Self-Control Theory Analysis of Drug Use and Distribution

Self-Control Theory Analysis of Drug Use and Distribution Self-Control Theory Analysis of Prohibited Drug Use and Distribution References Buker, H. (2011). Formation of self-control: Gottfredson and Hirschis general theory of crime and beyond. Aggression and violent behaviour, 265-276. Gottfredson, M. G., Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. Hirschi, T., Gottfredson, M. (1993). Commentary: Testing the general theory of crime. Journal of research in crime and deliquency, 47-54. Hirschi, T., Gottfredson, M. R. (2000). In defense of self-control. Theoretical Criminology, 59-64. Macquarie. (2009). Macquarie Concise Dictionary . Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers Pty Ltd. Newburn, T. (2013). Criminology. Oxon: Routledge. Self-Control Theory Analysis of Prohibited Drug Use and Distribution What is self-control and how do we apply it as a theory when referring to criminal activity? How do we use the theory of self-control to create appropriate reduction strategies for combatting criminal activity? The Macquarie Concise Dictionary defines self-control as ‘control of oneself and or ones actions, feelings, etc.’ (Macquarie, 2009) where as Hirschi Gottfredson refer to self-control as being a ‘concern for the long-term consequences of one’s acts’ (Hirschi Gottfredson, 2000). Are a person’s actions or their control of, predetermined through learned behaviours or is it merely a social â€Å"out† to state that a person has no control over their actions? That they should not be held responsible for behaviours not within their control? When does a person become responsible for their actions and can a person who has limited self-control take steps to become more self-controlled. At the age of eight years old a person is deemed to have from the ability to have self-control. At this age is would be more likely that they have learned this self-control from factors such a family structure and schooling. As maturity is a limited factor at such a young age, if a person has not formed the ability to self-control their own actions, it will be a ‘visible and stable issue as they grow older’ (Gottfredson Hirschi, 1990). Of those people whose self-control has formed it is often noted that they are more likely to resist temptation and are less impulsive, than those whose self-control has not yet formed. They are said to be able to rationalise and behave in what are deemed social norms on a regular and consistent basis. People with low or unformed self-control tend to be self-absorbed, egocentrically self-centred and bear no concern to what consequences their actions have on themselves or other people (Newburn, 2013). Generally speaking they are more likely to use prohibited drugs, engage in risky behaviour such as unprotected or unsafe sexual practices, consume alcohol to excess and are more likely to participate in criminal activity. It should be noted that there is a difference to lack of or low self-control and impulsiveness. Lack of self-control can in turn result is continual behaviour reoccurring due to a person creating an acceptable image within their mind that their actions are justified. Impulsiveness can be a one off event that is spurred on by a momentary thought process that may not ever occur again. But this does not mean that people with low self-control are criminals or that all criminals have low self-control. Like most crimes that are committed, there is an element of opportunity that needs to be present. Newburn makes mention that although it does not provide a long term benefit for the person, it can be stimulating, thrilling and is usually an unskilled act or it does not require any form of proper planning and execution (Newburn, 2013). Even with or without opportunity, most crimes need some form of planning to ensure that they are likely to succeed. In his article on the formation of self-control, Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime and beyond, Hasan Buker identifies factors such as Family Structure, Parental Practices, Education and Learning, Biological Factors, Social Structure and Religious Involvement that contribute to how a person’s self-control is formed (Buker, 2011). By examining these factors we can attempt to create positive approaches to interact with people who have committed criminal offences and try to rehabilitate them from reoffending. But can those people who have already had their self-control formed be rehabilitated? Or must we strike while the iron is hot during the younger years of a person’s life and ensure that they are being appropriately taught right from wrong? The primary factors that determine one’s self-control as outlined in the general theory of crime are family structure and diminished parental supervision and parenting practices. If this is the case then it must be said that the secondary influences for self-control formation are social structure, education and learning. Almost all of these factors occur before a person has hit the defined age of eight years old for self-control formation. If parents find it socially acceptable to use prohibited drugs, then a young impressionable mind may feel that it too is an acceptable practice and is more likely to experiment if they are offered prohibited drugs at a later stage in their life. If suitable supervision occurs, which includes setting up appropriate boundaries and expectations, during the early years of a person’s childhood, including the adolescent years, they are more likely to respond in a positive manner to those who have no set boundaries and expectations. With thi s in mind, if parents are behaving in what is deemed law abiding behaviour, and they supervise their children in the same manner, then it must be said that their children’s level of self-control and ability to resist temptation would be greater and they are less likely to behave in criminal activity to those children who are not supervised in the same manner. Buker also raises social structure in his article stating that this can also lead to diminished self-control in an individual. Lower socio economic neighbourhoods are often linked to poor family structure and parental supervision as well as adverse learning environments. In these areas due to limited parental supervision, parents may often fail to monitor adverse behaviour and discipline their children in a correct and an appropriate manner. (Buker, 2011).

A rhetorical analysis of against school by John Taylor Gatto Essay

Attempting to persuade his audience reading from this Article,John Taylor Gatto’s displays his points of view that he does not belive in our school system. He believes that the staying in the American schooling system for so long has supplied him with every reason to refer to it as a childish program. According to him, people may see the key problem of schooling as boredom. To clarify his point, Gatto asserts having education is not equal to taking schooling which is instead considered as â€Å"a daily routine in a factory of childishness in order to make sure children do not really grow up.† Gatto supports his views by enumerating a significant number of successful Americans who did not go through the schooling system but turned out to be productive, such as Abraham Lincoln. In this short story, â€Å"Against School†, Gatto tells his experiences with students that complained they were bored in school. Gatto said these students were not interested in what was bei ng taught because they often said the work was stupid and that they already knew it. According to Gatto, these students were interested only in grades rather than learning the subject. In â€Å"Against school† Gatto begins his article discussing his thoughts on whether the term â€Å"boredom† could be used to define the experience of a student. He explains that every time he used to ask students in class why they were bored in school, the students felt that their teachers â€Å"did not seem to know much about their subject and clearly weren’t interested in learning more† (Gatto 300). With teachers being bored as well and blaming their students he brings up the question of who really is to blame. Gatto feels a change of not to provide the student with â€Å"schooling’ but with an education can be done by simply being more involved with the student. He believes that by introducing students to â€Å"competent† adults or in other words teachers who know their subjects the students will gain inspiration and interest. He then goes on to ask if schooling is even necessary, questioning if the 12 years of mandatory schooling are beneficial or not. Gatto proceeds to talk about the origins of our educational system and what he knows is the real purpose of our educational system based on the evidence he presents. He explains that the United States educational system comes from a military state named Prussia. An â€Å"educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects; to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appropriate leader skills. (Gatto 303). Claiming that we are bred to never grow up and remain children,  in his last paragraph he states one last time his thoughts on the purpose of mandatory education â€Å"Mandatory education serves students only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants† (Gatto 307). Gatto states that in this country people sees â€Å"success† as synonymous with â€Å"schooling†. He articulates that important people like George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln never went through the twelve-year schooling system we have now and they still succeeded. Gatto said that according to our cultural traditions schools were made to make good people, good citizens, and each person their personal best. Since his goal was to persuade his audience in this article I would consider the writing primarily appealing to logos and ethos with pathos used throughout the article. On page 300 his first sentence â€Å"I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom† is used to show the reader that he is an experienced veteran of our educational system. He places this at the very start of the article to try and gain immediate credibility so that he may potentially obtain the trust of the audience. This is all done to display his social standing which makes it ethos. On that same page he brings up the question â€Å"Who is to blame?† and he includes the reasoning for both the student’s and the teacher’s points of view on who they feel is accountable for school boredom. â€Å"They said teacher’s didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more† claims Gatto his student’s would say to him, and when asking the teacher’s they stated â€Å"Who wouldn’t get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades†. He places their opinions first to set himself up for introducing his own point of view in the following paragraph on page 301, â€Å"We all are. My grandfather taught me that† and goes on to say that it’s your own responsibility to entertain yourself and the teachers job is to provide you with an education. Because of the placement in points of view the reader is first brought to choose between teacher and student and who is really at fault but is then introduced to Gatto’s point of view where he blames both the teachers and students. This tactic was used because by stating his opinion after that of the students and the teachers his audience may perceive him to have the more balanced or in other words, most informed  point of view between the three. By him saying that the students are saying one thing and that the teachers are saying another and then saying what he thinks and why they are wrong he is appealing to a logos way of persuading his audience. When explaining his grandfather’s lesson the word â€Å"childish† is used to describe those who don’t agree with what his grandfather is preaching, â€Å"the obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible† (Gatto 301). This choice of wording also appeals to logos because by saying that the people who â€Å"didn’t know that† or in other words weren’t aware of the belief that it is your own job to entertain yourself, a re â€Å"childish† he does this so that he can try and persuade the reader by explaining to them that because the students or teachers aren’t mature enough to already know that it is up to them to stay entertained, and they expect someone to entertain them they are still childish people. This also appeals to ethos because by saying something negative about the opposition specifically that they are childish the author can lead the readers to believe that he is the wiser or more mature one of the three viewpoints. When providing evidence to support his claims Gatto once again appeals to his audience through ethos by stating the person he is quoting and some background on said person before writing about what it is they actually said that relates to the article. By adding positive words or background information about the author he attempts to gain credibility for his evidence by letting the audience know that the information is coming from someone who knows what they are talking about and he does it various times throughout the essay for example on page 302, â€Å"we have for example the great H.L. Mencken, who wrote in the American mercury† Notice the usage of the word great, and how the context its being used in could lead the reader to be more fond of the evi dence. A more obvious use of this tactic can be found on page 303 where he says â€Å"It was from James Bryant Conant-president of Harvard for twenty years, WWI poison gas specialist, WWII executive on the atomic-bomb project, high commissioner†¦and truly one of the most influential figures of the 20th century† He probably could’ve just said one or two things but he throws a whole list at the readers so they could potentially feel this is accurate information from someone with high standing. Instead of just throwing his evidence and support out there Gatto attempts to set  them up again to seem more credible because of his certain choice of wording and how he places it in his writing. He decides to end his article by trying to persuade the audience through the use of emotional appeal, or pathos. After urging the audience to â€Å"wake up† and see the points he is trying to make he decides to use the line â€Å"there’s no telling what your own kids could do† he says this to hook any leftover skeptics by bringing up the point that maybe it won’t help them but instead their children. This is effective because the reader may have a different point of view on this whole article when thinking about how it relates to their loved ones, their children. When asked if I agree with Gatto and his views I would say that I partially agree with him. I do agree when he says that modern day education is boring because of both the teachers and students, it really is up to both sides to find a way to entertain each other to get the most amount of work done and find inspiration in what they are doing. When saying that â€Å"Mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants (Gatto 307) I also agree with him. The idea that you should be forced to go and do something you don’t always want to for the sake of â€Å"learning† when you don’t really care about the topic to begin with has always been something I’ve questioned. Sure you can get the work done but if you don’t care it won’t stick so what’s the point? It really does seem to me that schools are used for income, to keep the population busy and to keep us out of â€Å"trouble†. Education system teaches us to appease, its gets us tired and it makes many of us lose hope in what we want to do. I don’t agree with him however when he talks about how school keeps us from growing up. We still get older and mature and many people actually find what they feel is their calling through our educational system so that can’t be the case, I don’t think it keeps us from ever being useful. I think we are already useful; we are just too caught up in school and all the work there to go out and do things. Throughout his article Gatto does a great job as far as being persuasive with his audience through the use of ethos logos and pathos. With Harper’s magazine being released and purchased by people who are interested in controversial views like this, Gatto gives the readers what they paid for by  effectively questioning our educational system and making his point that education is turning our society into slaves or as he likes to put it â€Å"servants† (Gatto 307). What I do feel he lacks on though is providing more views of the opposition, on page 302 he writes about all the people who didn’t go to school and are successful in the world, but he fails to mention anyone who has gone to school and has ended up just as successful as those people. I find it hard to believe that out of anyone going to school in the United States since 1915, not one person has been successful because of it. Though he is persuasive and successful in putting out his points of view this aspect of his article is very unbalanced. Ultimately, the article does get the job done and does a good job informing the readers of his views on our educational system and why he is against school. Starting off his writing by stating â€Å"I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom† (Gatto 300) proves to be effective because logically it makes sense that he learns about boredom after thirty years, and being a teacher for thirty years gives him credibility in the topic at hand. Gatto argues that schools are cell-block style, forced confinement of both students and teachers (Par. 4). According to Gatto, James Conant changed the style of standardized testing, nor the gargantuan high school that warehouse 2,000 to 4,000 students at a time (Par. 12). Gatto states the best one to become your full potential is to manage yourself (Par. 27).

Top Persuasive Essay Topics for Elementary Students Secrets

Top Persuasive Essay Topics for Elementary Students Secrets Some feel parents ought to be allowed to provide permission for their minor children to acquire tattoos, because they are making the decision for their own children. In order to get children, both parents ought to be certified. Prospective parents ought to be asked to take parenting classes. The Good, the Bad and Persuasive Essay Topics for Elementary Students The primary goal of topic choice for a proposal essay is to show the idea can be put into place in practice. The point is that you would like to convince the reader your argument is the perfect one, which means you'll absolutely want to select a topic that you're passionate about and something which you'll become excited about researching and writing. Yes, it's a great deal of work which why you must decide on a persuasive essay topic that is most suitable for your interest, for you in order to delight in the writing process. If you're still having a rough tim e choosing, list all of the intriguing facts for each persuasive essay idea you've written down, then opt for the one which you'll be able to work on the most. There are several persuasive essay topics to pick from to finish your high school or college assignment. Therefore, many students and employees decide to get low-cost essay rather than writing it themselves. There are just a few things that define whether an essay you're working on is going to be a good one. You've approached the last portion of your essay. Among the various types of essay, there's a definition essay that could appear to be among the most simple assignments. Thus, the words and expressions ought to be chosen based on the future readers. Similar to any other essay, a definition one has its peculiarities and content requirements that should be met to be successful in the writing. To defend your subject, you can recall the effect of overloaded schedule on college grades. The school day needs to be shorter. If you're in a middle school, it is preferable to simplify a topic a little. High school is a rather great time to talk about your experience in persuasive essays, as you already have a whole lot of happenings behind. What You Must Know About Persuasive Essay Topics for Elementary Students School should occur in the evenings. Books should not be banned. Students ought to be permitted to pray in school. They should not be forced to retake a course repeatedly until they obtain a passing grade. The Most Popular Persuasive Essay Topics for Elementary Students Many students think that it is a waste of time. Even a student can begin a business online. A college student sometimes takes a larger challenge and speak about political, cultural or societal problems. Fully being a persuasive student during elementary school isn't an easy job actually, it's a significant handful. There's an array of essay types, and every one of them is able to assist you in developing your abilities and widening your knowledge. Citations and extracts from assorted sources have to be formatted properly. The variety of body paragraphs will mostly be based on the amount of your paper. The teachers don't always assign the specific topic. Remember your final grade significantly is contingent on the topic. For instance, you can opt for a topic for elementary, middle, or higher school. Anyway, below, you will find topic that are great for both situations. Obviously, you can pick any other topic. It is preferable to select the topic you know and the position you believe in. Still, figuring out the very best topic for your essay isn't your only concern for a student. Schools should not have anything to do with ads. Students need to be careful about posting on social networking. They are used to the fact that their professors give them the assignment's topic. After graduating, some students start to try to find a job rather than going into the university. Kissing in public needs to be banned Men ought to be sent to some other planet. To begin with, your key to winning essay is a very clear comprehension of what it is you're likely to take care of. Since you can see, a lot of the topics listed are new and tackle the present issues happening in the World today. From among the persuasive speech topics listed here, pick the one which you are most well-inform ed about or make sure you've got the time necessary to research and prepare a thorough speech that covers every facet of the topic. Social networking is an enormous aspect in the growing number of instances of infidelity. Social networking is a means of improving communication abilities.

Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Aging A Comprehensive And...

This paper investigates four published articles that report on results from research conducted on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender aging (LGBT) and the psychosocial consequences they experience resulting from disparities. The articles, however, differ in that the research takes a one-dimensional approach to an unambiguous issue. Therefore, this paper will focus on the article titled Helping Gay and Transgender People as they Age (McDaniels, 2015) given it offers an interdisciplinary perspective on LGBT aging. Notably, McDaniels interconnects social, environmental, health, poverty, and inequality concerns, which collectively serve foundational to the psychosocial outcomes commonly experienced by LGBT elders. Subsequently, in peeling back the strata of the concerns mentioned above, it exposes privations related to loneliness, support, access to care, end of life care, social isolation, illness, and uncertainties. While McDaniels article anchors this paper, scholarly resources ar e hereafter integrated to deliver a comprehensive and analytical sociological perspective. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Aging: Psychosocial Effects Although more research is needed to understand fully the needs of LGBT elders, studies suggest the aging LGBT population remains underserved and underrepresented. Thus, unlike their heterosexual counterparts, they face numerous privations and disparities, which can result in consequential psychosocial effects on LGBT older adults.