The Death Penalty, the American Public Opinion, and the Factors Essay

The Death Penalty, the American Public Opinion, and the Factors Affecting the Americans Position on the Death penalty - Essay Example Historical crimes punishable by death in the U.S. were concealing birth, slave revolts, piracy, witchcraft, and guerrilla activity.1 In the late 1970s, lethal injection was developed as a more humane alternative than electric chair, which had been the principal execution method in the United States for more than 7 decades.2 Under discretionary statutes, juries control decisions on the death sentence of defendants which could result in arbitrary verdicts. This arbitrariness was ruled by the court as a violation of both the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and the 14th Amendment’s assurance of equal protection under the law. The constitutionality of capital punishment was questioned and the states stopped executions. In 1972, the Supreme Court decided to suspend the death penalty in all executing states. Four years after the 1972 decision, the court ruled that death penalty sentencing laws should include a set of objective guidelines that wou ld help judges and juries in deciding whether a death sentence is deserved and just. The amendments led to the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1976. The court likewise affirmed that the death sentence was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment.3 The Poll Trends Today, the American public opinion on the death penalty has only fairly changed although with far less support than in the mid-1990s when public acceptance was at a remarkable climax. In a survey performed in November 9-14, 2011 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, in two thousand adults, 62% are in favour of the death penalty for persons convicted of murder while 31% are opposed to it. In 1996, 78% favoured death penalty for murder offenders. Support for capital punishment then declined, dropped to 66% in 2001, 62% in 2005, and 58% in October 2011.4 In Gallup’s first survey about the death penalty in 1936, â€Å"Are you in favour of the death pe nalty for a person convicted of murder?† 59% recorded support and dropped to an unsurpassed decline of 42% in 1966, which was the first time there was more opposition than support over the 75-year course of the survey. Between 1970 and 1980, the support for capital punishment rose again and peaked in the mid-1990s.5 Factors That Might Change the Americans’ Position on the Death Penalty In some old analyses, it was recorded that not many death penalty supporters are influenced by information that death penalty is not a deterrent to crimes and that it is not cruel and unjust.6 On a recent study, 42% of respondents stated that a non-white defendant has higher probability of receiving the death sentence than a white defendant.7 In another study, 49% concurred that a black would more likely be sentenced to death than a white, and 67% agreed that a poor defendant was more likely to receive a death sentence than a non-poor.8 On a survey regarding deterrence issue, death penalt y supporters were asked if they would still support capital punishment even if new substantiation confirms that it does not decrease the rate of murders. 69% to 73% of respondents affirmed their support.9 Incapacitation: Prevents Murderers from Killing Again Life imprisonment without parole is an alternative that renders the death penalty unnecessary. From views, majority of the death penalty supporters consider incapacitation as a relatively insignificant concern. In the 1991 Gallup survey, merely 19% of supporters cited incapacitation ("Keeps them from killing again") as a basis for their support, while 50% cited retribution ("A life for a life").10 This result, nevertheless,

Dropouts and CTE Essay -- Resarch Career Technical Education Essays

Dropouts and CTE In October 2000, the overall picture of high school dropouts had changed little since the late 1980s (Kaufman et al. 2001): For every 100 young adults enrolled in high school in October 1999, 5 had left school without completing a program; of 34.6 million U.S. young adults aged 16-24, 3.8 million—almost 11 percent—had not completed high school and were not enrolled. Some studies have shown that students in schools with a concentration of multiple risk factors (e.g., large schools, large classes, high poverty, inner city location) have less than one chance in two of graduating from high school; furthermore, the economic costs of dropping out have increased as time goes on (Castellano et al. 2001). Adjusting for 50 years of inflation, young male college graduates at the end of the 1990s earned about one and half times as much as their peers in 1949, but the young male high school dropout earned less than half as much as his counterpart. The conventional wisdom that CTE is one solution to the problem of dropouts is made clear in one statewide evaluation of STW (Schug and Western 1999). In telephone interviews, most randomly selected school district curriculum directors reported a belief that STW had beneficial effects on student outcomes like high school completion, but all 45 agreed that there was not reliable information on achievement, attendance, or completion rates. Another statewide study (Brown 2000) noted that state systems for collecting and reporting Tech Prep outcomes were poorly developed, perhaps because they were not required in the Tech Prep Education Act (Title III-E of Perkins II). So it would seem that the question remains: Is CTE one solution to the dropout problem or not? Early Statis... ... the Balance: An Analysis of High School Persistence, Academic Achievement, and Postsecondary Destinations. St. Paul: National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, University of Minnesota, 2001. (ED 461 721) http://www.nccte.org/publications/index.asp Publications and Materials: Case Studies. Atlanta, GA: High Schools That Work, Southern Regional Education Board, n.d. http://www.sreb.org/programs/hstw/publications/pubindex.asp Schug, M. C., and Western, R. D. School to Work in Wisconsin: Inflated Claims, Meager Results. Report 12, No. 1. Milwaukee: Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, 1999. (ED 427 246) Stern, D.; Dayton, C.; and Raby, M. Career Academies: Building Blocks for Reconstructing American High Schools. Berkeley: Career Academy Support Network, University of California, 2000. (ED 455 445) http://casn.berkeley.edu/buildingblocks.html

Culture of Chinese Family Stereotype Essay

Taiwan, my mother country, though suffering under complicated identification obscurity, is still applying Chinese culture and values. We still commemorate Chinese New Year, QingMing Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and so forth. We still believe in Confucianism and Chinese ethic moral rules like â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" , †, to name but a few. In addition, we also share the similar diet culture, since our staple food mostly based on rice and noodles. There are surplus parallels between Taiwanese culture and those adopted in the mother China even though we’ve been separated geographically for centuries. Though Taiwan is politically independent from China, as a Chinese, I would still accept the perspective that I’m belonging to part of the Great Chinese Culture Region( ), as we can call it â€Å"Chinese Family†. Although modern technology and knowledge keep flourishing, people nowadays may think that western culture somehow influence people more, included religion believing , fast food culture, insight of democracy and freedom, western literature, and so on. However, as a Chinese, I can’t deny that Chinese culture did affect our daily living physically and mentally. Many values originated from the ancient people and philosophers, included those in ,,,, still maintain clear and essential in our mind , since we have been taught to follow the concept and the worship the good deeds those ancient sages and virtuous, like Confucius, Zhuangzi, Mencius, Yao and Shun( )†¦ have conducted. â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" , , †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ these values not only affect the way Chinese people think, but also become a sub consciousness which lead to the way we live. As we often emphasis the importance of studying, Chinese parents are willing to spent their whole life working hard so their children can accept better education because they believe the sayings, â€Å" †, â€Å" , †. In contrary, western families take less focus on their children’s academic performance; they would rather think that children should seek out their interest instead of obtaining all A grades at school. Furthermore, it would also affect how parents educate their children, and this educating concept would pass on by generations. And the phenomenon is just the same in Taiwan as that in Mainland. As most Chinese parents always believe and hope their children to be the best( , ), they usually devote more than western parents do, just to provide the best resources for their children. This may somehow spoil a child, too. As Chinese family often pass their fortune to their descendants, rather than considering parents’ fortune as their own, offspring of a wealthy family may no longer eager to achieve his own life goal and seek his own fortune. In contrary, western children usually gain their own fortune by their hand, on their own, which is considered more independent and responsible. There’s a real story of a business man. Because he’s so busy and so was his wife, they’ve decided to send their 13 years old son to New Zealand for a couple of months, and there was a friend named Marry, who could take care of their child. When the child met Marry, the first thing she said was, â€Å"Listen, my sweet heart, I’ll like to notice you that I’m here only to take care of your living, but doesn’t mean I should make you breakfast, do your laundries and dishes, you should do it all by yourself. You’re now 13, which is definitely able to start taking care of yourself. Parents aren’t responsible to look after your whole life; thus, you should be independent from now on. You live your life and I do mine own business, is that clear enough? † After 6 months, while the business man and his wife picked their son back from New Zealand, they’re totally stunned; their son had changed thoroughly mature. He began to make breakfast, woke up early himself and was able to schedule his own life, which he never did before. This dramatically change simply based on how western and eastern parents educate their children. As a result, it leads to the circumstance that western children are usually more independent. In addition, the value of women rights also maintain deeply in Chinese people’s mind, though we are now in a world advocating gender equality. Even nowadays, some people still believe the concept â€Å" †, â€Å" †, â€Å" , , †, but mostly the elders. Thanks to the revolution New Culture Movement ( ) brought to the Chinese society. People started to explore and accept new technology and knowledge, not only the perception of Democracy() and Science( ), but also the new century values. For instance, in the old days, women are forced to bound their feet from their young ages, so that their feet may look tiny and delicate, which ancient Chinese regarded as sexy and beauty. They even worshiped tiny feet as â€Å" †. This social usage only happened in the upper classes which higher status women did not need to deal with tuff tasks that rural area women did. On the other hand, it also lead to the phenomenon that women were having lower social position than men were. But after the New Culture Movement and other further revolutions, women gradually stopped to suffer from the pain bounding feet brought to them, and started to handle more housework; little by little, women’s social status had been raised. When it comes to the argument of women’s right and discrimination, it’s no doubt that Chinese ancient culture and concept have deeply influenced the way the majority behaves. Not only in Mainland, but also the whole Chinese cultural region, included Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and other South East Asian countries. Take Japan as an example, Japanese girls are well known for their virtuous behavior, while men are quite accustomed to chauvinism( ). This may be somewhat resulted from the old sayings originated from China; for instance, â€Å" , †, â€Å" †, and so on. However, women status obviously do rise in this century, modern parents may be more willing to give birth to a girl because they may think girls are sweeter than boys, ignoring the stereotype that having a boy is better than a girl. This stereotype is resulted from the traditional custom that boys are able to pass the family name, while girls no longer belongs to the family after they’re married. Plus, this is also a chief reason why ancient Chinese family sent a boy to school rather than a girl, cause only when a boy achieve high social status after , will the whole family gain benefits. Thus, brought out a novel which the feminine role have to disguise herself as a guy so as to be able to pursue education. We can see that phenomenon changes not only in giving birth to a baby, but also in education providing. In the old times, there were mostly boys that could access complete education instead of girls, but now, we may even discover that the numbers of girls are surprisingly higher than boys. Which some researches declaim that it’s because girls are innately more careful and thoughtful than boys are. The case is similar in industries and working places, more and more â€Å"Iron ladies† exist and keep on controlling the whole company, which may be more success than men. What’s more there’re even throngs of specific phrases for modern women, like â€Å" — †, â€Å" †, â€Å" †(which refers to women that haven’t married but are successful in their carriers), and so forth. There is an awkward circumstance that women in upper social status are mostly unmarried, and so as men within lower social status. This is due to two main reasons; first, women education is relatively emphasized than that in the past; second, traditional concept has that a woman should marry a man better than she is. As the result, a woman graduated from high school may marry a man finished college studying; woman finished college studying may marry a guy accomplished graduated school; woman accomplished graduated school marry a PHD guy; and a PHD woman may marry a professor; then who will a female professor marry? Obviously not a guy graduated from high school! This worrying case lead to a sad ending, which then somehow may strictly proofed the saying â€Å" †. However, to my opinion, I think this is a controversial issue because being married involves mostly on love itself, we shouldn’t blame it all to the Chinese cultural effects. But frankly speaking, we can’t ignore truth that these old sayings somehow match to the phenomena we’re now facing. Even though women are now capable enough to compare with men in industry fields, there still exist â€Å" †, which means however hard women try, the promotion rate and the salaries are relatively lower than that of men’s. This may also be an outcome of the Chinese stereotypes that men are more capable then women are when it comes to work. For conclusion, old Chinese concepts really influence modern society deeply in an unmeasurable degree. All in all, although ancient Chinese empires had faded into history, glorious kingdoms had turned into dust, brilliant philosophy of ancient saints only exist in books now, the influence they brought to this Chinese world still remain and just couldn’t be erased from our mind. Chinese culture and ancient concepts couldn’t be ignored. They’re now the biggest part of our life because they’re what we come from, and what foster us. It’s our soul, our mother characteristic. Also, they’re things that allow us to identify ourselves as a member of this huge â€Å"Chinese Family†. And because it’s uniqueness and specialties, we’re always able to find our loyalties. In this complex culture integrated world, finding a sense of belonging is really important, because it may make us feel comfortable and gleeful to be part of this big family. We can even say that, without Chinese culture, we can’t be who we are now. Cherish our culture and maintain it well so as to pass the Chinese spirit on and on is what our generation should do. Despite of focusing and arguing on whether I’m a Taiwanese or a Chinese, It’s more vital and meaningful to define myself as a member part of Chinese culture. I’m from Taiwan, and I’m a Chinese. I’m proud of my identity; I’m proud of this Chinese family I belong to. It’s where my mind and spirit mature, where my ancestor struggled for their lives and for the next generation, for us.

Essay Linguistic Analysis of Hamlet - 713 Words

Shakespeares Hamlet Introduction Hamlet was written around the year 1600 in the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who had been the monarch of England for more than forty years and was then in her late sixties. William Shakespeare began writing as a playwright during the 17th and 18th centuries and was considered a pioneer for what is now known as Middle English, Some of his greatest works were his plays; one in general is the tragedy Hamlet. The play is home to many of Shakespeares quotable quotes. In Act I, Scene II (129-158), the reader is introduced to Hamlets first important soliloquy. Hamlet speaks these lines after enduring the unpleasant scene at the court of Claudius and Gertrude, then being asked by†¦show more content†¦In Hamlets first soliloquy the majority of the words used are very comprehensible for todays modern reader. Some prime examples of recognizable terminologies include; mother, heaven, earth, unprofitable, appetite, loving, woman, uncle, solid, and flesh. I found myself flummoxed by a select few of the terminologies used. One of the most used words in Middle English was the word thy. The word was used quiet frequently and as stated by the OED the word had originated from the court of King Alfred who ruled through the Early English period. The word is out of date for todays standards but has evolved into the words that or the. For another example Shakespeare writes, Frailty, thy name is woman! According to the OED the word frailty consists of three different definitions, the meaning by which Shakespeare was using was that of referring to a weakness. The term frailty has become more or less obsolete in todays modern language for upon further investigation in the OED I was able to uncover that the word is related to the more modern tern of fragile. 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