Yolngu people

Compare and contrast the life stages and life course of your own cultural group with that of a significantly cultural group within Australia. Media Child's You Just need to ensure your sentences are direct and to the point – applying the correct terminology Introduction The Yowling indigenous people make up one of the oldest cultures on earth, stretching back more than 40,000 years and make up more than 50 clans, each has its own country, they have with twelve different dialects and many ceremonies that are all concerned with acting out the stones and lore's of the ancestral pasts which Is tutee different to western life In Australia.The Yowling people divide themselves Into two basic divisions, or moieties, called Dhow and Wartime and are connected by a complex kinship system called guru. They have avoidance relationships with son- in-law, mother-in-law and brothers and sisters for their culture to function unlike Australian culture where we have no (need extra). The genders attend ceremonies separately to follow traditions unlike our customs where all a mix of genders are supposed to attend functions.Life stages are the are the steps we go through wrought our life journey that shape our identity, some stages are rights of passage others are actions or just simply participation that affects the self due to the experiences that we encounter. The fundamental deference between the cultures is the connection to the country or land and how the Yowling people see their land as their mother; who will take care of them and watch over them whereas we see land and property to Improve our finances and as as our status.Body Life stages form outsource is the path from birth until death that is shaped by our sections; the concept of our life stages where certain age groups go through rites of passage is similar is the same In both cultures. Often involving individuals being separated from society to go through the translator and then being reincorporated back Into so ciety: such as ceremony for Yowling people and marriage for Australians where we (give wedding example).The Yowling hold some ceremonies just for men that are intended to mark a new stage of life for the individual and develops one's identity within the Yowling culture which is essential for progressing towards man hood and to be accepted as a man. It may involve being taken away from the group for up to a week to learn different skills such as hunting and when they come back they are viewed as a valued contributor that holds a different more experienced status or role after the ceremony (good).In typical Australian culture life stages can form a series of rights of passage such as getting our car license, turning eighteen or moving out of These stages are marked by events and functions. Often events such as an eighteenth birthday mark an important time in an individual's life where they're now considered as an adult. .. Giving them the right to†¦. Portent due to their speciali zed knowledge because they have been around the longest and have experienced the most whereas in Australian culture we are a capitalist society and value people with power, money and authority; we value materialistic items whereas the Yowling people value knowledge and care about what's on the inside, not the outside (physical appearance). The Yowling people holder stronger bonds outside blood ties, they have strong links with their extended family and are expected to follow family traditions whereas in Australian culture we focus on our immediate family (be specific – what type of Emily).Yowling groups are connected by a complex kinship system called guru, this system governs fundamental aspects of Yowling life, including responsibilities for ceremony and marriage rules. Yowling life is divided into two moieties, Dhow and Wartime, each of these is represented by people of a different number of groups, each that have their own lands, languages and totems. Avoidance relationsh ips also exist in Yowling culture the two main ones include son in law, mother in law and brother and sister.In Australian culture we have similar relationships where it is frowned upon for first cousins to marry and is illegal to marry your brother or sister. The life course or path that one chooses may depend on life events and the opportunities put in front of them. Yowling culture performs traditional rituals and would never do anything to hurt the land, as the land is their mother, which ensures that they follow traditions and stick to their culture rules to protect what means most to them. They look up to the elders in their tribe and share tight bonds within their group; they see each other together as one and thrive of the idea of belonging.The sys all aim to be selected to go through ceremony to become a man and see it as a reward. If you have not had the ceremony yet you cannot marry nor fall in love. Whereas in Australian culture we have more freedom with the choices we c hoose to make with the help and influence of our peers. We look up to our parents and older family members but also the ones with power and money such as teachers or a wealthy boss. In Australian culture we have the choice to determine our own interests and hobbies, our peers have shaped us to be who we are but we also have individuality.In life we are expected to follow through with traditional education and hobbies and care for one another, mainly your immediate family. Our gender within society reflects the roles we play and the choices we determine. In Australia we tend to want to follow our path to self-fulfillment and to get a good Job and earn a satisfying income. Conclusion The life stages and life course of the Yowling culture and our Australian culture both explore different traditions and experiences that shape and define the people we are today. While we all experience life stages our lives are marked by different rites of

Listening to Rap: Cultures of Crime, Cultures of Resistance

Listening to Rap: Cultures of Crime, Cultures of Resistance Julian Tanner, University of Toronto Mark Asbridge, Dalhousie University Scot Wortley, University of Toronto This research compares representations of rap music with the self-reported criminal behavior and resistant artirudes of the music's core audience. Our database is a large sample of Toronro high school studenrs (n = 3,393) from which we identify a group of listeners, whose combination of musical likes and dislikes distinguish them as rap univores. We then examine the relationship between their cultural preference for rap music and involvement in a culture of crime and their perceptions of social injustice and inequity. We find thar the rap univores, also known as urban music enthusiasts, report significantly more delinquent behavior and stronger feelings of inequity and injustice than listeners with other musical tastes. However, we also find thar the nature and strengths of those relationships vary according to rhe racial identity of different groups within urban music enthusiasts. Black and white subgroups align themselves with resistance representations while Asians do not; whites and Asians report significant involvement in crime and delinquency, while blacks do not. Finally, we discuss our findings in light of research on media effects and audience reception, youth subcultures and post-subcultural analysis, and the sociology of cultural consumption. Thinking About Rap The emergence and spectacular growth of rap is probably the most important development in popular music since the rise of rock ‘n' roll in the late 1940s. Radio airplay, music video programming and sales figures are obvious testimonies to its popularity and commercial success. This was made particularly evident in October 2003 when, according to the recording industry bible Billboard mzgnzme, all top 10 acts in the United States were rap or hip-hop artists;' and again in 2006, when the Academy award for Best Song went to It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp, a rap song by the group Husde & Flow. Such developments may also signal rap's increasing social acceptance and cultural legitimization (Baumann 2007). However, its reputation and status in the musical field has, hitherto, been a controversial one. Like new music before it (jazz, rock ‘n' roll), rap has been critically reviewed as a corrosive influence on young and impressionable listeners (Best 1990; Tatum 1999; Tanner 2001; Sacco and Kennedy 2002; Alexander 2003). Whether rap has been reviled as much as jazz and rock ‘n' roll once were is a moot point; rather more certain is its pre-eminent role as a problematic contemporary musical genre. Direct correspondence to Julian Tanner, Department of Social Science University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265Military Trail, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, MIC 1A4. Telephone: (416) 287-7293. E-mail: Julian. [email  protected] ca. † rh8 Uniiersily of North Carolina Press Social Forces 88121 693-722, December 2009 694 †¢ Social Forces 88(2) In an important study of representations of popular music. Binder (1993) examined how print journalists wrote about rap and heavy metal in the 1980s and 1990s. While both are devalued genres (Roe 1995), she nevertheless contends that they are framed differently: the presumed harmful effects of heavy metal are limited to the listeners themselves, whereas rap is seen as more socially damaging (for a similar distinction, see Rose 1994). The lyrical content of the two genres is established as one source of this differential framing: rap lyrics are found to be more explicit and provocative (greater usage of â€Å"hard† swear words, for example) than heavy metal lyrics. The second factor involves assumptions made (by journalists) about the racial composition of audiences for heavy metal and rap-the former believed to be white suburban youth, the latter urban black youth. According to Binder, rap invites more public concern and censorious complaint than heavy metal because of what was assumed to be its largely black fan base. At the same time, she identifies an important counter frame, one component of which elevates rap (but not heavy metal) to the status of an art form with serious political content. In both the mainstream press (i. e.. The New York Times) and publications targeting a predominately black readership (i. e.. Ebony and/^i), she finds rap lauded for the salutary lessons that it imparts to black youth regarding the realities of urban living; likewise, rap artists are applauded for their importance as role models and mentors to inner-city black youth. Thus, while rap has been framed negatively, as a contributor to an array of social problems, crime and delinquency in particular, it has also been celebrated and championed as an authentic expression of cultural resistance by underdogs against racial exploitation and disadvantage. How these differing representations of rap might resonate with audience members was not part of Binder's research mandate. ^ Furthermore, while she does acknowledge that ournalistic perceptions of the racial composition of the rap audience are not necessarily accurate-that more white suburban youth, even in the 1980s and 1990s, might have been consuming the music than black inner-city youth-this acknowledgment does not alter her enterprise or her argument. At this point in time, when the listening audience for rap music has both expanded and become increasingly diverse, our research concerns how young black, white and Asian rap fans in Toronto, Canada relate to a musical form still viewed primarily in terms of its criminal and resistant meanings. Researching Rap Much of the early work on audiences preoccupied itself with investigating the harmful effects of media exposure, especially the effects of depictions of violence in movies and TV on real life criminal events. Results have generally been inconclusive, with considerable disagreement in the social science research community regarding the influence of the media on those watching the large ot small screen (Curran 1990; Abercrombie and Longhurst 1998; Freedman 2002; Sacco and Kennedy 2002; Alexander 2003; Newman 2004; Savage 2004; Longhurst 2007). Listening to Rap †¢ 695 Listening to popular music has, on occasion, been said to produce similarly negative effects, although these too have proven difficult to verify. For example, in one high profile case in the 1980s, the heavy metal band Judas Priest was accused of producing recorded material (songs) that contained subliminal messaging diat led to the suicides of two fans. This claim was not, however, legally validated because the judge hearing the case remained unconvinced about a causal linkage between the music and the self-destructive behavior of two individuals (Walser 1993). Strong arguments for the ill effects of media consumption rest on the assumption that audiences are easily and direcdy influenced by the media, with frequent analogies made to hypodermic syringes that inject messages into gullible and homogenous audiences (Abercrombie and Longhurst 1998; Alexander 2003; Longhurst 2007). In contesting this view of audience passivity, critics also propose that texts are open to more than one interpretation. Again, TV udiences have been studied more frequently than audiences for popular music, although research on the latter has illustrated how song lyrics are not necessarily construed the same way by adolescents and adults. Research conducted by Prinsky and Rosenbaum (1987) indicates that songs identified by adults as containing deviant content (references to sex, violence, alcohol and drug use, Satanism) were not similarly categorized by adolescents. Evidence that there are diflferent ways of watching television or listening to recorded music has led to an alternative conception of audiences-one more concerned with what audiences do with the media than what the media does to audiences. The development within communications research of the uses and gratifications model (McQuail 1984) is one result, with TV once more the media form most commonly investigated. Nonetheless, a few studies have documented how young people listen to popular music in order to satisfy needs for entertainment and relaxation (among other priorities), and utilize it as an accompaniment to other everyday activities, such as homework and household chores (Roe 1985; Prinsky and Rosenbaum 1987). More recent research has added identity construction as a need that popular music might fill for young listeners (Roe 1999; Gracyk 2001; Laughey 2006). One particular usage emphasized by British cultural Marxists associated with the now defunct Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies has focused attention on how active media audiences counter dominant cultural messages in their consumption of popular culture. In what has, by now, become a familiar story, a series of music-based, post-war youth cultures (Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, Skinheads, Punks) in the United Kingdom have been represented as symbolically resisting the dominant normative order (Hall and Jefferson 1976; Hebdige 1979). This argument has, however, relied on a reading of cultural texts and artifacts for its evidentiary base, rather than observations of, or information from, subcultural participants themselves (Cohen 1980; Frith 1985; Tanner 2001; Bennett 2002; Alexander 2003). 696 †¢ Social Forces 8S(2) More recently, the utility of the term subculture for understanding young people's collective involvements in music has been questioned. The focus of this criticism is, once again, the Birmingham school and its conceptualization of subculture. Its critics argue that, nder conditions of post modernity, music audiences have fragmented, and young people are no longer participants in distinctive subcultural groups (Bennett 1999b; Muggleton 2000). Instead of subcultures, they are now involved v^^ith neo tribes and scenes (i. e. , Bennett 1999b; Bennett and Kahn-Harris 2004; Hesmondhalgh 2005; Longhurst 2007; Hodkinson 2008). Post subcultural research has been much less inclined than the Birmingham era researchers to decode and decipher texts, and much more likely to engage in ethnographic studies of music and youth groups (Bennett 2002). However, while there has been occasional work on modes of (female) resistance in the â€Å"tween scene† (Lowe 2004) and â€Å"riot girrrl scene† (Schily 2004), there has been no equivalent research on rap scenes and resistance. Examinations of audience receptions of rap are not numerous and have been of two main kinds: a few studies have explored how young people perceive and evaluate the music, while others have studied the harmful effects of rap by trying to link consumption of the music with various negative consequences. An early study by Kuwahara (1992) finds rap to be more popular with black than white college students, and more popular among males than females. However, reasons for liking the music varied little by race, with both black and white audience members prioritizing the beat over the message. A more recent study by Sullivan (2003) reports few racial differences in liking the music, although black teenagers were more committed to the genre and more likely to view rap as life affirming (Berry 1994) than those from other racial backgrounds. In a small but important study conducted in California, Mahiri and Connor (2003) investigated 41 black middle school students' perceptions of violence and thoughts about rap music. In focus group sessions and personal interviews, informants revealed a strong liking for rap music, valuing the fact that it spoke to their everyday concerns about growing up in a poorly resourced community. They did not, however, like the way that rap music on occasion (mis)represented the experiences of black people in the United States. They challenged the misogyny evident in some rap videos and rejected what they saw as the glamorization of violence. Overall, their critical and nuanced engagement with rap music fitted poorly with depictions of media audiences as easily swayed by popular culture (Sacco 2005). The search for the harmful effects of rap music has yielded no more definitive results than earlier quests for media effects. While some studies report evidence of increased violence, delinquency, substance use, and unsafe sexual activity resulting from young people's exposure to rap music (Wingood et al. 2003; Chen et al. 2006), other researchers have failed to find such a link or have exercised extreme caution when interpreting apparent links. One review of the literature, conducted in the 1990s, could find a total of only nine investigations-all of them Listening to Rap †¢ 697 mall-scale, none involving the general adolescent population-and concluded that there was an even split hetween those that found some sort of an association between exposure to the music and various deviant or undesirable outcomes, and those that could find no connection at all Moreover, in those studies where the music and the wrongdoing were linked, investigators were very circumspect about whether or not they were observing a causal relationship, and if so, which came first, the music or the violent dispositions (Tatum 1999 ). A mote recent investigation conducted in Montreal is illustrative of such interpretative problems. While a preference for rap was found to predict deviant behavior among 348 Frenchspeaking adolescents, causal ordering could not be established, nor an additional possibility ruled out: that other factors might be responsible for both the musical taste and the deviant behavior (Miranda and Claes 2004). The notion that rap is or can be represented as cultural resistance-the counter frame identified by Binder-has become increasingly prominent in the rap literature over the past 20 years (Rose 1994; Krims 2000; Keyes 2002; Quinn 2005). In his influential book. Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the new Reality ofRace in America, Kitwana (2005) expounds at length on his emancipatory view of rap's history and development. Kitwana sees hip-hop as a form of protest music, offering its listeners a message ofresistance. He also makes the additional claim that the resistive appeal of hip-hop is not restricted to black youth. Indeed, as the tide of his book suggests, he is patticularly interested in the patronage of rap music by white youth, those young people who might be seen as the contemporary equivalents of Mailer's â€Å"White Negro† or Keys' â€Å"Negro Wannabes. (Keyes 2002:250) In his view, the global diffusion of rap rests on the music's capacity for resonating with the experiences ofthe downtrodden and marginalized in a variety of cultural contexts. Quinn (2005) similarly explains the crossover appeal of gangsta rap in the United States in terms ofthe â€Å"common sensibilities and insecurities shated by post Fordist youth. † She continues: â€Å"many young whites, facing bleak labor market prospects, were also eager for stories about fast money and authentic belonging to ward off a creeping sense of placelessness and dispossession. (Quinn 2005:85-86) Thus, rap's appeal is as much about class as it is about race. Nor is the resistive view of rap restricted to the North American continent. At least one French study-conducted in advance ofthe riots in the fall of 2005 -has noted how French Rap has become the music of choice for young people of visible minority descent who have grown up in the suburban ghettos (Les Cities) of major cities. They have been routinely exposed to police harassment on the streets, subjected to prejudice and discrimination at school, and struggled to find decent housing and appropriate jobs (Bouchier 1999, cited in Miranda and Claes 2004). The idea that popular music might serve as an important reference point for rebellious or resistive adolescents is not a new one. As we have already noted, this is how a British school of subcultural analysis once interpreted the cultural activity of wotking-class youth in the United Kingdom (Hall and Jefferson 1976; Hebdige 698 †¢ Social Forces 88(2) 1979). Some attempt has been made to understand rap fandom in similar terms. Bennett's (1999a) ethnographic study, set in Newcastle, reveals how one group of white rappers translate the racial politics of blacks into the language of class divisions in the United Kingdom. However, for the most part there has been limited application of this kind of analysis to young people's involvement with rap music. Rap scholars who construe the music as an authentic expression of cultural resistance directed against exploitation and disadvantages at school, on the streets, or in the labor market, do so primarily without much input from the young people who make up its listening audience. Because they have not often been canvassed for their views about the music, we do not know to what degree they share in or identify with the message of resistance readily ound in content analysis of the rap idiom (Martinez 1997; Negus 1997; Krims 2000; Stephens and Wright 2000; Bennett 2001; Sullivan 2003; Kubrin 2005; Quinn 2005; Lena 2006). Thus contemporary rap scholarship follows British subcultural theory in gleaning evidence of resistance from the texts, not the audience. Resistance is sought, and found, in the words and music rather than in the activities and ideologies of subcultures or audience members. We can suggest, echoing Alexander's (2003) earlier critique of British cultural studies, that the audience for rap music has been theorized rather more thoroughly than it has been investigated. The Present Study The present study is concerned with three key questions: First, is there a relationship between audiences for rap and representations of the music? Second, as compared to other listening audiences, are serious rap fans participants in cultures of crime and resistance? Third, if such a link is found, what are the sources of variation in their participation in these cultures of crime and resistance? The need to address these questions, as we see it, emerges from several limitations in the existing research on rap. These limitations are as follows: First, there is a significant disjuncture between dominant representations of the music as a source of social harms and evidence unambiguously supportive of this proposition. Second, the case for a resistant view of rap music is usually advanced, as we have already intimated, by examination of the designs and intentions of musical creators, both artists and producers, as well as music critics. We do not know whether or not resistant messages register and resonate with those who listen to the music. Third, we do not have an accurate gauging of the sociodemographic composition, particularly racial and ethnic, of the audience for rap music. Rap's dominance of the youth market is widely understood as a crossover effect-the original black audience now joined by legions of white fans (Spiegler 1996; Yousman 2003). However, purchasing habits-the usual arbiter for claims about rap's increasing popularity with white consumers-may not be an entirely reliable measure of either rap's popularity or racial and ethnic variations therein (Krims 2000; Quinn 2005). The system devised by the recording industry to gauge record Listening to Rap †¢ 699 sales-Nielson Soundscape-does not gather data on the race, or indeed any other personal characteristic, of purchasers. What it does do is categorize sales in terms of whether they were made in retail stores in high-income locations or in lowincome locations. Record companies, journalists or academics then choose to equate those high-income sales with white suburban youth, and low-income sales with inner-city black youth, but are doing so without any direct measures of the racial background or identity of buyers (Kitwana 2005). Moreover, it has been argued that sales figures â€Å"under represent the taste preferences of the poor. † (Quinn 2005:83) As Rose (1994) explains it, in the black community, particularly in impoverished neighborhoods, many more rap CDs are listened to than bought-a single purchase being passed on from one fan to another. Similarly, homemade tapes and bootleg CDs are often produced and shared within local fan networks. The implications of this point are clear enough: the appropriation of rap music by suburban white teens might not be as extensive as is commonly supposed. Finally, we do not know whether or how the rap audience relates to the dominant frame of the music as a catalyst for crime and delinquency or to the counter frame of the music as an articulator of social inequity. The mainstreaming of rap may have cost the genre its underground or counter-culture status as protest music, or made it less attractive to delinquent rebels. Rap also may play no part in crime or resistance subcultures because, under post modern conditions, young people have become increasingly eclectic and individualized in their musical tastes; the close relationship between musical tastes and lifestyles, implied by subcultural theory, no longer applies. On this formulation, therefore, we would not expect to find strong connections between a preference for rap music and subcultures of crime and subcultures of resistance. On the other hand, reasons for believing that rap music may be a basis for subcultural lifestyles, at least among black youth, are more compelling. At the time that we were conducting our research there was considerable debate, in the local media and among local politicians, about issues involving race and crime-racial profiling and the desirability of collecting race-based crime statistics, for example. Contributing to this debate were findings from another study, confirming what black youths in Canada have always suspected, namely that they are much more likely to be arbitrarily stopped and searched by police officers than are members of other racial and ethnic groups-even when their own self-repotted deviant activity is statistically controlled for (Wordey and Tanner 2005). In addition, contemporaneous research on the media coverage of race and crime in Toronto newspapers carried out by Wortley (2002), found black people disproportionately portrayed in a narrow range of roles and activities (principally those involving crime, sports and entertainment) than members of other racial and ethnic groups; and when featured in crime stories, depicted primarily as offenders. Capricious policing and media misrepresentation may therefore contribute to a sense of injustice among black youth, a sense of injustice that has them gravitating to rap as an emblem of cultural resistance. 00 †¢ Social Forces SS{2) Commercial success and artistic valorization has not diminished rap music's capacity to provoke moral panic. The music is still seen as threatening, dangerous and socially damaging by many political figures and established authority. ‘ Previous research suggests that negative media coverage ofthe cultural preferences and practices of adolescents often intensifies subcultural identifications (Cohen 1973; Fine and Kleinman 1979; Thornton 1995). Rap based moral panics may therefore tighten connections between the music and delinquent lifestyles and/or resistive attitudes and behaviors. The lack of attention paid to rap's consumers renders these questions relatively open ones, the meaning of rap music still to be discovered. Methods Whereas most contemporary research on rap focuses on those who create the music-artists and producers, and those who write about it, music critics-we pose questions about rap's audience. Further, while audience studies usually employ qualitative data-gathering techniques (for example, Morley 1980; Radway 1984; Shively 1992), we use the methods of survey research. We are more concerned with how audience members interact with the music than with the issue of cause and effect. We are interested in how music might be used as a resource in their everyday lives (Willis 1990; DeNora 2000), how it might contribute to identity formation (Roe 1999) and, especially, how audiences might align themselves with (or distance themselves from) cultures of crime and resistance. Nonetheless, in our analyses, we treat rap fandom as a dependent variable. While there is considerable academic and public debate about whether music produces or is a product of cultural activities, legal or otherwise, existing research has failed to provide a compelling or consistent rationale for any particular causal logic. As we have seen, the idea that exposure to rap music causes crime is not unequivocally supported in the research literature. Research on resistant youth cultures, by contrast, is much more likely to reverse the relationship and see musical style as a result of subcultural activity (Willis 1978; Hebdige 1979). Hebdige, for example, infers that punk rock in the United Kingdom was a cultural response to the subordination of existing working-class youth groups. Laing (1985) has countered that punk the musical genre existed before punk the subculture. In the absence of agreement about the direction of the relationship between musical taste and cultural practices, our decision to operationalize rap appreciation as a dependent variable is made more for pragmatic, heuristic reasons than unassailable theoretical ones. Our strategy is to focus on listening preferences rather than purchasing habits. By asking students to report on and evaluate the music that they like, dislike and in what combinations, we gain a clearer and more detailed picture of where rap is situated in the consumption patterns of groups of students differentiated by, among other factors, their racial identity. Our goals are to: (1. distinguish students with a serious, exclusive taste for rap from more casual fans; (2. to calculate the Listening to Rap †¢ 701 size and racial makeup of rap music's prime audience; and (3. to map relationships between that core audience and resistant and delinquent repertoires. Few surveys of general populations of young people have established any kind of connection between rap and deviancy, net of other factors. We contend that rap's reputation as a corrosive force is validated by that linkage, and that without it that representation becomes more ontestable. A similar logic applies to the relationship between rap and social protest. The claim that the music carries a serious message-that it is an expression of resistant values and perceptions-is substantiated with evidence of a link between the music and a collective sense of inequity, and weakened by its absence. Data The data for this research are drawn from the Toronto Youth Crime and Victimization S tudy, a stratified cross-sectional survey of Toronto adolescents carried out from 1998 through 2000 (Tanner and Wordey 2002). Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 3,393 Toronto students ages 13-18, from 30 Metropolitan Toronto high schools in both die Cadiolic (10 schools) and larger Public School (20 schools) systems. Within each school, one class from each grade, 9 (ages 13 and 14) through 13 (ages 18 and 19), was randomly selected. The overall response rate was 83 percent (83. 4% for Catholic vs. 83. 1% for public schools), and is a conservative estimate as it was based on the number of students enrolled in each class rather than those present the day of the study. Informed consent was given for participation in the study. Surveys were completed during class under the supervision of a member of the research team (and without a teacher present) and took approximately 45 minutes to complete. The survey asked young people about a broad range of topics, including family life, educational experiences, leisure activities, delinquent involvement, victimization experiences and so forth. The survey instrument was designed by members of the research team and evolved out of a series of 11 focus groups with adolescents in Toronto schools. The completed survey was reviewed by a series of institutional ethics boards, including those at the University of Toronto, the Toronto Public School Board and the Catholic School Board. As the survey does not include high school dropouts, institutionalized youth and street youth, it is a school sample and thus any generalizations speak only to the experiences of school-based adolescents. Our sample is ethnically and racially diverse and is representative of the Metropolitan Toronto high school population. Measures Musical Preferences Guided by Bourdieu's work (1984) and Peterson's recasting of musical taste in terms of omnivorous and univorous patterns (1992), we focus our attention on 702 †¢ Social Forces 88(2] how musical choices are combined: if young people liked (or disliked) one style or genre, what other styles or genres did they like or dislike (what Van Eijck 2001 has referred to as â€Å"combinatorial logic†). Indicators of musical taste were derived from the question: â€Å"How much do you like each of the following types of music? Respondents were then asked to evaluate each of 11 contempotary musical genres: Soul, Rhythm and Blues, Jazz, Hip/Hop and Rap, Reggae and Dance Hall, Classical and Opera, Country and New Country, Pop, Alternative (including Punk, Grunge), Heavy Metal (Hard Rock), Ethnic Music (traditional/ cultural), and Techno (Dance). Musical tastes were assessed on a five-point Likert scale that addresses whether respondents liked the musical genre very mu ch, quite a lot, a little bit, not very much or not at all. Unlike previous research that dichotomized musical tastes, focusing exclusively on the musical genres most liked (Peterson and Kern 1996) or disliked (Bryson 1996), we target the level of appreciation (or lack of appreciation) each respondent has for a particular musical genre. For space considerations a detailed overview of the clustering procedure has been omitted but is available upon request. We employed a two-stage cluster analysis (hierarchical agglomerative and ^-means) procedure to derive groupings of adolescent musical tastes. Cluster analysis assembles respondents based on their common responses to questions/ measures, and is useful for identifying relatively homogenous groups, groups that are highly intetnally homogenous (members are similar to one another) and highly externally heterogeneous (members are not like members of other clusters) (Aldenderfer and Blashfield 1984). Employing cluster analysis techniques, we uncovered seven musical taste clustets. Table 1 outlines the results of our cluster analysis. The largest group (n = 616) was the Club Kids, composed of those who report an above average enjoyment of techno and dance, mainstream pop, and hip-hop and rap. Next were the Urban Music Enthusiasts (n = 605). Members of this group combined a strong appreciation of Rap and Hip Hop with considerable disinterest in most other musical styles. These adolescents are the primary focus ofthe current study. Then there was a fairly large (n = 482) group of youth, the New Traditionalists, who have an above average liking of classical music and opera, jazz, soul, R&B, country music and mainstream pop. The fourth largest (n = 425) group, the Hard Rockers, comprised a sizeable number of heavy metal and hard rock, alternative, punk and grunge fans. Then there was a surprisingly large (n = 384) group of adolescents, the Musical Abstainers, who are only marginally interested in any kind of music. The group we call the Ethnic Culturalists (n = 380) were so described because of a dominant preference for a quite wide range of ethnic music, as well as a greater than average liking for soul and R&B, jazz, classical music and opera, country music techno and dance, and mainstream pop. The smallest group (n = 338), the Musical Omnivores, was composed of those who have an above average appreciation for all 11 musical genres. These clusters vary considerably, not only in the musical Listening to Rap †¢ 703 Q-CM O O U O O U O O U O O -COIOCOCOCNJCJ>COIO † †¢ ^ – T— c3^ h ^ h†¦ c o 3†² UJ CD o .Si i -T— COCOCDCO s m eu rocMincDco -T— CMC3 co co i Q. CL tu . S o .2 U) o tu tpcooin CNJcOCOCOcdcOCMCOM-‘^COCNI co T—CMOCI5 ? CO en (U ro â€Å"o 0} Q. CL ro â€Å"o en CM CM co â€Å"cD t n tu . 2 2 Oi tn -D C to to CZJ eu co CNI co o tD tu. —. _ 2 CD â€Å"O en ! c: o c: 03 sa | ^ sV ndical . 0011 V CL ro o tu . S P o | idd tn tu V p. 704 †¢ Social Forces 8H2) likes and dislikes, but also with respect to sociodemographic, socioeconomic class indicators, and measures of school experience, cultural capital, leisure patterns and subcultural delinquency (Tanner, Asbridge and Wortley 2008). Social Injustice, Property Crime and Violent Crime The sense of injustice that rap is said to speak to often involves the dealings that young people have with the police and courts. Six items in our questionnaire invited respondents to evaluate their perceptions of the equity of the criminal justice system, fairness in the educational system, and more general perceptions of the equality of opportunity in Canada. Some of the questions addressed racebased inequality, while others invoked age, class- and gender-based discrimination. These six items were condensed into a scale and standardized (alpha = . 65) with higher values indicating greater feelings of social injustice. Respondents were also invited to report their participation in illegal activities. Our measures of crime and delinquency covered a spectrum of activities, varied by type and seriousness. Two scales items are constructed based on the following question: â€Å"How many times in the past year have you done any of the following things? Would you say never, once or twice, several times, or many times? † The first scale captures involvement in property crime, including self-reported property damage, theft under $50, breaking into a car, stealing a car, stealing a bike, breaking and entering a home, drug dealing and theft over $50 (alpha = . 6). The second scale measures violent offending and includes carrying a hidden weapon such as a gun or knife in public, using physical force on another person to get money or other things, attacking someone with the idea of seriously hurting him or her, hitting or threatening to hit a parent or teacher, getting into a physical fight with someone, and taking part in a fight where a group of friends were up against another group (alpha = . 81). SES, School Measures and Cultural Capital The impact of students' sociodemographic backgrounds is initially examined in terms of demographic variables-age, gender, Canadian identity (â€Å"Do you think of yourself as Canadian? â€Å"-a measure of perceived inclusion in Canadian society), and race. Socioeconomic status is captured through indicators of parents and family situation, and includes measures of parental educational attainment (whether or not they had attended postsecondary education), family intactness (whether or not respondents grew up in a two-parent household), a measure of subjective social class based on perceptions of family income. Next we include a set of measures related to educational attainment, experiences and expectations: self-reported grades (proportion receiving mostly As), skipping school, suspension from school, educational stream (general or academic stream) and a more evaluative question about the degree of importance that young people attached to education. Listening to Rap †¢ 705 Finally, we include a measure of respondents' own cultural capital activities. While mainly used as an explanation of educational and occupational attainment (DiMaggio 1982; DiMaggio and Mohr 1995; Aschaffenburg and Maas 1997), measures of cultural capital have also been deployed to uncover dispositions, or orientations, towards the arts (Bourdieu 1984; Swartz 1997). We use it here as a further measure ofthe characteristics and lifestyles ofthe audience for rap-its possession bestowing status upon individuals and the music that they listen to, its absence denoting the opposite. Our seven-item cultural capital index comprises both traditional highbrow pursuits-going to the symphony, visiting museums-and the sorts of respectable leisure activities (playing a musical instrument, attending cultural events, going to the library, reading a book for pleasure and hobbies) that contribute to the cultural resources available to young people. The sum of these seven items is standardized and has an alpha of . 65. Descriptive statistics and other details on all measures can be found in Appendix A. Analytic Procedure Multivariate logistic regression is employed in four separate analyses. First, a strong preference for Rap and Hip/Hop-being an Urban Music Enthusiast-is regressed on sociodemographic, socioeconomic status and school measures. Next, we regress being an Urban Music Enthusiast on sociodemographic, socioeconomic status and school measures for three racial groups-white, black and Asian/South Asian youth. For each racial group we run four separate models that include baseline measures only, followed by models that add social injustice, property crime and violent crime. All analyses were conducted with the Stata 8. computer program (StataCorp 2001) using the survey commands that account for intra-cluster correlation due to the complex sampling strategy. Results We can quickly confirm the enormous popularity of rap with our respondents. It has the highest average approval rating of any musical genre, with some 33 percent of students saying that they liked it â€Å"very much,† and 21 percent saying that they liked it â€Å"quite a lot. † Rap clearl y appeals to a broad range of young listeners and is, therefore very much part of a common music culture among high school students. But our cluster analysis (Table 1) also isolates a group of students who enjoy rap music and little else. Examining the approval radng for each music genre relative to the cluster means, where scores approaching 1 indicate a strong approval ofthe genre, and scores approaching 5 indicate a strong dislike, demonstrates that Urban Music Enthusiasts have a strong preference for rap and hip-hop, reggae and dance hall; a more moderate liking for soul and R&B, and a below average liking for all other musical genres. We think that our Urban Music Enthusiasts fit the profile of music univores-individuals who appreciate a few musical styles while disliking everything 706 †¢ Social Forces mi) else-as described in the research of Peterson (1992) and Bryson (1997). Bryson links univorous taste among American adults to low status, particular racial and ethnic groups, and regional differences. She also notes that univorous taste, when compared to omnivorous taste, is more likely to be related to what she calls â€Å"subcultural spheres. † (Bryson 1997:147) Our Urban Music Enthusiasts appear to be rap univores who may also be adhering to â€Å"sub-cultural spheres. Of the 605 Urban Music Enthusiasts in our sample, 275 {A6%) are black, 117 (19%) are white, 115 (19%) are Asian or South Asian, and 98 (16%) are from other racial groups. These figures tell us that young black people still comprise the central component of the rap audience; moreover, roughly 57 percent of black youth is Urban Musi c Enthusiasts). At the same time, we observe evidence of a significant racial crossover. White Urban Music Enthusiasts constitute 8. 6 percent of the white students in our sample, while Asian Urban Music Enthusiasts make up 9. 5 percent of all Asian students. The racial composition of the Urban Music Enthusiast taste culture prompts two further questions: Eirst, of the black students surveyed, what factors in addition to race predict their univorous interest in rap? Second, of white and Asian students, what factors encourage their involvement in an essentially black music culture, an involvement that clearly sets them apart from other white and Asian students? Table 2 provides results for Urban Music Enthusiasts membership regressed on sociodemographic, socioeconomic status and school measures, with separate analyses for white, black and Asian/South Asian young people. Paying particular attention to the findings for each racial group, what is common to all three groups of Urban Music Enthusiasts is that, compared to other students in our sample, they are poorly endowed with cultural capital and are not especially good students. Few other background factors have any significant or consistent impact upon a disposition towards Urban Music. For white students, parental SES, family structure and subjective social class, have no bearing upon their musical preferences, whereas school suspension and poor grades are strong predictors. For black students. Urban Music enthusiasm is more common among younger students and those less likely to identify as Canadian. Being a black youth identified as an Urban Music Enthusiast is also strongly related to growing up in a single-parent family and skipping school. For their part, Asian/South Asian youth are something of an anomaly-among them. Urban Music Enthusiasm is positively associated with social class and having well-educated mothers-but like other Urban Music Enthusiasts it is also strongly related to school suspension and skipping school. We are less interested, however, in the sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors that may lead to being an Urban Music Enthusiast than in the relationship between being a Urban Music Enthusiast and representations of rap-either as part of a culture of resistance and/or as a basis for subcultural delinquency. Tables 3 through 5 describe the distribution of being an Urban Music Enthusiast across three racial groups (white, black, Asian/South Asian) as shaped by perceptions Listening to Rap †¢ 707 I i I u (O re (/> CO o (U 1. 76 4. 37 ,01a ‘V— re . r; o — U; c n t – – CO CO cr; – ^ †¢ ^ CD – ^ CO CO CD CM CNl T – CD CN? -â€Å"i^ CO CNJ – . CNj CO r-1 †¢2 . o o CO CO c n 0 5 t-~- M – ,59c ,55c I CO ro ro CNl CD c n r— CO CZ> CO CO CNJ cu CD CO CO CNl CO o CNI m E cn o O) T— †¢T— LO r CO CNl CN LO CD CZ> CM LO †¢Ã‚ «Ã¢â‚¬â€ e n LO CO CD LO CM †¢ ‘o ro CNJ †¢ c n CO CO u o O r-. – CO h ~ T— CO CM -sj- CO CO CO ,41 ro CO u o u CO CO CO ^ – CO LO o ro ro CM LO T – CO T— c u LO c n -. 11 -3. 67 Tl- CNl l CO cp h.. – LO cn CO T— LO CO CO †¢ C35 CNJ CNl C D CO h— CJ) †¢ ^ CO CD LO CNl c n CO LO CNl c n CI3 c n r— CO CD – ^ CO CO ‘ ‘ T-^ CU T— CO CO r l CO CD CO h-^ CO J ro c j o LO LO r~- I— CO CT> CO LO CD CO †¢ o> I— co O5 o> lO Tt lO t^ †¢*†¢ CM t ^ co LO r T co CD csi ro g ‘†¢ co E Q: S o 0 ~ ~ CM †¢ 05 EntlNusi ts Memi nd Vioie Prop iociai Stice t-ratlo _o >, 0 E o. E Q. / fV le 0 S ^^ 0  « †¢rat †¢g CO t-~ - «aO5 CIS co co CM r~. – ^ CM r – i r j co cz> †¢ ^ co co OO m LO co r-.. co †¢ ^ T — en lO CM LO † CO o †¢ †¢ – r— cz; CM r— UO OO T l – I— CD ^ 1 – LO CD T— O ‘ CSI CO CO T T- T-^ OO ^ CO oq – ^ †¢ LO O I— ^† 05 †¢ h – co LO C3 CSl i T-^ c s i T-^ ‘ c s i re re 3 s o: 0 CM LO †¢;* O; CD CD CJ C 3 CO T— CO – ^ co Ti† i^.. OO co T – 1 ^ CM CD O ) OO CD co eu r O r co CD ci> u 3 S ice a Bas iViod _o d) ro .? † 5 ‘S V 3 iO r- co CM CM LO CD CD CM LO †¢ < – CD LO co o LO T^ T-^ T^ cri i~~- c o h – †¢>— c o CM – †¢ – o ^ – CD CM OO h-; oq CO csi T-: csi T-^ ‘†¢ CD †¢s c 0 ?ai ir 1 ? ir _3 s oc 0 CSJ T— I— CD CD c o CN – ^ co OO co i csi CSI C3 co CD T t co O; CD o 3 o u 0 coiSS ? 3 (O re à ‚ «^ CL O) O a; ro .^ re 0) Logi! .†¢^ O fe 5 5 ID ? -O ^Et » {‘iyMA-d3. †¢ 1997. â€Å"What About the Univores? Musical Dislikes and Group-Based Identity Construction Among Americans with Low Levels of Education. † Poetics 25(2-3): 141-56. 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Surette, Ray. 1992. Media, Crime and CriminalJustice: Tmages and Realities. Brooks/Cole. Tanner, Julian. 1981. â€Å"Pop Music and Peer Croups: A Study of Canadian High School Student's Responses to Pop Music. † Canadian Review ofSociology and Anthropology 18(1):1-13. †¢ 2001. Teenage Troubles: Youth and Deviance in Canada. 2^ Edition. Toronto: Nelson Canada. 720 †¢ Social Forces BH2) Tanner, Julian, Mark Asbridge and Scot Wortley. 2008 â€Å"Our Favourite Melodies: Musical Consumption and Teenage Lifestyles. † British Journal ofSociology 59(1): 117-44. Tanner, Julian, and Scot Wortley. 2002. The Toronto Youth Crime and Victimization Survey: Overview Report. Toronto: Centre of Criminology. Tatum, Becky L. 1999. â€Å"The Link Between Rap Music and Youth Crime and Violence: A Review of the Literature and Issues for Future Research. † Justice Professional ll(3):339-53. Thornton, Sarah. 1995. Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Polity Press. Tsunokai, Glenn, and Augustine Kposwa. 2002. â€Å"Asian Cangs in the United States: The Current State ofthe Research Literature. † Crime, Law and Social Change 37(l):37-50. Van Eijck, Koen. 200 L â€Å"Social Differentiation in Musical Taste Patterns. Social Eorces 79(3): 1163-85. Walser, Robert. 1993. Runningwith the Devil: Power, Cender, andMadness in Heavy Metal Music. Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England. Weinstein, Deena. 2000. Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. Da Capo Press. Willis, Paul. 1978. Profane Culture. Routledge and Keegan Paul. . 1990. Common Culture. Open Univer sity Press Wimsatt, William. 1994. We Use Words like ‘Mackadocious,'Bomb the Suburbs. Subway and Elevated Press. Wingood, Cina M. , Ralph DiClemente, Jay Bernhardt, Kathy Harrington, Susan Davies, Alyssa Robillard and Edward Hook. 2003. A Prospective Study of Exposure to Rap Music Videos and African-American Female Adolescents Health. † American Journal ofPublic Health 93(3):437-39. Wortiey, Scot. 2002. â€Å"The Depiction of Race and Crime in the Toronto Print Media. † Pp. 55-82. Marginality and Condemnation: An Introduction to Critical Criminology. Bernard Schissel and Carolyn Brooks, editors. Fernwood Publishing. Wordey, Scot, and Julian Tanner. 2004. â€Å"Social Groups or Criminal Organisations? The Extent and Nature of Youth Gang Activity in Toronto. † Pp. 59-77. Enforcement and Prevention to Civic Engagement: Research on Community Safety. Bruce Kidd and Jim Phillips, editors. Toronto: Centre of Criminology. . 2005. â€Å"Inflammatory Rhetoric? Baseless Accusation? A Response to Gabors Gritique of Racial Profiling Research in CAm. a2i. † Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 47(3):581-609. Yousman, Bill. 2003. â€Å"Blackophilia and Blackophobia: White Youth, the Gonsumption of Rap Music, and White Supremacy. † Communication Theory 13(4):366-91. Listening to Rap †¢ 721 Appendix A. Descriptive Statistics for all Measures Variables Independent Measures Age Gender Do you identify yourself as Canadian Race Coding Years Male Female Mean/ Cases Percent 3331 1696 1700 2533 16. 62 49. 9 50. 1 74. 8 25. 39. 4 14. 2 11. 5 19. 3 15. 7 31. 5 68. 4 27. 0 73. 0 76. 7 23. 3 3. 26 Yes No White Black Asian South Asian Other 850 1334 Father Received Postsecondary Education Mother Received Postsecondary Education Two-Parent Family 480 391 653 531 1073 2327 Subjective Social Class 1 (poor) to 5 (rich) Z-score Cultural Capital Leisure (index o f frequency of involvement in playing a musical instrument, attending cultural events, volunteering, going to meetings/ belonging to organizations, going to the library, going to the symphony or opera, going to the museum, reading a book for pleasure, and involvement with hobbies, with an a=. O). Have been suspended from school at least once Have skipped school at least once Primarily receive â€Å"A† Grades Educational Stream Education is Important Part of Life Yes No Yes No Yes No 917 2483 2609 791 3032 3325 Yes No Yes No Yes No Educational General 450 2950 2493 907 1092 2308 2642 13. 2 86. 8 73. 3 26. 7 32. 1 7. 9 78. 0 22. 0 71. 8 28. 2 18. 7 81. 3 736 2309 Yes No 905 605 2625 3277 Dependent Measures Yes ~ Urban Music Enthusiasts No Social Injustice (index of amount of agreement or Z-score disagreement regarding the following statements: people from my racial group are more likely to be unfairly stopped and questioned by the police than people from other racial groups; discrimination makes it hard for people from my racial group to find a good job; discrimination makes it difficult for people from my racial group to get good marks in school; students from rich families have an easier time getting ahead than students from poor families; everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead in Canada; it is rare for an innocent person to be wrongly sent to jail, with an a=. 65). continued on the following page 722 †¢ Social Forces 88(2] Appendix A. ontinued Coding Variables Independent Measures Property Crime (index of frequency of involvement Z-score in breaking into cars, minor theft under $50, property damage, stealing bikes, breaking and entering into homes, ste aling cars, major theft over $50, and drug dealing, with an pi=. 86), _ . ^ Violent Crime (index of frequency of carrying a hidden Z-score weapon like a gun or knife in public, using physical force on another person to get money or other things; attacked someone with the idea of seriously hurting that person, hit or threatened to hit a parent or teacher, getting into a physical fight with someone, and taken part in a fight where a group of friends were up against another arouD. with an a=. 81). Mean/ Cases Percent 3344 3288 Copyright of Social Forces is the property of University of North Carolina Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or

Global Warming and the Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Analysis of Civil Rights Movement - Literature review Example Certainly, it is comforting to believe that history progresses in such a manner. Yet, even if one could develop a cogent argument that the civil rights movement was inevitable, how does one account for its timing and shape Why did it take place when it did Why didn't these ideas prove compelling at an earlier or later time Why did "man's unending search for freedom" reach such heights in the early and mid-1960s Why did certain actors emerge as leaders and not others Why were certain goals or demands given priority And to a lesser extent, why did the movement achieve some objectives but not others The modern civil rights movement had both external and internal origins and causes. It came into being when and in the way it did because of both structural and human factors. Forces that were only indirectly related to the movement helped give rise to it and sustained it, as did complex developments within the African American community. Demographic shifts, particularly the great migration, the emergence of the United States as a world power, and the overall process of modernization played key roles. "... It's human nature, I guess. We did our best to control it, but there was a bit of a power struggle from the beginning between Nashville and Atlanta. After Dr. King had come up that spring and given his blessing to ..." 3 So too did several internal factors, most importantly the accumulation of resources by the African American community. These developments were intertwined and reinforced one another. In addition, the success of the civil rights movement depended on human agency. "... Jim Peck, Al Bigelow, and Jim Zwerg stand and suffer with us. 'v/N'e had become brothers and sisters to the struggle. We bled together. We suffered together. How could you look at something like a race after experiences like that ..." 4 (194) With the great migration, African Americans also advanced economically. Even though they continued to work for less pay and under worse conditions than whites, blacks in the industrial North began to enjoy a standard of living heretofore unknown to them or their counterparts in the rural South. Between 1940 and 1970, the mean income for black men, adjusted for inflation, more than tripled.  Ã‚  

Street Protests As The Aftermath Of 2009 Presidential Election And Essay

Street Protests As The Aftermath Of 2009 Presidential Election And Human Rights Violation - Essay Example Torture involved rape, mutilation, and stoning of the activists. Execution of political prisoners spread widely in the country, capital punishment, and oppression of juveniles was a usual act in the news (Brohmer 67). The government was accused of stopping the publication of opposition newspapers, books, and websites. In addition, there was extreme censorship, and rapid quelling of peaceful demonstrations. The Guardian council, which is composed of six Islamic judges came up to exercise significant power over Iranian politics, economic and social issues, the candidacy of aspiring politicians, and cultural life hindered legislation that endorsed human rights, and promoted leaders and policies that would strengthen the imbalanced power organized at the cost of the citizens of Iran. The street protests According to Leimbach, during the 2009 presidential elections, the comparatively reform-based Mir-Hussein Mousavi contested against the serving Ahmadinejad. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declar ed the winner of the elections, though suspicions of fraud spread widely in the country. For instance, voter turnout in two provinces accounted for over 100% of the total ballots to be lawful. Simply, there were more casted votes than voters. Given the little local migration and lower historical turnout, it was highly improbable that the ballots were fairly cast. After citizens went to the streets to protest against the voter results, the Guardian Council arranged for a partial recount of the casted votes, but there was no difference in who emerged the winner. Following this, Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme leader announced that the reformist leaders were to be blamed for any aggression brought about by clashes in the government forces and the protesters (Leimbach 50). More than 100,000 Iranians took to the streets of Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Rasht cities to protest against the ruling government. The protest materialized from 14TH February, 2011. To curb the protests, forces were sent to raid homes at night in an effort to scare the citizens. The solidarity protests became nearly like an anti-regime demonstration where the police used paintballs and fired tear gas at the protesters. On the other hand, protesters set fire in garbage bins to protect themselves. Many famous human rights and democracy activists, lawyers, demonstrators, and opposition leaders were arrested and killed by the regime. Most protesters flew away, as the government threatened to kill them; they were not even allowed to contact lawyers or their families. According to the authorities in Iran, there were 20 causalities, more than 1000 detainees, and 500 injured individuals. However, this may not be the exact numbers, due to the suppression of data and internet blocking in the nation. Unofficial sources claim that the number of people who died from the street protests were approximately 300. As forces attacked protesters who had no arms, the ruling government was per ceived to go to extremes in dealing with the issue. Even those who did not take part in the protests were brutally killed so long as they appeared in the streets (Human Rights Watch 414). Iranian Students Association of America argues that Iran violates human rights, simply because some of the provisions are guaranteed in the Islamic law, and for the regime in power to continue enjoying the privileges of ruling. Some of the human rights violated by Iran include: Failure to adhere to the law processes of the country; use of torture and other hostile inhuman treatment and the use of false confessions. Executions performed both publicly and in secret

Directed Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Directed - Research Paper Example president has the authority and powers to remove marshals prior to the expiration of their terms, their appointment must be confirmed first by the Senate. Since the early years of America’s independence, the marshals have been the federal court’s chief law officers (Miller, 2008). They direct the activities of about 4,000 personnel and officers stationed at over the 350 locations across the United States and the country’s territories. It should be noted that even after the establishment of over 50 specialized federal law enforcement agencies during the twentieth century, the US Marshall Services retained the broadest authority and jurisdiction (Green, 1999). Since the earliest period of America’s independence, they have served as the civil authority instruments for all the three organs of the government. They have been involved in most of the major historical events in the history of the United States (Dautrich, 2010). The United States Marshall Services is mandated to carry out a number of responsibilities within their jurisdictions (Collins, 1998). The primary responsibility of the service is to provide protection and support for the federal courts that include security for over 700 judicial facilities and over 2,000 magistrates and federal judges, in addition to the trial participants like attorneys and jurors. Recent years have witnessed increased responsibility because of the dramatic rise of threats against the judiciary members. The Marshall Services also involves operations such as the Federal Witness Security Program whose mandate is to ensure that the safety of endangered government witnesses is guaranteed (U.S. Marshals Service, 2013). They maintain transport and custody of thousands of federal prisoners every year, apprehend majority of federal fugitives, and execute arrest and court orders warrant. In addition, they manage, seize, and sell property that has been forfeited to the gover nment by criminals such as drug traffickers and help the

Journal 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Journal 6 - Essay Example In total, the theories of crime explain that people commit crime because of some social, ecological, cultural or subcultural factors such as financial and social deprivation, bad living conditions, ill social background, people’s assumption that some illegalities are positive and their teaching to their family. In my perception, every city or neighborhood has some forms of organization/disorganization. In my locality, there are very few incidents of delinquency or crime while if I consider the city, there are many forms of disorganization such as theft, mobile snatching, vehicle snatching, murders and many others as no place is perfectly free from crimes. Poverty is the basic reason for making people to commit crime as they are unable to even get their due rights. In our neighborhood, people try to keep an eye on delinquent people or people that are doubted to do wrong so that they can be checked while committing a wrong deed, which is a form of organization. Parents teach their children to follow the law and keep away from bad company even then, there can be some problems such as children fight and small disputes between neighbors, etc. Anderson’s code of the street is applicable on the story of Willie Bosket in All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence because he belongs to a family that can be called street family. While being nourished and brought up in such a family, the protagonist performs such illegal deeds that are previously done by his father and forefather and is unable to consider the aftereffects of his doings. According to Anderson, parents teach children to be aggressive when they try to control their children by punishing them physically or showing violence before them. In Willie Bosket’s life, he has witnessed and listened about aggressive attitudes of his ancestors due to which, he also

Compare the differences between China and America on using of media Essay

Compare the differences between China and America on using of media entertainment and media effect on individual - Essay Example To this end, the paper will critique the fundamental elements and aspects of culture and provide a review of how they define dominant trends and patterns in the society. The paper will undertake a comparative analysis and review of culture and how it shapes entertainment in two countries - China and the United States of America. To this end, there will be a critical review of various aspects of culture and the media in these two countries. Fundamentally, the media captures contemporary issues and matters in a given society and community (Cowans, 2000). This is because the media often focuses on addressing dominant matters and situations as and when they unfold in the time in question. Thus, culture is central and important in defining what the mainstream mindset and expectations of the people is and what unconventional conflicts and issues come up to form an appropriate storyline for the media. "Culture provides a kaleidoscope within which human emotions are defined" (Rohn, 2009: p232). This implies that culture defines what is to be done in every stage in the human life from birth, puberty, adulthood, old age to death (Rohn, 2009). As such, the definitions of happiness and sadness is dictated by what the dominant culture values and identifies to be important. Typically, the media presents issues and matters that challenges the status quo and this is often a situation that is uncommon or unusual. This is because members of the society and audiences around the world will prefer to view issues and matters that do not really seem to be conventional or in line with the dominant practices and views of the society. Culture has a strong linkage to the media and the media has two main issues that converge to create this connection: dominant conflicts in the culture and new technology (Marsh, 2012). Marsh argues that in the normal sense, audiences to the media often seek to view things that are not in sync with the dominant

Hamilton's Role as the Secretary of Treasury Research Paper

Hamilton's Role as the Secretary of Treasury - Research Paper Example This paper illustrates that â€Å"The most practical nation builder of the Founding Fathers, Hamilton (1755-1804) fought tirelessly for ratification of the Constitution, played a pivotal role in creating a centralized and powerful nation-state, and argued persuasively for a strong presidency and an independent judiciary. It was Hamilton, at the beginning of the nation's history, who provided a prophetic vision of the United States as a global power stabilized by capitalism and with a military second to none.† While Hamilton contributed to all aspects of government formulation, he is best remembered for his role in designing the young nations economic system. During and after his lifetime Hamilton was overshadowed by his more popular adversary Thomas Jefferson. While Jefferson's dominant image persists today, â€Å"the irony is that Hamilton's concept of the federal government, not Jeffersons, is what has evolved and endures†. This is particularly valid with respect to t he country's economic system and the organization of its constituent agencies such as the U.S. Treasury. Hamilton could rightly be considered a visionary, who saw the importance of economic growth and technological innovation. His state papers on the subject of the economy are considered by modern scholars to be a monumental effort â€Å"toward establishing a rational basis for planning and legislation; his Report on Manufacturers and his advocacy of federal public works are remarkably modern descriptions of the relationship between government and technology†. As the first Secretary of the Treasury and the unofficial aide to George Washington, Hamilton was instrumental in designing the American bureaucracy, which prevails even to this day. In this unofficial capacity as the confidante and aide of the first President, Hamilton also wrote many of the Presidential addresses, most notable of which is the Farewell Address delivered by Washington at the end of his second term.  

News Write- Ups Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

News Write- Ups - Case Study Example The alleged stabilization of the global economy by IMF has been achieved through efforts from both the U.S and Europe. The stabilization became apparent through economic indicators in the U.S that seemed more positive or optimistic while, on the side of Europe, the measures that had currently been undertaken in Greece demonstrated perceptible recovery. Learning and Benefits In view of the news article, I have managed to understand that the global economy has had numerous problems in the recent past. However, the economic crisis at international level has stabilized after prolonged periods of backdrop since the problem invade the global economic system. According to the news, the world has the grounds to be optimistic although there is no guarantee regarding financial security. This is because other principal economic and financial threats still challenge the current state of the global economy. According to IMF chief, certain risks still exist in a global economy with the leading bei ng massive debts that emanate from the public and private domain. In addition, augmenting oil prices offer substantial risk to the growth of the global economy in diverse ways. The only way to tackle the threats is addressing the matters that pose the greatest risks. Source: Edwards, N. and Qing, K. G. (Mar 18, 2012). Global economy on recovery path, risks remain: IMF chief. Reuters. Retrieved from: News write-up 2 Summary Stocks have assumed a downward trend for the next five days indicating the longest slide down in this year. The problem has occurred at a period that has seen persistent European debt and at the commencement of tentative corporate earnings. This implies that the problem is a triple tragedy within the country considering all the problems hitting the economy. The backdrop in stock has seen numerous falls in stock exchange earnings, in Europe. Companies from that have recently swept the markets have considerably lost out in the stocks slide down. Connection The losi ng splash is speculated to have commenced on the previous Tuesday after the Federal Reserve admitted to being concerned about the vigor of job augmentation, and asserted that it was not obligated to offer additional or supplemental assistance for the financial system. Unlike other companies, Alcoa presented promising quarterly results in terms of profits and sales. However, their success has been attributed to cost-cutting through layoffs some of their workforce. Investors in the U.S were astonished with the performance since they expected backdrops similar to those from companies in Europe. Most European companies experienced backdrops in the five days since the stock commenced the losing trend. Learning and Benefits In view of the news article, various factors have contributed to the recent stock slide down the most imperative factors being the debts that emanate from borrowing. The article presents the idea that Spain and Italy has recently accumulated numerous borrowing costs. I n fact, Spain’s borrowing expenditures almost reached extents that would otherwise pressurize other nations to request for bailouts. The stocks slide down has caused Dow to move approximately 550 points below its previous levels. In Spain and France, the falls approximated 400 pints, which is

Are Gmos Good for Our Health Essay Example for Free

Are Gmos Good for Our Health Essay So, its been a long day, your exhausted, really hungry, and dont think too much about what you want to eat. You just know that you will go for anything tasty that is fast and easy to make. Choosing what we we want to eat in this way should be familiar to all of us, its the American way: We want it and we want it now, and it always has to be better, faster, and last longer. Due to our forever growing population this demand only gets stronger and stronger; alas our creation of genetically modified organisms. The dominating corporate in charge called Monsanto promised to create this miracle food that will feed countries around the world, last longer, and make our diets healthier. After finding out that these genetically modified foods can cause health problems and arent provided enough for the malnourished, third world countries, can we really say that the creation of GMOs are living up to what Monsanto is telling us? One of the main defenses for GMOs is to help out third world countries; places where starvation and malnutrition hit the hardest. An article for Times magazine titled Grains of Hope illustrates all the excitement and hope that GMOs will solve world hunger. Reporting that the new GM strain in rice creates a new species of rice called Golden Rice. â€Å"This new rice produces beta-carotene, which the human body converts into Vitamin A. † â€Å" Nearly a million children die every year because they are weakened by Vitamin A deficiency and an additional 350,000 go blind† (Robbins, 2012, pg 1). You would think that this golden rice would be the answer to all malnutrition problems, but unfortunately it is not. According to a New York Times article titled Can GMOs Help End world Hunger? , â€Å"golden rice will not grow in the kinds of soil that it must to feed the hungry. To grow properly, it requires heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides. For the poor, developing countries it is unaffordable. Plus the heavy amounts of pesticides could travel into the bloodstreams of people and make them resistant to essential antibiotics. Research shows that â€Å"an eleven year old boy would have to eat twenty-seven bowls of golden rice a day in order to satisfy his minimum requirement for the vitamin† (Robbins, 2012, pg 2). The Monsanto Corporation and other biotechnology companies have invested billions of dollars to gain control over what we eat. Their main goal is not to feed the world but to retrieve maximum profit. Part of how their doing so is by monopolizing farmers. They do so by creating a Technology Protection System. This system creates â€Å"terminator seeds. †These seeds are altered so that they are sterile. Meaning that after the crop grows, it will not produce more seeds for farmers to harvest and grow next season. Instead, they have to buy more seeds over and over again. Due to the corporate patenting and monopolization of GM seeds, farmers also have to use excessive amounts of chemicals on their crops. â€Å"It is frequently argued that the high debt incurred by Indian farmers and resultant farmer suicides (over 250,000 since 1997) have largely resulted from the need to purchase costly pesticides and expensive seeds each year because they contain a terminator gene† (Todhunter,2012). In the earlier times of GMOs, many farmers couldnt wait to try out these products because the World Health Organization came out and said that they benefited agriculture productivity, human health and revived infertile crops. The World Health Organization stated in their article, Weighing in the GMO Arguments: For, â€Å"Genetically engineered resistance to pests and diseases could greatly reduce the chemicals needed for crop protection. Farmers are already growing maize cotton and potatoes that no longer have to be sprayed with bacterial insecticide. They also included that removing lignin found in trees will get rid of toxic chemicals in paper and wood made products, being healthier for people and the environment. WHO also goes on to add that â€Å"Genetic modification to become more tolerant of salt [found in infertile soil] and drought. † An article I found to support these findings called GM crops aid plant neighbours talks about a study done in china where they modified strains of cotton DNA so that the crops could make their own insecticide and solve pest problems. The results were positive, the insecticide Bacillus Thuringiensis, caused a reduction in the use of insecticide because it got rid of the cotton bollworm, a major pest to cotton. The newly engineered cotton also created greater biodiversity by attracting more lady bugs, causing the population of aphids, another cotton pest, to decrease. In the article, an advocate for organic farming shares that she agrees with the modified cotton because â€Å"organic farmers avoid pesticides by using natural processes to encourage beneficial predators. Getting rid of pests by introducing predators and reducing the use of pesticides is very similar to organic processes. † The new pest resistant crop may have been beneficial for a little while but as time went on they are began to build up in our bloodstreams. A recent study done by researchers from the University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada found that ninety-three percent of maternal blood and eighty percent of fetal cord blood test positive for the Bt toxin Cry1ab, Proving that transgenic materials are not effectively broken down and eliminated during digestion. Another harmful chemical 3-MMPA, showed up in 100 percent of pregnant womens bloodstreams. The chemical 3-MMPA is produced when our bodies metabolize gluphosinate, also found in GMOs. A study done in Europe found that gluphosinate can cause cancer, DNA damaged, and reproductive toxicity. Another recent study done by European researchers found that after feeding rats a diet of GM corn through out their lifetime have developed tumors all over their body and died prematurely. One thing Monsanto might try to tell you is that there are no long term affects to genetically modified products. Truth is, over years and years of Americans eating meat been changed overtime so that it is plumper and lasts longer has caused a growing epidemic that especially effects children. The additives we have been consuming were designed to have longer shelf lives, but the chemicals added also mimic human hormones that have estrogenic qualities and anabolic steroids. Because of these increased uses in poultry production children are starting puberty earlier and earlier. The article, Additives and Hormones in Our Food: A Growing Epidemic that effects Our Children, Includes a table showing how the trend of the onset age for puberty decreasing; showing that in 1970 the onset age for puberty was 12. 6 years old. In 2000, that number decreased to 9. 8 years old. Another growing the epidemic that is not only effecting Americas children but America as a whole is obesity. And guess what, chemicals added to our food are linked to that too. Based off of what Stephen Perrine, author of New American Diet, â€Å"We have all sorts of chemicals put into our newly, genetically engineered foods. † The Pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones that make our food more resistant to diseases and environmental stress contain obesogens. According to Perrine, â€Å"obesogens can cause heart disease,diabetes,obesity and high cholesterol. Most of the obesogens come from pesticides, non-organic produce, and GM corn-fed beef and chicken. For many years, GMOs seemed to be a great idea because they benefited agriculture productivity, human health and revived infertile crops. The whole intention for the creation of GMOs are great, they have proven to last longer and get rid of major pests and all but the fact that these modified organisms have caused major health problems to our people and havent benefited our poorer countries as they were suppose to, the invention of genetically modified organisms have done more bad than good. With that, people should be more careful about what they choose to eat. So, the next time you head out to go grocery shopping, look for labels for 100 percent organic foods, or go to the farmers market where everything is locally grown.

Military Orders Essay Example for Free

Military Orders Essay The issue of following military orders from higher ranking military officials that may be unethical has been a disturbing and controversial issue over many years and decades. Many soldiers and service members in general have been put into a situation where they were given in order, knowing well that the situation isn’t right but cannot disobey. The leader giving the order in all likelihood may threaten or set out stiff punishment on to the individual who did not follow the order or hesitates to follow out on the order. It just isn’t fair that these soldiers and service members are put in these situations and get punished for doing the right thing. When this situation may be in question in a court of law because of the severity of the crime, these soldiers may get in trouble for committing the act even though they were just following orders. This is a big problem in the United States military and it’s not fair that these soldiers and service members, who sacrifice their lives for our freedom, are punished and put in this situation. Military members who fail to obey the lawful orders of their superiors risk serious consequences. Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) makes it a crime for a military member to willfully  disobey a superior commissioned officer. Article 91 makes it a crime to willfully   disobey a superior Noncommissioned or Warrant Officer. Article 92 makes it a crime to disobey any lawful order (the disobedience does not have to be â€Å"willful† under this article). In fact, under Article 90, during times of war, a military member who willfully disobeys a superior commissioned officer can be sentenced to death (Powers, N/A). The articles that mentioned above clearly state that a service member cannot disobey a lawful order or they will be punished for the crime, under the article covers their punishment. The excuse of just following orders when they are lawful or not is not an excuse nor will it bold well in a military court. Following through with an unlawful order is bad if not worse than disobeying a lawful order. The individuals committing these crimes will be held accountable and will be punished to the fullest extent. In other cases, some service members have made willful decisions in which they have went AWOL from the orders they received and were supposed to report. An example is when an Army flight surgeon who is risking his career to force President Barack Obama to prove he’s a natural born citizen is under investigation by the Army after failing to report for duty in preparation for an Afghanistan deployment. Lt. Col. Terrance Lakin was ordered to report to Fort Campbell, Ky. on April 12 but instead reported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, his former assignment (Jordan, 2010). In this situation, Lt. Col. Lakin is committing a willful crime that is illegal under the articles of UCMJ and is only doing this because of his beliefs. His beliefs that President Barrack Obama needs to prove he is a natural born citizen of the United States. Just reading this article, it provides me with this question: Is it really worth getting in trouble and potentially giving up on a well decorated, stable career for just not showing up to your assigned place of duty just for some proof. President Obama was put into office for a reason and like any job out there was checked up upon and is very much qualified for the position. I think this is a bad decision by Lt. Col. Lakin. Giving up so much for this purpose is just plain ridiculous to me. There are also times where groups of soldiers disobey orders set out for them only because they feel for their lives. Maybe, they experienced something before they lead them to disobey the order. In 2004, Jeremy Hudson of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. , the reporter who broke the story about a military unit in Iraq refusing to go on a dangerous mission. The U. S. military unit in Iraq reportedly refused an order to join what the soldiers called a suicide mission to deliver fuel from their base near Nasiriyah to another base near Taji further north. The soldiers were reservists in a Quartermaster Company. They were supposed to deliver fuel. And they had had some concerns previously about delivering the fuel because of, as they termed it, ill-equipped vehicles mainly lacking the proper armor, and even maintenance problems with the vehicles. They had expressed this, from what I have been told, to their commanders, and basically it fell on deaf ears. They got together and talked to their commanders, from what Im told was for some time, and basically got nowhere. So they decided together to not go (Hudson, 2004). In an article in the Lancet (The Lancet, 2011), a survey was conducted 7 to months into a 15 month, intensity combat deployment in Iraq, between December 11, 2007 and January 30, 2008. An infantry brigade combat team soldiers were picked randomly based upon their company and last four digits of each of these soldiers social security number. The following is an a piece of the article explaining the methods conducted to produce this survey. These soldiers were then invited to complete an anonymous survey 3 months after completion of the training. Reports of unethical behavior and attitudes in this sample were compared with a randomly selected pre-training sample from the same brigade. The response patterns for ethical behavior and reporting of ethical violations were analyzed with chi-square analyses. We developed two logistic regression models using self-reported unethical behaviors as dependent variables. Factors associated with unethical conduct, including combat experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), were assessed with validated scales (The Lancet, 2011). 500 random soldiers were selected to take the survey and 421 agreed to do the anonymous post training survey. 97 soldiers completed the pre-training survey. The following is the results of the surveys that these soldiers took. Training was associated with significantly lower rates of unethical conduct of soldiers and greater willingness to report and address misconduct than in those before training. For example, reports of unnecessary damage or destruction of private property decreased from 13 ·6% (54 of 397) before training to 5 ·0% (21 of 421) after training (percent difference ? 63 ·2%), and willingness to report a unit member for mistreatment of a non-combatant increased from 36 ·0% (143 of 397) to 58 ·9% (248 of 421). Nearly all participants (410 [97%]) reported that training made it clear how to respond towards non-combatants. Combat frequency and intensity was the strongest predictor of unethical behavior; PTSD was not a significant predictor of unethical behavior after controlling for combat experiences (The Lancet, 2011). With the results of this survey I have come to the conclusion that training is the key to educate these soldiers on how to handle combat situations. The percentage increased in every topic discussed and it proves the fact that training is the absolute way to help these soldiers learn and understand the rules and regulations. What is lawful and what is not. Also, the soldier rights to disobey an order that is not lawful. There are other unethical matters that deal with the military and orders that are ordered to take place. The issue of a soldier that is wounded/injured in a warzone or a military environment and is taken to a medical facility receives but the soldier makes the decision to refuse the medical attention. What rights does the soldier if any have? Does this soldier have the right to make this decision? By not receiving the medical attention, he or she can affect their own livelihood and also others around them by refusing to get help. In an article by Janet Kelly, of the University of Hull, UK, she presents a few scenarios on about this topic and what happens when a soldier does deny medical treatment. The following paragraph is in the article and shows one of these scenarios. With the examples I provided, I have learned that the United States military strictly punishes its service member with the crimes they commit by going by their governing document of the UCMJ. Following military orders is a strictly enforced. There isn’t any room for error when an order is given unless it is an unlawful order and can be challenged by the service member towards the superior official.

The Introduction To Cyber Bullying Media Essay

The Introduction To Cyber Bullying Media Essay Young people today are using the internet more than ever. They view the internet and even more so the mobile phones as positive aspects of our society. The internet and mobile phones systems are the two biggest systems of communication which play a crucial role in our daily activities and development of identities. On the other hand, these same technologies are also often used negatively. Many children are the targets of bullying via the internet or mobile phones resulting in total confusion on the part of the target. Very often, children are not able to understand that what they are going through is a form of bullying. As a result the previously safe environment of the internet is now becoming a source of confusion and anxiety. As a teenager myself, I am not immune to factors that influence everybody else in our society. I am very concerned about what is happening so I therefore wanted to look into the reasons behind cyber-bullying and who should be blamed for it. Is there any way for cyber-bullying to be stopped? The internet holds many dangers such as viruses and programming faults that could be dangerous for people but also two of the most menacing problems for young people today; child pornography and cyber-bullying. I decided to focus on the issue that tends to influence a large portion of teenagers and not solely, cyber-bullying. It seems that, now, in 2010 cyber-bullying is increasing dramatically as more and more children are becoming victims of this type of bullying, though not only children. I will research this problem in detail as it is saddening me that a system that makes information flow and communication easy, is turning into a dangerous place to be. I cant understand why such a useful system is used in so negative a way where one can cause psychological harm to others. Although cyberbullying does not pertain to the USA alone, I chose to focus on the USA is because it seems to have more documented incidents which apparently make it one of the countries with a higher percentage of cyber-bullies and victims of cyber-bullying. In fact, there has been a number of shocking incidents that caught my attention, some of which I will report in the main body. There are many countries that do deal with cyber-bullying but not to the point that the USA does. I strongly believe that if cyber-bullying reaches an end one day it will certainly start from the U.S.A. I deem that the USA covers all aspects that I am looking into so this is the reason why I chose it. In recent years many US states have started to impose laws specifically regarding cyber-bullying. Some other states support that laws imposed for traditional bullying also cover cyber-bullying. The internet provides anonymity and the chance to create a profile with a hidden identity; so how possible is it for cyber-bullying to be stopped? The truth is that this question cannot be answered easily as it is not something so simple. Being already concerned about it and seeing that more and more cyber-bullies are getting away with it, I will attempt to investigate how possible can this be. The research question which I will develop is the following: Can cyber-bullying and bullying through the internet and mobile phone systems stop? In this essay, I will look into cyber-bullying by defining what it is, report incidents and show statistics of how bad the situation in the U.S.A. is. I will also examine if blame can be attributed. Through my research I hope to reach a conclusion on whether there is a chance for cyber-bullying to be stopped. What is Cyber-Bullying Cyber-bullying has more than one definition, cyber-bullying can be defined as when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person  [1]  or as a situation when a child or teen is repeatedly tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child or teenager using text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging or any other type of digital technology.  [2]  The last definition I gave refers only to teens or children because bullying through the internet or cell-phones from adults to adults can be referred to as cyber-stalking which due to word limitation I will not go into. A cyber-bullying situation can be as simple as sending e-mails to someone that wants no further contact with you but it can also be very serious when it includes threats or sexual bullying or when a forum is created and that person is ridiculed. Cyber-bullies may post personal data of their victims at websites or forums or even pretend to be someone else in order to publish different material to the victims name that diminishes or humiliates him. The biggest percentage of the bullies use pretty much the same tactic as they send threatening messages to their victim or call them mean names. Who is a Cyber-Bully A cyber-bully is generally more of a product of his environment in which he too is abused in many ways, verbally or physically or he might even be cyber-bullied. Perhaps however, they are simple bored or completely rotten to make everyone elses life messy. Many times cyber-bullies work in groups because in that way they feel stronger but they inwardly, sometimes, do not enjoy their actions. Their main problem is that they cannot move away from their team because they feel unsafe and they have the fear that they will get cyber-bullied themselves. As it is identified by researchers, tormentors are sometimes likely to be more depressed than their victims. What should be worrying us is that cyber-bullies get a false feeling of satisfaction when they send threatening and flame e-mails to their victims because that means that they amuse themselves. The number one objective of cyber-bullies but also traditional bullies is to have power. They want to have the control of each situation. They want to be dominators and subjugate everyone. Effects of Cyber-Bullying In my mind, cyber-bullying shows the ugly face of the internet. Victims of cyber-bullying can become depressed and in extreme cases even commit suicide. We can therefore understand that the internet is dangerous and unknown to most people, capable of hurting them if they are not aware of the internet as a whole. Cyber-bullying has several negative effects on individuals or groups of people. Usually, it starts with a confused feeling on the part of the victim, feeling hurt because a person or a group of people has targeted them and insulted them for no other reason than simply to be mean. Most would ask why they are the target but perhaps even cyber-bullies do not know why. They gradually get feelings of fear or of loneliness, fear of leaving their home or fear of going to school. If the victim is being bullied continuously, his grades may drop or even show symptoms of paranoia that would make it difficult for him to communicate with people of his age or make new friends. Depression can be one of the symptoms of cyber-bullying, and I am calling them symptoms because it seems that cyber-bullying is now a disease for our society. A feeling of helplessness occurs as the victim does not know where to turn to for help. It is of course true that in serious cases of constant bullying, suicide may be part of the story. Cyber-bullying should be stopped but the question still exists, can it be stopped? Proper individual reaction I believe that the reason why the U.S.A. is more concerned about cyber-bullying is the big amount of their population that is affected and the relatively big number of incidents reported that has prompted them to impose laws against it. What should the average person suggest? Ignore the bully, do not take him seriously, not answer to him and if he is at your school just ignore him once more. It is suggested that you report it to your counselor or your parents so they get the chance to help you. It is possible that cyber-bullies will be discouraged if you do not answer to them and they will move on to their next victim. Nevertheless, these suggestions would only help an individual to be saved from cyber-bullying. Furthermore, cyber-bullying will not stop but it is a good start for individuals to save themselves from resulting victims. Significance of Cyber-Bullying How real is the threat of cyber-bullying? Is it such a big issue? Opinions seem to vary. Adults mostly support the opinion that cyber-bullying, along with regular bullying, is responsible for many of the social, anxiety and depression problems kids live with since this situation mostly influences them. On the other hand, many teenagers do not agree with this claim, they support the idea that cyber-bullying is not such a problem because nothing is real on the internet and things said or done should not be taken into consideration so much. In my mind, we, teens, understand better the evolution of technology than adults and so we are not tricked by the media as their role is always to report every situation in its most dramatic way but that cannot explain the rising number of suicides among young people. I believe that anyone who claims being bullied knows nearly nothing about how to protect themselves in the digital world, even when it comes to simple computer problems. It is true that the internet does not show its real face immediately and cyber-bullying is not the only internet issue that should be worrying us. Internet is full of dark pits, full of lies that could trick anyone into confusion. My opinion is that cyber-bullying is a very big issue that is shocking our society every day but I also believe and agree that cyber-bullying is not the last thing that we should consider as a problem. People need to be educated on how to be immune to internet dangers and of how to avoid being mocked or cheated through the internet. Proof of the significance An example of a severe case of cyber-bullying took place in 2008, it shocked most people in the U.S.A. into understanding what cyber-bullying is when Megan Meier, a 13-year old girl from Missouri, committed suicide in her room. Investigators found that Megans death was the result of constant stress caused by relentless and cruel cyber-bullying. A group of people that lived in Megans neighborhood, including adults such as Lori Drews, the father of a friend of Megans who she had a fight with, and an 18-year old officer who worked for M. Drews, pretended to be a new boy in the area where Megan lived and developed a relationship with her through Myspace (a social networking site). The group had created a hoax in order to make Megan believe that she had a growing relationship with the boy. When the hoax was revealed, Megan did not have enough mental strength to deal with the humiliation of being mocked and she decided to take her life. Back then, Missouri did not have any laws against cyb er-bullying so they were not able to prosecute any of the members of the group.  [3]  Having taken this incident into consideration, Missouri has now imposed laws against cyber-bullying which I will report on next in my extended essay. Another suicide took place in Massachusetts. Phoebe Prince was a 15-year old Irish immigrant who was harassed both at school, web sites and over her cell phone. For fear of losing her few friends, she refused to change her Facebook settings or cell number. Unfortunately, the idea of her being a loser led her to kill herself.  [4]   The statistics are as shocking as the incidents. A Cyber-bullying research survey in 2008 of 2.000 middle-school students shows that around 43% of them have been victims of situations that can be defined as cyber-bullying: > Receiving an instant message that made them upset (15.8%) Having something posted on their MySpace that made them upset (14.1%). Even more alarming, a Survey of AM/MTV in September 2009 of 1,247 young people, aged 14-24, found that: 50% of youngsters in this age group have experienced digitally abusive behavior, with older teens aged 18-24 (52% vs. 47%) and females more likely to be targeted (53% vs. 42%) 45% of young people report that they see people being mean to each other on social networking sites.  [5]   The relation ship with traditional bullying There is a phrase that says: Sticks and stones can break your bones but names will never hurt you Personally, I cannot agree with that claim. Although cyber-bullying is less physical than traditional forms of bullying, it has very destructive and longer-lasting effects on individuals. It is very easy to access a computer and ruin someones mental state. Something that people ignore is that online everyone can be a bully, even a small, physically weak child that was a victim of traditional bullying. However the difference being that someone is now in the position to cause even greater damage than a big brute can cause. As British bullying victim, Emily Moor said, The internet is a sinister, silent enemy: you simply dont know where to start to tackle the problem. But faceless as a computer may be, it is every bit as threatening as a physical bully, if not more so because the audience reading these horrible messages can be enormous.  [6]  It is true that if you are bullied at school then you can just go home and end it, if you are cyber-bullied you have nowhere to go. Laws against Cyber-Bullying It is now well known that with the existence of fake profiles or profiles with hidden identities, the guilty party is hard to be traced. Lawmakers are seeking to pass new legislations on cyber-bullying because it seems that there are currently no specific laws on the books that deal directly with it. They want to address cyber-bullying with laws that would call the action of intimidation, bullying or any other actions that cause severe emotional distress illegal. Nevertheless, I was not able to find lots of information on laws against hidden identity or fake profiles but only from states like Texas and Georgia which have passed laws that deal directly against posing as someone else on the internet. What is important is that people who post fake profiles in social network sites could be charged for their unsocial behaviour.  [7]   In a respected number of U.S. states including New York, Missouri, Rhode Island and Maryland, legislation geared at penalizing cyber-bullying and digital bullying has been introduced. In 2007, at least seven states passed specific laws against bullying through the internet. For example, Dardenne Prairie of Springfield, Missouri passed a city law making online bullying a misdemeanor. Another city of Missouri, the city of St. Charles has passed a similar law. Furthermore, in Jefferson City of Missouri, state lawmakers gave final approval to a bill making cyber-bullying illegal in 2008.  [8]  It is believed by supporters that this bill will cover bullying from computers, text messages and other electronic devices. In August 2008, the California state legislature passed the first law to deal directly with cyber-bullying. The legislation was named Assembly Bill 86 2008 and the idea was that it would add provisions related to bullying committed through an electronic communication device or system and a definition of electronic communication was added for this purpose to the School/Law Enforcement Partnership program. Eventually, this law took place at January 1 of 2009. Even if it is due to the following changed that many schools are now able to confront cyberbullying, I will keep the following information in the Laws against Cyber-Bullying section. In Arkansas in 2007, they passed a law that would allow school officials to deal with cyber bullies even if a persons bullying did not take place or start on school property. After the law was imposed, the result was that school administrators gained more freedom to punish individuals that were the bullies. In Iowa, several laws have been passed that forced schools to adopt anti-cyber bullying policies which cover bullying in the school or in school property or generally at a school function or activity sponsored by the school. In New Jersey the Garden State has always maintained tough legislation against bullying, but until 2007 there werent any laws enforced which included cyber-bullying. Once again, the law gives the power to the school staff to punish people related with bullying against their fellow students. In Idaho, in 2006, its lawmakers passed a law that allowed staff of the school, especially officials, to suspend students that were using a computer or another electronic device to harass specific students. At Oregon state, they decided to look in detail at cyber-bullying and broadened its definition. Recently, the governor of Rhode Island tried to pass a bill which would take cyber-bullying offenders to court with the charge of being illegal against the states laws. Vermont, had already very strict laws against bullying and cyber-bullying but its lawmakers recently added a fine of 500 dollars for those who where offensive to other people on the internet. Vermont is considered as one of the states with the strictest legislation against this type of bullying.  [9]   School action It is important to mention that many schools are adopting policies to address cyber-bullying and that is something really important. Since cyber-bullying is mostly a problem because of the existence of the internet, many schools reduced their internet sites range so as to protect children from entering sites that could lead them to becoming the victim of a cyber-bully. Also, many schools have passed anti-bullying rules and policies which address cyber-bullying. They closely monitor students use of computers at school and have bought tracking software but without relying solely on it in order to screen out problematic online behaviors and bullying. Many educators try to educate students, teachers and different staff members about the dangers of cyber-bullying and about what should be done in order to avoid it Who should be blamed? Despite attempts at changing laws and policies and trying to implement them, what is worrying, is the fact that no law can really stop cyber-bullying while communication through the internet or cell phones provides anonymity, many fake profiles are created in order to tease or bully people in social sites like Facebook and Myspace. Really, is there anybody we can accuse or blame for this mess? Is there any way to identify the extinction of a fake profile? Our society promotes violence and that does not help to overcome this problem. Video games, television and all mass media mostly project violent incidents. Because of this children and teens become familiar with the idea of violence and they think of it as the normal. Parents on the whole are not familiar with the idea of cyber-bullying and they are not able to protect their children from being cyber-bullied. It is not really their fault as technology is developing very fast and many of them cannot keep up with it. Teens do not usua lly talk to their parents about their problems and that makes it very difficult for the parents to help their children. Many schools make the mistake of not informing students enough about it or showing them how to protect themselves. Children should have some knowledge about cyber-bullying so as to get through it without any wounds. I believe that the society as a whole is the only that can be blamed for this issue. Conclusion In conclusion although the internet and mobile phones communication systems make our lives easier and play a very important role in our activities, it is unfortunate that they have been poisoned and destroyed by being used to abuse others. The positive aspects of the internet and mobile phones cannot be questioned or enumerated however what I am mostly certain of is that the negative aspects are just as great in number and in seriousness. As a Kevin Brennan said: Cyberbullying is the unacceptable face of new technology, and we need concerted action across society to address it. Schools must play a key role, and this new guidance will help them to identify and tackle instances of cyberbullying more effectively, as well as providing practical advice and information on how to prevent it.  [10]   Cyber-bullying is on the rise and it affects almost anyone that possesses and uses a computer or a cell-phone but the idea of stopping or obstructing cyber-bullying seems to be very far. Cyber-bullying exists in schools, out of schools and everywhere and since parents are not totally controlling their childs actions in and out of school, it is very hard to follow the plans of bullies. While school violence as a whole is declining, bullying behaviors have increased by 5%.Furthermore, the last months of 2010; there were multiple suicide deaths as a result of cyber-bullying.  [11]  There are lots of reasons that could lead a person to bully another and there are even more sources of traps that could lead the bullied person to remain silent and contribute in this way to the growing problem. After much research, I no longer wonder if this whole situation could be stopped but whether it can at least decrease. It seems that there is no way for it to be stopped since most states of the U.S.A. do not have any legislations that deal directly with cyber-bullying. Even where legislation does exist it does not have the power to reduce cyber-bullying to any great amount because of the anonymity or the hidden identity that the internet provides. This could even be a great research question for another extended essay. Should the internet provide anonymity and the choice to retain your identity hidden? Existing legislation in states of the U.S. which I have mentioned have only worked in very few situations where the bully has not hidden his identity. What could make us think that legislation could stop anonymous bullies? What will always be needed to overcome such a situation is the support of adults towards children and young people that have fallen victims to the dark pits of the internet. Parents especially must not forget that. Since bullying through internet and mobile phones cannot really be stopped then the next best way to deal with it, is to make children immune to it. Children should be taught to avoid it and go on with their lives. They should be taught how to prevent bullies from using them as victims. Parents should help them build a strong personality.