The Effectiveness Of Diversion Programs For Offenders Criminology Essay

The Effectiveness Of Diversion Programs For Offenders Criminology Essay A criminal conviction does not necessarily mean that individuals will be subjected to jail or prison. In some cases, individuals are afforded the opportunity of attending a diversion program. Depending on the type of crime and the number of offenses, an individual could attend a diversion program with the permission of a judge. Diversion programs are designed to help certain offenders overcome their bad tendencies and drug and/or alcohol addictions. The one lingering question is do diversion programs really help offenders make the transition from prison to society and becoming a productive member of the society. With diversion programs, offenders are given the resources they need to work through their issues, problems, addictions, and the chances of those individuals committing another crime in the future may decrease. Concepts Non-violent crimes and recidivism First, think about the term non-violent. A non-violent crime usually means that no physical harm came to any individual. Though non-violent crimes can cause indirect harm to individuals for example, the Bernard Madoff incident did cause some suicides. One reported incident stated that an individual did commit suicide after losing all of the money to Madoff for it was a way to avoid bankruptcy. That is an example of how non-violent crimes can indirectly cause harm but on a different note those kind of incidents do not happen that often. The correctional plan for persons convicted of non-violent crimes must include an aggressive education plan. The education for a non-violent crime should fit the particular crime in which the individual was convicted of for instance, writing bad checks, substance abuse, or theft. Three strikes law and non-violent offenders The premise of the three strikes laws are best served for serious or violent crimes and the key word is convicted of a felony. In reality, there are gray areas when it comes to the three strikes law and non-violent crimes and offenders. For example, writing bad checks can get a person a jail sentence and if the third time a conviction is imposed on a individual they could face the three strikes law. Constant debate over non-violent crimes and whether a person should receive a life sentence for non-violent crimes. Adult diversion programs and 1st time offenders. A good combination for individuals who are willing and are eligible to participate in the program. These types of programs are meant for individuals who are only for misdemeanors such as worthless checks. Felony convictions can attend diversion programs but it would that written recommendations from the judge which would involve some serious commitment from the individual that they do want to be better. Theoretical considerations Alfred Alders Individual Psychology Social Learning Theory Kohlbergs Theory of Moral development Hypothesis Jail diversion programs may reduce the rates of recidivism because they provide non-violent offenders who are jailed for the first time treatment options, support groups, and overall the opportunity for a second chance. General approach Program evaluation of the jail diversion program for incarcerated individuals who may have substance abuse or mental illness issues. Jail Diversion programs provides court-based services to individuals who are eligible with psychiatric and co-occurring (mental illness and substance abuse) disorders who are arrested on minor or non-violent offenses. Â   Goals To know if jail diversion programs are effective in reducing recidivism. Literature Review Knight, L., Stephens, M. (2009). Mentally disordered offenders in prison: A tale of neglect? Retrieved from http://www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Knight_Stephens_Mentally_Disordered_Offenders.pdf The article examines whether inmates who have a mental disorder should be considered as patients or prisoners. Prison system are meant for security and control but when it comes to the housing of inmates with mental disorders it is suggested that those particular inmates should be afforded the opportunity for better treatment within prison walls. The Mountbatten Report in 1966, following a series of escapes from high security prisons, led to greater emphasis on security and control (Knight Stephens, 2009). This upgrade in security left gaps in the system because mental ill inmates was disregarded and because of this it caused a reform in the way prisons treat or do not treat mentally ill inmates. Bottom line is that the mistreatment of mentally ill inmates caused human rights issues which prompted a few legislative measures to ensure they get proper treatment for their illnesses. Ashraf, H. (2003). US Supreme Court limits forced drugging of mentally ill before trail. Lancet, 361(9375), 2131. Academic Search Premier Database. The article goes on to explain that for the reason of standing court that mentally ill prisoners can take their prescribed medicine to stand trial. The issue arises for the case of mentally ill prisoners to stand trial for committing a non-violent crime. The article explains how the United States Supreme Court based a decision limiting the use of force drugs in order to make non-violent offenders competent for standing trials. LaFree, G., Erlanger, H. (2002). Too much democracy or too much crime: Lessons from Californias Three-Strikes Law. Law Social Inquiry, 27(4), 875. Academic Search Premier Database. The authors of this article go on explain the problems that were uncovered with some research done on democracy and the effects it has on crime. They also give a history of the Three Strikes Law and note how there needs to be a reform of it. One of the crucial finds of their study was that they were able to note that with the laws in place there was not a significant drop in the crime rate based on the Three Strikes Law. It was purposed that deterrence tactics were better suited in reducing crime. Akins, S., Smith, C., Mosher, C. (2010). Pathways to adult alcohol abuse across racial/ethnic groups: An application of general strain and social learning theories. Journal of Drug Issues, 40(2), 321-351. Retrieved from Academic Search Database. This article takes the three largest racial/ethnic groups in the United States of America and applies theories on why drugs and alcohol has different impacts on the number of users. The largest groups are Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics. The application of the Social Learning Theory and the General Strain Theory has different applications on users in these communities. Much of the article can lead to conclusions on why the pattern of drinking could lead to why there are many Blacks and Hispanics that occupy our prison systems. Steadman, H., Naples, M. (2005). Assessing the effectiveness of jail diversion programs for persons with serious mental issues and co-occurring substance use disorders. Behavioral Sciences The Law, 23(2), 163-170. Retrieved from doi:10.1002/bsl.640 The article explains how diversion programs help offenders with mental illness and/or substance abusing behaviors. The purpose of the article is to show that diversion programs can help as it was reported that monitored individuals were not committing crimes after their release from prison.

“Money and Media dominate modern day politics” – how far do you agree?

It is widely claimed that the media, and the money available to dominate it, has a much wider grasp over the voting public than manifesto or policy. The majority of the worlds media sources hold some sort of partisan alignment, and its hold on the public means this bias is passed on to the electorate. How much it influences the electorate however, is different amongst many theories. The manipulative theory suggests that the media submerges real news in meaningless trivia in order to benefit itself. An example of this is Rupert Murdoch's support of Labour only once they'd dropped clause 4 of the constitution. The Hegemonic theory agrees with the accusation of the biased nature of the media but argues that it is less calculating. Any political stance it holds is the genuine opinion of the papers or broadcasters, and its publicising of these views is not in an attempt to manipulate the electorate. The pluralist theory argues that the customers choose the media, not the other way around, and their political views are reflected by their choice of newspaper or broadcaster, not changed by it. Though these theories have different ideas on the motives of the media, they all essentially say the same thing, the hard truth that the media is biased, and that its opinions are carried by its consumers. Another undeniable fact is that the political groups with the most money have the greatest chance of gaining the favourability of the media. Television has led the nature of elections, but more so in America than Britain due to the differing regulations relating to media, and the different motives that broadcasters have across the Atlantic. Firstly, the US doesn't have a publicly funded broadcaster, and all broadcasting channels have a profit-driven business plan. They will therefore only show the most popular candidates in bite size chunks, not allowing for in depth and democratic coverage. Reports suggest that in the 2008 campaign, Barac Obama's images were larger, more colourful, and positive than the ones of John McCain. This also provokes voting behaviour based on personality as opposed to policy. Secondly, there are no rules governing the democratic spread of coverage regarding candidates. Campaigns can therefore spend extortionate amounts to gain press time, such as the record setting 30 minute political commercial by Barac Obama in 2008. Britain however, has regulations on airtime, sharing it out proportionally to however many people that party has standing at the election. This is made possible through the publicly funded broadcaster, BBC, which is said to have neutral politics stance, though it has been accused of holding a liberal position. There is however, a much heavier influence coming from the press sector of the media in Britain. America's heterogeneous nature means that local press are the standard newspaper to read and these already reflect the views of that state, which unlike Britain votes united in an electoral college. In the 1992 general election, with Kinnock and Labour the favourites, the sun released the headline, â€Å"Will the last person to leave the country turn out the lights†. A few days later, after a shock conservative victory, they released a follow up headline, â€Å"It was the sun what won it†. Just 3 years later they switched allegiance, with â€Å"Sun backs Blair†, something pointed out as one of the factors in Labours landslide 1997 election victory. This, along with the fact the paper has backed the winner in all but 3 elections in the last 50 years, implies that Britain's biggest newspaper holds immense influence over the electorate. However, it can also be argued that with only 3 million papers in circulation, the Sun doesn't have enough readers to change the result of an election. Not only has this but it faced opposition from big papers such as the mail and the telegraph as well. It is not just television and newspapers however, with recent elections being dominated by the internet. Access to watch the debates at any time anywhere around the world and the use of social networking filled the electorate with images and stories of the candidates in every corner of their lives. This also meant however, that the already low levels of genuine political news stories were being drowned out by an obsession with image and personality. Barac Obama spent an unprecedented 300 million on his campaign for election, spending about $10 per vote he gained. This was almost twice the amount his rival spent, and is likely to have been a factor in the outcome. The system in America requires any candidate to gain 5% of the national vote to receive national funding, so minor parties or independents stand a very poor chance of breaking into the system. If they do manage to, they then have to have the ability of raising large sums of money. Billionaires such as Ross Perot (independent 1992) could combat this, but even the third party in 2000 (Ralph Nader – Greens) claimed that he simply could not keep up with the spending of the two major parties and would never be in with a chance. There have been some limitations however, in the form of the Federal Election Campaign Act (1974) limiting individual contributions to $1000 and corporate contributions (from PACs) to $5000. This seems less of a ceiling to expenditures and more of a skyline, considering the spending patterns of the last election. It is a little different in the UK, with a maximum of i7000 allowed to be spent in any one constituency, and candidates that tend to spend less than three quarters of this. The heterogeneous nature of the USA would obviously require more expenditure in a campaign, but the 5, 6, and sometimes 7 figure expenditures in senate races seem slightly out of proportion. In Japan the electoral system was making candidates of the same party campaign against each other, which gradually pushed the price of campaigns up and up until reform was enforced. The influence money was having on elections had created a rift amongst parties as well as losing a sense of democracy. It is clear that money and the media have a huge influence on voting behaviour, but not in the way it may first have been perceived. Where the theories generally carried the view that money could drive the media, and the media in turn influence the electorate, I believe it is changing voting behaviour in a different sense. Money and the media have glorified politics, and particularly in America have given it a Hollywood effect. The public are reacting to this by voting not based the manifesto and ideologies of candidates, but voting for the greatest ‘celebrity'. Money and the media do play too great a role in modern day politics, and have replaced the electorate's voting on policy with its voting on personality.

Media Deprivation Report

Nghia Le MCOM 1307 Mrs. Krissy Mailman 23 October 2012 Media Deprivation Report I just found out that I am addicted to the Internet and cell phone since I finished the media deprivation challenge. I did not use cell phone, TV, and Internet for a day. No TV is ok with me because I don’t watch TV a lot, but no cell phone and no internet was giving me a hard time. I started the challenge on Sunday, right after I finished all my homework and my exam, because those things really need the Internet to be done.At first I felt kind of weird because I used to connect with my friend by phone or Facebook. For example, I wanted to ask some of my friends to go out to eat, then I had to drive to their houses, knock their doors to ask them out for dinner. It would be much faster if I could use my phone. However, it was fun that I had a chance to see how my friends’ life are going on. We were not used to come home each other for a long time, calling each other to make appointment were a ll we did.In my opinion, technology is great for every one, because make people connect to each other and know information faster and easier. Nowadays, people are familiar with online news, watching news on TV, and connecting to each other by Internet or cell phone. I think that is a great way save time and money. We don’t need to buy newspaper every morning and read, we just only need too open the web browser or turn on the morning news in TV to know all the information that we need for a day.

Philosopy of Nursing - 2433 Words

Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING Assignment #2 Philosophy of Nursing Nursing 324 Athabasca University Submitted to: Karen Polowick Submitted by:kelly gagnon Student #: Date: September 7, 2010 Good title page in APA format with running head and complete information Philosophy of Nursing For centuries the development of nursing knowledge has been influenced by numerous theorists and their respective theories. These theories have influenced, and continue to influence, nursing education, practice and research. (Johnson Webber, 2005) Although theorists have been the essence of sense-making in nursing, I believe all of us as nurses can, and should, be actively involved in the sense-making process. It is†¦show more content†¦Very good opening to paper and introduction to philosophy and relationship to nursing theory Good use of reference support in APA format Well stated purpose and overview of paper Definition of Nursing In order to explore my philosophy it is important that I be aware of how I would define nursing. â€Å"Definitions of nursing, like nursing itself, are dynamic; nursing is constantly evolving to meet new needs and take account of new knowledge.†(Clark, 2003, add p. # for direct quote) As an obstetrical nurse in the 21st century, I view family centered care as the focus in relation to my commitment to partnering with clients, their families and the multidisciplinary team. As such, I would define nursing as the ability to use knowledge and clinical judgement to provide holistic, competent and safe care to patient’s both healthy and sick, drawing on that partnership as needed. Well stated in own words definition of nursing reflecting own practice I also believe that nursing is about empowering patients through teaching and positive reinforcement, giving them the autonomy to direct their own recovery or health maintenance. In doing so I believe that we are respecting their individuality and dignity. Although nursing changes as new knowledge and theories emerge, what I believe to be the core, a commitment to care, remains intact. That commitment to care is the underlying premise that enables me, as a nurse, to set nursing goals.