Criminological Theory Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Criminological Theory - Term Paper Example Reason for such division of ideas is attributed to the increasing crimes committed these days by hard criminals, gangs and even ordinary teenagers. In the United States, more than 1.4 million cases accounted for violent crimes and about 15,500 homicides were reported (Schaefer, 2006). History has it that several prominent people like President James Garfield, President William McKinley, and President John Kennedy were all assassinated by criminals hired or not. Actors, actresses, singers and other talented individuals were also their easy targets. The irony of being killed and to kill is that it does not select victims. Even teenager these days are linked in killing innocent victims of their age. Recently, several mass shootings took place in workplaces and schools. The massacre in Littleton, Colorado in 1999, in Virginia Tech University with almost 50 victims and in Omaha Westwood Mall shocked a majority of the American population. Such incidences created various reactions and notio ns on crime, criminals involved, and punishments accorded them. To understand criminal events, the following questions are addressed: 1. What are the causes of school shootings? 2. How theories are utilized to predict and prevent the likelihood of similar crime to occur in the future? 3. What are the recommended penalties for the criminals involved in the crime? Body Etiology Crimes happen if criminal laws are violated and that it needs for that act to be penalized. School shootings are a form of crime thus involved teenagers should be held liable for their actions whatever reasons triggered them to do so. Since school shootings became common in the United States, experts start to identify causative factors in the commission of the crime. Accordingly, they believe that one reason is the role of popular Medias such as television, films, video games, and comic books. These kinds of exposure to children and teenagers have a great impact on how they behave within the society. The study of Buckingham (2000) supports such idea in arguing that the media provides a negative influence on children. He further explained that children are no longer protected from the violent world of adults. Gone are the days where films are not as violent these days. It is a common knowledge that modern films today are full of shootings, murders, rape scenes, and other violent scenarios which in turn influence the behavior of children to become aggressive. More so if the shooting is carried out by the main character of the film. The portrayed character is then executed by children either to their family, friends or classmates in school. Children become active agents rather than victims (Chandler, 2004). Although some claim those video games makes the mind of children alert and improves visual attention, not everybody agrees to it. Experts say that such advantages are outweighed with the negative effects it gives the children. Not only video games play a role in obesity, inattentiveness i n school and poor performance but it is implicated in aggressive thoughts and feelings. Video games are good teachers thus children can learn from them easily. The study of Gentile (2009) reveals those teenagers who are exposed to violent video games show desensitization of emotions. This is because they are already used to the violent scenes in

Between the cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Between the cultures - Essay Example The city was strangely quiet. Nobody was in the streets and it seemed like everyone was dead. Since it was my first night in the city, I was wondering what kind of city it was. I forced my way back towards home with no bread, and ready to starve till the next morning. I was eighteen years old, and I had been accepted in Yazd University, in the city of Yazd in my country, Iran. I rented an apartment with three other friends of mine and we moved in only that day. It was the first time we had left our homes. All of us were inexperienced in the home affairs, and now we were in a new and strange city with weird people for studying. I had grown up in Tehran, which is the capital of Iran. It had a population of more than ten million people. Whenever you wanted, you could find a grocery store, a restaurant or anything else you wished. Many people immigrated from country sides to Tehran for business, studying and residence in the most developed city of Iran. Tehran was a multicultural city. E very Iranian enjoyed living in such a big city like Tehran. But at the age of eighteen, I moved four hundred miles far from Tehran, to the city of Yazd. It was a small city with religious and intolerant people. Most of the men in Yazd wore beard and women used black burka. People of Yazd had a traditional life which was very hard for me to adapt. The new environment, situations and differences between my hometown and Yazd caused the feeling that I was living between two different cultures. I always liked my hometown’s culture, but I was not interested in the culture of Yazd’s people. It was really annoying for me and the students from the other cities to be a part of the same. I was in a constant struggle between the two cultures, however it was hard to ignore and get rid of it. The next day after starving, I and my friends went to the university to start our new semester. The university was similarly a weird place like the city of Yazd and its inhabitants. The securit y freaks the fashion of every boy and girl at the entrance gate of the campus. They had banned jeans pants for the boys, and it was obligatory for girls to use black burka. Every physical and verbal contact between a boy and a girl was reported immediately to the student life office. Also in the classrooms, front seats belonged to boys and rear seats belonged to girls. The university had lots of rules for segregating boys and girls. They knew their rules according to the Islamic creed. They tried to unify students’ culture, which I felt disgusted about. Sometimes I thought Taliban moved in from Afghanistan to our university in Yazd. I and my friends had never seen such a university like that. We had never expected anything of this sort. On the way back home, we bought lots of food to keep in our cooler because we didn’t like to suffer due to hunger after eight o’clock when everything got closed. When we got home, we were still surprised and wondered about our fi rst day at the university. We started to talk and laugh about ridiculous rules of our university. After a while one of our friends, who had a late evening class arrived at the main the door of the apartment. Since the door bell was broken and he didn’t have the key, he called through his cell phone to us, and asked us to drop the key for him from the balcony. One of my friends went into the balcony and dropped the key for him and he came upstairs. As he walked into the apartment, we heard a very loud sound. Someone was knocking the main door of