's death, to the exclusion of the act of the accused”.

You must take your victim as you find them. In Criminal Law, it defined as Thin skull rule. This rule bear on whether the defendant was aware of the condition or not. In Blau [1975] Lawton L. J held that “it does not lie in the mouth of the assailant to say that the victim’s religious beliefs which prevented him from accepting certain types of treatment were unreasonable. So, the refusal of your victim to treatment would not relieve you of liability in the thin skull rule. And so, it would not break the chain of causation.’’

There are also occasions where the defendant asserts that the chain of causation which connect his conduct with the result has been broken by an intervening event, to clarify it intervening event alludes to as ‘Novus actus interveniens ‘. Hart & Honore (1959) interpret Novus actus interveniens as a superseding cause or intervening cause that can break the chain of causality so it can eliminate the liability or reduce the nature of liability of the main actor (principal offender).

Again, in Hart & Honore (1959) gave an example are presented as follow; A throws a cigarette butt into the bushes at the edge of the forest. Unbeknownst to A, B then pours gasoline into the bushes, which causes a forest fire. Is it A’s deed that caused the forest fire when he did not intend to burn down the forest? Of course, A is not responsible for the forest fire; it is B’s intervention that caused the forest fire.

In Novus, Actus Interveniens are applying different tests to decide whether the chain of causation has been broken or not. I will categorise these intervening acts into three which are as follow: Natural Causes; We can define them as events which occurs by an act of god.

The Principle of foreseeability is the reason which will determine whether a naturally occurring event will amount to an intervening act which breaks the chain of causation. A leading case that is a good example where natural events break the chain of causation is R v Hart [1986], where the defendant assaulted the victim and left the victim unconscious. The defendant left the victim on a breach under the high-water mark and the victim eventually drowned. The case led to the Court of appeal which held that the defendant had caused the death. This case shows that the action of the defendant was foreseeable occurrence so it will not break the chain of causation.

The second principle is the act of the third party. The issue of causation arises from the moment there is conduct by a third party. The general rule is that a person is responsible for the actions that do himself but can not be liable for the act from another person. To examine it, I will present a hypothetical example. Let us suppose that A stabs B, and when transported to the hospital, the ambulance gets involved in a car accident with C and the victim dies, then we can say C’s intervention has broken the chain of causation. The unforeseeable of a third party breaks the chain of causation.

The act of the victim is the third principle that will be discussed. The chain of causation in this principle can not be broken unless the victim’s acts are unreasonable. The general rule here also is you take you, victim, as you find it. Two important cases will be discussed here. Firstly, R v Roberts [1971] , where the victim had been given a lift by the defendant, but she jumped out of the car when the defendant began to make sexual advances to her. The victim injured from her actions. The issue, in this case, as if the defendant’s actions was sufficient to break the chain of causation between the sexual advances and the injuries from the victim. Secondly, R v Blaue , where the defendant stabbed his victim four times. The victim was a Jehovah's Witness who refused the blood transfusion that could have saved her. The defendant claimed that her refusal was so unreasonable as to break the chain of causation.

The court rejected this argument saying that, inter alia, those who use violence on other people must take their victims as they find them (referred to as the Eggshell Skull rule). The defendant's appeal was dismissed, and he remained convicted of murder.

Lawton LJ stated: 'It has long been the policy of the law that those who use violence on other people must take their victims as they find them. This is our judgment means the whole man, not just the physical man. It does not lie in the mouth of the assailant to say that his victim's religious beliefs which inhibited him from accepting certain kinds of treatment were unreasonable. The question for decision is what caused her death. The answer is the stab wound. The fact that the victim refused to stop this end coming about did not break the causal connection between the act and death.'.

These 2 cases above present to us how difficult the law on causation can be to understand. The general principles hide numerous hard questions that the courts have to bear in mind.

Did you like this example?

Analysis The Main Principles Of Causation And Difficulties To Apply Them. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Civil Versus Criminal Liability

There are seven principles of criminal law the first principle is actus reus. This is more than an act it’s really an omission or “state of being”. If someone is in possession of illegal drugs, they are not using them, and only in possession. This would be considered a state of being. Actus reus refers to the relelvant circumstances under which an act must occur to be criminal (Justice Education Society,2016).

Mens rea is latin for guilty mind, on intention to commit an illegal act. Mens rea is about a person’s frame of mind when they committed a crime. For example Jake is hitting balls, his son runs in front of him while he is doing it. His son gets hit with a ball to the head and dies. Jake is not going to go to jail for an accident.

Causation is a casual relationship with the defendants conduct and the end results. So what its saying is that causation makes a connecting conduct with resulting effects (Legal Dictionary,2019). Two 14 year old friends Tom and Hank get their ball stuck in a tree. They start throwing things to dislodge it, but fail. Finally they throw a stick and get the ball unstuck, but then the stick gets caught in the tree. The friends leave, a few days later the stick gets blown out of the tree by a gust of wind and it his a woman on the head, knocking her out. The woman filed a lawsuit against the boys. The boys can’t really be charged because they didn’t know the stick was going to fall on someone and hurt them.

In order for something to be considered a crime it must involve harm to someone or something, or must be causing harm to themselves. Legality is offensive or harmful behavior that is not considered illegal unless it is prohibited by law before being committed. An example of this is:

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped a 14-year old boy, Bobby Franks. They killed him by knocking him in the head with a chisel. After pouring acid on his body and dumping him in a near by marshland. They sent out a $10,000 ransom to the boys parents. They were arrested after the body was found and before the parents carried out with the ransom. They were found guilty August 22, 1924 after a 12 hour long trial.

Concurrence means that mens rea and actus reus have to happen at the same time. Like if a man was at a 4th of july celebration. During the fireworks the man took out a handgun after drinking a few, and started shooting it into the sky. He then pointed the gun into a crowd of people and shot someone. After running over to examine the person he realized it was someone he did not like and he started screaming for joy. This man could either be charged for an accident or for shooting the guy intentionally. The prosecution would prove if the defendant is guilty on if his mental state matched with his criminal action.

Punishment is the infliction of some kind of pain or loss upon a person for a misdeed (USlegal,2016). In criminal law punishment is allowed due to an illegal act.

References

Justice Education Society (2016) Definition and principles of crime www.lawlessons.ca/lesson-plans/2.1.definition-and-principles
Wordpress (2019) Mens Rea www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/M/MensRea.aspx
Legal Dictionary (2019) Causation
www.legaldictionary.net/causation/McKenna,Brittany (2003) Concurrence:legal definition & Exceptions
www.study.com/academy/lesson/concurrence-Legal-definition-lesson.html

Did you like this example?

Civil Versus Criminal Liability. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Domestic Violence Emotional and Physical

Contents

Inroduction
Violence Against Women
Intrinsic Factors
Health consequences
Extrinsic Factors
Prevention and response
Conclusion

Inroduction

I use hegemoni prespective to explain cultural practices towards women in Pakistani context. HEGEMONY is the leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others, as in a confederation. The cultural practice that I am going to discuss is the Violence Against Women that is commonly consider a norm in Pakistan.

Intimate partner violence refers to behavior by an intimate partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors.

Sexual violence is 'any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It includes rape, defined as the physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus with a penis, other body part or object.'

Violence Against Women

This has been defined as the range of sexually, psychologically, and physically coercive acts used against women by current or former male intimate partners. Some of the other terms that are used to describe the issue include intimate partner violence, courtship violence, domestic violence, domestic abuse, spouse abuse, battering, and marital rape.

In Pakistan, domestic violence is considered a personal matter, as it occurs in the family, and therefore not an appropriate focus for assessment, intervention or policy changes. Women have to face discrimination and violence on a daily basis due to the cultural and religious norms that Pakistani society embraces. According to an estimate, approximately 70 to 90% of Pakistani women are subjected to domestic violence. Various forms of domestic violence in the country include physical, mental and emotional abuse. In addition, the influence of media may also increase the likelihood of violence against women. It has been observed that this norm is a common theme on movies, television, radio, stage, and has even been emphasized in newspaper and tabloids.

Intrinsic Factors

Biological and personal factors influence individual behavior. This includes personal characteristics like age, education, income, personality influences and acceptance of interpersonal violence. The effects of the factors like substance abuse, witnessing marital violence as a child, being abused as a child, absentee or rejecting father on the personality of a person are also considered intrinsic factors.

Studies have shown that younger women are more susceptible to experience violence. In a cross-sectional study, no association was found between the younger age and prevalence of domestic violence in Pakistan. As far as the Pakistani culture was concerned, age of the women did not play any role in protecting her from domestic violence. Therefore, women abuse occurs in all ages. Women whose educational attainment levels are inferior to those of their husbands are more likely to suffer beating and intimidation than those women whose educational attainment levels are equal or exceed their husbands. In Pakistani cultures are close knit and tribal, where parents and elders are the role models. Therefore, if the father beats his wife then his son would beat his wife. When parents/elders beat their daughters then their sons beat their daughters. As this phenomenon is very common in this society, it is one of the major determinants of domestic violence.

Health consequences

Intimate partner (physical, sexual and emotional) and sexual violence cause serious short- and long-term physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems for women. They also affect their children, and lead to high social and economic costs for women, their families and societies. Such violence can:

Have fatal outcomes like homicide or suicide.

Lead to injuries, with 42% of women who experience intimate partner violence reporting an injury as a consequence of this violence.
Lead to unintended pregnancies, induced abortions, gynaecological problems, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The 2013 analysis found that women who had been physically or sexually abused were 1.5 times more likely to have a sexually transmitted infection and, in some regions, HIV, compared to women who had not experienced partner violence. They are also twice as likely to have an abortion.
Intimate partner violence in pregnancy also increases the likelihood of miscarriage, stillbirth, pre-term delivery and low birth weight babies. The same 2013 study showed that women who experienced intimate partner violence were 16% more likely to suffer a miscarriage and 41% more likely to have a pre-term birth.
These forms of violence can lead to depression, post-traumatic stress and other anxiety disorders, sleep difficulties, eating disorders, and suicide attempts. The 2013 analysis found that women who have experienced intimate partner violence were almost twice as likely to experience depression and problem drinking.
Health effects can also include headaches, back pain, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal disorders, limited mobility and poor overall health.
Sexual violence, particularly during childhood, can lead to increased smoking, drug and alcohol misuse, and risky sexual behaviors in later life. It is also associated with perpetration of violence (for males) and being a victim of violence (for females).

Extrinsic Factors

these constitute the context within which the abuse takes place. These factors include male dominance in the family, male control of wealth, and marital/ verbal conflict. Other factors include employment opportunities, economic influences, women access over power and resources, social support network and societal norms regarding gender roles, and power hierarchies.

Male dominance is frequently mentioned as a determinant of the domestic violence. Decision making authority makes the man more dominant in the family and society and increases the likelihood of violence against women.

Studies have found that unemployment increases the risk of depression, aggressiveness and violent behaviors which in turn can result in an increased risk of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. As unemployment is one of the big problems in the country, it is one of the important determinants of the violence against women.

Economic independence of the people in any society has an impact on women. If the women are allowed to work and are economically independent, they are less likely to become the victims of violence. However, the statement cannot be generalized, as the studies have shown that economic independence of the women does not protect them from domestic violence. In some places especially urban areas women have been encouraged to work outside the house and contribute to the economy of the family. However, it is considered as a privilege granted by men. It is 'permission' and not a right. Economic independence could be a sign of women getting power, which is not acceptable in many societies. Therefore, when the women try to be economically independent, the men try to regain the control by violent acts.

In the patriarchal societies such as Pakistan, 'sons are perceived to have economic, social, or religious utility; daughters are often felt to be an economic liability…” Studies have revealed that women who have more daughters are more likely to suffer from violence than the women who have more sons. In a similar manner, women who do not have children are subjected to not only violence by their husbands and in-laws, but are harassed by the society as well.

Marriage at an early age is another factor, which predisposes women to violence by intimate partner. Early marriages are a very common practice in the Southeast Asian countries particularly in Pakistan as the girls are considered a social, economical and religious liability on the families, which needs to be disposed off as soon as possible. Research reports have indicated that marriage at a young age makes women vulnerable to abuse in the husband's home. Furthermore, the practice of dowry also plays an important role in precipitation of violence against women in the country. According to literature, women whose dowries are perceived inadequate, by their husband and in-laws, suffer considerably more harassment in the husband's home than do women whose dowries are more substantial.

Historically, in the Indo-Pak's tribal and rural cultures, women were treated as the property of men. Role of woman has been submission, to serve as a commodity and to sacrifice herself for the sake of values determined by man. When there used to be disputes between tribes, goats, sheep and women were traded for reconciliation. Marriages, for political and tribal peace were common. Similar practices are still ongoing and many families do not allow their women to marry in case someone out of the family would share their ancestral lands. These restrictions are applied to control women from inheriting land, property and precluding their offspring's, from another man, to inherit the family land and influence. She is beaten and killed, for the sake of man's ethics and man-made values.

If a woman is respected in a culture, she is less likely to be abused and beaten. It is important to note that in many countries like Pakistan, one of the very interesting phenomenon is that older women are respected but the young women are not. This does not necessarily mean that older women are not abused. Wife beating is even considered normal in the culture and therefore, is unreported.

Unfortunately, Pakistani and Indian societies still run on tribal and feudal system and the most of the population lives under rural and feudal control. In feudal system, there is no education; no freedom and women are treated like slaves or prisoners in the households making violence against women in these societies very common.

Prevention and response

There are a growing number of well-designed studies looking at the effectiveness of prevention and response programmes. More resources are needed to strengthen the prevention of and response to intimate partner and sexual violence, including primary prevention – stopping it from happening in the first place.

There is some evidence from high-income countries that advocacy and counseling interventions to improve access to services for survivors of intimate partner violence are effective in reducing such violence. Home visitation programmes involving health worker outreach by trained nurses also show promise in reducing intimate partner violence. However, these have yet to be assessed for use in resource-poor settings.

In low resource settings, prevention strategies that have been shown to be promising include: those that empower women economically and socially through a combination of microfinance and skills training related to gender equality; that promote communication and relationship skills within couples and communities; that reduce access to, and harmful use of alcohol; transform harmful gender and social norms through community mobilization and group-based participatory education with women and men to generate critical reflections about unequal gender and power relationships.

To achieve lasting change, it is important to enact and enforce legislation and develop and implement policies that promote gender equality by:

ending discrimination against women in marriage, divorce and custody laws
ending discrimination in inheritance laws and ownership of assets
improving women’s access to paid employment
developing and resourcing national plans and policies to address violence against women.

While preventing and responding to violence against women requires a multi-sectoral approach, the health sector has an important role to play. The health sector can:

Advocate to make violence against women unacceptable and for such violence to be addressed as a public health problem.
Provide comprehensive services, sensitize and train health care providers in responding to the needs of survivors holistically and empathetically.
Prevent recurrence of violence through early identification of women and children who are experiencing violence and providing appropriate referral and support
Promote egalitarian gender norms as part of life skills and comprehensive sexuality education curricula taught to young people.

Generate evidence on what works and on the magnitude of the problem by carrying out population-based surveys, or including violence against women in population-based demographic and health surveys, as well as in surveillance and health information systems.

Conclusion

In this we observe that how women is influenced by the domination of patriarchal society in different aspects of life. By keeping women sub-ordianate, their health also effects badly. The main aspect that I have taken is the violence against women that is now become a norm of our culture. Masculinity is leading in our culture that is keeping femininity beyond our expectations.

Health of women is also badly effected through the violation of women. We have observe violence against women in domestic and economic sector both. We also see the precautions to over come the violence in our Pakistani context.So that women should get rid of such practices that are made by man to keep women submissive.

Did you like this example?

Domestic Violence Emotional and Physical. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

An Argument against the California’s Three Strikes Criminal Law

When you think of life-sentences for criminals, what type of offense comes to mind? Crimes that would do the greatest harm to society or ones that would warrant a life sentence, like murder, rape, arson, or other serious or violent offenses? This is what California legislators had in mind when they created California's Three Strikes, You're Out, Law. Instituted in 1994, the law was established to rid our streets of multiple offenders. Instead, it has led to more problems and chaos than expected. Before examining the details, one must understand the background of the law.

Public outrage over crime and the kidnapping of young Polly Klaas found political expression with the proposal of various laws mandating lengthy sentences for repeat felons. Put forward under the slogan, "Three Strikes and You're Out," the law ordains that felons found guilty of a third felony be locked up for 25 years to life (Godina). Although the first two "strikes" must be serious felonies, the crime that triggers the life sentence can be any felony. This may include attempted burglary, grand theft, and even possession of a controlled substance. Furthermore, the law doubles sentences for a second strike and requires that these extended sentences be served in prison rather than in jail or on probation. The law limits "good time" earned during prison to 20 percent of the sentence given rather than the 50 percent given under the previous law (Cordell). This means a convict would not be up for parole until at least 80 percent of his term is completed. This law should be reexamined, especially regarding non-violent criminals.

With 57 percent of third strikes being nonviolent offenses, (typically drug violations or burglary), the law hasn't targeted the most dangerous criminals (Clark). If the whole point of the law was to sweep career criminals off the street by mandating sentences of 25 years to life, why are drug abusers and petty criminals going to jail for a disproportional amount of time? The punishment should fit the crime, and this law does not take that into account. The instances of injustice are overwhelming.

Take a look at the case of Gary Albert Ewing- a small time criminal with multiple burglary and theft convictions. Ewing was on parole in 1994 when he walked into a pro-shop in Los Angeles, stuffed three golf clubs down his pants leg, and limped out of the store. An employee called police, who arrested Ewing in the parking lot. He was charged with felony grand theft of property worth more than $400; this charge has become known as a "wobbler" in California because it can be classified as either a felony or misdemeanor (EWING v. CALIFORNIA). Despite Ewing's pleas, the judge treated the charge as a felony and because of Ewing's previous convictions, (under the newly enacted Three Strikes Law) sentenced Ewing to 25 years to life. Ewing appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that the law violated the United States Constitution's Eighth Amendment's guarantees against "cruel and unusual punishment." The Supreme Court held the law was not unconstitutional by a vote of 5 4 (EWING v. CALIFORNIA).

The case of Gary Ewing speaks for itself. Mr. Ewing is now serving 25 years to life in a California prison, and is not up for parole until 2019. To know that our criminal system is placing people in jail for at least 25 years because of unarmed theft is ridiculous. This law was created to stop serious or violent offenders from committing multiple crimes, not throw the life away of a shoplifter. Neither of Ewing's priors involved weapons nor violence. Does it seem fair that the majority of this man's life will be spent in jail because of two drug possessions and one attempted theft? Many other small time criminals are in jail for life because of non-violent or non-serious crimes.

When comparing the sentence length of second and third strike offenders, the numbers speak for themselves. Due to the years added to a criminal's sentence on the third strike, the gap can be as large as 28 years. The National Institute of Justice reported in 1996 that petty theft (a non-violent crime) with a prior offense receives 3.3 years for the second strike and 28 years for the third strike. That is a 748 percent or an increase of 24.5 years. Petty theft criminals should have a longer sentence on their third strike, but not to the extent of over 700 percent. To keep 27,000 second and third strikers who have committed non-violent crimes in jail for an extended amount of time costs the state an overwhelming amount of money.

Fiscally, California's Three Strikes Law is irresponsible, and places stress on California's budget. It costs $31,000 per inmate, per year to keep criminals jailed (Ehlers). This amount is negligible when the criminals being locked up for over 25 years warrant their sentence. When the crime is simple drug possession or unarmed robbery, $31,000 a year for over 25 years is too high a price. It costs

California tax payers $775,000 to keep Gary Ewing and other small time criminals in jail for at least 25 years. More than half of the $8.1 billion dollars California spent to keep criminals incarcerated from 1994 to 2003 were non-violent cases. It is impossible to imagine how California can keep locking up petty criminals, while it faces such financial devastation. The citizens should be reexamining their three strikes law, especially when California is experiencing a high deficit crisis. It should concentrate its prison budget on keeping violent criminals incarcerated, rather than countless non-violent offenders that fill up the system.

Supporters of California Three Strikes Law claim that taxpayers will save more in the long run. They foresee resources will be saved due to less cases going to trial, less personal damages, and less criminals to occupy law enforcement's attention. This only holds true for violent offenders. In regards to non-violent offenders, $4.7 billion was dedicated to keep them locked up, not including the additional $3.5 million spent because of the 1996-1997 State Budget Act (Ehlers). The act set up a Three Strikes Relief Team that consisted of a special team of retired judges...formed to assist trial courts that are swamped with three-strike cases." (Ehlers). That totals $5 billion over the course of nine years- spent solely on non-violent offenders. With that income freed up, the state can spend it on worthwhile social programs like anti-drug programs, more police on the streets, or balance California's $22 billion deficit (Calif. Budget Summary). Democrats and Republicans agree across the board that a balanced budget is a good budget.

The law does not just have a devastating fiscal impact, but racial impact as well: the proportion of minorities convicted under the law relative to whites is explosive. Despite the fact that AfricanAmericans and Latinos are incarcerated at a higher rate than whites, the rate of criminal behavior and offenses are similar. This shows that minorities are more likely to fall victim to the Three Strikes law than Caucasians. The ratio between African-Americans to Caucasians being jailed for their third strike is a twelve to one ratio (Ehlers). You are twelve times more likely to be prosecuted under the Three Strikes Law if you are African-American than if you are Caucasian. It is also a 45 percent higher incarceration rate for Hispanics than Caucasians (Ehlers). This is unacceptable, considering that our country's judicial system should be blind to race. The number of convictions under the law should be proportional to the number of convicts in a specific race. Statistics show that prisoners are 29.2 percent Caucasian, 30.2 percent African-American; and 34.7 percent Hispanic (Ehlers). With AfricanAmericans and Caucasians within 2% of each other, there should not be a large disparity in third strike incarcerations.

Many refuse to believe California's judicial system is racially biased. When asked, proponents of the law will direct attention to numbers. These numbers show a constant decrease in crime rates since 1992 (Lockyer). They say the disproportion of African-American third strikers is justified by the decreasing crime rate throughout California, including both violent and non-violent crimes. Supporters of the law want you to believe that California's Three Strikes Law has locked up repeat offenders and deterred others from committing crimes. Once examined more closely, one will see the law doesn't have much effect on crime rate.

Judges decide if the law will be used in a court case, so the number of cases involving the Three Strikes Law differs by city. For example; San Francisco uses the law the least, at an average of 41 times per 1,000 cases, and San Diego uses the most, at 87 times per 1,000 cases (Asuncion). If the law was as effective as its supporter's claim it is, then the decrease in crime rate would be seen as twice as high in San Diego than San Francisco. Examining three counties that use the law least and three counties that use it the most, the crime rate index shows no difference. Counties that used the law the least saw a drop of nearly 50% in crime and counties that used it the most saw a drop of 41% (Asuncion). According to these percents, the effect of the law has no significance. The drop in crime rate cannot be attributed to the effects of the Three Strikes Law because crime rate dropped almost equally across the whole state. There is no evidence showing a direct correlation between the law's use and crime rate decrease. This law needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

There are two adjustments that should be made. The first one involves drug possession charges. Drug addicts are not criminals; they commit criminal acts because of drug addictions. Currently under the law they are treated the same as any other lawbreaker. Drug abuse is a medical problem not criminal one. When the law diagnoses drug abusers as criminals, they are putting the problem on hold rather then fixing it. Under the law, a third strike drug possession charge can place a convict in jail for up to 27 years (Longshore). Instead, we should send drug offenders to treatment centers;

addiction would diminish, there would be less multiple drug related crimes, and money spent keeping multiple drug offenders in jail would be freed. A study conducted by the Department of Alcohol and Drug Program in California showed a continuous decrease in multiple offenders after completing drug rehabilitation. This would relieve the California budget and help thousands of people suffering from drug addictions. It is the state's duty to help drug abusers get on their feet and become a functional part of society. In regard to other non-violent offenders, the state should design a program designed solely for non-violent criminals and their multiple offenses.

The second adjustment to the law would give non-violent criminals one more chance while punishing them appropriately. A four-strike system would be a reasonable punishment. Non-violent third striker should be given an additional 15 years instead of the usual 25. Creating a system where the jump between strikes is more gradual will be a more proportional way of sentencing crimes. After the first two strikes, the criminal is given an additional 15 year sentence, and the third strike should not exceed 25 years. The fourth and final strike should be 25 years to life. This modified version of the law would only apply to those that commit non-violent crimes. Any serious or violent criminal would still be prosecuted under current three strike law guidelines.

By adopting a new four strike system and reforming the state's approach to drug offenders, appropriate punishments would fit the crimes. As a fair and equal society we should strive to diminish the amount of injustices the current system creates.

Did you like this example?

An Argument Against the California's Three Strikes Criminal Law. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

The Issues of Substantive and Procedural Law in the Use of Force against States

Contents

Introduction
- Substantive law
Procedural law
Substantive law versus Procedural law
- Territorial integrity
- Usage of coercive means
Case studies
Nicaragua vs. The United States of America
Albania vs. the United Kingdom
- RDC vs. Uganda
- Suriname vs. Guyana
Conclusions

Introduction

The current paper identifies the particular issues of substantive and procedural law in cases of use of force against states. Submitted for assessment are all the legal issues related to the United Nations (UN) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with reference to four specific cases: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland vs. Albania, Nicaragua vs. the United States of America, the Democratic Republic of Congo vs. Uganda and lastly, the Republic of Guyana vs. the Republic of Suriname.

The essay is divided into six sections, each of them related to a different legal topic. The first two sections will briefly discuss the characteristics of procedural and substantive law. The following section will outline the differences existing between the two kinds of law mentioned previously. Special attention will be given to the definitions of the norm of structural coherence and appeal to strength. The essay will end with an assessment of the legal issues raised when either resorting to the United Nations (UN) or going in front of International Court of Justice (ICJ), in order to resolve a dispute over the alleged employment of non-diplomatic solutions by one Country against the statal coherence of another Country.

Substantive law

The concept refers to written or statutory law', which establishes the definitions for duties and rights, and is divided into two other subcategories: criminal and civil law. Crimes and punishments enter in the category of criminal law, while rights and responsibilities are part of civil law. A broader interpretation of substantive law encompasses creation, definition and regulation of rights. In a nutshell, it is related to the fundamental substance of all rights under law. Moreover, substantive law includes all classifications of private, public or criminal law. Each time a specific law defines crimes, rights or statuses, or simply discloses the rights to the parties, it is a matter of substantive law.

Procedural law

Very often, legal philosophers usually use the term adjective law when referring to procedural law. While legal rights are constituted and detailed by substantive law, procedural law envisages the formal steps to follow in order to enforce legal rights. Generally, there are different standards for governing Civil and Criminal Procedures. Procedural law consists of federal statutes, rules issued by individual courts of justice, as well as standards defined by constitutional law, stipulations guaranteeing the due process of law in particular.

Magdalena Forowicz, The Reception of International Law in the European Court of Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 366. 2 Mauro Cappelletti, ed., International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, 2nd vol. (Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987), 14.

From the perspective of procedural law, the non-exhaustive list of rights derived from this category of law refers to the prerogative to justice, entitlement to information and to participation, and it furthermore encompasses civil and political rights. Procedural law encompasses the standards according to which a court determines and hears what is likely to occur during a civil lawsuit, as well as the administrative and criminal proceedings.

Substantive law versus Procedural law

The differences between substantive and procedural law envisage the structure, content and powers of the two categories. Additionally, a significant difference in application must be taken into account when discussing the dissimilarities of the legal concepts stated above. In terms of substantive law, in the eventuality of a person's accusation and trial, certain factors are to be considered when defining the type of crime committed and the severity of the punishment. In addition, rights and responsibilities of the accused are established. On the other hand, according to the principles of procedural law, the machinery for the enforcement of substantive law is provided. Means and methods by which substantive law is administered are established with the settlement of the case's substance, whether a trial is necessary, what would be the charges and what are the correlative facts.

Regarding the powers of substantive and procedural laws, the situation is quite simple. While substantive law rejoices at the independency in deciding the course of a case, procedural law possesses no independent essence. The latter's task is to construct the manner in which a legal process is carried out, in contrast with the power of substantive law to suggest legal clarification.

Finally, there appear differences in application of the two categories of law mentioned. Whereas procedural law is applicable within non-legal circumstances, this is not the situation for substantive law. Briefly, substantive law settles a trial's substance, while procedural law underlines the progressive steps to take.

Territorial integrity

Territorial integrity represents the principle submitted to international law according to which nation-states are not allowed to endeavour to the promotion of secessionist operations or to the alteration of the border in other nation-states. In contrast, it claims that a border change, when occurred as consequence of intrusion by force, is to be considered an act of aggression.

According to the Charter of the United Nations, most specifically to Article 2, paragraph 4, "the principle of territorial integrity is an important part of the international legal order"4. The concept refers to the unassailability of a State's territory, including the effective possession and control of a State. The International Court of Justice has stated, 3 Chart of the United Nations, chap. XI. 4 International Court of Justice, Accordance with international law of the unilateral Declaration of Independence of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion, ICJ Reports (2010), para. 80. "the scope of the principle of territorial integrity is confined to the sphere of relations between States”S.

Territorial integrity's chief significance is related to international law's concept of use of force (jus ad bellum"). It also embodies an inherent right in independence and sovereignty. Up until the 1950s, , before the progress of the generic forbiddance of the usage of coercive means, the integrity of a State's territory was rather defectively protected by international law, which would only rarely and imperfectly impose certain procedural constraints. In 1945, in the aftermath of WWII, the United Nations Charter imposed a global forbiddance on the use of violence, except in certain exceptional situations authorised by the Security Council, susceptible to the fundamental prerogative of self-protection.

Usage of coercive means

The definition of the concept offered by the UN Charter is the following: "All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations". The purpose of this rule was to prevent states from resorting to constraints in the eventuality of a conflict of any kind.

Employing the usage of coercive means of force against the jurisdiction and the statal coherence is nowadays prohibited on the grounds of the non-belligerent doctrine, a fundamental concept of contemporary international law; likewise, armed aggression is regarded as the most severe international crime.

Yet, international law allows the resort to force as a last resort for counteracting aggression acts. Consequently, states are allowed to use force against other states in cases of severe breach of international legitimacy, for the protection of their own territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty, and for sanctioning the aggressor, who are thus, in a sense, entitled to adopt in their territory adequate measures, allowing the accomplishment of the purposes mentioned.

In accomplishing one of its chief functions, that of maintaining peace and international security, the UN Chart comprises a complex system of collective sanctioning of the aggressor by the Member States, meant to ensure the reestablishment of international legitimacy, the elimination of acts of aggression and their consequences, the restoration in right of the damaged state and the prevention of other breaches. Similar systems, 5 Ibid. Michael N. Schmitt and Jelena Pejic, eds., International Law and Armed Conflict: Exploring the Faultline (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2007), 241. United Nations, Charter of the United Nations, chap. I, art. 2, para. 4. 8 William E. Butler, ed., The Non-Use of Force in International Law (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1989). 9 Yoram Dinstein, War, Aggression and Self-defense, 4th edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 176.

ensuring international security, function on a regional level, in the case of regional international organisations.

Moreover, the UN Chart recognizes each country's entitlement to self-protection in the case of aggression and admits that all states are entitled to fight back by all available means, individually or together with other states under bilateral of multilateral politicalmilitary alliances, aiming at granting mutual assistance in the eventuality of an armed attack

The conditions in which armed intervention is lawful for the punishment of the aggressor are the following: by the United Nations, as a universal collective security system"?; by regional organisations, under UN control; by any state, according to the individual or collective self-defence right; or by colonial or independent nations against other states' exercise of illegal domination, contrary to the UN Chart and international law norms.

Resorting to the United Nations (UN) - The ICJ (International Court of Justice)

Among the main purposes of the UN is offering states the opportunity to settle their disputes with one another without resorting to the usage of force, as specified in Chapter VI UN Charter. This is achieved by appealing to the main judicial institution in binding dispute settlements between states, International Court of Justice (ICJ), the statute of which is appended to the UN Charter13.

The ICJ contrasts to the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, which acts within the European Union only, and from the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) and the IACHR (Inter-American Court of Human Rights), both of which deal with violations of human rights. Furthermore, unlike the ICJ, these three courts offer individuals the possibility to entertain applications4.

The ICJ has a general jurisdiction and this is an aspect that differentiates it from global arbitration organisations, e.g the ITLOS (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea)15.

Several controversies between countries, however, are not taken into consideration by the International Court of Justice. It is necessary to underline that the ICJ only hears disputes at the request of at least one state; it does not deal with disputes independently.

Another major criterion for the resolution of international disagreements is that the states need to have accepted its jurisdiction. This consent on the States' behalf may be manifested in three ways: the first one is through a particular consensus, the countries agreeing to submit it jointly to the Court. The second one is through a clause within a treaty, as more than three hundred treaties contain clauses specifying the acceptance of the Court's jurisdiction. The third is a unilateral declaration, namely when the States opt to make a unilateral declaration in which they recognize the ICJ jurisdiction: this led to a number of States giving their declaration in case of any controversy that may occur between them in the future. Consequently, any country within this group may bring at least one other state before the Court16.

Case studies

Nicaragua vs. The United States of America

Among the most noteworthy cases the ICJ dealt with is the 1984 case of Nicaragua vs. The United States of America, the ruling being in favour of Nicaragua, which consequently received reparations from the US". The United States had violated international law in their support of the separatist Contras, which were poised to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, and in their mining of the country's harbours. The argument brought by the US was that the ICJ had no authority to pass the judgement on the case, and made efforts to make sure that Nicaragua would not obtain any compensation. However, the Nicaraguan government made its own efforts towards receiving compensation, the ICJ finally offering the verdict that the US breached its obligations in terms of not using force against another state, as well as breaches of law against maritime commerce and breaches in Article XIX of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation signed at Managua in 195619.

Albania vs. the United Kingdom

Another case is that of Albania vs. the United Kingdom, the latter having instituted proceedings against the former despite the fact that Albania did not consent to the Court's jurisdiction20. Albania communicated to the Court in 1947, stressing the irregularities of the UK, as Albania saw the dispute as being not unilateral, but rather a joint referral of the whole case. The main issue was whether Albania had to be treated as responsible for the mines that appeared in the Corfu Channel, which was the reason for which the UK accused it of violating international law. The ICJ stated that although the mines were in its territorial waters, this did not imply that the Albanian government was aware of their 16 International Court of Justice, “Practical Information”, n.d, accessed at 10 November2013 http://www.icj-cij.org/information/index.php?p1=7&p2=2

International Court of Justice, "Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary in and Against Nicaragua”, 1984, accessed at 10 November 2013 http://www.ici-cij.org/docket/files/70/9615.pdf 18 Terry Gill, 1989, Litigation Strategy at the International Court: A Case Study of the Nicaragua V. United States Dispute (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers) p317. 19 Johan Van der Vyer, 2010. Implementation of International Law in the United States. Peter Lang, 132. 20 International Court of Justice, "The Corfu Channel Case”, 1949, accessed at 10 November 2013 http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/1/1663.pdf existence. The final conclusion reached by the Court was that the minefields could not have been laid without Albania knowing about it, and that Albania had the obligation to warn of their existenceol.

RDC vs. Uganda

In Congo versus Uganda, the ICJ found that Uganda had violated a number of principles pertaining to international relations, among which featured the lack of force intervention; at the same time, Uganda violated human rights and humanitarian legislation, as well as a number of obligations it had towards the Democratic Republic of Congo. The case was recorded in 1999 by the DRC, which stated that Ugandan troops had entered its territory one year earlier, refusing to leave at the request of DRC president Kabila. Nevertheless, the Court ruled in Uganda's favour on the subject of the obligation the DRC owed to this country under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations22. The ICJ agreed with Congo's demand for reparations, the case being one of the hardest cases the Court had dealt with in its existence, declaring that it is "well established in general international law that a State which bears responsibility for an internationally wrongful act is under obligation to make full reparation for the injury caused by that act."

Suriname vs. Guyana

In Suriname vs. Guyana, 2004, the dispute concerned the limits of the maritime boundaries between the two states. Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the boundary in the territorial sea was adopted towards demarcating the continental shelf of the two Parties. The Arbitral Tribunal also stated that, under the 1982 Convention, the two countries violated their obligations24. The five-member tribunal was convened in accordance with the rules specified by Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The tribunal awarded sovereignty to Suriname for the entire width of the Courantyne as well as a ten degree boundary within three miles from the shore, in accordance with the agreement of 1936. The remaining maritime boundary territory (twelve miles from the shore, as specified by the modern international law) as well as the boundary that separates the two countries' Exclusive Economic Zones was awarded in accordance with the principle of equidistance 25.21 Academie De Droit International De Le Haye, 1990, Recueil des Cours - Collected Courses (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers) 212 22 International Court of Justice, "Armed Activities on the Territory of Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo v Uganda)", accessed at 10 December 2013 www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/10521.pdf 23 Idem 24 Arbitration under ANNEX VII of the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea, "Republic of Guyana v Republic of Suriname" 2006, accessed 11 November 2013 http://arbitrationlaw.com/files/free_pdfs/Guyana%20v%20Suriname%20-%20Rejoinder%20Vol%201.pdf 25 Permanent Court Arbitration, "Guyana v. Suriname Press Release ", 2007, accessed at 10 November 2013 http://www.pca-cpa.org/showpage.asp?pag_id=1147

Conclusions

The main legal instrument regulating the usage of coercive means within the corpus of relationships between states is the UN Charter, signed and enforced in 1945. Chapters VI, VII and VIII of the Charter provide all the international principles for the use of force and cover three valuable aspects: the prohibition of force, the right to pre-emptive selfdefence and the authorised use of constraints by the UNO Security Council. Hence, international law is consecrated by all member states, regardless of the bilateral, multilateral and international treatises, and agreements to which they adhered. For this particular reason, certain disputes are easy to solve by resorting to the United Nations, while certain cases cannot be brought to the International Court of Justice.

Did you like this example?

The Issues of Substantive and Procedural Law in the Use of Force Against States. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

The Structure of Criminal Trial in the United States

One of the most vaguely understood events in the United States is the modern criminal trial. Most people have a faint knowledge of the goings-on of criminal proceedings, mainly due to what is seen on television, but the person who knows the real course of a trial is rare. However, there is nothing mysterious about the events that determine criminal guilt. Trials are carefully orchestrated, following procedures that have been laid in legal concrete over the years, and generally follow the same basic format across the United States.

Criminal law is distinguishable from civil law in the aspect that criminal acts are officially considered to injure not only individuals, but society as a whole. This is the reason why criminal cases are described as state v. offender. The state, as the injured party, is taking the defendant to court (Schmalleger 64). The purpose of a criminal trial is to determine if the offender is legally guilty of the crime, but this does not necessarily mean that the person in question committed the crime. As opposed to factual guilt (the person Idid itd), legal guilt merely means that a jury of the defendantis peers is convinced without reasonable doubt. As can be seen, this leaves room for possible discrepancies (Schmalleger 198).

Before a trial can proceed, certain events must take place. The first is the arraignment of the defendant, which can happen anytime between arrest and a logical, non-specific time before the trial itself. Arraignment consists of the court reading to the defendant the substance of the charge, and calls on the subject to enter a plea within a given time (Tull 1).

The defendant may consult with and be advised by an attorney on what plea to offer the court. He may plead guilty or no contest (nolo contendere), in which case a trial does not occur and the subject goes directly to a sentencing hearing (Tull 1), or he may plead not guilty, and trial preparations will proceed. In very rare cases the defendant will not enter a plea, and is said to Istand mutel (Schmalleger 189). Directly after entering a plea of not guilty, the defendant must decide on one, if any, of many courses of defense to follow. A plea of guilty or no contest that is withdrawn by the defendant cannot be used as evidence against the defendant (Tull 3).

One of the most popular defenses is the alibi defense. This course of action holds that the defendant was at another location at the time of the offense, and therefore could not possibly have committed the crime. If an alibi is to be offered, the defendant has a court-appointed time in which he must declare his intentions. The attorney for the state will send a notice describing the time, date, and place of the offense, and the defendant must refute this information. If the defendant issues notice of alibi but then withdraws the claim, this information cannot be held against him later in court (Tull 5).

Another popular defense is the insanity defense. The court definition holds that la person should not be guilty if they did not know what they were doing, did not know that what they were doing was wrong, or if their actions were the result of a mental disease or defecti (Schmalleger 75). This obviously covers a lot of area, which is part of the reason for its popularity. If the defendant plans to claim insanity, he must notify, in writing, the statels attorney of his intentions, and also file a copy with the court clerk. Failure to follow these guidelines results in the disallowance of the insanity claim. A withdrawn claim of insanity is not admissible as evidence against the defendant (Tull 5).

There are many other defenses, divided into three categories, that are much less common than alibi and insanity. The first of these categories is designated bother defenses. The following are examples of these. I Temporary Insanity implies that the defendant was only insane at the time of the offense, and was once a very popular defense, as the defendant usually got off Iscot-freel. However, due to recent restrictions, it has lost its appeal. IGuilty but Insane,i a defense that is all but extinct, resulted in a stiff penalty, but mandatory psychotherapy was included in any sentence. Olnvoluntary Drunkenness, I holding that the defendant was intoxicated against his will, is rarely used, although it has resulted in a number of successes in court. IUnconsciousnessi is even more rare of a defense, and is used if the defendant committed a crime while sleepwalking, having a seizure etc. A IChemical Imbalancel defense is used if the defendantis actions were influenced by the consumption of food products or stimulants, including but not limited to sugar, nicotine, and caffeine. OPremenstrual Stress Syndrome,1 or PMS, is a very new defense and not yet even officially acceptable. However, it has been successfully used in Virginia (Schmalleger 77-79).

The second group of defenses is labeled Ispecial defenses. One that is fairly commonly used is Self Defense, holding that the defendant committed the crime in self-defense to avoid physical harm. IDuress, I on the other hand, is not common, and is used when the defendant claims to have committed a crime in order to alleviate a prior wrongdoing against him. The IEntrapmenti defense has become the subject of media attention, since its implications are a bit sinister. It is implied that law enforcement officers have created a crime solely for the purpose of prosecuting the defendant. In the case of an IAccidenti defense, the offense is said to have been purely accidental on the part of the defendant. IMistakel says that the defendant committed an unwitting crime due to outside forces that precipitated the actual offense. A defense of INecessity is rare, and is only used when the survival of the defendant was at stake. It is only truly useful if no serious harm was done.

Provocations is a fairly new defense, and one that was sought after by defense attorneys for years. Under this defense, a defendant is acknowledged to have been provoked by a tormentor to the point of lashing out. IConsent,I the last defense of this group, holds that the crime committed was done under consent of the victim (Schmalleger 80-81).

The last group of defenses is the Oprocedural defensesl that point fault at the court. The first of these is IDouble Jeopardy. This occurs when a subject is prosecuted twice for the same offense. Although this is unacceptable under the Constitution, there is an exception to the rule. If a crime was committed in two jurisdictions, then two separate trials may be held. ISelective Prosecutionl charges that the defendant has been singled out for prosecution due to discriminating factors. A defense of IDenial of Speedy Triali is usually quite effective, because a trial must be held within a reasonable, given time after arrest. If the court breaks this rule, the defendant must be released. This rule is not applicable if trial is delayed by actions of the defense. The last defense is Prosecutorial Misconduct, and holds that the prosecution has used bad ethical practices, such as hiding evidence or producing false testimony (Schmalleger 83-84).

Another defense, the Ilnfancy Defense, I may only be used by children. IChildren below the age of seven cannot be tried for any crime, no matter how serious. The age of prosecution as an adult varies, but ranges from ten to eighteen years of age (Schmalleger 74).

Disclosure is a major part of trial rights. Upon request from the defendant, the government must disclose all evidence and testimony that is to be brought against the defendant. On the other hand, if this occurs, the defendant must disclose defense evidence to the government if requested (Tull 9).

At the same time as the other trial preparations, the jury for the trial is selected, usually from the same district as the crime was committed in (Simon 208), and subpoenas are sent to witnesses. Subpoenas are issued by the clerk and state the name of the court and the proceeding. They may also command the person to produce documents or other evidence. OFailure without adequate excuse to obey a subpoena may be deemed contempt of the courti (Tull 11).

Once a trial actually begins, the struggle of the prosecuting attorney against the defense attorney becomes evident (Curley and Kolanda 9). The attorneys should have at least a token belief that their subject is in the right. A criminal defense attorney may proclaim himself a fighter for truth and justice, and he may be precisely that, but once a case is accepted, his only responsibility is to his client, regardless of belief (Zerman 9). Even defense attorneys who are convinced that their client is guilty are still exhorted to offer the best possible defense and to counsel their client as effectively as possible (Schmalleger 198). The prosecutor, too, may claim to seek truth and justice, and is probably already convinced he knows the truth and believes in the defendantis guilt. However, if he finds he no longer believes the defendant is guilty, he has a legal responsibility to stop the proceedings (Zerman

The first actions in court are the opening statements by both attorneys. The opening statements show the jury what the attorneys plan to do to prove their cases and how the proof will be offered (Schmalleger 206). After the opening statements, witnesses are called, generally by the prosecution first. In most cases, witness testimony is the chief means by which evidence is introduced at trial. Among others, witnesses may include victims, police officers, specialists, and the defendant, although the defendant has the right to not testify under the 5th Amendment. ISome witnesses may have been present during the commission of the alleged offense, while most will have had only a later opportunity to investigate the situation or to analyze evidencel (Schmalleger 208). Traditionally, witnesses must face the court and defendant while testifying, although there have been exceptions. Most states allow children to testify remotely so as not to be traumatized (Schmalleger 210)

There are three types of witnesses. Eyewitnesses are used more often by the prosecution, and claim to have been at the scene of the crime. Character witnesses tell about the character of the defendant, and may be used by both sides. Alibi witnesses are only used by the defense, and try to convince the jury that the defendant was elsewhere at the time of the offense (Zerman 76).

When a witness is called, he undergoes a line of questioning by the friendly attorney. This is called Idirect examination. When the attorney is finished, the opposing attorney steps forth to interrogate the same witness. This is called Icross-examination.. Usually, cross examination may only contest material covered during the direct examination (Schmalleger 209). The witness will have gone over the questions and answers for both examinations with both attorneys beforehand (Schmalleger 210).

Some witnesses give untrue testimony to protect the defendant. If demonstrated to be false during examinations, witnesses can be impeached by the court and charged with perjury, a crime in itself (Schmalleger 210).

There are several types of testimony that are inadmissible as evidence. Hearsay evidence is described as what a witness heard from another person, rather than what he saw or experienced firsthand (Zerman 71). Allowances, however, can be given under certain circumstances. One is the dying declaration, which is a statement made by a person who is about to die. A second instance is that of the spontaneous statement, which is made by a person in the heat of excitement without time for fabrication (Schmalleger 212). Irrelevant or immaterial evidence is testimony that goes beyond or misses the point of the question asked, and statements of opinion show only what a witness thinks, rather than what he knows (Zerman 71).

Physical evidence, if any, is brought forth during witness testimony. There are two classes of evidence: direct and circumstantial. Direct evidence, if believed, proves a fact without opinionation. It can be testimonial, which is the aforementioned witness testimony, or it can be physical (Schmalleger 207). There are three kinds of physical evidence. Documents are anything written or typed, objects are weapons, clothing, and the like, and copies and reproductions include photographs and recordings (Zerman 72). Physical evidence is only subject to challenge on grounds of authenticity or manner in which it was obtained (Zerman 72). Circumstantial evidence, however, requires inference and drawn conclusions. It is often enough to convict anyway (Schmalleger 207).

After all witnesses and evidence have been shown, the attorneys give closing arguments, also called Isummations. Closing arguments are direct attacks on the opposing sidels weaknesses. They provide review and analysis of evidence. Testimony, exhibits, and inconsistencies in the opposition will be pointed out (Schmalleger 212). Many good defense attorneys are effective showmen. They try to play on the feelings of the jurors during this crucial point of the trial. The argument is often emotional and poetry or verse is sometimes used. The prosecution, however, is only likely to use one emotion: outrage at the defendant (Zerman 89). The situation during summations is favorable to the prosecution, who, in the vast majority of instances, opens the argument (Tull 18). After a rebuttal by the defense, the prosecution then has an opportunity for counter-rebuttal. In any case, the prosecution is always given the last word in closing arguments (Zerman 91).

After summations, the judge gives his Icharge to the jury. He calls on the jury to retire and select one of their number as the foreman, and deliberate upon the evidence that has been presented until a verdict has been reached (Schmalleger 213). He also summarizes all testimony, makes comments, and gives guidance. Dit is often considered the single most important statement made during a triali (Zerman 94).

Once the jury leaves the courtroom for deliberations, they immediately choose a foreman, whose job it will be to deliver the final verdict. The jury may deliberate for hours, days, or weeks, and may examine evidence, review testimony, analyze the judgels charge, discuss, argue, and negotiate (Zerman 13). Disagreements emerge early, but the majority almost always wins. Surprisingly, immediate unanimous decisions are not uncommon I they account for about 31 percent of all verdicts (Zerman 106). Most jurisdictions require a unanimous decision, although the United States Supreme Court has ruled that only capital cases must warrant a unanimous verdict.

Jurors are not allowed to discuss the case with relatives, friends, or each other until the proper time, because it is known that thinking is affected by the influence of others. IScientific studies have shown that people instinctively and subconsciously want to be with the majority, and because of this, are not likely to hold out in an argument against the rest of the jury. During deliberations, if the case is important enough and the judge believes there is risk of the jury being influenced by outside sources, he may sequester jurors, putting them in a hotel with little contact with the outside world. Even newspapers and television may be censored. Telephone calls are short and monitored, and windows are usually covered over so as not to let the jurors see anything that may influence their thoughts (Zerman 58).

Deliberations will ultimately end in either a verdict or a Ihung jury. In a hung jury, the members Idebate, argue, plead, and finally admit defeat,l not being able to agree on a verdict. Hung juries are usually just replaced, but sometimes the trial is stopped, and the time and money involved, which is sometimes quite substantial, is wasted (Zerman 101). But a verdict is reached successfully 99 percent of the time. The jury, led by the foreman, gives the verdict to the judge in open court (Tull 19). If the verdict is guilty, the defense attorney may choose to Ipoll the jury. He asks each juror his personal opinion, and in a few cases, a juroris doubts re-emerge to cancel the verdict. This rarely happens, but if it does the result is a victory for the defense (Zerman 167).

A criminal trial is a complicated but closely choreographed event. Almost nothing happens without proper precedent, and even the most factually guilty defendant can be sure of having at least a small chance of getting Doff the hook.] The unbiased trial is a constitutional institution that may not always make sense to the average person, but that reflects the value of justice in American society.

Did you like this example?

The Structure of Criminal Trial in the United States. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

The Difference between Criminal Law and Civil Law

Contents

Law:
Differences between criminal and civil law:
- Definition:
- Criminal justice system:
- Arrest:
- Arrest with a warrant:
- Arrest without a warrant:
Caution:
- Charge:
- Bail:
Legal aid:
- Magistrates court:
- Crown court:
Verdict:
- Sentence:
- Summary offences:
- Magistrates court:
- The structure of magistrate court:
Crown court:
- Verdict:
- Sentence:
- Summary offences:
- - When an alternative verdict is returned under the road traffic offenders act 1988.
Indictable offences:
- Each-way offence:
Definition:
Key Concepts Of Civil Law:
Difference Between Civil And Criminal Law:
Other Areas Covered By Civil Law Are:
Divorce Courts:
- County Courts:
Other Facts About County Court:
Court Judgements:
- Compensation For Libel:
Differences Between Common Law And Statue Law:
Common Law Brief History & Henry 11's Introduction Of Independent Judges:
Common Law Over Time:
Other Key Facts About The Common Law:
- Concept Of Precedent:
- Common Law Offence (Criminal):
- Common Law Offence (Civil):
- Key Concept Of The Statute Law:
Parliamentary Process:
- The House Of Lords
- Delegated Powers Scrutiny Committee
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Statutory Law:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Examples Of Statute Law:

Law:

Law defines as the idea of a set of rules established by authority, government or society.

Differences between criminal and civil law:

Generally speaking the main difference between criminal and civil law is, criminal law involves police and civil law involves conflicts between people where no police involve.

Definition:

Criminal law is concerned with the relationship between the individual and the general public, criminal actions like motoring offences, robbery, assault etc are usually brought by the region. The main function of criminal proceedings is to punish the offender.

Criminal justice system:

The criminal justice system is one of the very major public service in the society. There are many agencies who work together under criminal justice system; some of these are police, the courts, the prison service, the crown prosecution service and the national probation service. The work of these agencies is over looked by three government departments which are the home office, the attorney general office and the department of constitutional affairs. All these departments and agencies are work together to improve the criminal justice system in order to:

- Prevent crime.

- Give victims and witnesses more support.

- Punish offenders.

Generally progress through the criminal justice process is very time consuming and complicated, in some situations cases could take more than a year before they approach to decision.

Many cases start off with the defendant first contact to police. The contribution of police in criminal justice system is very important because police got the responsibility of arresting criminal, gathering evidence and investigating crimes. Police officer has the power to ask general public questions at any time, but it depends on the public if they want to answer or not because police cannot force them until they are arrested.

Arrest:

They are two types of arrest situations:

- Arrest with a warrant.

- Arrest without a warrant.

Arrest with a warrant:

Generally warrant is a written permission, which is used as a proof in arresting situation. The warrant contains the name of the suspect and the offence he or she has committed. The police apply to magistrate court for a warrant to arrest a suspect. The magistrate court has a power of refusing police by not issuing a warrant but if it does issue a warrant against suspect than a police officer can conduct the arrest.

Arrest without a warrant:

Majority of the arrests in uk are carried out without a warrant. Police can arrest anyone at anywhere if they find the suspect suspicious, violent to public and about to commit a crime or responsible for any arrestable crime. The main arrestable crimes are:

- Any offence which parliament has declared to be arrested.

- Any crime for which an adult may get sentenced for imprisonment.

- Fixed sentenced crimes e.g. Murder.

Caution:

A caution can be given when police found a sufficient evidence for a conviction and it is not considered to be in the public interest to institute criminal proceedings. In addition to caution an offender must admit guilt and consent to a caution in order for one to be given.

Cautions commonly given by senior police officers and they mostly used for the young people and first time offenders.

Charge:

If there is enough evidence of guilt and none of the above options are appropriate and available, the police will formally charge the suspect.

When an offender is charge, the law requires that they are brought before a magistrate's court as soon as possible. There are three main methods of ensuring the defendant attends court:

- The first is that they have been held in custody by the police to appear as soon as possible.

- They may have been released on bail to attend court.

- A person may be summoned to appear in court.

Bail:

Bail means a person is free until the next stage in the process of their case. It is very important for the custody officer to decide whether the defendant should stay in custody or released on bail after he has been charged. In some cases a defendant can be released on bail before charge, this is because in some cases police need time to gather more evidence. The police may sometime apply conditions on the bail that they give. The commonly used conditions are:

- Surrender of passport.

- Report to the police station at regular intervals.

These conditions are just general examples these may be vary depending on the offences an offender has committed.

Legal aid:

Criminal legal aid is provided by the government which pays for the services of the lawyer selected by the accused person in cases where they cannot afford to pay for themselves. It is for courts to decide whether legal aid should be granted. Currently, this decision is based on an assessment of the person's ability to pay for their defence and on whether the provision of help is in the interests of justice. A judge can order a defendant to pay some or all of the defence costs at the end of the case.

Magistrates court:

Magistrate court can also be called"petty sessions" because it hears petty - small offences.

The structure of magistrate court:

The clerk of the court will always be an experienced solicitor or barrister.

He or she is there to guide the magistrates on questions of law and procedure, but the clerk is not allowed to interfere in anyway with the magistrate's decision of the case.

Because the magistrates are not qualified lawyers, so the clerk must be legally qualified in order to properly assist and advise the magistrate.

Crown court:

Crown court is a bit bigger than magistrate court and only serious offences are tried in crown court. Usually trails are given in crown court this is just to make sure that a right decision can be made at the end of the proceedings, these trials take place with a judge and jury.

The types of offences a crown court deals with are:

- Indictable-only offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape and robbery;

- Either way offences transferred from the magistrates' court;

- Appeals from the magistrates' court;

If the defendant is found not guilty, they are discharged and no conviction is recorded against their name.

Verdict:

In law, a verdict is the judgment of a case before a court of law. The term literally means "to speak the truth" and is derived from middle english verdit, from anglo-norman: a compound of ver ("true," from the latin vērus) and dit ("speech," from the latin dictum, the neuter form of dīcere, to tell or to speak).

Sentence:

In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence generally involves a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime.

Summary offences:

By definition, a summary offence is dealt with in the magistrates' court but the crown court may also deal with a summary offence onn the following circumstances:

- When an alternative verdict is returned under the road traffic offenders act 1988.

- It may take a guilty plea and sentence for a summary offence if the criminal justice act 1988 s.41 or crime and disorder act 1998 s apply.

- It may dismiss the summary offence if the prosecution offer no evidence under cja 1988 s.41.

Magistrates court:

Magistrate court can also be called"petty sessions" because it hears petty - small offences.

The structure of magistrate court:

The clerk of the court will always be an experienced solicitor or barrister. He or she is there to guide the magistrates on questions of law and procedure, but the clerk is not allowed to interfere in anyway with the magistrate's decision of the case. Because the magistrates are not qualified lawyers, so the clerk must be legally qualified in order to properly assist and advise the magistrate.

Crown court:

The types of offences a crown court deals with are:

- Indictable-only offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape and robbery;

- Either way offences transferred from the magistrates' court;

- Appeals from the magistrates' court;

- Sentencing decisions transferred from the magistrates' court. This can happen if magistrates decide, once they have heard the details of a case that it warrants a tougher sentence than they are allowed to impose. If the defendant is found not guilty, they are discharged and no conviction is recorded against their name.

Verdict:

Sentence:

Summary offences:

By definition, a summary offence is dealt with in the magistrates' court but the crown court may also deal with a summary offence onn the following circumstances:

- When an alternative verdict is returned under the road traffic offenders act 1988.

- It may take a guilty plea and sentence for a summary offence if the criminal justice act 1988 s.41 or crime and disorder act 1998 s apply.

- It may dismiss the summary offence if the prosecution offer no evidence under cja 1988 s.41.

The summary offences includes motoring offences in where a fixed penalty can be issued, also includes such offences as common assault and criminal damage up to ,000.

Indictable offences:

These offences are the most serious breaches of the criminal law and must be tried at the crown court. These 'indictable-only' offences include murder, manslaughter, rape and robbery.

Each-way offence:

These offences may be tried either at the Crown Court or at a magistrates' court. These offences include criminal damage where the value is ,000 or greater, theft, burglary and drink driving.

Definition:

Civil Law is a law that deals with disputes between individuals or organisations. For example, a car crash victim claims damages against the driver for loss or injury sustained in an accident, or one company sues another over a trade dispute. Unlike criminal offences, the Crown Prosecution Service doesn't prosecute a civil offence. Rather than any sentence, custodial or otherwise, the end result is usually financial compensation. Civil Law has developed in a similar way to the way criminal law has, through a mixture of Statutory Law made by governments, and 'precedent' which is created by earlier cases.

Key Concepts Of Civil Law:

- Civil law exists to resolve disputes between companies or individuals.

- Civil law has its own civil courts.

- Civil law has many divisions each dealing with a specialised branch of law.

- The main purpose of civil law is financial redress (compensation).

- The parties involved in civil law are called plaintiff and defendant.

Difference Between Civil And Criminal Law:

One crucial difference between Civil and Criminal law is that the 'burden of proof' is lower in a civil case. A criminal case must be proved 'beyond reasonable doubt.' A civil case only has to be proved on the balance of probabilities,' i.e. it is likely that the defendant is guilty.

The OJ Simpson trial in America is a classic example. The criminal trial hadn't proved 'beyond reasonable doubt' that he had murdered his wife, yet a subsequent civil trial decided that on the 'balance of probabilities' he had. As a result, the victim's family was awarded compensation, but in the criminal case, Simpson wasn't found guilty of murder, so he wasn't jailed. Civil actions aren't always successful though. The family of Stephen Lawrence brought a civil action against those suspected of his murder. Although the 'burden of proof' was lower than in a criminal trial the men were once again acquitted when crucial identification evidence was ruled to be inadmissible.

Other Areas Covered By Civil Law Are:

- Property - boundary disputes, trespass

- Work-related disputes - unfair dismissal, personal injury

- Defamation of character - The Neil Hamilton v Mohammed Al Fayed case is one example

- Consumer disputes - Faulty goods, 'trades description' offences

- Copyright or Intellectual Property disputes - Music sampling, plagiarism (copying someone else's material and passing it off as your own)

Divorce Courts:

Divorce court defines as a court having jurisdiction over the termination of marriage contracts, divorce cases are dealt under civil law and divorce court is a part of a civil law.

County Courts:

The County Courts are the first contact most people have with the civil law process in England. Like Magistrate court that deal with majority of criminal cases, the county court deals with most of the civil cases, related to family or property law e.g. divorce or disputes over land.

Other Facts About County Court:

- The Court was established in 1846.

- It processes most minor civil law matters.

- There are over 230 County Courts in the UK.

- It deals with property cases up to ,000.

- And personal injury claims less than ,000.

Court Judgements:

Court judgement defines as court decision after the court hearing, for instance in county courts a judge may issue an order of repaying the debt if the defendant found liable. This order is called a CCJ and will either be for the amount agreed between the defendant and the creditor or, if the defendant can't agree than a payment set by the court.

Compensation For Libel:

Compensation for libel means how much a person is liable to pay in term of damaged which he or she has caused to other person's property, or could be physical damage as well.

Differences Between Common Law And Statue Law:

The main big difference between a common law and statue law is, common law is a man made law which developed by the decisions judges made in important cases through time to time, and statue law is a law formally written down and recorded in an act of parliament.

Common Law Brief History & Henry 11's Introduction Of Independent Judges:

The legal system that we know now began its development during the Norman conquest of 1066, but it really began to become an organised system during the reign of Henry 11(1154-1189). When Henry came to the throne, justice was usually dealt with in local courts:

Feudal courts: local lords dealing with issues arising from the peasantry or tenants on their land. Courts of the Shires and Hundreds: County Sheriffs often sitting with a bishop or Earl to hear more serious cases. According to most sources of information these early courts operated on local customs and as we would expect these customs often different from country to country. There was a lack of consistency in the law of the time which meant that courts in different areas might settle the same dispute in entirely different ways. Henry 11 wanted a more standardised system of law in England and so he introduced the "General Eyre" which means "a journey". This General Eyre created a system whereby representatives of the king went out of the countries of England to check on their legal administration. They would sit in local courts and listen in to how the legal problems of the time were dealt with. Over time these representatives of the King came to be seen as judges themselves and were called "Justice in Eyre". The General Eyre disappeared around 200 years later and was replaced with a system of circuit judges from which our current high court developed.

By selecting the best local laws from all over the country the judges gradually changed differing local laws into a system of law which was "common" to the entire kingdom which is how common law originated.

Common Law Over Time:

Prior to 1066 ------------ local customs of the time, these varied from place to Place.

1066 - 15th- common law developed from the General Eyre &

Century become "common" across the country.

15th century - end - common law & equity. Initially in conflict,

Of 19th century these two bodies of law became mutually tolerant.

20th century 1973 - primary source of law is statute law, also called legislation or Acts of parliament. 1973 current - UK statute law & sometimes law from the

European Union. This change came about because the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973.

Other Key Facts About The Common Law:

Common law began its development during the reign of Henry11.

It established a unified system of law which was common to the whole country. Common law is based on judge's decisions in important cases which are then used by other judges as a standard to follow in future cases. Common law began to share power with equity in the fifteenth century. From the nineteenth century common law began to be replaced by statute law.

Concept Of Precedent:

Decision made by a judge in a particular case are "blinding" on the decision of future judges when the fact or same. This procedure is known as "judicial precedent" which is a very important part of the common law in English legal system. Concept of precedent is based on the Latin saying "stare decisis et non quieta movere" which means "standby what has been decided and do not change the established". The English legal system follows the rules of judicial precedent very rigidly while comparing with other countries, this means the courts in England and Wales must fallow decisions already made in higher or superior courts.

Common Law Offence (Criminal):

An example of common law criminal offence is a married couple had separated, but the husband forced his way into his wife's home and forced her to have non-consensual intercourse with him. Up until this time the common law rule was that a husband could not be criminally liable for raping his wife as the woman's marriage vows constituted ongoing consent for sexual relations. The judge in RVR1991 recognised the changed attitudes of society towards the status of women and created judicial precedent which outlined that all non-consensual intercourse was rape regardless of martial status.

Common Law Offence (Civil):

An example of common law civil offence is the right of the eldest son to inherit his fathers land known as "primogeniture" was almost universally applied across England, but if a person lived in Nottingham or Bristol the youngest son inherited the land. If a person lived in Kent all of the landowner's sons inherited the land in equal share Statute Law is defined as a form of written statements that are passed by parliament, i.e. Acts of Parliament.

Key Concept Of The Statute Law:



Statute law is made by parliament.



It can abolish and replace common law.



A bill is a proposal for a piece of legislation.



There are three kinds of bills-public, private and private members bills.



Bills are approved by a seven stage procedure concluding with royal assent.



The monarch has not refused to sign a statute law since 1707.

Statute law is different from common in these following ways:



Created by parliament, not by judges.



It is not bound by judicial precedent.



It can abolish and replace common law.



It is formally recorded in an act of law.

Parliamentary Process:

The main functions of Parliament are to pass laws, to provide by voting for taxation - the means of carrying out the work of government, to scrutinise Government policy and administration, including proposals for expenditure, and to debate the major issues of the day, the changes to statute law can only be made by Parliament.

Draft laws take the form of parliamentary Bills. Proposals for legislation affecting the powers of particular bodies (such as individual local authorities) or the rights of individuals (such as certain plans relating to railways, roads and harbours) are known as Private Bills and are subject to a special form of parliamentary procedure. Bills that change the general law, which make up the more significant part of the parliamentary legislative process, are called Public Bills. Public Bills can be introduced into either House, by a government minister or any MP or peer. Most Public Bills that become Acts of Parliament are introduced by a government minister. These are known as Government Bills. Bills introduced by other MPs or peers are known as Private Members Bills.

The main Bills forming the Government's legislative programme are announced in the Queen's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament, which usually takes place in November or shortly after a General Election. Before a Government Bill is drafted, there may be consultation with professional bodies, voluntary organisations and others with an interest. "White Papers', which are government statements of policy, often contain proposals for changes in the law. These may be debated in Parliament before a Bill is introduced. As part of the process of modernising procedures, some Bills are now published in draft for prelegislative scrutiny before beginning their passage through Parliament. The Government may also publish consultation papers, sometimes called 'Green Papers', setting out proposals that are still taking shape and inviting comments from the public.

Monarch
House Of Lords
House Of Commons
(Structure Of Statutory Law)
Delegated Or Secondary Legislation

In order to reduce pressure on parliamentary time, Acts of Parliament often give government ministers or other authorities the power to regulate administrative details by means of 'delegated' or secondary legislation. This mostly takes the form of Orders in Council, Regulations and Rules known as Statutory Instruments (Sis). These are as much the law of the land as are Acts of Parliament. Sis are normally drafted by the legal department of the ministry concerned and may be subject, when in draft, to consultations with interested parties. About 3,000 Sis are issued each year. To minimise any risk that delegating powers to the executive might undermine the authority of Parliament, such powers are normally only delegated to authorities directly accountable to Parliament. The relevant Acts sometimes provide for some measure of direct parliamentary control over proposed delegated legislation, by giving Parliament the opportunity to affirm or annul it. Parliament always has the right to consider whether the SI is made in accordance with the powers that it delegated.

The House Of Lords

Delegated Powers Scrutiny Committee

The House of Lords has established procedures whereby all bills with delegating powers are examined before they begin their passage through the house. The Delegated Powers Scrutiny Committee (established in 1992) keeps under constant review the extent to which legislative powers are delegated by parliament to government ministers. There is an informal understanding in the Lords that, when the Committee has approved provisions in a bill for delegated powers, the form of those powers should not normally be the subject of debate during the bill's subsequent passage. The House of Commons has no equivalent committee.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Statutory Law:

Advantages:



Created by an elected body which represents the people.

 Law can be made on any subject at any time; parliament does not have to wait for a suitable case to arrive in front of it.

Created by a formal procedure which includes checks and balances to ensure the law

 is appropriate.

Disadvantages:



Can be difficult to interpret.



Process can be time consuming and private members bills often fail.



The political party in power can control the legislative process.

Examples Of Statute Law:

An example of the statute law was the dangerous dog's act 1991 and another recent example was the Bill to enable the construction of the Channel Tunnel.

Did you like this example?

The Difference Between Criminal Law and Civil Law. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Domestic Violence and Child Abuse

Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Literature review
- Risk factors for Child abuse and neglect
Consequences of Child abuse and neglect
Prevention
Conclusion
References

Abstract

Child abuse and neglect have been a long-standing global problem for a while, it can be in any form, physical, emotional, sexual, or neglect. These can have major impacts on the health of the child in the long term. The child may suffer psychologically and physically, unable to hold down a job and so on. Physical abuse accounts for most reported cases of child abuse. Sexual abuse is still being muted, because people find it difficult to understand and acknowledge the abuse of children of all ages. This paper highlights some of the problems, children face when abused and neglected. It summarizes psychological abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional maltreatment.

Keywords: Child abuse and neglect, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse.

Introduction

In the society today, child abuse has become one of the major problems facing so many nations, millions of children face child abuse every year. As of 2000, an estimated 57000 children were victims of homicide (World Health Organization, n.d). Children between ages 0-4 were victims of fatal abuse with head injuries as the most common cause of death, followed by abdominal injuries and intentional suffocation (W.H.O, n.d). Over the years, child protection has been left to professionals in social service, health, mental care and the justice system (Kevoli & Mavindu, 2014). It is high time other professionals get involved, economists, anthropologists, historians, philosophers and so on should be able to report cases of child abuse and neglect by getting a clear understanding of what it means.

Child abuse and neglect is any act or series of acts of commission and/or omission by a parent or caregiver, that results in harm, the potential for harm or threat of harm to a child (Center for Disease Control and Protection, 2018). Child abuse is the intentional harm of a child by a caretaker, also referred to as an act of commission. It is a worldwide issue and it is not restricted to race, ethnic groups or social strata (Kemoli & Mavindu, 2014). However, there are some cultures that view child abuse in a different light. There are various forms of child abuse and they include physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse.

Physical abuse of a child is defined as those acts committed by a caregiver that results in physical bodily harm or have a potential for harm (Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, & Zwi, 2002). Sexual abuse is defined as acts where a caregiver uses a child for sexual gratification. Emotional abuse includes the failure of a caregiver to provide an appropriate and supportive environment (Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, &Zwi, 2002). Neglect refers to the failure of a parent to provide the necessary aid needed for the development of a child. All of these have adverse, long-term effects on the child. This paper discusses all the forms of child abuse and neglect, risks and the effects they have on the child, as well as its prevention.

Literature review

Physical abuse has been characterized according to a survey as behaviors involving hitting a child with an object, other than the buttocks; kicking a child; beating the child and threatening the child with a gun or knife. In Egypt, it was found that 37% reported being beaten or tied up by their parents, 27% reported physical injuries, fractures, and loss of consciousness (Mercy et al, 2002). In the Republic of Korea, two-thirds of parents reported whipping their children and 45% confirmed they had hit, kicked or beaten their children (Mercy et.al, 2002).

In Ethiopia, 21% of urban schoolchildren and a whopping 64% of rural schoolchildren reported bruises and/or swellings from beatings. Physical abuse is either manifested as a shaken baby syndrome or battered child syndrome, both involving intentional harm to a child and results in bodily physical harm like hemorrhages small skull fracture of the child in shaken baby and devastating skeletal, skin and nervous system injury in battered child syndrome These data have shown that child abuse, mostly physical abuse is prevalent around the continent.

Sexual abuse, according to Baker (2003) is “a form of child abuse when a child is compelled, by manipulation or force to fulfill the sexual demands of an older person, often a family member, force a child to participate in some acts that can include rape, incest, or erotic fondling”(p.68).

According to the report by Mercy et al, (2002), the prevalence of sexual abuse varies depending on definitions used and the kind of information collected. Some of the surveys were conducted with children, some with adolescents and some with adults who have experienced sexual abuse when they were younger. In Romania, 0.1% of parents admitted to having sexually abused their children, 9.1% of children reported to being sexually abused. Further data has suggested that 20% of women and 5-10% of men suffered sexual abuse as children. These data show contrasting views of both adults and the children involved, that is why the issue of child sexual abuse remains muted and difficult to deal with.

Emotional and Psychological abuse is not being reported globally, there are discrepancies between what is regarded as a psychological or emotional abuse mostly due to cultural factors. These factors strongly influence the non-physical ways parents choose to discipline their children. In countries like Chile, Egypt, India, Philipines and the USA, a high percentage of parents reported yelling or screaming at their children. A lower percentage reported calling of evil spirits, cursed at the child or refusing to speak to the child. This data suggests that yelling at children is the common practice of parents all over the continent.

Neglect is regarded as a lack of care by parents and caregivers and may affect the development of the child. In Kenya, a high percentage of children are found sleeping on the streets and about 21.9% of them reported to be neglected by their parents (Mercy et.al, 2002).

Risk factors for Child abuse and neglect

The factors surrounding child abuse and neglect are multifactorial, a lot of sources have established various factors but this paper would only focus on a few.

Domestic violence- Parents who abuse their partners are likely to abuse the children either physically or emotionally.

Poor socioeconomic status- Unemployment, poverty may be grounds for abuse. Frustrated parents could take it out on their children. This could be a reason for neglect because of inability to financially provide the basic needs of the child or children.

Drug and Alcohol- Parents who abuse drugs and alcohol are more than likely to abuse their children.

Unwanted pregnancy- Children from unwanted pregnancy could suffer abuse and neglect because the mother is unprepared for the child.

Consequences of Child abuse and neglect

The consequences of child abuse are mostly health consequences, but abuse and neglect could also take a financial toll on the parties involved. Health consequences of child abuse and neglect could be physical, sexual, psychological and behavioral.

The children could manifest with physical trauma like brain injuries, abdominal injuries, disability, fractures ocular damage and many others. Sexually victims of child abuse could suffer from sexual dysfunction, unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. The more common and most serious consequences come are psychological and behavioral and they include drug and alcohol abuse, cognitive impairment, low self-esteem from emotional abuse, depression, and anxiety, problems with socializing in school, feelings of shame and guilt and self-harm and suicidal behavior.

Prevention

Abused children need intense treatment to overcome their problems. It is important that professionals pay close attention to cases of child abuse and report to the appropriate authorities.

Furthermore, parents should be trained on child development and bonding, teaching them consistent child-rearing methods. Programmes should also be set up like regular home visitations by nurses and healthcare professionals to ensure support and care is rendered to the children.

Societally, measures can also be taken to reduce poverty, increase employment opportunities and provide easy access to quality child health care (Mercy et al, 2002).

Conclusion

Child abuse is an essential issue in our society and work should continue to ensure that the incidence and mortality rates of child abuse reduces.

References

Barker, R. L. (2003). The social work dictionary.
Center for Disease Control and Protection (2018). Child Abuse and Neglect. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/definitions.html
Kemoli, A. M., & Mavindu, M. (2014). Child abuse: A classic case report with literature review. Contemporary Clinical Dentistry, 5(2), 256–259. http://doi.org/10.4103/0976-237X.132380
Krug, E. G., Mercy, J. A., Dahlberg, L. L., & Zwi, A. B. (2002). The world report on violence and health. The Lancet, 360(9339), 1083-1088.
World Health Organization (n.d). Facts on Child abuse and neglect. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/factsheets/en/childabusefacts.pdf

Did you like this example?

Domestic Violence and Child Abuse. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Important Domestic Violence Awareness

Women Against Violence (WAV) is a local charity that attends to the needs of victims that have fallen prey to domestic violence by giving them a place to stay, helping them overcome stress, and even help them begin a new life if needed. WAV is able to help the community with donations from supporters, but due to the economic downturn donations have been low. Famous Brewery and Bottling Company have presented an offer to sponsor a spring festival as a fundraiser for WAV, giving them $40,000 to host the festival and allowing them to keep all proceeds as long as Famous can set up a booth at the festival and have their logo included on all promotional materials. Women Against Violence must make a decision to accept or reject the sponsorship offered by Famous Brewery and Bottling Company while considering how this will affect them in the long term.

Women Against Violence is a domestic violence awareness group while Famous is in the alcohol industry and alcohol is known to be an influence in a number of domestic abuse cases creating a negative relationship between the two groups. The charity has an obligation to keep the doors open for the victims that have sought out help to rehabilitate and move on to a better life. The decision needed runs the risk of leaving WAV with a negative reputation if not thought out clearly and may bring harm to the charity no matter the choice made. If this problem was viewed from the perspective of Famous, the sponsorship offer could open new opportunities with the image for the brewery industry. The sponsorship from Famous to WAV can show the alcohol industry standing up against domestic violence while fundraising for the victims seeking help from WAV.

With this offer in mind, Women Against Violence team members will need to consider the affected parties as not only themselves but also their domestic violence victims that depend on the organization. The charity is hurting and can only get worse with the lack of donations coming in during this economic downturn, meaning less resources available for the individuals that seek assistance. If the organization has to close down, the victims may no longer have shelter, safety, and stability they need to restart their life. The damage caused by losing donations may be reversed if the sponsorship is accepted. The organization will need to analyze all sides of this offer and make a decision that will be best for the majority if not all of the involved parties.

At this time, three different options have been presented to make the decision on accepting or rejecting the sponsorship offer from Famous. First, accept the offer in full terms; WAV will accept the initial donation and host a spring festival giving Famous a booth and recognition on all promotional materials. Accepting the sponsorship could bring negative opinions about WAV’ s loyalty to the domestic violence victims, losing current or future donors and supporters. The victims may lose their sense of safety or trust in WAV to help them during the difficult journey of getting back to a semi-normal life. Despite the possible negative costs, the sponsorship could have positive outcomes such as providing the financial assistance WAV needs to keep operating and helping individuals; raising awareness for domestic violence to a new demographic of individuals, and bringing new donors or sponsors to fund the charity. Famous has top management mostly composed of women, and with this addition Women Against Violence could reach more female victims who need help but have not felt strong enough in the past to ask for help.

The second option to make a decision would be to reject the offer fully. If the sponsorship is rejected, the charity will have to continue in their plans to determine how and when they are ending the operations. This closure would leave the victims without the help they need. The only positive outcome to rejecting the proposal would be avoiding negative publicity about partnering with a brewery. Rejecting the offer would not be feasible in the long term for the Women Against Violence charity or the victims.

The third option to make a decision would be to accept the offer with a revision that Famous can be included on the promotional material and can have a booth at the spring festival as long as no alcohol is present. The Women Against Violence team would like to keep the festival family friendly and alcohol free to reduce negative assumptions about the charity. The costs associated with this choice are similar to accepting the full offer; people may have negative reactions in regards to a brewery sponsoring the domestic violence awareness charity. Famous could rescind their sponsorship offer leaving WAV with no choice. However, with the choice for the spring festival to be family oriented, it may draw out more families willing to attend the festival bringing in more proceeds to the fundraiser.

It is time to make a final decision on the options researched. After consulting with the other stakeholders and victims that will be affected, WAV has chosen to take option three and accept the offer with the requested revisions. The team feels strongly about this choice because it will be the most beneficial to everyone involved and the long term forecast for the charity. Despite the backlash that may arise, all of the supporters and donors should eventually see the positivity in WAV’s choice to accept the sponsorship. Publicity from the sponsorship of the spring festival either good or bad will bring attention to the Women Against Violence charity; the attention will raise awareness for domestic violence and achieve WAV’s ultimate goal.

Now that the decision has been made, the WAV team members need to set up a meeting with the Famous representatives and go over the proposal for the revised terms of the sponsorship. If Famous does not agree with the new terms, they will have to be ready to negotiate without compromising their ethics. Be sure to emphasize the positivity and publicity will not only be focused on WAV but also Famous and their willingness to help this charity stay open and raise awareness for the domestic violence victims.

In conclusion, Women Against Violence has determined the best decision for their charity long term and the victims in which they provide aid. The team is willing to accept the negative people or images that may emerge from this sponsorship and continue to help the local individuals that have been victims of abuse. In the end, is is most important to be available for the victims that needs a place to heal and start anew.

Did you like this example?

Important Domestic Violence Awareness. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Ways to Prevent Homelessness from Domestic Violence

Contents

What is Outreach?
Knowing your Clients

What is Outreach?

Outreach is the dynamic process providing services to those who might otherwise be ignored or underserved. It involves locating and contacting Veterans who are experiencing homelessness in places where they are likely to be found and connecting them to services that can lead to their being housed.

The elements of outreach include:

Motivating clients to accept services.
Engaging reluctant or suspicious clients.
Responding to immediate basic survival needs.
Providing referrals to appropriate agencies for services that HAV does not provide.
Repeated contact over time – following-up when the opportunity arises.

Knowing your Clients

Economic and Social Factors that Affect Homelessness

The people you will meet during outreach are individuals whose background and life stories are as different and varied as any random cross-section of people you would encounter anywhere. However, it is helpful to be aware of some of the challenges and barriers that confront those who are experiencing homelessness.

Shelter Life

Homeless shelters offer basic protection from the elements, a place to sleep and often serve meals. Many shelters offer access to caseworkers and additional services. Some are classified as “low barrier” which means that behavior is the sole determinant in gaining admission. Unfortunately, living in close quarters with other people, lack of privacy and theft of personal possessions and other stressors are common, even within the best-run shelters.

High Housing Costs

High or rising costs of housing within the community puts additional stress on families with low or marginal incomes. It is common to encounter clients who became homeless due to their inability to meet the costs of rising rents.

Low Income

Households with low income are vulnerable to homelessness. A single medical crisis, car accident, incidence of domestic violence, job loss or other traumatic event can push a household over the precipice into homelessness.

Systemic Discrimination

Discrimination based on race, gender identity or criminal history can increase the difficulty of obtaining housing and employment as well as access to services.

Mental Health and Addiction Challenges

These can include abroad array of challenges including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and substance abuse disorders. These issues can both contribute to homelessness as well as be aggravated by existing homelessness. An estimated 26% of homeless adults residing in shelters live with serious mental illness.

Guidelines for Outreach

There are specific skills that will help outreach workers who work among the homeless population. These skills can increase your credibility, earn the trust of potential clients and enhance the effectiveness of your efforts. They include:

Demonstrating unconditional respect for the client.

Showing respect is primarily a matter of observing basic social skills. Introducing yourself to the client, offering a firm handshake, maintaining eye contact, and listening carefully while using their name are all effective techniques.

Build trust, and your reputation, within the community.

As you move among potential clients you are highly visible. Assume that you are continually being observed and evaluated by potential clients. They will notice your demeanor and will decide whether you are trustworthy and helpful based on what they see and how you interact with other clients.

Minimize or eliminate barriers.

Seemingly small challenges may seem overwhelming or insurmountable to a client experiencing homelessness. As an outreach worker you will have opportunities to solve some of these issues for your clients. One example of this might be referring a client to an onsite Department of Health and Human Services counselor who can enroll them in a food stamps program.

Whose turf are you on?

There are many agencies that offer services to those experiencing homelessness in our community; often there is a degree of overlap among those services. Happily, there is a strong spirit of cooperation and collegiality among the various partner agencies in Colorado Springs.

Did you like this example?

Ways to Prevent Homelessness From Domestic Violence. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Does Arrest Reduce Domestic Violence

Do you have someone that you love very much? Do you think they would ever hurt you in a way that could harm you? Some people say they can see it coming from miles away and some people say they would have never expected it. Often times when people are told that their partner has been abusive in the past, they just ignore it and go on and think that their partner wouldn’t do that to them because they love them. Partner abuse isn’t just physical its also sexual and emotional as well. The common physical abuses are biting, hitting, shoving, kicking or smacking. The more common emotional abuse actions that are seen are yelling, controlling the partner or threatening the partner.

Sexual abuse is just that, when someone is forcing you to do something sexual that you do not want to participate in. Don’t you think that if someone could come up with a cure to people abusing others then the world would be better, but no one can seem to come up with something like that.

A 2012 report on nonfatal intimate partner violence among U.S. households from 1993 to 2010 was made by Shannan M. Catalano. She studied intimate partner violence including rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault by a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend.

From 1994 to 2010, the overall rate of intimate partner violence in the United States declined by 64 percent, from 9.8 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older to 3.6 per 1,000. Intimate partner violence declined by more than 60 percent for both males and females from 1994 to 2010.

From 1994 to 2010, about 4 in 5 victims of intimate partner violence were female. Females ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experienced the highest rates of intimate partner violence. Compared to every other age group, a smaller percentage of female victims ages 12 to 17 were previously victimized by the same offender. The rate of intimate partner violence for Hispanic females declined 78 percent, from 18.8 victimizations per 1,000 in 1994 to 4.1 per 1,000 in 2010.

Females living in households comprised of one female adult with children experienced intimate partner violence at a rate more than 10 times higher than households with married adults with children and 6 times higher than households with one female only. One surprising result of some of these studies is the indication that intimate partner abuse may have declined in recent years.

There are several explanations for this apparent decline. One is the existence of shelters for women who are abused. This escape valve allows them an option to escape an abusive relationship. Another is the widespread publicity that has occurred in recent years about intimate partner abuse. A third possible explanation is more effective punishment and better treatment for the assaultive partner. Although the incidence of intimate partner abuse may be declining, many scholars believe that its severity is increasing. Even with a decline in the number of reported cases in recent years, this form of family violence is still prevalent and requires any professional to be familiar with the nature and dynamics of intimate partner abuse.

Many people tend to ask the person being abused, why do you stay with them? Why don’t you just leave? And to some people it’s just not that easy. Some people are afraid that more could happen to them. If their partner pushes them down and breaks their leg, then they could be thinking if I try to get away what would they do then. In the tension building phase the spouse gets mad for whatever reason but the other spouse tries to calm them down and at that point they are doing whatever is wanted by them.The next phase would be the explosion or acute battery stage. This is where someone explodes and bad things happen. But the things that are happening isnt realized until the incident is over.

For example a husband and a wife could be yelling at each other and they start punching each other and the husband keeps going well after the wife has stopped. Then when its all said and done the wife looks at herself with a black eye and broken bones. But she doesn’t go to the hospital or the doctors because she thinks it’s all her fault. She is in denial mode and doesn’t want to believe what has actually happened.

The next phase is the calm, loving respite phase. This is the phase that the person doing wrong has realized and tries to make up for it. They will say that they didn’t mean to and they will buy things to try to say sorry.

Duluth, a small community in northern Minnesota, started in the early 1980s to look at innovative methods of preventing domestic violence. The goals were to hold batterers accountable and keep victims safe. The 'Duluth Model' is an evolving way of thinking about how a community works together to end domestic violence. The Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Collation has developed a Power and Control Wheel to help identify common tactics used and spot abuse as it happens. And help victims and offenders get the help they need before it is too late.

Their way of thinking and acting includes: Taking the blame off the victim and placing the accountability for abuse on the offender. Shared policies and procedures for holding offenders accountable and keeping victims safe across all agencies in the criminal and civil justice systems from 911 to the courts. Prioritizing the voices and experiences of women who experience battering in the creation of those policies and procedures. Accepting the concept that battering is a pattern of actions used to intentionally control or dominate an intimate partner and actively working to change societal conditions that support men’s use of tactics of power and control over women. Offering change opportunities for offenders through court-ordered educational groups for batterers. Having ongoing discussions between criminal and civil justice agencies, community members and victims to close gaps and improve the community’s response to battering.

According to Walker, the battered woman syndrome theorizes that victims of intimate partner abuse gradually become immobilized by fear and believe that they have no other options. As a result, these women stay in the abusive relationships, coping the best they can. The battered woman syndrome involves one who has been, on at least two occasions, the victim of physical, sexual, or serious psychological abuse by a man with whom she has an intimate relationship. It is a pattern of psychological symptoms that develop after someone has lived in a battering relationship. These are the women that are scared to leave the relationship because they are in fear of what could happen to them if the person finds that they escaped and they know where.

Very similar in dynamics to the battered woman syndrome is a condition referred to as the Stockholm syndrome, which is a phenomenon that occurs when persons who are held as hostages, captives, or prisoners of war begin to identify with the captors. These victims are isolated, mistreated, and in fear for their lives. They become helpless, confined to the area in which they are ordered to stay, and dependent on their captors to supply everything they need to survive. They begin to develop positive feelings for their captors.

The syndrome was named after an incident in Stockholm, Sweden, where four bank employees were held hostage in the bank’s vault for 131 hours by two perpetrators. When the victims were finally freed, they expressed gratitude toward the offenders for sparing their lives. There was an instance of this recently in the United States. So yes this kind of stuff still happens to this day. Recently in January 2018 there was a family of fifteen living in a house. Living in this house was the mother, father and thirteen children. The ages of the children ranged from 25 to 2. The parents had complete control over the kids. The parents would take turns chaining the kids to the beds or the rails so they couldn’t go anywhere.

They didn’t let them go play with people in the neighborhoods, they didn’t let them bath but once a year and they only let them eat the bare minimum of food requirements. The 25 year old only weighed in at 83 pounds. This is a problem with some people that they think they need to be in control of anything and everything and that’s just what these parents wanted. Now some of their children will be mentally handicapped for the rest of their lives because of the abuse that they were given. This case was found because two of the kids escaped from the house but one got scared so she ran back to the house before the parents found out. That is the question, why do people not leave, or why do they come back?

Things that may lead to violence: Power, dependency, or even alcohol. People that want to be in control of everything get mad when they can’t control something. They have to be able to change anything at any given moment. So when these type of people get into relationships they are often found to be the ones to try to control what their partner does and what they see. Which often, more than none, ends in violence. Dependency isn’t as big now as it used to be in the 1900’s. Back then dependency was the biggest reason for violence. Women were made to stay at home which the man of the house went out and worked for the money. So the wife stayed home and did all the housework, cooking, cleaning, watching the kids and taking care of herself. So back then women didn’t have jobs outside of the home so they were dependent on their husband.

The wife couldn’t do anything or run away because she didn’t have any money. So she had to take whatever violence was given to her. Alcohol is a bigger factor now than back in the 1900’s. People now go out all the time or they sit on the couch and get wasted. Then once they are wasted they don’t know what they are doing or even saying. Some of the people that are violent are violent without alcohol and some are only violent if they have alcohol. And some are just violent all the way around. Women under the age of twenty five are at the highest risk for domestic violence incidents. So being that those are the common years of women being pregnant, that doesn’t change what a man will do to a women or vice versa. There is an old saying out there “The marriage license as a hitting license”. Back in the 1900’s getting married was a time for the man to take control of the women and to do what he wants with her. Now in 2018 it is the opposite. It is more common for violence to be in couples that are cohabitating rather than the ones that are married.

Now that we have talked about different types of abuse lets switch to what needs to be done legally when something happens. The term spousal assault is used to distinguish this form of family violence from intimate partner abuse. From a legal perspective, the term spousal assault is inaccurate. As will be discussed later in this chapter, in a majority of states an assault does not involve any physical injury to the victim. However, to be consistent with other professionals and writers in the field of family violence, spousal assault is used and defined as the act of intentionally inflicting physical injury on the spouse or other person who is cohabitating with the abuser. It is distinct and yet a part of intimate partner abuse in that all the dynamics that cause intimate partner abuse may be present in spousal assault. However, this form of assault may occur without the existence of the other forms of abuse, such as emotional or psychological injury, that typically accompany intimate partner abuse. Officers and investigating agencies look into spousal abuse different than they do robberies and things of that nature.

Starting in October 1982 and continuing until June 1983, Tracey Thurman repeatedly contacted the Torrington Police Department in Connecticut, begging for protection from her estranged husband, Buck. Tracey signed several sworn complaints against Buck; however, the police department considered the incidents a family matter and did not respond to them in the same manner as they did to “stranger assaults.” On the day of the final beating, Buck stabbed Tracey repeatedly. A police officer arrived and asked Buck for the knife but did not arrest or restrain him in any manner. Buck gave the officer the knife and then proceeded to stomp on Tracey’s head in front of the officer. He then went inside the house and returned with their son and cursed and kicked Tracey in the head. This series of blows left her partially paralyzed.

Other officers arrived, and they did not arrest Buck until he tried to assault Tracey as she lay on the ambulance stretcher. Tracey filed suit in federal court against the City of Torrington, its police department, and all twenty-four officers that she had contacted over the years about Buck’s assaultive acts. She alleged that the police department and its officers had been negligent in responding to her and, further, that they had violated her constitutional rights to equal protection under the law by treating her differently than they would do to other persons who were assaulted by strangers. The jury awarded Tracey $2.3 million in damages. Although the city’s insurance company paid the judgment, it indicated that it might not pay any future awards of any police department that refused or failed to educate their officers about domestic violence. (Conn. 1984). This is a great example of how officers react differently to spouse abuse calls. If this was a random stranger that was doing this to Tracey she would have had cops there within minutes and had been saved and not paralyzed. But instead it was spouse abuse so the cops thought they should be able to solve issues on their own.

Cops shouldn’t get to make calls like that. If someone makes a report that they are being abused then the cops should have to investigate the situation.Police officers were and are reluctant to arrest the abuser in the mistaken belief that an arrest would pose a financial hardship on the family. An arrest is the taking of a person into custody in the manner prescribed by law. In addition, many law enforcement officers believe that arrest is a futile act in view of the lack of prosecution and lenient sentences imposed (if at all) by the courts. Many officers would arrest only if, in their opinion, the injury to the victim was severe. Until recently, another factor affecting the decision to arrest was the statutory limits on arrests for certain types of crimes. Traditionally, criminal violations are divided into two major classifications: felonies and misdemeanors. In the United States, this distinction is spelled out by statute or by state constitution.

A felony is considered the most serious type of crime and is usually punished by imprisonment in state prison. Many statutes provide that all other crimes are misdemeanors. A misdemeanor is considered less serious and is punished by incarceration in local jails not to exceed one year. Normally, police may arrest persons who have committed felonies based on reasonable grounds or probable cause. Probable cause is that set of facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe that a crime has been committed by the suspect. This felony arrest may occur even if the officers did not personally witness the offense. Misdemeanor arrests, on the other hand, require the officers to witness the crime. If they did not see the offense committed, they could request the victim to make a citizen’s arrest, and then on behalf of the citizen they would take the perpetrator into custody.This distinction in the nature and classification of crimes had a direct impact on the ability of police officers to make arrests for domestic violence assaults. Many domestic violence disputes involve a battery. Most statutes define a battery as the unlawful application of force on a person by another.

Battery is the unlawful touching of another, whereas assault is the act of placing another in fear and does not require any physical touching of the other person.

Absent serious injury, many state laws define battery as a misdemeanor. The victim’s preference not to file charges also affects the police officer’s decision not to arrest the offender. Several studies have indicated that many times victims of spousal assault did not want the police to make an arrest.

This resulted in the officers admonishing the offender and leaving the scene of the crime. Many police officers perceive family disputes as potentially dangerous situations in which both parties, the abuser and the victim, may turn on the officer. Although there are conflicting studies as to whether family disputes are in fact more dangerous to police officers, the fact that many officers believe this to be the case can result in a delay in responding to these types of calls for service.

This perception may cause officers to delay in responding to spousal assault calls until they have a backup unit. In the last several years, many states have passed mandatory arrest statutes that require the officer to arrest the suspect. These laws allow police to make arrests for misdemeanors that are not committed in their presence. The passage of these laws and their effectiveness is a subject of debate within the field of criminal justice. The following section discusses the factors that resulted in the passage of these statutes.Although intimate partner abuse has been intensely researched in the past years, it is still one of the most commonly misunderstood issues within family violence.

Our society has placed women in inferior and subordinate positions throughout history, and even today some segments of our society continue to treat them as property rather than partners. Are there many ways to say why people abuse others and why it is most common for a man to abuse a woman. People still have ideas as to why people stay in abusive situations and not try to leave. So the big question is, if you were having spousal abuse do you think you could leave?

Did you like this example?

Does Arrest Reduce Domestic Violence. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Domestic Violence in India

There is a collective of brave women located in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, who call themselves the Gulabi Gang — literally meaning “pink gang” which explains the women’s bold uniforms of bright pink saris. The Gulabi Gang is made up of thousands of women who take on common causes such as attacks, child marriage, domestic violence, and general discrimination against perpetrators by threatening to use collective force (3 Feb. 2019). Today, this powerful gang is known to be one of the most noticeable and victorious movements against both gender violence and inequality throughout India. The leader herself, Sampat Pal, describes this gang as “not a gain in the usual sense of the term. We are a gang for justice” (3 Feb. 2019).

The Gulabi Gang was founded and led by Sampat Pal during the year 2006. Sampat Pal was born and raised in the Banda district, Uttar Pradesh. She was born into a poor family where she spent the majority of her days caring for sheep and cattle along with her brothers. Sampat Pal lived a normal childhood until the age of 12, when she was married to a resident of the Banda district of UP (2014, March 07). She became a mother at the age of 15 and within the next following years, she gave birth to four more children. Not only did Pal start a special role of being a mother, but she also began speaking up for her own beliefs about women's justice. However, this was very difficult due to her country having specific cultural views of women.

Many countries, including India, have society-centered macrosystem quality standards that can aggravate gender-based violence (2002, June 01). Traditional or cultural gender roles commonly assure that men are superior to women and more valued as well as dominant towards women. This increases the likelihood of domestic violence toward women. India has been indicted as humanity's largest violation of human rights (27 Apr. 2018). Violence on an everyday basis is very common in India. As stated by Deepa Narayan from the Guardian, over 50% of women and men still today believe that women deserve a beating (27 Apr. 2018).

This beating could simply be caused by too much dependency or not enough effort in the household. Women are typically viewed as “living in their lives almost exclusively for the males” (2002, June 01). This can create an idea that women are only important or useful for traditional house duties such as cleaning, feeding the family, and caring for the children — putting duty over self. Women are also told to speak softly, to have “no opinions, no arguments, no conflicts”(27 Apr. 2018). Therefore, women are easy to overrule and violate without consequences. Sampat Pal witnessed violence against women on a day-to-day basis and rather than ignoring this issue, she decided to fight for women's justice.

Around the age of 16, Sampat Pal strongly opposed a neighbor who routinely beat his wife which resulted in Pal’s beating (2014, March 07). She then motivated women to teach the man a lesson by beating him repeatedly with bamboo sticks — the bamboo sticks soon became a symbol, along with the use of pink saris, to express the significance of empowered women that are ready to defend themselves without hesitation against such violent acts. These women, specifically a group of four women who were living in the same neighborhood only allowed this man to return home after her publicly apologized. This little particular act of resentment inspired several women to ask Pal to deliver her special brand of justice to their own homes or villages, where they also are abused. This was only the start of the empowering Gulabi Gang, the number of members continues to grow across the nation.

The Gulabi gang is mainly active in Bundelkhand, which is part of the southern edge of Uttar Pradesh, the other part of Bundelkhand lies in the state of Madhya Pradesh (women in the world). Sampat Pal along with several hundred Indian women serve their justice in their villages while defending themselves from violence and discrimination. However one of the gang's biggest challenges is the lack of the role of the police fulfill. Sampat Pal states, “nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law into our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers,' by teaching members how to use a lathi (traditional Indian stick) in self-defense.” (2007, November 26). In response, the Gulabi Gang acts in ways that must pressure the police to register and investigate cases (n.d.). For example, after the Gulabi Gang was aware that the police failed to register a rape case of women, they soared their opportunity to storm the police station (2012, November 26).

The gang demanded to register the case which the police denied and as a result the gang beat the police with their lathis. Another example is the Gulabi Gang received multiple complaints that a “fair price shop” run by the government had stopped the normal distributions of grain and instead was delivered to corrupt officials (2012, November 26). The Gulabi Gang in response hijacked the truck which held food for the poor (2012, November 26). Other acts of the Gulabi Gang can simply such as protests, and strikes. Sampat Pal examples that the Gulabi Gang has been successful — “Our missions have a 100 percent success rate. We have never failed in bringing justice when it comes to domestic problems. Dealing with the administration is the tricky part since we cannot always take the law into our hands. We did beat up some corrupt officials but we were ultimately helpless.

"The goons of the corrupt officials and the political parties constantly threaten me." (2016 Oct. 8). The Gulabi Gang has also been successful in gaining support from men. Every husband who allows their wife to join the protests and activities hosted by the Gulabi Gang is supporting the gang as well. Amna Khawar even shares that some men finance the organization (n.d). Their stories and experiences have become films and books that individuals around the world share, influencing many women all across the world.

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing the Gulabi Gang going forward? One of the biggest challenges will be succession. The Gang heavily relies on Sampat, who is both the founder and commander-in-chief of the group, and it is very unlikely that it would survive without her at the helm. Sampat will need to raise future leaders but she has found it hard to find the right woman to pass the baton on to. Another challenge is whether the Gulabi Gang will survive if Sampat enters into politics, which she is attempting to do.

References

Biswas, S. (2007, November 26). South Asia | India's 'pink' vigilante women. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7068875.stm
Gulabi Gang. (2016, October 08). Retrieved from https://fragranceofsuccess.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/gulabi-gang/
The Gulabi Gang – India's Pink-Wearing Female Vigilantes. (2012, November 26). Retrieved from https://www.odditycentral.com/pics/the-gulabi-gang-indias-pink-wearing-female-vigilantes.html
Interview: Pink is Powerful as India's 'Gulabi Gang' Offers Hope for Oppressed Women. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/interview-pink-powerful-indias-gulabi-gang-offers-hope-oppressed-women
Interview: Pink is Powerful as India's 'Gulabi Gang' Offers Hope for Oppressed Women. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/interview-pink-powerful-indias-gulabi-gang-offers-hope-oppressed-women
Martin, L, S., E, K., Garro, Julian, Tsui, . . . Campbell. (2002, June 01). Domestic violence across generations: Findings from northern India. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/31/3/560/629773
Narayan, D. (2018, April 27). India's abuse of women is the biggest human rights violation on Earth | Deepa Narayan. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/27/india-abuse-women-human-rights-rape-girls
Pink Brigade fights for women's rights in India's rural heartland. (2017, February 07). Retrieved from https://womenintheworld.com/2016/03/16/pink-brigade-fights-for-womens-rights-in-indias-rural-heartland/

Did you like this example?

Domestic Violence in India. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Willy Loman the Death of a Salesman

To the Fathers of the Year: Death of a Salesman and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The way a child turns out in life is shaped by the behaviors, decisions, and actions of the adults that raised them; poor parental guidance like Biff and Huckleberry Finn set the pattern of a socially, and emotionally alienated children. To have any sense of order in a family, there should be a balanced parenting style tied with the cooperation from both the parents and the children, there need to be limitations and firm grips on reality. Whether it is through realism, illusions, or symbolic representation, the relationship between a father and his son in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is non-existent.

It is through the parenting styles of Pa and Willy Loman that both Biff and Huckleberry’s identities are constructed to create a sense of fantasy and freedom. In Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, the reader is introduced to Willy Loman, his wife Linda, their youngest son Happy, the black sheep of the family, Biff. There is a great deal of parental influence on the children in this play, but they are mostly aimed at Biff. Willy’s lack of reality drives a deep wedge between him, and Biff tries hard to understand his father’s constant obsession in living in the past, but he is unable to grasp any sort of it. Willy seems to be acting like a friend to Biff and Happy instead of a father. He is most interested in Biff’s appearance, wealth, and his academic achievements. “When the hell did I lose my temper? I simply asked him if he was making any money. Is that a criticism?”.

Willy is infatuated with chasing after the American Dream that he fails to notice he has created a world full of illusions engulfing his family. In his attempts to ‘provide’ a better life for his sons, he ultimately has put up barriers around them and the real world causing the family to be separated not only from the truth but also from each other. Willy dreams of his sons not relying on him, but themselves, but he knows that it's not possible, even though both his sons have steady jobs, he wants more from them, more of them. Willy is ultimately trying to live his life through his sons by altering their views of the world around them through the incorporation of ideas, and morals of a life filled with luxury, wishes, pride, and fame, this is the opposite of what a parent should do. Instead of encouraging Biff to live and work on the land as he wants, he instills laziness into Biff’s mind giving the audience a feeling of helplessness and anger.

“The trouble is he’s lazy” (Miller, 1712). Willy is a confusing man to please and live with, he does not have the basic foundational skills and morals to raise his sons properly. His mind is a highway of multiple illusions of the person he is trying to be, his brother Ben. Ben is Willy’s dead ‘successful’ brother, he knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, Willy not so much. Through the memories of Ben walking “into the jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he is rich!” (Miller 1725), the fake morals of popularity instilled by Willy onto Biff, propels Biff into his illusions of being successful, “Yeah. Lotta dreams and plans” (Miller, 1714). Willy’s disappointment with Ben is really towards himself and how at the old age of sixty-one, all his identity was held through the title of a salesman, while Biff’s identity was known in and out of society.

Willy’s expectation of Biff when he was a teenager is nothing to brag about, he did not focus on Biff’s grades, even if he was failing, he paid close attention to his son’s talent when it came to playing football and the ways that people are drawn to him like mosquitos to a flame. Willy’s state of parenting is inadequate causing what little father and son interactions and hopes they had evaporated into nothingness. With his values, ideals, and morals, Willy’s son Biff entraps himself in a world dominated by achieving something his father dreamed of and confusing his identity with his father’s. Biff and Happy are now and forever stained and left vulnerable to the outside world after Willy’s death. The only time the audience experiences any sense of individuality in the closing scene when Biff states “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong” (1775). This quote is highly important because it shows that only through Willy’s death that the Loman family are freed from the illusions of a greedy illusionist who imprisoned his family in a world of perfection.

Miller attempts to show how illusions can create conflicts resulting in a father losing his way when trying to teach his son the morals of his own. Willy ingraining Biff’s mind and dreams of success and popularity being the only thing a man needs further supports Willy’s outcome in life. Pride and loyalty were never encouraged in the family and that is the downfall of Biff and the reason for a wedge existing in the father and son relationship. Arthur Miller’s portrayal of how characters interact with one another allows him to comment on father and son's loss of identity being a huge problem in the play. Being a father is a very important role that should be taken very seriously in life. It is a huge responsibility and requires dedication, and emotion, that is not the case in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Huckleberry Finn, Pap shows little to know concerns when it comes to Huck’s health and education.

The only thing he cares about is the money that Huck acquired and how he is going to use it. Pap is the opposite of Jim, a runaway slave, a man of honesty and pure goodness, while Pap is the filthiest of them all, he was described as “long and tangled and greasy hair and hung down… As for the clothes—just rags, that was all” (Twain 142), it made Hick feel like he was living in poverty, creating an image of a lost child is heavily influenced by adults. He prides himself on two things, his control over Huck just like Willy Loman and his skills at manipulating Huck into giving him what he wants. Pap behaves in a way that a father should not a bully. Even when Huck gives Pap what he wants, it is not enough. Unlike Willy who wanted his sons to not have to rely on him, Pap, even though he as no job or source of income, wants Huck to rely on him, but he is the one relying on Huck for survival. Huck’s education plays a huge part in Pap’s resentment of Huck, he does not like the fact that Huck can read and right, in Pap’s twisted mind, this is dangerous and uncultured, creating a prison for Huck based on his illusions.

Just like Biff, under Pap’s guidance, Huck escapes into a world heavily romanticized and free of societal norms and judgments. In his mind he is part of nature, this contrasts with Biff because it is outside of Biff’s mind that Biff is part of nature. According to Pap, away from society, Huck is truly “free” to exist in anyway he chooses, however, that is not the case, Huck’s true existence is of Pap’s choosing. Pap ridicules society for keeping him away from his son, but he does nothing to protect Huck from the dangers of society he introduces Huck to the benefits of society and that according to Pap is racism.

Pap’s inability to love his son conditionally is his downfall, however, the irony of this novel is how a runaway slave shows the type of compassion that a free white man could not give his son. “Doan’ look at his face---- because it’s too gashly” (Twain 161). Jim is protecting Huck as if Huck was his child. It is through Jim that Huck learns the importance of family and friendship that can be found with and outside of society. Jim guides Huck just like the river is guiding them, he shares with him a bond that Pap should have share with him. After Jim explains to Huck that the dead man was Pap, Huck just like Biff is free, but still trapped, trapped in the same romanticized world and role he wants to play for him to escape reality.

Even though Jim is not Huck’s biological father, he instills knowledge that I father should share with his son, to respect and treat everyone equally, he helps Huck come to the conclusion of right and wrong, who is good and who is pretending. By sharing his morals and ideals, Huck begins to embody the knowledge he has gained and is transformed, he is a new person with a new view of the world around him. Both Twain and Miller convey the rawness of parenthood and the possibilities and outcomes of it when done the wrong way. By bringing both reality and illusion together, they created a symbolic vision of parenting and how a relationship with a child should not only be firm and grounded, it should be true and incorruptible by society.

Did you like this example?

Willy Loman The Death of a Salesman. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Alaska Symbolism in Death of a Salesman

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman we see the negative effect of having an absent parent. The main character Willy Loman is a salesman who constantly struggles with trying to be what he considers “successful,” and “well liked.” He has two sons Biff and Happy and is married to Linda. Willy also struggles between illusion and reality; he has trouble defining and distinguishing the past from the present. Between his financial struggles and not feeling like he accomplished anything, he commits suicide. Throughout Willy’s life he was constantly abandoned, by both his father and his brother at very young age. Since Willy has no reference to look up to, he is somewhat left to figure things out on his own.

In Willy’s mind, everything he teaches his children is perfectly ok. Willy’s moral flaws and constant idealization of the “American dream,” ultimately stem from his absent father. We can see that Willy’s obsession with the “American dream” obviously comes from his father. When Willy’s father left, he never really left him with anything tangible or anything as far as money goes. He also didn’t leave him with any family legacy. Even though in the play, Willy says that his father was an “adventurous man,” we don’t really know that (1619). Willy’s views of his father are somewhat romanticized. All we know of Willy’s fathers is from Ben, because Willy says that his dad left when he was “such a baby” and that he never “had a chance to talk to him” (1604). All he can really remember “is a man with a big beard” (1602). According to Ben their father was “a very great and very wild-hearted man.”

Ben tells him that his father “made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime” (1602). Willy’s illusion of his father being this “successful,” “great” man, has forced Willy to strive to be the same. Since Willy’s dad left him at such a young age Willy also looks up to Ben as a father figure. He describes him as “the only man I ever met who knew the answers,” “a genius,” and a “success incarnate!” (1600)(1598).Again we see Ben as this rich, adventurous man, who Willy idolizes. Ben offered Willy a chance to go with him to Alaska but Willy chose not to. Throughout the play you can tell that Willy regrets not going with his brother. He asks himself “why didn’t I go to Alaska with my brother Ben that time...what a mistake! He begged me to go” (1598). When Ben comes to visit, or when he’s visiting in one of Willy’s illusions, Willy tells him “[y]our just what I need,” and he asks him “what is the answer?”(1604).

Willy also has strong feelings toward appearances. He even goes so far as to tell his kids “That’s why I thank Almighty God you’re both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want” (1594). Even Willy’s views of himself are romanticized; he thinks he is essential to his job, even though we soon find out that he isn’t. He goes on and on to his sons about how much people like him, and how he has so many friends and so much respect everywhere he goes.

We also learn that Willy’s morals are flawed due to his absent father. Willy never got the chance to learn what a dad really is. There are several instances that show this. The first one is when he tells Biff and Happy not to make any promises to any girls, that they will believe anything you say (1591). We can make the conclusion that this leads to Biff being too “rough with the girls,” and Happy being a womanizer (1597). He then condones his son Biff’s thievery, when Biff steals a football to practice with; Willy tells him that he is sure the coach will appreciate his initiative (1592). He even tells Biff and Happy to go “get some sand” from the apartments that were being built next door (1603). In another instance he influences cheating when Biff has to study for a math test; he tells Biff’s tutor Bernard “You’ll give him the answers!” (1597). Again, Willy believes in appearance over being smart and doing the work. At one point he even goes along with making fun of Biff’s math teacher. Stealing and cheating shouldn’t be something accepted by your parents.

Although Miller doesn’t make Willy’s absent father a big theme in the play, it is definitely something to look at when thinking about why Willy is the way that he is. If Willy Loman only got to know his father and see how a father is with a child, he might have a different approach to parenting. Maybe if Willy had a father to learn from he wouldn’t be so rough on Biff or put so much on him; he could just love him the way that he is, and be happy that he is happy. Maybe he wouldn’t have this predetermined view of the “American dream” and how it should distinguish your life.

Did you like this example?

Alaska Symbolism in Death of A Salesman. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Death of a Salesman Willy Death

Everyone you have met in your life has lied to someone in their lifetime, whether it be a small white lie or a lie that could change your life or someone else’s life or feelings drastically. In “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson and “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, there are many examples of lies. Death of a Salesman begins when Willy returns from work and see’s that his sons Biff and Happy are staying at the home that they were raised in, the story goes back and forth between past and present and eventually the reader finds out that Willy ends up committing suicide, so his family would be better off financially with the insurance money. In Ericsson’s essay she claims that lying and deceiving another person, whether it be big or small, causes hurtful consequences, we see that in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” throughout the acts.

The first lie the reader sees in “Death of a Salesman” is Delusion, according to Ericsson, “Delusion uses the mind’s ability to see things in myriad ways to support what is wants to be the truth.” (Ericsson) This is seen in Act 1 when Willy was talking to Linda about the car. How’d the Chevy run? Chevrolet, Linda, is the greatest car ever built. No, they did a wonderful job. Then you owe Frank for the carburetor. I’m not going to pay that man! That goddamn Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car! This shows the reader that Willy is a very delusional man, whether he knows it or not, that is his reality. In Ericsson’s essay she says that delusion is also a survival technique which goes to show in willy’s case, he doesn’t realize that he is out of the game, he truly believes that he is one of the top salesmen.

If willy had known that he was getting pushed out by better salesmen and wasn’t washed up, he probably would’ve killed himself long before he did. While there are plenty of forms of lying, one that most people seem to do is white lie, Ericsson defines a white lie as a lie “that will cause more damage than a simple harmless truth.” (Ericsson) The reader can see this is the play when Linda lies about knowing about willy’s suicide attempts. She reveals she knows about it to happy and biff after an argument breaks out. 'And behind the fuse-box - it happened to fall out - was a length of rubber pipe.' (Miller, 651) Linda uses the white lie in this situation by feeling if willy knew that she had known about his attempts it would’ve made things worse for willy.

Dismissal is one of the many lies found in Miller’s play, Ericsson says that dismissal is “the slipperiest of all lies” (Ericsson) and it is “the dismissal of feelings, perceptions and even the raw facts of a situation” (Ericsson) In Act one, Biff says that he wants to go in the business world, and that he has a meeting with a salesman in order to get into the sales world. I guess so. I know something about it and— He knows something about it! You know sporting goods better than Spalding for God’s sake! How much is he giving you? I don’t know, I didn’t even see him yet, but— Then what’re you talkin’ about?

BIFF [getting angry]. Well, all I said was I’m gonna see him, that’s all! (Miller 653) This goes to show you that willy is very dismissal of Biff’s feelings, and perception of the situation, he doesn’t even give Biff the chance to announce that he wants to go out in the business world without willy telling him he doesn’t know what he is talking about. While there are many lies in the play of “Death of a salesman” they are easily pointed out with the help of Ericsson’s essay “The Ways We Lie”. The reader can see that the lies throughout the play are very obvious and very hurtful to all the characters involved, including dismissal of ones feelings, delusion on Willy’s part and the white lie done by Linda to save her husband’s feelings and also her children’s feelings.

Did you like this example?

Death Of a Salesman Willy Death. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Death of a Salesman Research Topics on Linda Loman

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a play starts with flute playing in the background following the main character and his journey into the unknown. It that takes place in two settings, New York, and Boston, the play is centered around an elderly man Willy Loman and his somewhat distant family his wife Linda and their two sons, Biff and Happy, occupying in the depth of his mind. Both Willy and Linda worry about their eldest son Biff and his future in society now that he is thirty-four years old and still making less than “thirty-five dollars a week!” When Willy gets fired, he begins to unravel back into his memories of the yesteryears, and how simple life was without all the hassle of societal norms and children that are too lazy to get a real man’s job. Getting fired is extremely difficult for Willy because, before losing his job, he had trouble remembering events, and focusing on what is in the present and not the past.

Throughout the story, there are many references to the past, the beauty of nature and religion, all of which help further Willy’s outcome. As Willy gradually starts freefalling into his memories, the more delusional he becomes and the deeper he goes. He pushes the real world out of his head and enters a world created purely for his financial success and his visions. While in his memories, Willy remembers his brother Ben, and his job offer in Alaska. While thinking of the answer he gave to his brother, his memory automatically shifts from Ben to Biff’s last big football game and how pointless it was to be there. Willy’s constant shifting in and out of the past worsens as the play goes on and his life becomes disorganized to the point of him never returning from a world reconstructed by events of his memories.

The play ends just like it began with a flute playing in the background and a family still grieving from their loss heading into the unknown. Through the use of vivid imagery and illusions, Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, suggests that the issues of one’s identity and acceptance in society play a huge role in understanding how to escape a world full of difficult challenges through illusions and ultimately, death. The use of vivid imagery of nature and the environment depicted in the play shows the downfall of the Loman family, showing their lack of growth as a family and individually played to their true intentions. At the beginning of the play, the narrator described Willy’s environment with a mystical vibe, “an air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality” (1709) as if it created itself just to be altered by the viewpoints of man. This foreshadows what is to come, just like Willy’s mind frequently creating things and re-shaping his memory, so is his environment.

While in his home, talking to his wife, they look out the window to the land next door with great envy and longlines. As they continue to stare out the window, it is revealed that streets are lined with cars and the air has been polluted by industrialization. “The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood” (1712). This quote can be compared to Willy’s mental state because to him it might look neat, and reliable, but to others, it is just like those streets occupied with endless cars and polluted by his greed for something more. Another element of nature that is used is the flowers that once grew where they lived. “This time of year it was lilac and wisteria. And then the peonies would come out, and the daffodils. What fragrance in this room!” (1713). The flowers represent the untouched land that prospered with the changing seasons.

They also represent the past before Biff and Happy outgrew their father’s wishes and mental disappearance. Willy tries to mask his disappointment with the fragrance of a hardworking man too involved in his work and dreams to notice his family falling apart. In turn, his family hides their true feelings from him too through the fragrance of societal norms and values. Their emotions of how they feel about Willy constantly changing just like the flowers is a depiction of a flawed family. Dreams or illusions are often used to escape one’s situation and alter them into something else, while illusions help one to gain knowledge and independence, it can also bring a feeling of dissatisfaction and emptiness. Every member of the Loman family, except for Linda is living in a world of pure fantasy based on good times and individual prosperity.

It seems like they take their fantasy world more seriously and use reality as a bypass lane for their next ‘grand’ adventures. Willy Loman dreams of being successful, he is incapable of accepting the title of a salesman and greatly exaggerates his actual wealth in society. “They don’t need me in New York. I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England” (1711). Willy thrives for the better version of himself and that can only be found in the biggest dream of all, the American Dream. “Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it” (1712). This quote also shows the vision of perfection created by those seeking the American Dream, once you acquire it, no one can touch it. He will defy the odds against him, in reality, to achieve it in his fantasy. Linda Loman too engrossed in her family’s life she does not even have time to create her world.

“Most often jovial, she has developed an iron repression of her exception to Willy’s behavior” (1710). She acknowledges Willy’s mental state of retreating to his memories, but she does not consider the possibilities of how it will affect him and her family physically. Throughout the entire play, there are many instances of dreams and illusions, but most come from Willy had how he judges his life based on the materials for wealth and success. Willy’s ideology of hard work increasing one’s societal role is heavily rooted in his family.

A major force acting upon Willy’s dreams of prosperity is his constant fear of failure and questioning how to leave his mark in society. There are multiple times in the play where Willy succumbs to his fears and they get in the way of his success. We see his fear progress as he entangles himself even more in his web of lies. His refusal to come to terms with “old” habits and creating a “new” him that regularly needs affirmation deceives his realistic beliefs. Willy never found his rightful place in the business world, let alone society, that is his ultimate failure. “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong” (1775). It is at the end of Act II of the play that Willy’s son Biff comes to realize that his father never understood what the American Dream truly was or how to achieve it to better his family.

The Loman house is a symbol of the American Dream dying in this play. From the very beginning of the play, Willy’s world was confined to his house. Even though its description is poor and seemed to lack importance, it was always there for him to return to after long exhausting days. It is the only thing that never changed physically and mentally for Willy. As the play continues, mainly the outside world and other buildings are described, it is finally mentioned at the end of the play through Linda. “I can’t cry. Why did you do it? I search and search and search, and I can’t understand it, Willy. I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there’ll be nobody home” (1755).

Right after this, one finally realizes the tragedy that took place within the Loman household. Not only is this said, but the audience starts to see Linda’s emotions and experience its rawness. The whole passage of Linda without Willy, they become aware of reality physically and mentally. This is symbolic because when she mentioned paying off the house, the Loman family was freed from the strings of Willy’s illusions. This also means their imprisonment to reality and that their lives and minds will never be the same. While reality encourages them to pursue success, it disintegrates their dreams. This play embodies the message of people constantly battling their unwanted realities with their illusions. When Willy succeeds in projecting his illusions onto his family, they were all prone to deception and lies that trapped them in a place not bounded and easily corruptible.

Willy’s lack of reality became their reality causing them to fall away from society. It was not until Willy’s death that they understood the dangers illusions could create, and the struggle they all took to escape it. Once they realize this, everything starts to fall into place, creating a feeling of peace and uncertainty. The numerous imageries and illusions help the audience better understand the play as it moves in and out of both the present and reality. It shines a light on how far one will go to achieve their dreams no matter what, Willy’s family finds their freedom through his death and they chase after their realities.

Work Cited

Mays, Kelly J. The Norton Introduction to Literature.
Shorter Twelfth Edition ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.

Did you like this example?

Death Of a Salesman Research Topics on Linda Loman. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Death of a Salesman Symbol

A stage play ought to be the point of intersection between the visible and the invisible world In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie both show us a world that is as tragic as it is beautiful. These two works seem to have abounding similarity within each other's. They are both concern dysfunctional families, the common theme of tragedy and and the bitter sweet memories of the past. But they both have their fair share of differences. We see these differences in their, theme, characters development, endings and uses of symbolism. However only one of these great works of literature is worthy of title of classic Theme Theme tragedy is often understood as an account of the fall of a great man, a good man, man who didn't deserve what he got.

Arthur Miller tells us, the audience that his play is a tragedy by titling it Death of a Salesman, but ironically our main character does not appear to be a great man, nour a good man, he is a broken man (like king Lear). Instead, the main character Willy Loman is delusional, superficial, and past his prime as a salesman. He is Lear's shadow, the shadow of he used to be, chasing only a picture of he wished he could be. he believes himself to be well-known and well-liked among his business peers.He has confidence that his connections will help him achieve the vision he holds in his mind . Unfortunately, Willy's vision of greatness is a nothing but a lie, a line in the sand. and to have to witness this in Death of a Salesman is his work so tragic. In The Glass Menagerie, Mr. Williams creates a world in which the characters are disillusioned by the present.

Amanda, Tom, and Laura achieve this disillusionment by resorting to separate worlds where they can find sanctuary. Each character develops their own world, far away from reality. Very much like DOSM Amanda frees herself from the harsh realities of life by constantly reminding herself of the past. Character development In both plays it is perceived that the characters have trouble with distinguishing what is a figment of their imagination and what is reality. Amanda and Willy both deny their children’s underachievement and faults and believe that the fate of their children lies within their hands. Thus, they imagine their children as being something they are not, in an attempt to hide their children’s failures. Such illusions allow Amanda and Willy to feel successful in forming Laura and Biff’s lives. Amanda denies Laura as a cripple and corrects anyone who believes her to be so, throughout the play. Willy influenced Biff’s belief that he had been a salesman for Bill Oliver. Biff begins to question this after the meeting that never occurred

Did you like this example?

Death Of a Salesman Symbol. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Death of a Salesman Examples

Stories can be told in many ways while still saying the same thing. Some are plays, some are novels, some are poems. Two such examples of stories which make similar statements in opposite modes of telling are those of a salesman’s death and a man named Gatsby. Death of a Salesman is more confined to reality than The Great Gatsby in its strangeness of characters and in the structure in which the story is formed. The characters, such as Gatsby and Daisy, of The Great Gatsby are unrealistic ideas of themselves which easily fall apart or disappear entirely. Near the start of the novel, “Gatsby… vanished,” leaving Nick “alone… in the unquiet darkness”.

Just before this, he’d been trembling as though he felt that he might stop existing altogether, foreshadowing the near future of himself. Gatsby acted like little more than an apparition, the ghost of long-forgotten idea, shimmering in and out of space and time. Later, when he finally gets close to his goal, he suddenly changes and glows . Gatsby goes through another sudden change in who he is much like when he named himself Gatsby in the first place. Gatsby chooses a different persona to take his place whenever he sees fit. These machinations, eventually, fall apart. Gatsby dies, and Daisy, his supposed love who said she loved him, left and “left no address”. Both Gatsby and Daisy entirely disappeared, leaving just a trace in the memories of those who knew them, and not even much of a trace of who they really were.

The characters of Death of a Salesman, unlike those of The Great Gatsby, are grounded in reality and Willy’s psychosis is the only thing that makes events seem unrealistic. When Willy plays a game of cards with Charley, he says that he’s “getting awfully tired” and uses the name “Ben” instead of “Charley” with Charley asking if he was just called “Ben”. That may have sounded a bit convoluted as it was meant to be. Willy does not quite know what is really happening and what is not while Charley is fully lucid. Willy tries to fix the situation by saying that Charley “reminded [him] of [his] brother Ben” (Miller 45). They try to continue playing and talking but Willy keeps getting distracted by his brother who isn’t there until Charley is fed up and leaves. Charley does not have time for his delusional friend; he would like to continue to live in the real world. When Willy talks to Ben, who still is not there, again, and Linda comes along, she asks, “did you have some cheese”.

While Willey is off in his fantasy, his wife is thinking of something so mundane as a dairy product. She is not worrying about a hardly real brother walking into a jungle, and later coming out rich, just whether or not her husband ate cheese. When Willy loses his job, he talks about how he once “averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions” in 1928 (Miller 82). His boss tries to get Willey back to reality and tell him he never did that but Willy would not listen. Willy stays in his far-off version of reality while everyone else stays earthbound. The Great Gatsby is written in a loose manner which makes the story less constrained to the real world. The narrator uses broad statements about times, such as talking about his “younger and more vulnerable years” in the beginning, instead of starting at any specific point in time. He is not placed at specific moments, just ideas of, and allusions to, moments.

Nick is unconcerned with when things happened so much as that they did. He also does not stay entirely consistent with how he tells the story. In the beginning, he almost entirely just describes things happening along with metaphors for those things. Later, he starts to add himself to the story he tells, giving himself opinions of everything and words for him to speak. He only starts to voice opinions when Gatsby thinks he has achieved his goal, and then just to tell Gatsby that he is “acting like a little boy”(Fitzgerald 88). The addition of such opinions adds bias to the story, making it even less bound to any truth of reality than before. This story is all in the past tense, meaning it relies on memory to be told. Nick can say that he remembers that whole story (Fitzgerald 163) but people are often more sure about such things than they should be, thinking they remember more than they do.

Death of a Salesman is written in a way that makes it deeply confined to reality. This story is a play, written with specific stage directions for how everyone should speak and where everything should be. One such stage direction, at the very beginning, talks of “towering, angular shapes” (Miller 11). Such strict geometry is something that anchors things down to Earth even more clearly than the geometry of curved spacetime that literally holds things in place on Earth. The fact that this story is a play, in itself, also helps hold it to reality. The characters are all meant to be played by real people on a physical stage. They are not meant to stay as words on a page; they are meant to come alive in the real world. This may have happened with The Great Gatsby in its becoming a movie but that story had to be adapted to that form; it was not written like that.

Death of a Salesman is in the present tense, not relying on any memory to be told. Everything that happens is considered to be happening right now even though Willy may see things a bit differently than that. Death of a Salesman and The Great Gatsby are two stories told in highly different ways that exemplify how different the stories are. They may both deal with death, The American Dream, and the recreation of the self but the stories get these themes across through perpendicular means. In the end, it does not matter how real a story is, especially a story of morals and ideals. Such a story simply needs to get its point across to you however the author deems necessary.

Did you like this example?

Death Of a Salesman Examples. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Analysis of my Life: Domestic Violence

Contents

Introduction
Biological Factors
Psychological Factor
Environmental
Application of Theory to Case Example
Relevance to Professional Development
References

Introduction

If I could use a song to describe my life. I would probably select the 1971 hit by, Helen Reddy entitled, I Am Woman Hear Me Roar. The chorus goes like this: I am strong, I am invincible, I am a woman. A description through the lyrics of a song of how major events have shaped my perspectives of problem-solving to proceeding to a better way of living. In this case study, I am going analyzed myself. I will provide analysis and a brief discussion of biological, psychological, and social factors that have impacted my life.

Biological Factors

According to Dictionary online, a biological factor is anything which affects the function and behavior of a living organism, and the influences of those roles can be physical, physiological, chemical, neurological or genetic conditions (Dictionary.university, 2018).

The biological factors that I was born as a female with two brown eyes, two ears, my nose which is broader constructed because of the race; however, today I am of a petite built; short and somewhat small. Maintained by my mother remembrance of my birth, she quickly counts ten finger and toes being perfect to her in every sense, and I had so much hair, she makes a comparison of me as a baby having Elvis Presley sideburns and Bozo the Clown.

The fact of being an African American female biologically has impacted me to be of more disadvantaged than other ethnics groups, I have been impacted by the genetic trait of hypertension in my family, and as well as other Vascular diseases, and I have been impacted by the exposure and history of alcohol addiction that plague my family for years. I know now that I am left with the responsibility of informing future generations that because of the history of alcoholism in my family. There is the potential based biological factors that they too could become alcoholics if they are not aware of this history. According to Zastrow, Kirst-Ashman, Hessenauer (2019), “Biological development and theories concern the physical aspects of a person’s life (pg.8). I go from the point of walking to biological development to physical changes, into my psychological characteristic of me.

Psychological Factor

Growing up, I seemed to have all things mentally and physically working fine. I began to walk at nine months old, so my gross motor skills were working fine, and between the ages of 3 or 4, I had an injury to my head requiring stitches to close the wound. At the age of 52, I was diagnosed with ADHD, but long before this happen during my elementary school years around the 7th grade or so I remember going to a special reading class. The teacher was kind in helping and praising my accomplishments, but my self-esteem was low in that I felt I did not measure up to my peers who were not in this special class with me.

It also hurt my feelings when they pick on me for wearing glasses and the size of my lips. My feelings were I could not compete with them, so I became shyer and I only talk to people that were nice and kind to me. After the diagnosis of ADHD, I began to research what are the possible causes and injury to the brain can be a factor as well as genetic factors. My mother grew up in an abusive home, where her father was harsh and both physically and mentally abusive to her mother and her siblings. My mother was an introverted person and she suffered from depression to the point she would ignore my brother and me emotionally, but now I know that she did not have all the tools to do so.

We lived a sheltered life we were not exposed to many of life good experiences; therefore, enabling us to have trust issues with people in general and when someone wrongs us it takes a long time for us to regain trust. I am more of an introvert than an extrovert it is my way I think of being safe from any form of harm. (Zastrow et al., 2019), “Psychological development and theories emphasize individuals’ functioning and cognitive or thought processes. Psychological aspects concern how people think about themselves, others, and the environment around them” (pg.8). I believe that Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive development shapes us into who we become.

Environmental

I do have a spiritual belief in God, even though I was raised in an environment where emotional support and being guided in a way as such as to be able to handle stress in a more conducive way was not displayed I my presence. I saw all around me that my mother had and kept the faith that things would not always be this or that way because of having confidence in that sure substance Jesus Christ. My mother attended church and even though her father was extremely abusive, he caught them to mask their pain by going on as though nothing happens at home. According to Bartleby.com Editors (2018), the causes of a family and or culture can mark their belief which connects to their life experiences, and culture can affect their happiness, morality, mortality, behavior and their overall personality. I was raised in an environment where anger was handle with cussing and sometimes things would escalate to hitting and from this environment to the environment of my marriage it follow me.

I listen to my father ’s loud cursing and hitting my mom growing up and her simply putting up with whatever he dished out. I am now divorced after being married 15 years in a relationship of domestic violence. In an article online Socialization in Infancy and Childhood, being social with others are the tools the children need to learn how or what to value, and how the use of manners are important. “Many agents play a role in the socialization process including family, peers, schools and the media” (Leidy, 2015). Each has a different environmental setting but working “together rather than independently” (Leidy, 2015). However, the strength perspective has allowed me to focus on the positive that has helped me understand my environment. According to Zastrow et al., (2019) in assessing my strengths I would have to incorporate an individual strength, family strength, and group strength play a tremendous part in my recovery after my divorce.

Application of Theory to Case Example

The application of theory to case example would be that Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development I to believe that children do what they see, and hear from their environment. According to Zastrow et al., (2019) Vygotsky’s theory was as such that he proposed a different account than Piaget concerning cognitive development. “Development is an apprenticeship, in which children advance when they collaborate with others who are more skilled” (pg. 123). He too highlights that Vygotsky’s understanding of the way children learn is that “children’s thinking is influenced by the sociocultural context in which children grow up” (Zastrow et al., 2019, pg.123).

Vygotsky’s theory and the ecosystems system seems to have similarity in the principles and the concepts for studying human development and behavior for which I believe too. According to Zastrow et al., (2019) in this reading of information, the ecosystems theory. “Incorporates concepts from both systems theories and the ecological perspectives, which focuses on the environment. One definition of ecosystems theory is system theory used to describe and analyze people and other living systems and their transactions” (pg. 23). Some belief is in Piaget’s theory that we learn based on our ability to learn, to process, to store and retrieve information. Both theories had substantial theoretical studies; however, I learned the best seeing, hearing and touching in my environment.

Relevance to Professional Development

What have I learned about myself from this assignment that might be relevant to my future professional work? I have learned that the ability for people to learn can be from neither theoretical approach, however, based on my analysis we learn first from those in our environment. For example, I work in at a school where the disabilities of students range from moderate to profound and even in some of their eye movement you can pretty much see what they believe based on the environment for which they are in. Build upon their strengths we have them, but going through adversity we fail to notice any strengths we may have picked up along the way.

Can broader professional implications be drawn from some aspect of the subject’s background? Yes, I experienced domestic violence, it is a learned behavior from my environment it goes back 3 generations. My grandmother stayed in a domestic violence relationship until she died. She never attempted to leave even when she had been harshly abused both physically and mentally. My father and my mother did not marry until I was 5 years old he never stayed with us a solid 2 years and mother stayed until trauma struck, and they separated and have never got back together. I could be an informative source in helping domestic violence victims by having empathy for their situation or/and crisis and by helping them understand abuse is a wrongful act it is crime. According to Boxler (2004), domestic violence is a learned the behavior in comparison to Vygotsky theory that people learn based on how language is written and spoken because “power is not always used in the interest of a learner as is the case in battering situations” (Boxler, 2004,pg.60). The meat of it is for the abuser to teach their victims to be battered.

Can broader implications be drawn from the chosen theory? I will draw from Vygotsky’s theory in my future work because I believe that people learn from their environment and being that the information they learn is written or spoken it depends on how it is distributed to be processed.

References

Bartleby.com Editors (2018). Family Influences Our Personality, Behavior, Beliefs, and Value. Retrieved from https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Family_Influences_Our_Personality_Behavior_Beliefs _and_FKR6SGSTJ
Biological Factor. (n.d.). In Dictionary.university online. Retrieved from https://dictionary.university/Biological%20FACTOR
Boxler, H. (2004). Understand the Performance Learning Identity and Domestic Violence. Adult Education Research Conference. Retrieved from https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2004/papers/11
Leidy M.S., Parke R.D., (2015). International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), Socialization in Infancy and Childhood. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/socialization
Zastrow H., Kirst-Ashman K.K., Hessenauer S., (2019,2016). Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, Inc.

Did you like this example?

Analysis of My Life: Domestic Violence. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Women and Civil Rights Movement

For many centuries women and other minority groups have had to suffer in silence when society was in the wrong. The Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Movement of the 20th Century helped these individuals gain rights but failed to make them equals to the powerful white male. As a result, many are still struggling with some of the same issues of the past like discrimination, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. It has taken almost seventy years for women and others to finally say they’ve had enough. Their voices have started a new movement that has spread over social media. The #MeToo movement has recently gained national attention and has provided many survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment with a platform to initiate change.

In the following essay, I will examine the causes and effects the #MeToo movement has had on victims, minority groups, the work place, social culture, and the judicial system. The MeToo movement took off in 2017 when actress Alyssa Milano tweeted out, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. She woke up the next day to 30,000 people who had used MeToo” (Zacharek et al. 13). From then on, more and more people started coming forward until it became clear that this was a rampant epidemic within our society that needed to be fixed. Every news station was filled with victim’s stories and how they wanted justice for what had happened to them. The first perpetrators to be held accountable for their crimes were some of the most powerful men in media and entertainment in Hollywood. Examples include Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Cosby, and Matt Lauer.

Although, Alyssa Milano was the one to spread the idea of #MeToo, she was not the original creator. The Founder of Me Too is an activist and woman by the name of Tarana Burke. She started Me Too back in 2006 for young colored women who were victims of sexual violence to share their stories in a safe environment. Her goal was to be able to use the words “me too” to express solidarity. That goal became a reality with the help of the media. Tarana Burke’s idea of Me Too and what #MeToo has become differ in some respects. “Burke’s ‘me too’ campaign was designed to support survivors, to get them resources, and help them heal; despite #MeToo hinging on survivor stories, it has been more focused on outing the actions of perpetrators” (Jaffe 80). What women want most is to be heard. They are tired of being ignored and devalued. Women aren’t trying to harm the names of men; they are trying to show people aren’t always who they appear to be.

The power of social media is what has allowed the #MeToo movement to become so widespread. This is the difference between its success and past efforts to initiate the same awareness. Sexual harassment and assault are nothing new to women. It’s something we have had to put up with as a result of being female. People who think these stories are surprising are males. Most of them didn’t even know this was a problem until now. Men make sexual advances on women and don’t realize that sometimes their actions are uncomfortable and inappropriate. In other words, they don’t know how to read a room very well. What our society needs is to re-educate males on appropriate behavior and to create a culture where men hold each other accountable for their actions. This is all that women and minorities are asking for, is to be respected as equals.

The #MeToo movement wasn’t a spur of the moment idea. It has made sexual violence big news due to the efforts of longtime organizers. It has brought out scary truths about human nature, and has many people asking how did we let it get this bad? Me Too was a result of a simmering fire that has been burning for many years and with each year kept burning from the addition of new fuel (victims) until finally one day the heat built up so much, it exploded. Women everywhere are exhausted and have decided to speak out about the inappropriate, abusive, and illegal behavior they have had to endure all this time. They are rallying together and turning their shame and fear into rage and fury to expose their attackers. Jessie Kindig notes that, “It’s vital for women to speak out loudly and forcibly, and to share their pain and outrage. But it’s also important that we turn this into a teachable moment, not a bloodletting”.

Before the #MeToo movement became a thing, it often took the “perfect victim” to be believed that sexual violence could happen to anyone. Often this perfect victim had to be someone of high social class, wealthy, attractive, or famous. However, this is no longer the case. Women are rallying together and supporting each other to fight for the same cause. This kind of mindset was created after 700,000 women farmworkers of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas related with Hollywood women that had come forward and wrote to them saying, “Even though we work in very different environments, we share a common experience of being preyed upon by individuals who have the power to hire, fire, blacklist, and otherwise threaten our economic, physical, and emotional security” (Jaffe 86).

Victims coming forward have shown that the problem isn’t just in Hollywood but everywhere, in everyday regular communities. Within the first week that #MeToo went viral on Twitter in the U.S., its concept was “swept through eighty-five other countries”. Victims can finally begin to start the healing process by sharing stories with other victims that can relate and let them know that they aren’t alone in this battle. Sexual assault and harassment have affected and have had the biggest impact on those that are most vulnerable in society. These individuals are the immigrants, people of color, those with disabilities, low-income workers, women, and LGBTQ community.

Many of these minorities who have had crimes committed against them don’t report them out of fear of what might happen to them or their families. Me Too has provided such groups a platform to have their own voice and be protected by any kind of retribution that may have resulted in the past if they spoke out. This was made possible by actors in Hollywood sharing their stories first. Time magazine expressed this view in an article that stated, “When a movie star says #MeToo, it becomes easier to believe the cook who’s been quietly enduring for years” (Zacharek et al. 3). This cause is rallying behind the idea that people are stronger in numbers. Minorities are having to deal with issues our culture has let go on far too long. Women are leading this fight. They are empowered to speak out, opening the floodgates and disrupting social norms.

One of the most prominent places that sexual harassment occurs is in the job force. Not many people know this because it goes unreported by those who fear they might lose their job or career advancement opportunities. Low level workers figure it’s easier to deal with it. They can’t afford any consequences that might result from speaking out. Superiors have benefitted from sexual harassment in the workplace by using it to control women into accepting low pay and doing whatever they are told. It’s most widespread in jobs like finance, technology, restaurants, factories, and hotels. “Rates of sexual harassment in the U.S. and world over [are] as high as 81% for women and 43% for men. It doesn’t spare you if your old, rich, privileged, or powerful” (Bennett 2). Me Too has allowed women to call out bosses or co-workers who have crossed boundaries. Women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted at work feel they have lost a part of themselves, as well as their time, energy, and power.

They were punished by harmful men and now want to take back what was taken from them. “When men use sex to push women into inferior, undervalued, and indivisible roles, that isn’t sex; that’s punishment. Our conflict is not over sex, or with men in particular or in general, but over power” (Kindig 6). Harassment has become an enabled system that is controlled by those in power. MeToo means that women can now fight male dominance within many occupations. The structure of this system didn’t change until women started to name perpetrators and discuss workplace harassment. Business and corporate boards were quick to incorporate full policies and mandatory training for all employees on how to prevent sexual harassment after many of them were forced to deal with lawsuits. It’s sad to think that what unites women in the workforce is their shared experience of being abused by powerful men. However, there is a good side to this. The large number of women that this issue has affected has allowed them to band together and voice their anger about harassment and violence in their lives and work. They are now taking action to change this.

The Me Too movement revealed that we live in a society controlled by patriarchal power and has revealed our social norm is rape culture. Meaning, society upholds male dominance even if it means committing sexual crimes. Yet these crimes are rarely about sex, but rather about the power and reward men reap from such acts. “In our culture, part of what it means to be a powerful man is to have unfettered access to women’s bodies or the bodies of others who are less powerful” (Jaffe 81). Males today believe they have a right to exploit women’s bodies. Women have shown that societal hierarchy is the problem that has caused men to believe they are superior over others, especially if they have a leading role in their occupation. According to Sarah Jaffe, “Patriarchy spreads the lie that there are rules we can follow that will keep us safe—that if we wear the right clothes, say no loudly enough, walk away, don’t laugh at men, work hard, no harm will come to us. There are not” (83). We live in a corrupt system that has allowed people to think a woman was “asking for it” because of how she was dressed, looked, or acted. This is crazy. Hopefully, the #MeToo movement will prevent upcoming generations from having to put up with these kinds of issues.

The fall of many leading figures in society such as Harvey Weinstein has symbolized the movement is working and has signaled our culture is shifting and evolving. Although our culture seems to be benefitting, our judicial system is not as quick to change and still possess many problems with sexual assault and harassment cases. For one, it is still difficult to distinguish the credibility of a victim by a jury. It’s almost like the system was set up to fail survivors; they must try to convince a hierarchy of people that they can be trusted and are telling the truth. #MeToo shows our society lacks justice for survivors mainly because of our failings in the court system.

MeToo has done for society what the law couldn’t; it has diminished the disbelief and dehumanization of victims that has prevented the prosecution of sexual harassment in the past. It has even led some state courts to rule nondisclosure agreements and forced arbitration clauses as unenforceable by law for victims of harassment and discrimination.Thanks to Alyssa Milano, Tarana Burke, and many other brave souls, an army of women have been recognized and believed by society. Additionally, many men have been punished for their actions. This movement proved small actions can have large affects. Me Too has been successful in helping people realize that, “Sexual harassment is different than gender discrimination.

It’s usually behavior that’s aggressive in certain settings and done by people who believe that they can use sex to marginalize someone to make them feel small, uncomfortable, and vulnerable” (Ward 6). By knowing this, people no longer have to be complicit bystanders but can actively try to prevent situations where sexual violence might occur. Everyone has a role to play when trying to prevent sexual harassment and assault. Tarana Burke said it best when she stated, “A moment is not a movement. A movement is built slowly over time. It’s strategic and it has actions in it, it has victories and it has losses and in the spectrum of a movement I would say this was a victory. This is a moment we can build from, but we don’t stop here by any stretch of the imagination” (March 4). The # MeToo movement has given us a head start in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go before we reach the finish line.

Works Cited

Bennett, Jessica. “After #MeToo, the Ripple Effect.” The New York Times, 28 June 2018, pp. 1-5. www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/arts/what-is-next-metoo-movement.html.
Jaffe, Sarah. “The Collective Power of #MeToo.” Dissent, vol. 65, no. 2, 2018, pp. 80-87. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/dss.2018.0031.
Kindig, Jessie. Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo. E-book, Verso Books, 2018.
March, Stephanie. “Meet the Woman Behind the Me Too Movement.” Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Oct. 2017, pp. 1-4. ProQuest Central, briarcliff.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2121155252?accountid=9720
Ward, Stephanie Francis. “Time's Up.” ABA Journal, vol. 104, no. 6, June 2018, pp. 1-9. Academic OneFile, link.galegroup.com.briarcliff.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A553402477/AONE?u=briarcliffu&sid=AONE&xid=a2fbdcf2.
Zacharek, Stephanie, et al. “TIME Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers.” Time, 18 Dec. 2017, pp. 1-33. time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/.

Did you like this example?

Women And Civil Rights Movement. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Women-Only Community is the Answer to Male Violence

Where it was once verboten to discuss such things, our broader community has arguably come a long way in terms of its willingness to acknowledge the issue of men's violence against women. It's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore statistics that show at least one woman is murdered every week in Australia as a result of this violence. Countless more are subjected to ongoing abuse and intimidation. One in five girls over the age of 15 in this country will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. That's one-fifth of all the women you know.

Frustratingly, there are people who believe such statistics can never be changed. Instead of recognising this as a problem of patriarchy and power imbalance, they prefer to think of it as a part of human nature. We are all equal now, they seem to be saying, and rape is just a part of that.

What if the women subjected to this abuse took matters into their own hands? I don't mean by retaliating with violence (although, who among us hasn't had a daydream of going on a rampage and wiping out a third of the male population, AMIRITE?) but with taking back self determination? What if there were other measures like, oh I don't know, creating entire communities classified as women and children only? Communities where women worked together to support and care for their community members, and did this by denying access to the one natural predator which posed the most risk to them - men?

A recent piece in The Guardian profiled the village of Umoja, located in the grasslands of northern Kenya's Samburu. Umoja is unique in its region in that it was founded by, and is still entirely run by, women fleeing subjugation and abuse. The village elders' commitment to keeping women safe from physical and sexual violence is so keen that men aren't even allowed to live in the village environs.

ADVERTISEMENT

Founded in 1990, Umoja is the creation of 15 local women and rape survivors victimised by British soldiers. Originally intended as a refuge for these women (many of whom were rejected by their families and further victimised by their husbands in retaliation for the rapes), Umoja now welcomes 'any women escaping child marriage, FGM, domestic violence and rape - all of which are cultural norms among the Samburu'. The village's inhabitants include women who have escaped child marriages, abusive extended families and repeated beatings. As one resident remembers her arrival at Umoja, 'I was given a goat. I was given water. I started to feel safe and secure.' Another says, 'I don't ever want to leave this supportive community of women.'

Separatist communities have always existed and they have typically been frowned upon. In what we've come to recognise as 'whataboutery' and 'not-all-men' deflection, women-run and women-occupied communities make some people very uncomfortable. There seems to be a fear attached to the idea that women not only would want to remove themselves to communities which restrict access to men, but that they might actually be successful in pulling it off.

If patriarchy doesn't have women around to marginalise and thus bolster its power, how will it survive? It's no coincidence that Umoja's matriarch, Rebecca Lolosoli, is the recipient of ongoing threats because of the role she's played in empowering women. After all, it was while lying in hospital that Lolosoli first considered the idea of a women-only village. Lolosoli was recovering from a gang bashing meted out as punishment for her speaking to other Samburu women about their political rights.

The Guardian's profile on the Ujoma village was written by columnist Julie Bindel, and it would be remiss at this point not to reference her exclusionary views on trans women. If these separatist communities are imagined as refuges to women and children targeted by the gendered violence that underpins patriarchy, trans women must surely be welcomed into their folds. Statistically speaking, approximately 50 per cent of transgender people experience sexual violence in their lifetime and trans women of colour in particular face an increased risk of this form of violence. If the point of communities like Ujoma's is to provide safety and self determination to women who have been stripped of it in dehumanising and violent ways, then they have to be inclusive of all women no matter their race, physical ability or chromosomal make up.

It's likely that the concept of separatist communities will go on terrifying people invested in maintaining men's power over women. After all, if some women demonstrate the ability to successfully govern themselves and dictate their own economic, social and sexual freedom (because funnily enough, the women of Ujoma continue to have sex with men - it's just based on their terms and desires) then what's to stop all women from pursuing that path?

When you consider the extent of abuse endured by women, it seems incredible that we don't see even more of these communities popping up. In Australia, the withdrawal of government funds to the refuges designed to temporarily protect women and children escaping abusive homes has resulted in the devastating scenario whereby every second woman seeking shelter is turned away. A separatist community of women and children only is certainly not desirable to everyone - but it would be distinctly attractive to some.

And if that scares you, perhaps consider that the problem is more insidious than you previously thought.

Did you like this example?

Women-Only Community Is the Answer to Male Violence. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

John Lewis Civil Rights Movement

Barack Hussein Obama II was the 44th president of the United States of America. He was a law graduated from Harvard practicing Civil Rights law, then became a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago, and was the first African American president in American history. Former president Barack Obama is well known for his ability to deliver speeches that inspire people and, during his time as president, unite the nation. In Barack Obama’s SELMA Speech, numerous examples of rhetorical devices such as similes, metaphors, allusions that enhanced his message and reached a large audience. Because this speech contained a wide variety of references, the speech had the ability to inspire and rally the American people as a whole. One element that makes former President Barack Obama such an influential speech speaker is his ability to connect to people all over the United States and even in the international community.

Although he generally focuses his speeches in the mindset of a Democrat he possess the capability to speak to Conservatives, Democrats, and everyone in between. This is because his messages follow the beliefs of the Democratic Political Party, but he never insults or demolishes the ideals and beliefs of Republicans or others to relay his message. His use of rhetoric (rhetorical devices) creates a strong, impactful, and lasting message on those that listen regardless of political beliefs, race or ethnicity, or any other difference one may have that is logical. In the SELMA speech, allusions and sensory language were used to create a powerful and lasting message over the audience.

This speech was given on March 7th, 2015, the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” event that is also known as the nonviolent protest for civil rights where over 600 people attempted to march from Selma Alabama to Montgomery Alabama but were assaulted and beaten by police officers. President Barack Obama delivered this speech at a commemorative ceremony to remember this event and recognize its significance in United States History and its impacts on the Civil Rights movement. In this speech, the first device used by President Obama is connection. This device connects the audience to the speaker and creates a sense of trust and willingness to listen because it creates a point of relatability between the speech giver and the audience making the listener much more likely to understand and listen to the speech that follows.

President Obama begins by saying, “It is a rare honor in this life to follow one of your heroes. And John Lewis is one of my heroes. Now, I have to imagine that when a younger John Lewis woke up that morning fifty years ago and made his way to Brown Chapel, heroics were not on his mind.” (Lines 1-3). Because Barack Obama, the most powerful man in the free world at the time, is so well known and has so much power, he uses his ability to connect with the audience by relating to the people saying that it is a rare opportunity to follow your heroes. He continues the short story of the morning of the SELMA march with John Lewis and then closes the story with the phrase, “Then, his knapsack stocked with an apple, a toothbrush, a book on government – all you need for a night behind bars – John Lewis led them out of the church on a mission to change America” This phrase is important for two reasons.

The first is that, in this quote, the rhetorical device of the three-part list is utilized when Obama says, “an apple, a toothbrush, a book on government”. Using sets of threes is effective in speech writing and speaking in general because the list is short making the items in these lists easy to remember. The second reason this quotation is important is located after the three part list. In this statement, Obama uses the words “on a mission to change America forever”. This is important because the use of diction here is impactful. The previous four sentences were about the risks and dangers of protesting as well as the intentions that John Lewis held, but this statement makes the point that the true purpose of John Lewis was to change America.

This connection by diction to the first statements made by Obama create a strong and lasting introduction to the speech and provide connections to the audience that create a sense of trust and relatability. In President Obama’s address to the audience he says, “President Bush and Mrs. Bush, Governor Bentley, Members of Congress, Mayor Evans, Reverend Strong, friends and fellow Americans:” This is an important part of the speech because it again demonstrates the literary technique of establishing trust and relation between the speaker and the audience. The use of three-part lists is extremely important in the SELMA speech President Obama has used this method twice through the first two stanzas of the speech and he does this because consistently connecting to the audience allows the speech giver to further their message by creating a relationship between themselves and the listeners.

He also does this several times throughout the speech to further establish his credibility in the subject and to show the audience that he does truly understand the issues and the possible solutions. This can be seen in Stanza # when President Obama quotes James Baldwin: “‘We are capable of bearing a great burden, once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is.’” This is important to how Obama creates an effective and lasting message with the audience because of his following remarks and how they relate to the quote without flaw or question. Another main tool utilized by President Obama is diction and sensory language. In lines 1-3 of stanza 3, Obama says, “There are places, and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided. … the daring of America’s character” These words are key in the speech because they create images in the minds of the audience that call to the people about a better America and the definition of the American people.

To emphasize the importance of “Bloody Sunday”, he defines the SELMA march as a key moment in history by mentioning it with well known war sites and buildings of independence (lines 2-3 of Stanza 3). To further his argument, the importance of the SELMA march, he uses more diction when he states, “the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow...It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills;” (lines 4-7). These strong statements relate to the Civil Rights movements in America and the mentioning of these struggles leads the audience to realize that the SELMA marches were extremely important in resolving the social conflicts that had plagued the nation before these protests. He ends this stanza by mentioning ten Civil Rights leaders and says, “the idea of a just America, a fair America, an inclusive America, a generous America – that idea ultimately triumphed.”

(lines 8-10 of Stanza 3). This final statement is important because it announces the idea that all of these people, beginning with John Lewis of the SELMA march, have fundamentally altered the course of history in the United States through their dedication. President Obama then justifies this statement in Stanza 4 by declaring, “As is true across the landscape of American history, we cannot examine this moment in isolation.” . By saying this, he recognizes the counter-argument that SELMA was not the only turning point in the Civil Rights movement and is able to respond to this with sensory imagery and repetition. “We gather here to celebrate them.

We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; tear gas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching toward justice.” (lines 3-6) The repetition of “We gather here” is important to the statement that SELMA was monumental in the Civil Rights movement because it resonates with the audience and the sensory image that follows creates a vivid image that will last beyond the speech. This imagery is followed by an allusion to scripture: “They did as Scripture instructed: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” This is an effective rhetorical device because it is evidence of the strength of the protestors by following their religion in the pursuit of happiness and justice, an inalienable right.

In his speech, he uses several Biblical references, three part lists, and repetition to create an enduring message that connected and brought Americans closer as a whole. One example of this unity is shown through a three part list recognizing the different elements of American culture in stanza 35 saying, “We are the inventors of gospel and jazz and the blues, bluegrass and country, hip-hop and rock and roll, our very own sounds with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.” This quote from Former President Barack Obama shows just one of his several attempts to unite the American people and demonstrate some of the things that we can and have done. This creates support for his statement about the power of the March on Selma because it provides examples of small things that have led to large impacts and effects on the culture of the United States, allowing him to compare these to Selma.

He also uses repetition in these stanzas repeating the phrase “We are”. He does this 16 times in 11 stanzas to define who Americans are. This is important because it provides the message of “We are Americans” which means we are, “The gay Americans whose blood ran on the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge” and “We are Jackie Robinson, enduring scorn and spiked cleats and pitches coming straight to his head, and stealing home in the World Series anyway.” These examples of what and who Americans are is followed by a quote from Emerson that states, “‘who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long;” who are “never tired, so long as we can see far enough.’” Obama’s use of quotation and past examples from history that are still significant today provide a solid foundation upon which he builds his argument. He goes on to say:

“And that’s what the young people here today and listening all across the country must take away from this day. You are America. Unconstrained by habits and convention. Unencumbered by what is, and ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, and new ground to cover, and bridges to be crossed. And it is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow.”

This stanza of his speech is the lasting message he caters to the “young people here today” and across the United States as a way to inspire future change and connect it to remembering the actions and drive of those in the past. After several more comparisons, Obama states, “Because Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person. Because the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We.” We The People. We Shall Overcome. Yes We Can.” In this statement he addresses the crucial point of his speech in which he brings together all of his statements of what America is, and the examples he used, to say that We, the people, are America.

In the 15th stanza of the SELMA speech, President Obama utilizes repetition to impact his listeners when he says: “Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for African-Americans, but for every American. Women marched through those doors. Latinos marched through those doors. Asian-Americans, gay Americans, and Americans with disabilities came through those doors. Their endeavors gave the entire South the chance to rise again, not by reasserting the past, but by transcending the past” (Stanza 15) The repetition of the phrase, “through those doors” created a memorable phrase that was left in the mind of those who were listening. In this same phrase of repetition, President Obama uses two three part lists.

The first is in the phrasing, “Women marched through those doors”, “Latinos marched through those doors” “Asian-Americans, gay Americans, and Americans with disabilities came through those doors.” (Stanza 15). The second three-part list is located within the statement, “Asian-Americans, gay Americans, and Americans with disabilities came through those doors.” where Obama mentions three separate groups of people in the same phrase. This is an important rhetorical device because the three-part list is an effective tool in the comparison of two things. Because though gay Americans and Latino Americans are both minority groups of Americans, they are not the same but when mentioned along with other types and classes of Americans, these separated things appear more similar. Immediately following this, he says, “Their endeavors gave the entire South the chance to rise again, not by reasserting the past, but by transcending the past.”

This quote is important because demonstrates President Obama’s use of powerful and manipulative diction through the use of a common phrase in the South, “The South Will Rise Again”, to show that all Americans are together. Because the before mentioned stanzas of the speech promote unity in America, this reference to a quote that once separated people as a positive message for unity, the strength of Obama’s claims and argument are reiterated and re-emphasized. In the next few stanzas of this SELMA speech, President Obama creates a conclusion with a call to action. He accomplishes this by saying, “What a glorious thing, Dr. King might say. What a solemn debt we owe.

Which leads us to ask, just how might we repay that debt?” (Stanzas 16 and 17). This demonstrates an effective speaker because the conclusion of the argument not only summarizes the argument and brings the speech to a point, but gathers the listeners and calls them towards action. The use of the words “what a solemn debt we owe. Which leads us to ask...we repay that debt”, solidify his message of unity by connecting to the audience repeating “we”. After this call to repay our debts, he outlines what needs to be done and the mentality that should be used while answering the questions presented in the speech after reiterating the fact there is still more to do:

“we have to recognize that one day’s commemoration, no matter how special, is not enough. If Selma taught us anything, it’s that our work is never done – the American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.Selma teaches us, too, that action requires that we shed our cynicism. For when it comes to the pursuit of justice, we can afford neither complacency nor despair.” (Stanza 17) By introducing the opinion that “our work” as Americans is not completely done yet, President Obama further supports his claim that the nation needs to come together to move past our differences and work towards what our social leaders of the past desired and worked towards. The hard work and determination of the civil rights leaders should be carried on by this generation and the future generations that follow us.

This is followed by several comments and evidence points that are presented by his last 8 stanzas. To support his claim and argument, with his call to action, he uses the circumstances of the nation before and after SELMA to describe the work that was done to appreciate it, and the work that still needs to be done today. By defining these issues today, Obama successfully underlines the needs of the American people. After this outline of the needs of the American people as a whole, Obama addresses the possible doubts of his listeners: “We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, or that racial division is inherent to America.

If you think nothing’s changed in the past fifty years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or L.A. of the Fifties. Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing’s changed. Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was thirty years ago. To deny this progress – our progress – would be to rob us of our own agency; our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.” (Stanza 19) This quotation shows Obama’s method for addressing possible counter-arguments and counter-claims. By swiftly and thoroughly eliminating the background and base of the argument, Obama clearly shuts down the other side of the argument.

This is important because by stating this, he directly contradicts the beliefs of his political platform showing his effectiveness in appealing to all sides of his listeners and allowing his message to apply to every American rather that simply catering to his supporters. His final statements in the speech are Biblical references from “the prophet Isaiah” which he uses to summarize his message and close in his words saying, “May He bless those warriors of justice no longer with us, and bless the United States of America.” These allusions to the Bible and his examples of men and women in history combined with his own motivation helped Obama to reach a more broad audience because he combined the elements of the American culture and individuals that affected the overall history of the United States to form his argument and deliver a lasting and impactful message.

Did you like this example?

John Lewis Civil Rights Movement. (2022, Feb 05). Retrieved November 3, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2022/02/page/3/

Servant Leadership in the Military

References

Cite this page

Law Enforcement Approaches for Reducing Gun Violence

Cite this page

Inequality in the U.S. Criminal Justice System

Cite this page

Influence of English Concept about Law Enforcement in Producing the United States Modern Law

Cite this page

Views on Homicide Control in Us

Cite this page

Judicial Ethics in Criminal Justice

Body

Conclusion

Bibliography

Cite this page

Criminal Justice Prosecutor Essay

Cite this page

Domestic Violence and Social Support

Cite this page

Analysis the Main Principles of Causation and Difficulties to Apply them

Introduction

Factual Causation

Legal Causation

Novus Actus Interveniens rule and the eggshell skull rule

Cite this page

Civil Versus Criminal Liability

References

Cite this page

Domestic Violence Emotional and Physical

Inroduction

Violence Against Women

Intrinsic Factors

Health consequences

Extrinsic Factors

Prevention and response

Conclusion

Cite this page

An Argument against the California’s Three Strikes Criminal Law

Cite this page

The Issues of Substantive and Procedural Law in the Use of Force against States

Introduction

Substantive law

Procedural law

Substantive law versus Procedural law

Territorial integrity

Usage of coercive means

Case studies

Nicaragua vs. The United States of America

Albania vs. the United Kingdom

RDC vs. Uganda

Suriname vs. Guyana

Conclusions

Cite this page

The Structure of Criminal Trial in the United States

Cite this page

The Difference between Criminal Law and Civil Law

Law:

Differences between criminal and civil law:

Definition:

Criminal justice system:

Arrest:

Arrest with a warrant:

Arrest without a warrant:

Caution:

Charge:

Bail:

Legal aid:

Magistrates court:

Crown court:

Verdict:

Sentence:

Summary offences:

Magistrates court:

The structure of magistrate court:

Crown court:

Verdict:

Sentence:

Summary offences:

- When an alternative verdict is returned under the road traffic offenders act 1988.