15. June 2009 by student.

By: Troi -Intro. to Sociology

While some women may go into prostitution because they feel that they don’t have any other option to make money, or because they have low self esteem…but *Caution: This next opinion may viewed as be shocking or offensive*…I think there’s a possibily that there are some women that quite frankly just really, really enjoy having sex with lots of men. Now we as a society negatively label these women as “whores”, but women aren’t the only ones who prostitute, there are men in this profession as well. “In larger cities 20-30% of prostitutes are male. “  Here’s another bit of information, “Only 3-5% of STD’s are prostitution-related, compared to 30-35%, which is teen-related”.  http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2002/12/22/185323/82 I think if men believed they would be able to make as much profit as women do by selling themselves for sex there would be alot more men prostitutes, mainly because of the male sex drive. Men think about sex a lot, (and that’s an understatement), making money and get laid at the same time would probably sound like a pretty good deal to a fairly good amount of men. However, the negative way in which our culture portrays prostitution greatly contributes to why the latter reasoning is not very popular. We aren’t raised to covet a career in prostitution. I don’t think there will ever be a child that says “I want to be a prostitute when I grow up!”. Usually it’s the opposite parents teach their children to look down on them as “dirty” or think of prostitutes as a less than suitable role model.  However, you might hear “I’m going to grow up to be a big CEO of a major corporation just like my dad/mom!” and a lot of Americans would encourage that goal.  

There are two definitions of prostitution: 1.) Work of prostitute: the act of engaging in sexual intercourse or performing other sex acts in exchange for money, or of offering another person for such purposes, (this is the one people are most familiar with and afraid of) and 2.) Misuse of talent for gain: the use of a skill or ability in a way that is considered unworthy, usually for financial gain. People have tried to ban prostitution in all states Should this version of prostitution. In 1985 a bill was revised and called “Repeal of the brothel ban”- “the bill included an innovative distinction between ‘forced’ and ‘voluntary’ prostitution; the state should combat only the former and stop morilizing about the latter by accepting it as work. The bill no longer spoke of ‘vices’, but about ’sexual acts for payment’: these are criminal only if a person is coerced into providing them, infringing on the right of the prostitute to self-determination. The bill also provided a broader definition of the offense to include, along with force and coercion, abuse of authority or deceit to appropriate the earings of the ’sexual acts’ of prostitutes.” As long as prostitution has the function of providing “services” to those that want them, it will be a fixture in our society.

So what about the other definition of prostitution? The one about financial gain. Why aren’t we trying to be ban that as well? For one, I think it would be significantly more difficult since this type of prostitution isn’t usually referred to prostitution at all. Also, people don’t really see this type as a threat. We do reprimand some of the white collar criminals who “use of a skill or ability in a way that is considered unworthy, for financial gain”. People that make money in this way probably aren’t going to purposely make it known that the way in which the money was made was unreputable. An outside person might simply view someone that became successful in this way as any other entrepreneur or CEO.

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15. June 2009 by student.

This was my situation when i left my country to come to America. I had never experienced of getting used to new customs before, and that time was when I found out that moving to a new country can be an exciting, or a surprising experience.
I really felt welcome when I got there. I also felt more alive by seeing new things, new sights, and feeling a different climate. However, I had some difficulties getting used to its customs.
The most stressful situation I went through was the language. Even though in my country, from 7th to 13th grade, they teach English but that was not enough because they only teach basic grammar and vocabularies. If someone wants to speak english, he/she will need to go to English school. So I had problem communicating.
I remember when i got to the miami airport, after checking in, i didn’t know where to get out. I would like to ask someone for the exit door but i didn’t know the word “exit”. i tried to translate words from my language which is Creole to English, but noone would understand me. Fortunately someone got what i meant and showed me the way out.
Moreover, i had bad feelings when people were jocking and laughing around me because i could not understand why. I always thought they were laughing at me. Even if i could understand some words but not the context. In addition, because of my lack of English i couldn’t interract with others and i also had problems shopping, such as asking for something i needed and i didn’t know the name or where to find it.
Further more, I was surprise to see that people here have to do everything by themselves. When i look back to my country, people who have possibility will pay other people to do their works for them, such as housekeeping and other type of works. unfortunately in America things are very different and noone will have enough money to pay someone to do their work. Because of that, American people are always busy.
Even though they used to tell me about America, i wouldn’t understand until i get to America because i heard it was a free country. But i realized that it’s a do it yourself country because people don’t really care about people. Everyone has to do what they have to do.

This was my story about America. Don’t laugh!

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15. June 2009 by student.

What is Recycling? Recycling to me involves processing second-hand materials into fresh products in order to prevent waste of potentially valuable materials. Recyclable materials contain many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles, and electronics. 

According to Wikipedia recycling, Statistics show that Aluminum energy saving is 95% and Air Pollution Savings 95%, Cardboard energy saving is 24% and has no air pollution savings, Glass energy saving is 5-30% and the air pollution saving is 20%, Paper energy saving is 40% and the air pollution savings is 73%, Plastics energy saving is 70%, and Steel 60%. Both plastics and steel doesn’t have air pollution saving.  

Without recycling the world would be a trash filled hellhole. Pollution would be ramped thought the planet. I love recycling, I recycle everyday. In my house there a recycling bin, I waste nothing. Its hip its modern it’s efficient, it s good.

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15. June 2009 by student.

What is prostitution? In my opinion prostitution when a person feel like they are not getting love or cannot find a job so they feel like engaging in sexual activity in exchange for money or goods. Prostitution is all over the world.  I think that people that engage prostitution are in the age range of 18 and up.  I think the reason why people deal with becoming a prostitute because they either were turned down by couple of job or they see that one of there friends  are doing it, or it’s the easy way of getting money instead of them having to get up and find a job.             According to http://www.bayswan.org/stats.html, statistics show that the ratio of on-street prostitution to off-street (sauna, massage parlor, in call-outcall escort) varies in cities depending on local law, policy and custom. Whereas street prostitution accounts for between 10 to 20% of the prostitution in larger cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, in some smaller cities with limited indoor venues (or when indoor venues are closed down) street prostitution may account for approximately 50%. According to the website http://www.bayswan.org/stats.html, it talks about there are 50 % of women that before even becoming a prostitute does drugs and how 0%-84% have an addiction. 50% would have that addiction among street prostitutes but rare among the women that works off the streets.  The consequences that prostitutes have to deal with when finding our that they have sexually transmitted disease are when they are finding out that they have  AIDS, HIV, venereal disease (VD), herpes. They would have so much sexual contact with different man not knowing who would give them that disease. The same website had stated that only 3-5% of the sexually transmitted disease in this country is related to prostitution (compared with 30-35% among teenagers.Overall, I think instead of having some of states band prostitution I think all of the states should band it. I think woman shouldn’t be showing there body to other people that they don’t know. I think they should get a real job and not relay on money that other people are giving them just because they got what they want. I think that becoming a prostitute is showing you that people don’t care about the diseases they want to catch. They don’t have faith in them selves to do something positive so instead they would do something negative.

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15. June 2009 by student.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that engage partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. This practice often is passed by traditional circumciser. They would often play a major role in communities such as childbirth. FGM is documented worldwide as a violation of the human right of a girl and women. The procedures that are taken among the female and young children could risk of them dying.  The ages that female start having there genital remove is at the age of infancy and age 15, and also on an adult women.  According to the statistics inhttp://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/ , in Africa about three million girls are at risk for FGM yearly. The practice is most frequent in the western, eastern, and north-eastern regions of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and among certain immigrant communities in North America and Europe. According to the website http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/, it states the four major types of a female genital mutilation. The four major types of a female genital mutilation are Clitoridectomy, Excision, Infibulations, and Other. Those are the steps that they have to go to in order to have the women remove there genital.  Statistics in the website have shown that   Between 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are living with the consequences of FGM. In Africa, about 92 million girls’ age 10 years and above are estimated to have undergone FGM.Overall, I think that there shouldn’t be no practice done on female getting circumcise. I believe it should be for men and not for women. I also believe that the more its still being in progress the more children and young adult that would die. There is no medication or either treatment they carry to do the producers I believe that a woman is born with what she got and just die with what she got.  

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15. June 2009 by student.

What are gangs? Well in my opinion gangs are a group of people who which shares an identity and a common purpose among each other. Kids that join the gangs are around the ages of 16 & up.  Gangs are still around from this day. Gangs are sometime form in school, the street corner or usually in class while the teacher is teaching. The reason why I think kids join the gang because they have family breakdown and a lack of father figures could be to blame for pupils joining gangs, and also of lack of showing the kids the attention that they need is also why kids join the gangs. They feel like by them joining the gang they have people that care and make them feel special in there own way, but they are not noticing that those are the people that are putting negative thoughts in there mind. Gang behavior crosses ethnic barriers and has been demonstrated by members of African-American, Asiatic, European and Hispanic. Street gangs and the accompanying numbers of gang violence is not a trend that is restrained to the nation’s inner cities, minority classes or the male gender.According to Wikipedia Gangs, Gangs show there true identity by graffiti tags colors, hand-signals, clothing, jewelry, hair styles, fingernails, slogans signs such as the swastika, the noose, the cross, five-pointed and six-pointed stars, crowns and tridents.  In Wikipedia the statistics show that Los Angeles is the ‘gang capital of America’ with an estimated 120,000 gang members. There were at least 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members active across the USA in 2007. About 900,000 gang members lived “within local communities across the country,” and about 147,000 were in U.S. prisons or jails in 2009. By 1999, Hispanics accounted for 47% of all gang members, Blacks 31%, Whites 13%, and Asians 6%.There are between 25,000 and 50,000 gang members in Central America’s El Salvador. The Mexican drug cartels have as many as 100,000 foot soldiers. The Yakuza are among the largest crime organizations in the world. In Japan, as of 2005, there are some 86,300 known members. Hong Kong’s Triads include up to 160,000 members. It was estimated that in the 1950s, there were 300,000 Triad members in Hong Kong. The types of gangs that I see around while growing up in New York is there are gangs that represent the colors of blue, which are the crips. There are the Latin Kings, which represents yellow. There are also the Bloods, which represents the colors red.  In order to become one of the members of the crips, the bloods and/or any other gang, you have to go through initiation in order to be a member. One of the tests that you have to take in order to become one of the gang members is that you have to cut some that you love in the face or a place that is noticeable. That way you can see what you have done.Overall, young people should not try to get involved with these gangs because all you’re going to do is get yourself in trouble and you don’t want to go to jail. To go to jail while you are young is like throwing away half your life. Life is a precious thing that should not be wasted on gang violence, and if you do get involved you have no future. 

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15. June 2009 by student.

By Elizabeth Severo

     The June 25, 2007, Associated Press article, Americans set charitable giving record in 2006, states, “Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year, setting a new record and besting the 2005 total that had been boosted by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the Asian tsunami.”  The citizens of the United States donate so much money as well as time, but yet we still have poverty and homelessness.  There are a numerous charitable organizations such as, JustGive.org. and the National Coalition for the Homeless, in addition to the abundance of soup kitchens, shelters, and organizations that collect donations for the poor and homeless, so why is this an issue in the United States?     An article by Rachel Swarns of the New York Times prints in her article, U.S. Reports Drop in Homeless Population, “The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation’s streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent — from 175,914 to 123,833 — from 2005 to 2007, Bush administration officials said.”       Over the course of two years the quantities dropped approximately 50,000, but the numbers are still really high.  Are there so many homeless people because they have assumed this achieved status voluntarily?  According to Kroloff, 1993; Liebow, 1993; Snow and Anderson, 1993; U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005; Vissing, 1996; and Waxman and Hinderliter, 1996, “Less than 6 percent of all homeless are that way by choice.”     Max Weber’s idea of life’s chance is that less-affluent people have fewer opportunities because they do not have access to quality resources such as, money, medical care, and education.  Is that why we have this problem in the United States or is it because the unclean person with the cardboard sign has been stigmatized and stereotyped with the idea that this is the life they choose?  The media even portrays images of the homeless as drunk, crazy, sick, and drug abusers (Scholar Eungjun Min (1999: ix).Kaufman, 1996; Sandals, 2007 and Wood, 2002 write, “The homeless problem is not a new one for city governments.  Of the limited public funding that is designated for the homeless, most has been spent on shelters that are frequently overcrowded and otherwise inadequate.”

Maybe we just need a system that is structured differently?  Instead of just giving the poor and homeless the basic necessities to last for a few days, give them a job inside the soup kitchen or shelter and provide them with the education to access the governmental resources that are available to them.  Help them get on their feet and re-build their social structure.  According to the article above, the citizens of the United States are really generous with their time and money.  Wouldn’t they be just as willing to support a system that brought the percentage of homeless down to the 6% that do actually choose that lifestyle?

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15. June 2009 by student.

Privacy is such a valued asset to the American people, one of the luxuries we hold at such high esteem. Now this right is being challenged, and American people are angry. However one must look at why privacy is being challenged, by looking at this, we can see why privacy is both a public and private issue. When we look at privacy as a private issue, it can be seen as something one cherishes, and when someone attempts to take that away, it is seen as bad, very one sided. Then if we look at the public side, the issue of safety comes up, in order to keep the public safe, privacy must be distorted in some sense. Of course, all Americans want to be protected, and they are all for making sure they are protected by spying on others.

The problem arises when that person is required to give up an amount of privacy. A person is fine with someone else having to lose privacy, but when the situation is turned to them, suddenly it is much different. Too much privacy can hurt a person and society. For example the Supreme Court has ruled that when over the age of 18, a parent must receive consent of child to see grades (Supreme Court Cases). This is too much privacy, and inspires laziness, if you have nothing to hide, than privacy should not be that big of a deal to give up. Institutions are also to blame for an excess amount of privacy. In the church if one person confesses to an illegal act, the minister cannot contact law enforcement, therefore letting dangerous people roam the streets, because privacy “needed” to be protected. Yet another example of the situation being different depending on the person, is jobs. In every state an employee can be subjected to random drug testing, now from an outsider perspective, we see this as good, making sure that the workplace is productive and safe. Yet again, when the person have to be subjected to drug testing themselves, they become defensive, and change their outlook. Again, if there is nothing to hide, why are you protecting it? So many people preach about privacy, yet they all care more about safety. But when it requires giving up privacy for safety, they will not do it. What is the price for a pound of safety, apparently not an ounce of privacy.

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15. June 2009 by student.

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15. June 2009 by student.

By, Victoria Lecorps

Reported cases of child sexual abuse have reached epidemic proportions. There has been a 322 percent increase from 1990-2000 and that is not counting the vast number of unreported cases. It is widely known that many children who have been molested, whether it be on a regular basis or not, tend to keep the molestation a secret. Child molestation and sexual assault is the most rapid growing violent crime in the U.S.  About 1.3 million children are sexually assaulted each year. There are 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in America, 95 percent of molested children know their perpetrators. Nearly half of the victims are under the age of 18, 1 in 6 boys will be sexually molested by age 18 and 1 in 4 girls will be sexually molested by age 18. Most offenders are 10 or more years older than the victim. Girls are more likely to disclose the abuse.

it is illegal for an adult to touch any portion of a child’s body with a “lewd and lascivious” intent. Usually, consent is not a matter of consideration, and is not available as a defense to a charge of child molestation. Even in cases where it can be proven that the minor victim was a willing participant, a sex act or improper touching is still a crime because children cannot legally consent to anything. Criminal penalties are severe for those convicted of child molestation. According to the Justice Department, there are approximately four million pedophiles in the United States. It is difficult, however, to accurately assess the number of child molesters because many child molesters are not caught.

There is no single profile that accurately describes or accounts for all child molesters. There are many variables among individuals in terms of their personal characteristics, life experiences, criminal histories, and reasons for committing such offenses. One common misconception is that molested children grow up to become child molesters themselves. But, in fact, most childhood sexual abuse victims do not go on to become perpetrators. In some instances, if a child is sexually victimized, and is abused in other ways as well, he or she may later molest a child. Likewise, a sexually abused child who also exhibits antisocial behavior may go on to commit acts of child molestation, although an individual’s inadequate social and interpersonal skills do not make it inevitable that he will sexually abuse children. Few criminal offenses are more despised than the sexual abuse of children, and few are so little understood in terms of the number of offenses committed, the proportion of the population who commit offenses, and the risks of re-offense. One reason is that sex crimes committed against children and teenagers are believed to be widely underreported. This assumption is supported by the reports of both sex offenders and sexually abused children. Offenders commonly report fewer incidents of child molestation than those for which they are ultimately convicted. And children are often loathe to report an incident because they are ashamed or they fear reprisal.

Most convicted sex offenders are eventually released, giving rise to concerns over Recidivism. Recidivism rates are affected by a number of factors, including differences in legal guidelines and statutes in the states; opportunities to re-offend; characteristics of the offender; treatment availabilities; and post-treatment supervision. Child molesters have been known to re-offend as late as 20 years following release into the community. Problems caused by recidivist offenders have given rise to several legislative initiatives to help manage societal risk. For example, there are various sex offender registration schemes known as megan’s laws, which list names, addresses, and other specifics about convicted sex offenders. Such registries are available for public access. The laws take their name from a child named Megan Kanka who was abducted, molested, and murdered by a convicted child molester who lived near her home in New Jersey. A more active scheme that gained increased attention in the wake of several national news stories of abducted and molested children is known as Amber Alert Laws. These laws were prompted by citizen concerns following the tragic 1996 kidnapping and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas. The “Amber Alert” involves law enforcement and broadcast media response when there is a report of a missing child, and it appears that the child has been abducted by a sexual predator. Although the scope of the Amber Alert varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the criteria to trigger it are generally consistent: the missing child falls within a certain age range; the law enforcement agency believes the child has been abducted; the agency believes the missing child is under threat of serious bodily harm or death. In all cases, law enforcement activates an Amber Alert by notifying broadcast media with relevant information about the child’s identity, the description of the suspected perpetrator, and the circumstances of the abduction.

Child molestation and sexual assault leaves a fingerprint on each child’s soul. Deep inside, there is a pain that can’t be overcome and many cases of child molestation stay unreported, it is crucial that you talk to your child. Children need to feel safe and comfortable when talking about their own feelings and experiences. If your child feels that it won’t be judged by talking to you it is much more likely they will come to you and tell you about molestation and/or sexual abuse situations.

:http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Child+Molestation

:http://www.childmolestationlaws.com/

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