American Institutions
POLS 1100-U.S. Government and Politics
My POLS 1100 signature assignment is a summary/critique of Government and the Economy.
Reflective Writing:
When I first registered for the class I was excited about learning new subjects. The Democratic Debate is an excellent view of American politics. Now I can watch politics with the understanding of how it really works and when the media is involved I can follow with some true reasoning of whats actually happening in American politics past and present.
When I first registered for the class I was excited about learning new subjects. The Democratic Debate is an excellent view of American politics. Now I can watch politics with the understanding of how it really works and when the media is involved I can follow with some true reasoning of whats actually happening in American politics past and present.
Submitted to: Dr. Josh Gold
Student: Michael Barela, POLS 1100-005
Subject: Summary Critique
December 7, 2010
Chapter 1 of, The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice. Fifth Edition by Jeffrey Reiman, American University, Washington, D.C. The chapter’s main focus is the war on crime and its relation to illegal drugs. The author talks about criminal Justice Policy and community behavior. Pyrrhic defeat theory is the thesis of the chapter and I agree with the authors claim that America could reduce crime and the harm it causes, if we wanted to.
Most people do not like to admit defeat. It is clear that America is failing in the war on crime. Putting more police on the streets and more offenders behind bars has not lowered the overall crime rates in America. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 14) it requires at least five officers to provide one officer on the street around the clock, for a whole year. New York City police officers have been credited for declining crime with use of aggressive policing, however an incline in the number of citizen complaints about police abuse and excessive force have increased. United States rates of incarceration are as high as or higher than those of other modern nations, and we are the only one still to impose the death penalty. (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 17). Crime rates fluctuate across America in an ever increasing demand for more jails and prisons. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 15) in 1991 the FBI reported per 100,000 citizens the likelihood of victimization was better than a 1-in-17 chance. Criminal Justice Policy is failing to make our lives substantially safer.
Some people might say that America is too lenient on crime. Where is the evidence to support that claim? Others might point out that population growth increases the number of individuals toward crime; however fluctuation levels in crime do not always coincide with population growth. People might even blame it on young people; they must also question the parents and their community. More prisons and longer sentences have had little impact on crime rates. Why don’t we know how to lower crime rates?
Sources of crime are numerous. Poverty contributes to crime by creating need, while economic inequality is getting worse. Some criminologists point out that economic inequality itself worsens crimes of the poor. It is not hard to gain possession of a hand gun in America. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 31) in a 1993 report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 200 million guns are in the hands of civilian owners. The FBI reports; in 1992, 85 percent of murders of persons were attributed to guns. Let us not forget that America has an enormous drug abuse and addiction problem. Government reports of drug abuse are underscored and the huge amounts that are smuggled into the United States are a result of the incredible amounts of money that drug suppliers can make. The known sources of crime have not changed. They have increased with technology.
Government law makers and criminal policies aid upper income families at the expense of the working poor. Economic inequalities flaunt criminal behavior. As long as there is no effective gun control legislation, violent crimes and the injuries they inflict will not cease. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 35) in 1995 the FBI estimates the amount of theft heroin addicts had to engage in resulted in more than $15 billion in property loss not including those addicted to other drugs.
In the book, Wayward Puritans, Kai T. Erikson suggests that societies derive benefit from the existence of crime. The Division of Labor in Society, by Emile Durkheim suggests that crime may actually perform a needed service to society by drawing people together in a common posture of anger and indignation. In their view a community is held together by a sense of the groups cultural identity, and when they come together to express outrage against an offender they develop a tighter bond of solidarity.
Communities have boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. The boundaries of a crime infested slum are different than that of an upper-class neiborhood. The federal laws are the same across America. Jeffrey Reiman uses the writings of Kai T.Erikson and Emile Durkheim to ad credence to his Pyrrhic defeat theory. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, is an effective way of viewing criminal policy and deviant behavior in America.
Student: Michael Barela, POLS 1100-005
Subject: Summary Critique
December 7, 2010
Chapter 1 of, The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice. Fifth Edition by Jeffrey Reiman, American University, Washington, D.C. The chapter’s main focus is the war on crime and its relation to illegal drugs. The author talks about criminal Justice Policy and community behavior. Pyrrhic defeat theory is the thesis of the chapter and I agree with the authors claim that America could reduce crime and the harm it causes, if we wanted to.
Most people do not like to admit defeat. It is clear that America is failing in the war on crime. Putting more police on the streets and more offenders behind bars has not lowered the overall crime rates in America. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 14) it requires at least five officers to provide one officer on the street around the clock, for a whole year. New York City police officers have been credited for declining crime with use of aggressive policing, however an incline in the number of citizen complaints about police abuse and excessive force have increased. United States rates of incarceration are as high as or higher than those of other modern nations, and we are the only one still to impose the death penalty. (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 17). Crime rates fluctuate across America in an ever increasing demand for more jails and prisons. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 15) in 1991 the FBI reported per 100,000 citizens the likelihood of victimization was better than a 1-in-17 chance. Criminal Justice Policy is failing to make our lives substantially safer.
Some people might say that America is too lenient on crime. Where is the evidence to support that claim? Others might point out that population growth increases the number of individuals toward crime; however fluctuation levels in crime do not always coincide with population growth. People might even blame it on young people; they must also question the parents and their community. More prisons and longer sentences have had little impact on crime rates. Why don’t we know how to lower crime rates?
Sources of crime are numerous. Poverty contributes to crime by creating need, while economic inequality is getting worse. Some criminologists point out that economic inequality itself worsens crimes of the poor. It is not hard to gain possession of a hand gun in America. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 31) in a 1993 report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 200 million guns are in the hands of civilian owners. The FBI reports; in 1992, 85 percent of murders of persons were attributed to guns. Let us not forget that America has an enormous drug abuse and addiction problem. Government reports of drug abuse are underscored and the huge amounts that are smuggled into the United States are a result of the incredible amounts of money that drug suppliers can make. The known sources of crime have not changed. They have increased with technology.
Government law makers and criminal policies aid upper income families at the expense of the working poor. Economic inequalities flaunt criminal behavior. As long as there is no effective gun control legislation, violent crimes and the injuries they inflict will not cease. According to the text (Reiman, 5th Ed., p. 35) in 1995 the FBI estimates the amount of theft heroin addicts had to engage in resulted in more than $15 billion in property loss not including those addicted to other drugs.
In the book, Wayward Puritans, Kai T. Erikson suggests that societies derive benefit from the existence of crime. The Division of Labor in Society, by Emile Durkheim suggests that crime may actually perform a needed service to society by drawing people together in a common posture of anger and indignation. In their view a community is held together by a sense of the groups cultural identity, and when they come together to express outrage against an offender they develop a tighter bond of solidarity.
Communities have boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. The boundaries of a crime infested slum are different than that of an upper-class neiborhood. The federal laws are the same across America. Jeffrey Reiman uses the writings of Kai T.Erikson and Emile Durkheim to ad credence to his Pyrrhic defeat theory. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, is an effective way of viewing criminal policy and deviant behavior in America.