Prison Gangs: Gangs and Security Threat Group Awareness Essay -- secur

One of the major problems of corrections today is the security threat group - more commonly known as the prison gang. A security threat group (STG) can be defined as any group of offenders who pose a treat to the security and physical safety of the institution. Throughout the 1960's and 1970's, prison gangs focused primarily on uniting inmates for self protection and the monopolization of illegal prison activities for monetary gain (F.B.P., 1994, p. 2). STGs are mostly divided along racial lines and practiced defiance towards authority. STGs use a variety of hand signs, alphabet codes, tattoos, and different types of gang terminology. Gangs characteristically have rivals and make an alliance with other gangs. The criminal activity of S.T.G.’s does not only exist inside the confines of the prison walls, but has flowed to the outside world. â€Å"Prostitution, extortion, drug selling, gambling, loan sharking – such activities are invariably operated by prison gan gs† (Gaines, Kaune, Miller, 2000, p.652). The Texas Prison System consists of eleven classified security threat groups; Texas chooses to classify a gang as a STG when they become involved in violent activity. â€Å"Prison gangs exist in the institutions of forty states and also in the federal system† (Clear and Cole, 2000, p. 260). Three main stages that the offender will experience with the S.T.G. are recruitment, the gang experience, and affiliation upon release. Recruiting efforts begin with the intake of the offender into the prison system. The best recruitment takes place in transfer facilities where offenders are held before they are classified as to what security level prison they will be sent to. There are steps that must be followed when becoming a prospectiv... ...y not only endanger themselves, but also family and friends. As it is stated in many of the by-laws, â€Å"blood in, blood out†-membership is for life. Bibliography: Bohm, R.M., & Haley, K.N.(1999). Introduction to Criminal Justice (2nd edition). New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. Clear, T.R., & Cole, G.F.(2000). American Corrections (5th edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Federal Bureau of Prisons.(1994) Security Threat Groups Symbols and Terminology (Fall 1994 edition). Sacramento: U.S. Government Printing Office. Gaines, L.K., & Kaune, M., & Miller, R.L.(2000) Criminal Justice in Action. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Ralph, P.H.(1997). From Self Preservation to Organized Crime: The Evolution of Inmate Gangs. In J.W. Marquart, & J.R. Sorensen (Eds.). Correctional Contexts: Contemporary and Classical Readings (pp. 182-186). Los Angeles: Roxbury

Gender in the Matrix Essay

The Matrix became one of the most notable films released in 1999 which provided rich visual effects and a thrilling storyline. Most of the scenes from this film play within the context of the future, a visual offering of year 2199 wrapped in virtual reality where machines govern and control human actions. Though the film deals with the relationship between machines and humans, every character in the plot represents an underlying gender-related interaction. Since the film basically revolves on the cyber world in the form of a simulation created by machines, gender specific plots are not explicitly conveyed throughout the whole duration of The Matrix. The following discussion will focus on some of the gender dynamics present within the film. The paper will analyze some parts of the film where norms of gender are either contradicted or affirmed. As previously mentioned, the world in which the main characters believed to be real, is manipulated by intelligent machines. These machines utilized human body heat to convert into energy while they control human behaviors within the matrix. In the general sense machines are considered as a non-living thing created by man and from this perspective, machines do not have a specific gender. In this film they can be considered as androgynous, the Agents who can take any virtual body for their usage is an example on how the machines in this film are androgynous. Contrary to the real world, these androgynous machines have the power over humans with no concept of male and female. Somehow, it projects a balanced and equal form of gender treatment. First of all, there is no direct interaction between genders since their physical bodies are trapped inside a tank connected to the simulation. Second, all humans are used and contained for a single purpose that no other humans can dominate. Seeing the domination of machines as a projection of gender balance, the concept of the â€Å"ONE† enters the scene. It has been revealed from the start that Neo – the male protagonist of the film – is the savior of the human kind. This can be regarded as an obvious manifestation of upholding patriarchy, since the real world is where men are associated with power. From the world matrix where men and women are controlled, a man is predicted by the Oracle to save the humans from the machine’s imprisonment. Naturally, to the film’s audience, Neo’s success is attributed to the male strength and the power of patriarchy. The female character of Trinity shows her strength which is equal to her male counterparts. However, this strength seems to compliment her appearance which resembles Neo, who has the same shape of face, same sunglasses, and same battle moves. From earlier scenes of the film, Neo mistaken her for a man who cracked a difficult code called IRS d-base (The Matrix 1999), a scene where intelligence are stereotyped among males is reinforced. This film has been said to draw out some of its concept from theological concepts. Neo being the ONE symbolized as the God who is the savior of humankind while Trinity – derived from God’s three dimensional forms – represents Neo not just in physical traits. The kiss she gave to Neo when he died miraculously revived him which can be compared to the Holy Spirit (Diaz-Diocaretz & Herbrechter 200). The issue of gender in The Matrix tackles the usual gender norms of exhibiting male power and dominance. The balance of gender interaction within the simulated environment became the antagonist throughout the film where the characters try to escape. Agent Smith said that the real world is shaped by misery and suffering and the purpose for the creation of the Matrix is to build a perfect world for humans where everyone is treated equally. Ironically, the concept of equality in the film is one thing that needs to be eradicated. Works Cited Diaz-Diocaretz, Myriam. , and Herbrechter, Stefan. The Matrix in Theory. New York: Rodopi, 2006. The Matrix. Dir. Wachowski Brothers. Perf. Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. Warner Bros. , 1999.

Deming Concept

W. Edwards Deming was considered to be way ahead of his time. His philosophical ideas were also considered radical in the United States during the 1950’s, but were quickly adopted by Japan. He developed what later became known as Deming’s 14 points, that would later launch the Total Quality Management Movement in the United States, which were not actually accepted until the 1980’s. One of his philosophies that I found interesting was Point #5: â€Å"Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs. This philosophy was foreign in the 1950’s, where managers’ philosophy was focused more on power and control. Deming’s concept leaned more towards a teacher/student relationship, instead of the power and control focus of his time. Humans are very resistant to change however, and that is why I feel this is an important concept that some companies still strugg le with today. My employer for example, Lowe’s Distribution Center, has some managers that don’t like to change processes because â€Å"it is the way they like it to be done†. Deming’s philosophy involved a new focus, which involved management to constantly be looking for improvements that can be made in both their processes, and technology that would reduce cost. Our computer system that controls every function in our facility is about 22 years old, and is outdated to the point where it has employees repeat steps to convince the computer system the task has been completed. Inefficient methods lead to higher cost. Higher costs in turn seem to add to our society’s need for power and control, resulting in increased pressure on team members to make up for the inefficiencies of the system. At this point, team members than reduce quality to meet increased expectations, resulting in decreased customer satisfaction. The long-term result involves lower profit margin and decreased sales, which all could have been avoided if Deming’s points were followed in the first place, by replacing or updating the equipment. Deming’s philosophy also referred to the service industry. If improvements were made to meet the expectations of customers, than overall costs would be decreased. This is commonly still seen today with new technology being put on the market, only to be recalled later when it is tested and announced to be â€Å"unsafe. For example, the recall of the Toyota model Prius, which was found to have quality issues with the clips that hold the floor mats in place. If the clips came loose, the mats could slide and hold down the accelerator, which risked causing an accident. This recall was estimated to cost Toyota around two billion dollars, as well as a loss o f $100,000 in sales in both the U. S. and Europe. Imagine if Toyota had invested more in the quality side of producing the clips, and the savings that would have came with it. Deming’s philosophies triggered the Total Quality Management movement in the 1980’s. Beforehand, factories focused solely on productions numbers, without even taking quality into consideration. I can see why Deming’s ideas weren’t accepted at first, if you think back to how things probably were in the 1950’s. Not to mention the increased costs that comes with higher quality. For example, a shoe factory probably only had two options for shoes, black or white. Now we have a large selection of brands to choose from, each representing a different level of quality. With the focus now being on quality, businesses can provide a higher level of customer satisfaction, bringing different levels of quality to meet their customer’s budget, as well as expectations. Having strict levels of quality guidelines in the service industry, especially in fast food, customers are more reassured that they are consuming food that is safe, and has met requirements set by health inspectors. Deming’s philosophies have also made our business processes more efficient. Businesses today focus on the future, and predict possible changes they would need to adopt to survive. Technology is constantly changing, and is also bringing a higher level of quality to both manufacturing and service industries. In conclusion, I think Deming’s philosophies are vital today to businesses survival. For a business to get ahead of the competition, they need to not only be efficient, but also possess a certain level of accepted quality by consumers. Quality continues to improve as new technology emerges on the market, and processes are continually evaluated. Any business would benefit by following Deming’s 14 points.

The Term Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

The origin of the term emotional intelligence is from a book by Daniel Goleman in 1995 and this book has made it one of the hottest subjects to be discussed in corporate America. This led to an article in the Harvard Business Review two years ago, and that attracted more readers than all articles published in the magazine during the last 40 years. This had such an effect on the CEO of Johnson & Johnson that he sent out the article to all 400 executives in the company. (Emotional Intelligence: What it is and why it Matters) In the book, Goleman had divided the subject as consisting of five emotional competencies and these were to identify and name the emotional states of the person and to understand its link to emotions thought and action; to manage one's emotional states and thus to control emotions or to change unwanted emotional states into ones that could tackle the situation better; to get into emotional situations which were more likely to be connected with the drive to achieve and be successful; to read, be sensitive and thus influence emotions of other people; and finally to be able to start and maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships. In the theory of Goleman, these emotional competencies are built in a hierarchy, and one has to be able to find them out so that they can be managed. One of the important aspects is to be able to achieve drive to achieve emotional states. These abilities lead the person to the situation where he can achieve the objective of reading and influencing the emotions of other people in a positive manner. It is not that emotions do not exist and there are always feelings in our minds. This is not appreciated by organizations who value being rational, but not having emotional management. Emotional intelligence: Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia) It is not enough to have the old fashioned cognitive intelligence to be successful at work, but it also needs the capacity in the person to stop negative emotions like anger and non-belief in one self. Instead the person should be capable of concentrating on congeniality and confidence. This is the belief of a new group of psychologists. This concept was first highlighted by Daniel Goleman in his book â€Å"Emotional Intelligence why it can matter more than IQ†. He is still continuing on his work and the new book is â€Å"Working with Emotional Intelligence†. In the book his concentration is on the use that emotional intelligence can be put at work and that is supposed to be managed more by intelligence than feelings. It has been seen that all types of people need emotional intelligence, and even the bosses who have to deal with a lot of people also need it a lot. (Does 'emotional intelligence' matter in the workplace? ) This is also not like IQ which does not change much for the person, but this factor can be learnt, and probably some types of failures help build it up. As an example, one can take the case of J. K. Rowling who is the author of Harry Potter. She has certainly learnt a lot through experience as she was first divorced and then had to live separately with her children in Edinburgh. On top of that the first book that she had written, out of the ten books now, was rejected by the publishers. (Succeeding with Emotional Intelligence) Her experience certainly gave her a lot of emotional stress bearing capacity, and permitted her to wait enough to be able to finally bring out her best. So far as we are concerned, let us now take the case of a person who has just been appointed as a trainee manager and is very hot headed. This is most often an emotional intelligence problem. Let us find out how he can be guided to be a better manager. At the outset, one has to understand that emotional intelligence is a very difficult quality for evaluation. In school we have girls who are smart, well organized and industrious. She is also caring about other students in the class, but she is not liked by her classmates and her name is left out of all invitations. She gets to hear of the lunch plans, but is not invited. This trend continues even when she is working. Boys may have a similar situation and be so smart that they are liked by all the moms and dads in the area. He may be even smart enough to merit special schools, but is not able to continue. Finally he is compelled to take up menial jobs for survival. These examples tell us clearly not to depend on our emotions, as we are taught to believe that emotions are not â€Å"life† and give us a distorted view of life. When any question of emotions come up, it is viewed as being childish and the individual is thought of being a baby. When another child runs to help the afflicted child, we call the other child as being a baby. One can say clearly that our lives are determined by our intellectual capacity in our minds, but that is often not true in real life. We pride our capacity to memorize and solve problems, spell words and calculate mathematically. These capacities are reflected in the report card and decide the grades that we get. (Emotional Intelligence Training) When an individual is not able to perform well in these measures, he is considered to be â€Å"brainless†, but that does not mean that all of them have no success in life later. This is not true for companies which today test the emotional intelligence of their employees, and many companies are already doing it. It is also true that different types of jobs require different types of emotional intelligence. A sales man requires the capacity to be able to judge the moods of the potential customers, and based on that, he has to decide when to try and sell and when to just keep quiet. On the other hand when a person is trying to become a painter or a professional tennis player, they have to gather up the capacity for a lot of self discipline and motivation. It is also seen that women have different capacities from men on certain emotional traits, and this information is based on large scale assessments of EQ. (Does 'emotional intelligence' matter in the workplace? ) It is seen that, in general women have better measures of empathy and social responsibility but a lot less on self confidence and tolerance of stress. This requires women in many organizations to learn self confidence through the use of meditation, yoga and jogging. On the other side, the men have to learn listening to other workers and the customers, and thus understand their moods and gain their trust. These are also very important qualities of being a leader, being able to work in a team and maintain good relations with other workers. (Does 'emotional intelligence' matter in the workplace? It is thus clear that the disability of our trainee manager is due to his being a â€Å"smart† boy and thus not learning enough of emotional qualities for being a successful manager. We can also see that this is not unusual among male managers. At the same time, it requires a lot of cognitive ability for any person to get admitted into a course of science. The high ability is required for just an admission into a course for any renowned school like Berkeley, but the question here is that once the admission process is over, then it becomes a question of keeping up with the other students in the course. That does not require a high IQ but requires more of a suitable social and emotional build up in the individual. This can be viewed in another way and that is a scientist probably requires an IQ of 120 or thereabouts to get a doctorate and then a job. At the same time, the individual should have the capacity to be able to get along with the colleagues and juniors, and that is probably as good as having another 10 or 15 points higher of IQ. (Emotional Intelligence: What it is and why it Matters) A somewhat similar situation exists for managers. It is not that they require a high intellectual capacity, but they have to have the capacity to get along well with others, and a manager without that capacity is likely to fail as a manager. To solve this problem in the trainee that we are talking about, an actor was put among the group of managers being trained. As a part of their training, the managers were given the task of jointly deciding on the bonus to be given to the subordinates for a particular period. The actor was the person among the group who spoke first and gave the future managers the initial ideas of solving the problem. Within the group with the problematic trainee, the actor projected a lot of cheer and enthusiasm, along with warmth about the employees. This brought about the transmission of a similar feeling to the group, including the trainee. This led good emotions among the group, and improved the cooperation, spirit of fairness and better group performance. This attitude among the managers led to a fairer distribution of money among the people and thus was of use to the organization. This activity also continued for some time, in other similar activities, and similar results were seen. In terms of emotional intelligence the required quality can be called empathy, and this has been known by the psychologists to contribute a lot to the success of individuals. (Emotional Intelligence: What it is and why it Matters) Let us look at the case of Aaron Feuerstein, and his Malden Mills Polartec factory, which was totally destroyed by fir in 1995. He personally paid the salaries of the workers for three months while the factory was rebuilt. (Succeeding with Emotional Intelligence) The importance of this quality was found out more than twenty years ago at Harvard by Rosenthal and others. They said that people who were good at identifying emotions of other people were more successful in work as also in the social aspects. This aspect was also found important among apparel sales representatives as their quality of empathy was given value by the retail sales buyers. It was reported in a survey that the buyers wanted representatives who could listen to them with patience and comprehend their difficulties and requirements. (Emotional Intelligence: What it is and why it Matters) It is important to understand that emotional competence refers to personal and social skills and those qualities lead to a better level of work. The capacity to understand the feelings of another person enables the first to develop a certain amount of influence on the second person. At the same time, people who are able to control or regulate their own emotions ultimately find it easier to develop qualities like Initiative or achievement drive. The entire concept of emotional intelligence has been developed over a long period of time. The development was through research and theoretical discussions on personality and social reactions, as well as psychology. This view was also accepted by Goleman. He has said clearly that that the abilities linked with emotional intelligence have been a part of the psychologists for a long period of time. (Emotional Intelligence: What it is and why it Matters) The manager's and the supervisors' behavior as also their treatment of their sub-ordinates ultimately determine whether they stay or they leave. They have to look after the individual needs, wants and expectations of these people every day. That in turn affects the attitudes, performances and satisfaction of the employees. It involves great stress in leading so many people and meeting their needs and expectations all the time, while at the same time performing up to the requirements of the top management. It is said that two-fifths of the departures of people from an organization are due to an effective relationship among the employees and their immediate bosses. If there is no trust between them, then the performance is naturally inferior. All employees want support and care from the supervisor and manager, who at the same time has their best interests in mind. It is with this view that team leaders and project managers are viewed as being responsible for the environment at work where different types of people come to work, to achieve success on diverse jobs in a short period. The continuation of working in the political environment of organizations can lead to a lot of difficulties for the individual – frustration, anxiety, suspicion, resentment. This lets production fall behind schedule, and ultimately people leave the organization. (Who Needs Emotional Intelligence Skills)

Psychology Manipulation Essay

At a psychological level, the art of manipulation primarily involves two things: concealing aggressive intentions and behaviors and knowing the psychological vulnerabilities of your opponent well enough to know what tactics are likely to be the most effective weapons against them. Psychological manipulation is most often accomplished through covert-aggression or aggression that is so carefully veiled or so subtle that it’s not easily detected. Manipulators want what they want and fight hard to attain their goals. But the tactics they use can make it appear like they’re doing almost anything but simply trying to get the better of you. The tactics are also very effective weapons of power and control. That’s because even though they’re hard to recognize as aggressive moves at a conscious level, at an unconscious level others feel backed into a corner and are thrown on the defensive. This makes it more likely that they’ll back down or give in to their m anipulator. Skilled manipulators know the vulnerabilities of their opponents. If vanity is someone’s weakness, a seduction tactic might be the best manipulation tactic. If over-conscientiousness is their weakness, perhaps guilt-tripping would be the most effective way to gain the upper hand. Most manipulators have a significant disturbance of character (i.e. have too little conscience or sensitivity). Their easiest prey are neurotic individuals (i.e. people with high levels of sensitivity and conscientiousness). Tactics like Playing the Victim, or Shaming will effectively manipulate the average neurotic because conscientious individuals neither want to see someone else as suffering, nor do they want to feel badly about themselves. If a neurotic person were to try these same tactics on a disturbed character, they would soon learn that they have no effect. Psychological Manipulation is a type of influence that attempts to change the behavior or perception of others through underhanded, deceptive and abusive techniques. This advances the interests of the manipulator, generally at the victim’s expense, in methods that may be considered abusive, devious, deceptive, and exploitative. In order to be successful, the art of manipulation involves two things – concealing aggressive or subversive intentions and behaviors while knowing the psychological vulnerabilities of the victim well enough to know what will be the most effective psychological weapons or tactics to be used against them. This is most often accomplished through covert-aggression or carefully veiled aggression – which may be so subtle that it’s not easily detected. Psychological Manipulators know what they want and fight hard to get it. The tactics Psychological Manipulators use are very effective methods of power and control, because they’re almost impossible to be seen as aggressive on the surface, at the unconscious level, the victim feels backed into the corner. Once a victim is backed into a corner, it is more likely that they’ll back down or give into the manipulator’s demands.

PTLLS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

PTLLS - Essay Example ing process takes place in an attempt to modify the teaching and learning events so as to elavate the students attainment(FRANCIS, & GOULD, 2013, 563). c) Summative assessment. Can also be referred to as summative evaluation, it do refer to assessment of learning that do summarizes developments of a learner specific period of time (FRANCIS, & GOULD, 2013, 563). a) Initial assessment. Some of the examples of the learners initial assessment are like application of a range of initial assessment methods, enabling the tutor to capture the learner’s beginning point The language teacher asking the students to select the appropriate thesis statement in a selection, should the student select the appropriate one he or she goes on, and if she answers wrongly then he or she has to review his or her work on the thesis statements (WILSON, 2008, 89). c) Summative assessment. An example of a summative assessment is where after some period of work, like after around two weeks, learner do sit for the test and his or her teacher marks their test and the rewards various scores. This test is aimed at summarizing the learning to that point (WILSON, 2008, 89). Individual learning Plan, this is where a student specific program or learning strategy which indiscriminately considers the students weakness and strengths, though distance education has been founded on the premises that every student ought to get the same attention, that is the democratic principal, and then be exposed to a similar curriculum, and get reviewed on a similar pattern that is One Size do Fits All. ILP do assumes that each individual students needs are very different and therefore should be addressed very differently (WILSON, 2009, 87). Peer assessment feedback, is very easier than one assessing his or her own work, to start with, this is where the learner reads and comments of the work of others, therefore the students should be encouraged to get informal feedbacks from their fellow learners Peer and

Skin cancer ( Health Professional Practice 1) Article

Skin cancer ( Health Professional Practice 1) - Article Example Article-1: De Launey, J. (1996). The sun and the skin cancer. Current therapeutics, 30- 39. The article by De Launey (1996) provides and over view of the role of sun in the development of skin cancer. According to De Launey (1996), all forms of skin cancers are becoming significant causes of morbidity among human beings. There are basically 2 types of skin cancers and they are melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. Non-melanoma skin cancers include Bowen's disease,actinic keratosis, squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and keratoacanthoma. The author opines that the incidence of malignant melanoma is doubling every year and that even non-melanoma cancers are on rise and hence general practitioners must be aware of these types of cancer so that early recognition and prompt treatment is possible. According to the author, significant risks for malignant melanoma are sudden burning exposures especially in the first two decades of life. Thus, prevention of skin cancer is possibl e only through recognition of significant risk factors which include non-black skins and those living in areas of high sunlight exposure. prevention is mainly by limiting the number of hours of outdoor exposure and by wearing sun protective clothing and broad spectrum sunscreens 15 plus with skin protection factor containing UVA and UVB blockers. Along with these salient features, the author also describes individual types of cancer and their histopathological features. He also discussed clinical presentation, prognosis and treatment strategies. I strongly recommend that general practitioners and other health professionals must be aware of the types of skin cancers described in this article and various preventive measures that can be applied with assertion. Since protective factors are very essential during the first 2 decades of life, pediatricians must educate the parents of their patients about risks associated with sun exposure and strategies to prevent them. Article-2: De Herto g, S.A.E., Wensveen, C. A.H., Bastiens, M.T., et al. (2001). Relation Between Smoking and Skin Cancer. J Clin Oncol., 19, 231-238. The main purpose of study by De Hertog et al (2001) is to investigate, ascertain and evaluate the risk of skin cancer in those who are exposed to tobacco smoking. This study is in the wake of unknown risk estimates of cancer with tobacco smoking. The study is a hospital based case-control study in which patients with different types of skin cancers were put in the study group and those without cancer in the control group. Personal interviews were done and information about smoking history was collected. Based on relative risk estimation, it was evident that there does exist an association between smoking and squamous cell carcinoma and the risk was higher among current smokers. A dose-response relationship was found between the number of cigarettes or pipes smoked. Other forms of skin cancer were not associated with smoking. The authors concluded that sm oking is an independent risk factor for cutaneous squamous cell cancer. The authors discussed that smoke is a skin carcinogen and can affect the skin either locally or systemically. It contains several classes of compounds with demonstrated carcinogenic or cocarcinogenic activity, including nitrosamines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aromatic amines, unsaturated aldehydes, and phenolic compounds. these can cause genetic mutations and contribute to development of cancer. in my opinion, this study provides