7. December 2009 by student.

Human trafficking, otherwise known as modern slavery, is a more pervasive problem than most citizens are aware. Human trafficking is not just about involuntary servitude; it is also about gross dehumanization and suffering of thousands. This problem destroys the freedom of many, specially women and children, like an infesting disease. Most of the time people who become victims of human trafficking are people who are only looking for better lives and better futures, and that is the sad irony of it all. The evil of human trafficking is its inhumanity. Trafficking touches many countries across the globe, including our own. An estimated 800,000 to 900,000 people are trafficked every year. Nearly 20,000 of these victims enter the
United States. Traffickers use lies and deceit in order to lure victims into their trap.  Once people become victims, traffickers use several tactics to keep them under control. Poverty is one of the main factors causing victims of human trafficking. Traffickers often make false promises of jobs to lure the victim into the
United States where they are often sold or forced into labor. They also use violence which is the most brutal tactic. This involves the use of rape, beatings and confinement to control the victim . The last, and probably the one that causes the most psychological damage is coercion. This involves the   threat of serious harm to, or physical restraint of the person or his family. It also involves threats of deportation or jail. The main reason for human trafficking is the need for labor workers. This crime includes several forms of labor, some more severe than the rest.  The two worst forms of labor are forced labor and sex labor. Victims of human trafficking face a very difficult life, full of physical pain and both psychological and emotional disturbances. While much is being done to combat human trafficking, continued comprehensive international efforts are essential.  These efforts must include:

• A massive effort to educate citizens in isolated and vulnerable geographical regions.
• Harsher legislation to initiate more severe penalties for offenders worldwide.
• Increase the number of knowledgeable law-enforcement divisions where necessary to specialize in decreasing and eliminating human trafficking.
• Provide funding for a deluge of graphic media coverage that reveals the reality of human trafficking to an unaware public.
• Create additional collaborative programs involving faith-based and other private helping organizations and public social service agencies to assist in providing academic and employment resources to victims.

Cooperation is the key to finding effective solutions. Although there is now a massive campaign in order to diminish human trafficking, I believe that it can never be completely eliminated. As long as there is a gap between rich and poor, there will always be someone who will be looking to benefit from it no matter who it affects.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | No Comments »

7. December 2009 by student.

In the 1950’s, in order to file for divorce, one needed to prove their mate adulterous. Now, there is what’s called a “no fault” divorce. The no fault makes it much easier to divorce; you don’t need to prove anything or show up for court- the decision to divorce is made by the individual. With this new, easier system, divorce rates have doubled from 50 years ago. It is now noted that statistically we are between a 40-50 percent divorce rate.

In recent years there is more of a tendency to marry younger or too soon, which then follows with an early divorce a few years later. This isn’t so much a problem, until children are involved. Then you have single parent homes, with the mother usually caring for the children. When there is an absence of a parent, children tend to develop differently mentally. They don’t have the moral support of both of their parents, and many times the mother is working to support the home, so there is a partial absence on her part. Which then leads the child to get into things that a child with both parents in the home might not, such as violence, or alcohol and drug abuse. These children search for that attention they’ve lacked, and they find it in all the wrong places. Along with that, children in divorced families are shown to have a poor learning capacity compared to those who live in two parent homes. They also have higher drop out rates.

So, what does that say about our future generations? Divorce has a major effect on society, because of the development in characters for the new growing generations. These children will grow and most likely follow in their parents footsteps. It is a dirty cycle. It is changing the norms of society as far as the sanctity of marriage goes, and will completely change the structure of family for years to come.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | No Comments »

7. December 2009 by student.

The issue of abortion has been a touchy subject for many years. There are people who refer to themselves as “Pro-Choice”, which means they believe that a woman should have complete control over her fertility and have a choice in terminating her pregnancy or not. Others who refer to themselves as “Pro-Life” believe that, once a woman is pregnant, the embryo and fetus have a right to life and should not be terminated. I consider myself Pro-life, so I am writing this blog with that state of mind.In the United States, there are approximately 3,700 abortions done every day and 1.37 million done every year, as of 2006 (http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html). More than half of these women that are obtaining the abortions have never been married. This fact in itself raises a few questions. Are these women not educated enough in having “safe sex” or are they simply being careless? Is promiscuity to blame? I have personally heard from female peers that their only reasoning for an abortion would be if they were impregnated by a rape. However, statistically speaking, only 1% of all abortions are rape victims and 93% of abortions are due to an unwanted pregnancy.Being pro-life, I believe that every human, born or unborn, has the right to life. I also believe that if one decides to engage in the privilege of sexual intercourse, it is their responsibility to do so safely. If they choose to not use contraceptives, then they must deal with the “consequence” of becoming pregnant. This does not necessarily mean that they will have to raise the child once it is born, which I feel is a big reason for abortions. There are thousands of couples around the country that are willing and able to take care of a child and I believe that this is the proper thing to do with an unwanted pregnancy. Why end the life of an innocent human being because one does not want to deal with a pregnancy? Obviously there are other reasons that women choose to have abortions, so I am simply touching base with the case of many abortions. And to those who are reading, ask yourself this: what if it was your mother who decided to have an abortion?

Posted in Social Problems, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

7. December 2009 by student.

Nowadays many students turn to plagiarism when they have a paper to do and not time to do it, or they are just lazy. Plagiarism is copying someone’s work or ideas without quoting it or citing where you got the information from. Plagiarism is illegal and has many consequences. You can result in failing an assignment, failing a class, even academic suspension depending on how severe the case is. Since plagiarism has become such an epidemic, some teachers now have their students turn in their work and research papers on websites that scan other websites to make sure that the student did not just simply copy the information and say that it was their own work. One example of a website like this is turnitin.com, they try and prevent students from plagiarizing. Many people believe that plagiarizing is okay if you only use one sentence of borrowed work. This is not the case, even if you only use that one sentence you still need to cite it and state the source. As the days go by less and less people are plagiarizing because of  the severe consequences.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »

7. December 2009 by student.

The war on drugs continues to cost a significant amount of money for the state and federal government.   Since Marijuana was first federally prohibited in 1937, more than 97 million people have admitted to experimenting with the drug.  In 2009 alone, 1,593,106 people were arrested and sent to jail/prison for Drug-Law offenses.  These laws consist of possession of Marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and or being under the influence of Marijuana.  The United States federal government spent over 19 billion dollars in 2003 on the war on drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. Since then, it has increased over a billion dollars, totaling at nearly 20 billion dollars in just one year.  Since December 31, 1995 the United States prison population increased 43,266 inmates per year and 25 percent were sentenced for Drug-Law violations.  While keeping these inmates in prison, 32 billion dollars came from taxpayers for the upkeep of prisons and prisoners across the United States.  Today, if an inmate spends just one year in prison, the cost equals at to be about $22,000.  An inmate that is sentenced to life in prison, the costs averages out to be nearly $1.5 million. Having all these figures in mind, I believe it would be much easier to just legalize Marijuana in the United States.  The statistics above clearly show how much money is spent on trying to prohibit the drug, but still doesn’t keep people from doing it.  Money being spent on keeping Marijuana illegal could definitely be spent on more important issues.  Joe Klien said, “We spend about $150 billion on policing and courts, and 47.5% of all drug arrests are marijuana-related. That is an awful lot of money that could be spent on better schools or infrastructure — or simply returned to the public” in his article about legalizing Marijuana in Time magazine.  He also states, “It is estimated that Marijuana is the largest cash crop in California, with annual revenues approaching $14 billion. A 10% Marijuana tax would yield $1.4 billion in California alone.”  I agree wholeheartedly with Klien’s views.  Imagine California receiving $14 billon/year for the growth and reselling of Marijuana.  Take that and multiply it by 50 (assuming every state legalized the drug) and think of the amount of income that would be brought into the government.  Wouldn’t it be smarter to have that kind of income rather than trying to keep it illegal which costs us billions of dollars?Sources:http://www.time.comhttp://www.drugsense.orghttp://www.heartsandminds.org

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »

7. December 2009 by student.

Divorce occurs all over the United States, although half  of all marriages will end in divorce. Many different factors have been shown to lead to a divorce such as, age, education and social strata.

The older a woman is at marriage, the less likely she is to divorce. Less educated couples tend to divorce at higher rates than those with more education. Couples who live together before marriage have higher divorce rates than those who do not. However, they also tend to come from lower social classes, another factor related to increased probability of divorce.

Ethnicity and race also play a roll in divorce. The divorce rate among African Americans is twice that of whites. Hispanics (particularly Puerto Ricans), Native Americans, and Hawaiians also have higher than average divorce rates, while Asian Americans are less likely than other Americans to divorce. (wisetosocicalissues)

Divorce does not only affect the immediate couple, but others around them. Children taking the biggest hit and the ones who suffer the most. Divorce negatively affects the emotional and social aspects of children’s lives. Although children overall are affected, boys tend to suffer greater emotional and psychological problems than girls. Families headed by single women with children represent the poorest of all major population groups.

Divorce affects  many everyday factors, but I believe the ones followed are hit the most; social class- (parents decline in income no longer the same, split and payments increase such as appartment, bills, etc) , social mobility, self values- (the child does not believe in themselves as they had before, they are still experiencing emotional situations), role taking-(the child’s values may have changed due to expectations decreasing negatively)  and social integration-(pressure is put on the child by two different ends now, negative and positive).

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

7. December 2009 by student.

Since America was a colony it has had to deal with the problems of gangs. Traditionally a gang was a group of people from similar socio-economic standings, who identified with each other and helped each other in an attempt to prosper. In today’s world a gang usually refers to a group of criminals working together, and common crimes they commit are drug smuggling, theft, arson, assault, murder, rape, and prostitution. Although gangs have been around for a long time in the past few decades gangs have evolved into powerful criminal organizations that have surpassed the abilities gangs possessed in the past. Around the 1960s and 1970s gangs were around, but not in the numbers and strength as in todays world. In the 60s and 70s gangs that exist today such as the Crips or Latin Kings were around, but as local gangs that really did not have a large area of control. Today you can find Latin Kings in almost every state in the nation, as well as a few foreign countries. In today’s world gangs are taking the position that the mafia once held in the criminal underworld. With the introduction of the R.I.C.O. Act as well as changing beliefs in who is allowed to join criminal organizations, the mafia does not hold the same place that it once held in society. Gangs in the past were more prone to fist fights and just collection protection from shop owners, but now gangs have focused on trafficking and selling drugs, as well as changing the idea of fist fights into drive-bys. With gang members predominately coming from low income housing their goal is quite clear, to make money and to improve their quality of life. The problem nowadays is that with the introduction of new and powerfully addictive substances much money stands to be made. This leads to different dealers fighting over the rights to areas and this leads to the creation of a gang, a group of friends working together to protect their area and their product. In the 60s and 70s although it was not uncommon to hear about someone dieing in a gang fight it was nowhere near as bad as it is today. In the past what could be settled with a “rumble” can only nowadays be solved with a gun. In modern times gangs have gotten access to more dangerous and powerful weapons that in the past. Nowadays gangs have assault rifles, rpgs, grenades, and plenty of ammunition. Gangs have also started to recruit people at younger and younger ages, some gang members even being only nine years old. These youths are used to benefit the older members of the gang. The youth are usually the ones doing the majority of illegal activities, just in case they get caught, because the law is much less severe on juveniles than adults. These youths are also much younger than the older members and are much more impressionable, making them easier to convince to  commit crimes. These gangs usually provide a family environment that most of the people who join the gang are lacking, that is why there are so many recruits waiting to become members. These reasons along with the potential for these youths to make large sums of money that they would not normally be able to have make the gang life very appealing. Although I don’t see a solution in sight, better education of our youth as well as increased efforts from the community may help this destructive situation.

Posted in Social Problems | No Comments »

7. December 2009 by student.

Okay I’m sure you’re thinking “here goes another pot head rambling on about marijuana.” Actually I don’t smoke and think it is very annoying being around people who are high just like I get annoyed around someone who is drunk or who smokes cigarettes. Though I don’t do it, I do know how beneficial legalizing it could be to our country.

            Let me start by explaining why marijuana was made illegal in the first place. It all started in the early 1900’s, there was a social outcry for marijuana to be made illegal because they were afraid of the effects it had. Movies like “Reefer Madness”, made in 1936, helped spread these fears. In 1937 the Federal government passed the Marijuana Tax Act which put a one dollar tax on every purchase of marijuana. Harry J. Anslinger was the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, an outspoken racist and the main reason why marijuana is illegal today. Anslinger once said

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

Despite all the facts that marijuana was not harmful in anyway Anslinger continued with his “war on drugs.” Marijuana was originally made illegal for nothing but social reasons like racism, and because hemp was a competitor to the paper company Anslinger had ties with.

            What if I told you the way out of this recession could be marijuana? Think about it, if we could tax all the marijuana sold in the U.S. we could make a fortune!  Yes I understand it could take years to make it work and there would still be the people who sold it illegally, but even with these tiny problems the country could make a lot of money in taxes. Not only would the country be making money, but also saving money on all the jail space that is taken up by people who were caught in the possession of marijuana. With police officers not having to worry about catching kids experimenting with marijuana, they could focus on the real criminals out there who kill, rape and steal. Marijuana is the third most popular drug next to tobacco and alcohol, so illegal or not people are still going to do it. Not to mention the drug cartels that are wreaking  havoc in Mexico right now get most of their money from buyers in the U.S. and if we were able to grow and sell our own we would be able weaken those cartels.

            Marijuana is currently listed as a Schedule 1 drug which means it has no medical use. How is this true when everyone knows that marijuana helps with cancer patients in chemo therapy to eat and reduce pain?  It is also being used with problems such as moving disorders, wasting syndrome, glaucoma and insomnia. On top of all that it is proven that marijuana doesn’t create any physical addictions. Many argue that marijuana is a “gateway drug” that leads users into other drugs, but alcohol is known to increase aggression leading to fighting, beating up your spouse or other reckless behavior so what don’t we make that illegal too?

So to sum it all up here are the quick facts:

·         Marijuana is not physically addictive

·         Could generate revenue for the country

·         Keeping it illegal helps support crime

·         Keeps jails and prisons overflowing

·         Having it illegal takes away police time from other more serious crimes

·         Has no long term side effects

·         Safer than tobacco and alcohol

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 3 Comments »

7. December 2009 by student.

I was in the process of taking my first exam this morning and was having a very difficult time. so i looked up cracked my neck and noticed that someone was on their itouch looking up answers on google. i approached this person, who was my friend, after the test and they said they found almost all the answers on google. i was astonished to how he got away with that. granted it was only the one teacher in the room, you still have to not look at your itouch and do it by memorization. i find it crazy that someone would even think of that during a final exam at college. technology has come so far to where you can have the internet wherever you go whenever you want. this could be a problem in the future because i do not know what could be done to prevent this, or even if it can be prevented. i just think it is rediculous that someone would go as far as using the internet to cheat on a final exam. technology is ruining people in the every day life.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 4 Comments »

7. December 2009 by student.

Drunk driving is a major problem in our current scoiety. Almost 275,000 people die each year from alcohol related car crashes. People go out to party and have a good time, but they do not think about the possible consequences of their actions. The worst consequence drunk drivers pose is that innocent people are often hurt in the process.

Today is the four year anniversary of the day that my cousin was killed by a drunk driver. He was riding a bicycle down the side of the road when a drunk teen struck and killed him. He was not doing anything wrong, but he lost his life because a drunk person chose to drive home. The teen driving the car was underage and not legally allowed to drink. If parents or guardians would teach their children about the affects of alcohol maybe the amount of crashes would decrease.

Because you are not allowed to drink until the age of 21, many kids are not exposed to alcohol and therefore do not take drinking seriously. Alcohol impairs your thoughts and reactions in emergnecy situtations. Not only is the drunk driver risking injury, they risk tearing apart entire families. Can we fix the drunk driving problem that we have? There is no definite answer, but by imposing stricter punishments for drunk drivers may cut down on the number of crashes. If drunk drivers are aware of the punishment they will have to face, they may realize that the crime is not worth the time.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »