Criminology - Thoughts On Plea Bargaining Essays - Criminal Law

Criminology - Thoughts On Plea Bargaining KWM SOCL 4461 May 07, 2001 The current tone of the criminal justice system, particularly the prosecution phase, emphasizes, clearing the docket. While this is true of both civil and criminal courts, it is very much encouraged in criminal matters where the prosecution likely has the upper hand on most, if not all, defendants. As a result, the practice of Plea Bargaining is over used and likely results in many injustices. The fact of the matter is that the state, who is for all practical purposes the prosecution, has unlimited resources and will not hesitate to use these resources to prosecute a crime, particularly a high profile crime such as murder or rape. The defendant on the other hand is more likely to be a person without means and in many instances is represented by a public defender, which is an attorney, on the states payroll, to defend those who cannot afford an attorney for themselves. Considering that the prosecution or state is also the employer of the defense attorney implies an inherent problem to begin with. Add to this the fact that public defenders most frequently are assigned to the same courts and work with the same judges and prosecutors on a daily basis, often befriending them in the process and you have the makeup for many misdeeds. It is not unheard of for prosecutors and defense attorneys, both paid and public defenders, to trade off cases, which are important to each other. In general, the way this works is the prosecutor who has a case that is for whatever reason important to him and offers to cut the defense attorney a little slack on his next important case if the defense attorney encourages his client to plead guilty on the current case. While many would suggest that this does not occur, I have personally witnessed such events and was embarrassed for our system that this is allowed to occur. Further, I was amazed that the judge was fully aware of what was occurring and supported the plea agreement. The whole process of plea agreements is, in my opinion, tainted. The mere thought that we would encourage someone to plead guilty rather than risk a trial in which he might be found guilty and piss the judge off is immoral. Is not the purpose of our criminal justice system in fact to ensure that everyone has a fair trial in front of his peers? Nowhere was it believed in the creation of our system that a judge should penalize someone for exercising his right to a public trial. However, that is exactly what occurs each and every day in the courtrooms across our country and this practice is even encouraged in many of the sentencing guidelines used in both federal and state courts today. Judges are so focused on clearing the docket that justice has become the second or third concern and the way to clear the docket is to accept pleas all day long and never have a trial. By threatening an accused person with a harsher sentence if he elects to go to trial, we have totally bypassed the fundamental rights of American citizens, which we were granted by the constitutional amendments. How can we impose a greater penalty because one chooses a trial and give someone who accepts a plea bargain a better deal, for the sake of saving time and money, when in fact the crimes may be identical or even worse the one with the better deal committed a much worse crime. Additionally, how many persons have accepted plea bargains at the suggestion of a defense attorney simply because the accused or defense did not have the financial means or resources to put on a sufficient defense. Again, these pleas are likely the result of fearing a harsher sentence if a trial was chosen. Yes, in many cases the prosecution has a strong case. However, how many times have we witnessed in the last twenty years, long-term convictions being overturned because a witness made a mistake, or a police officer was found to have planted evidence or lied at the trial. These and other injustices do occur and if a defense attorney advises a client to accept a plea agreement to avoid trial

As both Jesus and John are parallels

As both Jesus and John are parallels, so are their characterizations. In the wee years around Jesus, the inconceived son of Joseph and Mary, basically came from nowhere, as the story goes. John Coffey also came from nowhere. Both Christ and Coffey are trying to save humanity, the young girls in the movie being a symbol of humanity. John Coffey could heal urinary tract infections. Jesus healed the lepers. Both men tried to teach tolerance through nonviolence. They didnt even retaliate to bad conditions or scenarios that they were in. The both sat there and their lives just went by. They both tried to express messages of love and sitting there. Love everyone you can. And if anything disagreeable happens just sit there. Unfortunately, it is probably better to be dead than just sitting there, so you might as well be dead. Thats probably why John Coffey wanted to go ahead and be killed as soon as possible. Jesus was similar in that fashion. He probably thought it was better to be dead than to be alive, because he didnt want other men to control hi! s life. Jesus was just a very calm, self-disciplined man who disagreed with the government of a corrupting society. He was killed for his beliefs. John Coffey on the other hand was killed by accident. He was thought to have premeditatedly killed the two girls. It was an accident to be found with them. Paul spread Jesus message, and Mr. Jangles carried the message of John Coffey. Jesus Christ and John Coffey were similar in their personalities and destinies, but there were slightly different motives behind their consequences.

What is the Difference in Customer Service Communication between Hong Essay

What is the Difference in Customer Service Communication between Hong Kong and Australia in Clothing and Accessories Retail Industry - Essay Example Sales personnel and their customers were observed as they deal with each other during the sales process. Likewise, a survey was also conducted to support the observations. It was found out that Hong Kong sales personnel rush to close a deal while Australians take their time. During closing time, their Australian counterparts rush to go out of work premises while Hong Kong personnel tend to stay behind and close more deals. Likewise, when it comes to expression, smile is frequently used by Hong Kong sales ladies, while a regular distance when standing was observable among Australian staff. These differences are necessary to provide an insight in dealing with sales personnel from different countries or culture. The topic of this research is to find three main differences in customer service communication between Hong Kong and Australia in clothing and accessories retail industry. It will try to establish that there are unique practices among retail or sales personnel when it comes to handling customer needs or requests when purchasing at clothing or accessories retail shops in Hong Kong and in Australia. This research will describe the differences in the three main elements of non-verbal communications that shall deal with kinesics, chronemics, and expression (Darn, 2005) when interacting with customers. Kinesics pertains to body, facial, hand and arm movements that are used to communicate and the scientific study pertaining to it. Chronemics pertain to the sense of time as in punctuality and the studies that surrounds it. And expression pertains to the facial condition that represents the human emotion. 1.4. Background and Literature Review It has been acknowledged that there are generally accepted non-verbal communication understood cross-culturally (Shen, 1996). As for retail shops, service quality perception (Smith, Boton and Wagner, 1999) give importance on the communication process of which sales personnel deal with

DNS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DNS - Essay Example When DNS receives data from the computer named as ‘Peter’, it translates the computer name in to its IP address so that it can be recognized by routers and switches. Likewise, switches and routers recognize number based IP addresses for example, 192.168.0.1 ("What is DNS?† 2005). Moreover, while accessing Internet, or opening any website, humans need to know only the Uniform Resource Location (URL) i.e. the website address ‘www.hotmail.com’. This is a convenient way for humans of accessing the website with the URL instead of its IP address. DNS is a mechanism that converts these web based addresses in to IP address. Consequently, the expediency for humans of accessing IP address based systems via easy names is handled by the DNS server. DNS server is configured separately for this specific function in organizations. A typical DNS server requires configuration of critical components in order to work correctly. One of these components is the Resource Records (RRs) (Davidowicz, 1999) as these records are configured to handle several tasks including the translation of URL’s in to IP addresses, identification of host and host names i.e. the web server on which the website is hosted and processes associated with mail exchange functions. DNS logical architecture resembles a tree structure that works from top to bottom along with branches that are called leaves i.e. every single branch represents a leave (Davidowicz, 1999). Likewise, the main branch also called as node from where the tree originates extends from top to bottom represents the root. Nodes can be represented as .org, .com, .ws etc. identifies label of the website. If the length of the website is long there will are more branches and nodes associated with it. Likewise, while considering a URL from a DNS structure representing tree, labels are selected from the direction i.e. from left to the right. In the current information age,

U07d1 Boxes in our Lives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

U07d1 Boxes in our Lives - Essay Example Our offices or professional settings are also boxes, which confine us. Boxes, which are very small in size such as congested buildings, also appear as confinements such as prisons. Professional settings should have to be open and should have better landscapes around them as there should be natural environment there. For examples, there should be plants and trees in offices and there should be attached lunching places that are outside the offices. The attitudes of administration and other people working should be friendly in order to lessen the confinement felt. As far as prisons are concerned, they should be constructed with big rooms with doors and not cages. It will give a sense of openness and broadness. Friendly atmosphere will also allow us to think that we are not confined and will give us a homely look. Therefore, it is clear that we have to remain in boxes but sense of confinement and security depend on different situations. It is our own understanding that drags us to consider a box as a confined entity or a secure

The Marginalisation of Women in Animation Roles

The Marginalisation of Women in Animation Roles The relationship between modes of production, and individual practice in women’s independent animation. Feminist film critics such as Laura Mulvey have suggested that classical film narration has always had a male perspective and positioned the viewer as male. Her 1975 essay â€Å"Cinema Visual Pleasure and Narrative, is a key work in feminist film theory and a turning point in the understanding of the representation of women in film and animation. She highlighted the lack of female filmmakers, writers and protagonists in Hollywood films. She contends that a female voice is sorely absent from mainstream cinema. Thus the depictions of women and the female identity in film are always a male interpretation. Further more she suggests that the language of film itself is masculine. The essay asserts claims that classical film narration assumes that the audience is male through objectifying female subjects within the frame. She contests that a position of power is almost always given to the male subject through a series of looks. The male characters are in possession of the ‘look,’ while the females are looked at. They are often objectified by focusing on specific parts of the anatomy. The woman is thereby idealised and sexualised into a male fantasy or marginalized into a stereotype or narrative function. This marginalisation of women is evident in Animation from the same period with figures such as Minnie Mouse, who dutifully played house wife to Mickey. The overtly sexual, (and disturbingly child-like,) Betty Boop. Or the extremely curvaceous Red Hot Riding Hood, who was a prototype for Jessica Rabbit. The identification of this imbalance provoked an immediate reaction to address it. â€Å"At this point the main demand was to replace on female role model by another, stronger and more independent. Or to find images of women that were realistic and relevant to women’s real life experience.† (Mulvey, 1978, p204) After WW2 16mm equipment that had been used to make newsreels, became available cheaply, and progress in sound technology in the sixties made synchronised sound recording much easier. The end result was to give people outside the commercial arena the ability to make films. This independent scene emerged at a highly politicised time and gave people the opportunity to make politicised films which addressed issues of the time such as the women’s movement. Not only feminist filmmakers emerged, but feminist readings of unconsciously feminist art. As Sharon Couzin’s definition demonstrates, the defining parameters are very broad. â€Å"Feminist art is which acknowledges that difference of being a women – i.e. what it is to be a woman – and then integrates that consciousness into the art.† (Law, 1997, p 67) Mulvey points to the avant-garde as genre through which feminist filmmakers and animators could express their concerns free from classical Hollywood representation. In her own words; â€Å"the avant-garde poses certain questions which consciously confront traditional practice, often with a political motivation, working on ways to alter modes of representation and expectations in consumption.† (Mulvey, 1978, p200) By breaking away from traditional and accepted systems of narration, the audience is forced to decipher the meaning of the films from the films aesthetics and semiotic signifiers, thus foregrounding the films intended message in the minds of the spectators. Animation has a lot in common with the avant-garde in as much as it is a largely abstract form of representation and expression. That is that unlike live action cinematography, which tends towards mimesis (the desire to accurately reproduce the ‘real’ world,) animation is usually concerned with the suggestion of concepts and the representation of ideas. The processes of animation allow Mulvey’s concerns to be addressed directly. The flexibility of the medium for using different drawing styles, colour schemes, animation techniques lend animation an immense imaginative potential that is only limited by the imaginations of the animators themselves. Animators can use these techniques to challenge dominant modes of narration and aesthetic expression. Secondly animation has been described as an auteurist medium. The vast degree of collaboration necessary to make a photographic film is greatly reduced in an animated medium. Indeed it is possible for animators to create completely individually and in doing so, create art with an entirely subjective perspective and articulate feminist concerns unfettered. A fine example of both these principles in action is Karen Watson’s Daddy’s Little Piece of Dresden China. In the film Watson marries scratch animation, line drawings, collage and puppetry to tell a deeply subjective story about domestic abuse. The different puppets are made from different materials to symbolise their characters. The father is metallic with a razor blade mouth and glass head. He is drunk, cold, dangerous and extremely harmful. The mother is made of a wooden spoon and dried flowers; this shows her domestic role and her bygone fertility. The daughter is bandaged and has a china head. She is damaged, though not yet broken but extremely delicate. The use of puppets removes the spectator from full identification with the characters, leaving them to quietly ruminate on the effects of domestic abuse on real people. Although the film is essentially one extremely powerful account of one woman’s own unspeakable domestic problems, the use of collage places the events in a wider social context and makes the spectator wonder about the greater extent of such problems. Alison de Vere’s film The Black Dog is devoid of any dialogue, and is entirely reliant on aesthetic symbolism and visual narration. The flexibility of the medium allows visual shifts in landscape which invite comparisons with stream-of-consciousness narration. The spectator is invited to come along with the protagonist’s through the wilderness on a journey of spiritual death and rebirth. Her walk through the desolate wilderness is apparently ended when an oasis appears in the form of the complex fata, a small complex comprising of boutique, a club and a restaurant. In the boutique she is dressed and adorned to make her ‘beautiful’ before going to the club. It is her where she becomes the object of desire for a room full of lecherous men. She catches sight of her self in a mirror, and decides to reject her designated engendered role, and false identity of seductress within the microcosm of the complex. At this point she finds that the price she pays for leaving of staying is her brain, her heart and her hands. The implication is that a woman must betray her own intelligence, desires and abilities to conform to the engendered roles that society expects of her. Death becomes a recurring motif of the complex such as the butchering of animals in the kitchens; the use of animal furs in the boutique; and drunken brawls that escalate into murder in the night club. All these images paint a portrait of a brutal and uncaring society and also serve as a visual motif that matches the protagonists fall from innocence and brief loss of individual identity. She flees the complex by diving into a river and being rescued by the eponymous Black Dog. The imagery here suggests a loss of innocence and an attempt of cleansing through water. The malleability of the medium is often explored through metamorphosis of characters of objects from one thing to another. In his book Understanding Animation (1998) Paul Wells argues that the use of metamorphosis is a ‘particular device which is unique to the animated form, and some would argue is the constituent core of animation itself.’ (Wells, 1998, p69) However computer animation techniques have been blended with ‘real’ footage to achieve the same effect in ‘live-action’ cinema, blurring the distinction between the two art forms. Meaning is derived from the fluid change of one form to another in the same way that Eisenstein creates meaning from editing one photographed image with another. ‘Metamorphosis also legitimizes the process of connecting apparently unrelated images, forging original relationships between lines, objects, and disrupting established notions of classical story-telling.’ (Wells, 1998, p69) It is a way of connecting abstract ideas into a narrative form. Joanna Quinn’s films Girls Night Out and Body Beautiful use metamorphosis to directly confront the issue of the sexualized female aesthetic, and reclaim the female form as something to be appreciated in all shapes and sizes. However it does so by using the method within the confines of a traditional narrative structure. The protagonist of both films is a large, working class woman called Beryl, who is completely at odds with the Betty Boop and Red Hot Riding Hood figures. Quinn uses line drawings with immense kinetic energy. The lines are dynamic allowing them to fluidly change shape. The fluid movement of the lines of Beryl’s body extenuates her generous curves, and the wobble of her breasts is particularly prominent as an expression of femininity. In this way her shape and size are celebrated through the animation process. In contrast her husband is completely static, bored, uninterested and uninteresting, a completely unsympathetic character. In Body Beautiful the dynamic lines are used to completely morph Beryl’s shape into symbolic expressions of her subjective experience. These metamorphoses are determined by her own perception of her self. When looking at the models in a fashion magazine she disappears into thin air, as a representation of her marginalization. She does not conform to societies given values of female beauty and as such feels negated. In a scene where Vince is commenting on her appearance she transforms into a pig. She is publicly humiliated and made to feel ashamed of herself, and as such reluctantly accepts the ‘fat pig’ mantle that is forced upon her. The film resolves itself with Beryl learning to appreciate her own figure on her own terms, during a rap song she lists a multitude of body types and transforms into them one by one. She rejects all of them and literally steps out of them as an affirmation of her own femininity. Beryl is representing all the women who do not have the perfect hour-glass figure and as such she is a figure to be identified with as opposed to one who is objectified. She is a celebration of the female body as opposed to a fetishist examination. She is desexualised as a male fantasy of female perfection, but re-sexualised in terms of her gender and defined by her feminine figure. In contrast to Joanna Quinn’s kinetic line, Candy Guard uses a simple, economical and direct aesthetic style in her animated films such as Wishful Thinking and What about me? In both these films two women ask each other questions about their, own appearance, but are never satisfied by the answers they are given and continue to worry and obsess over the matter, to the point of near torture. The figures themselves are comprised of a handful of black lines, they are largely shapeless and aesthetically at least, virtually androgynous. The characters are identified as female through voice and dialogue. In the mouth of Bernard manning jokes about women worrying about clothes or hair may come across as sexist, offensive and dismissive of women. But Guard is showing us how these women are torturing themselves in their attempts to conform to the modes of conduct and appearance that society enforces upon them. The women themselves are complicit in their own torture by their attempts to conform to preset notions of beauty. They never challenge the expectations put upon them and as such they are doomed to forever be enslaved by their own attempts to conform. Guard breaks from narrative tradition by having no resolution to her films. The women of the film will continue to worry about their appearance, just as the female spectators of the film have felt pressure to look their best. It is here where the realism lost aesthetically is regained, as the realism resonates emotionally. The uber-simplistic 2d line drawing style is also thematically fitting, by attempting to conform to societies given notions of female beauty the women are caricaturing themselves. The films discussed in detail here all offer different perspectives on issues of female identity, and engendered roles within society but they all â€Å"explore, through their use of imagery, the existence of the female form as something that is malleable and whose femaleness can be enhanced or reduced. They illustrate that femininity, as it is traditionally represented, something that can be put on and taken off at will.† (Furniss, 1978, p243) This demonstrates that despite differences in subjective experience all the animators discussed were expressing the need to break away from the rigid definitions enforced by classical film narration. We can see clearly that the various modes of practice available to animators have allowed female practitioners a platform on which to address feminist concerns of cinematic representation, as well as commenting upon the lager problems facing women within a modern patriarchal society. Paul Wells has neatly summarized the properties of Animation that have made it an ideal medium with which to redress the balance. â€Å"Animation has the capability of rendering the body in a way which blurs traditional notions of gender, species and indigenous identity further complicating debates concerning the primary political agendas of men and women, and enabling revisionist readings which use the ambivalence and ambiguity of the animated form to support the view that traditional orthodoxies in society itself must be necessarily challenged.† (Wells, 1998, p188) Of course an all encompassing feminist definition of ‘women’s experience’ or femininity is impossible and any attempt to do so is every bit as false as the fantasy representation offered by classical Hollywood. As Maureen Furniss explains in her own theories on representation. â€Å"One can argue that the media is dominated by images representing the priorities of a white male culture, but how does one go about depicting an alternative? How does one define ‘women’s experience’? And, even if it were possible to come up with a definition, could it encompass the realities of women across the world?† (Furniss, 1998 p 243) What these animators have been able to do is break the masculine bias of film narration and spectatorship, and contribute to the woman’s movement by creating a feminine aesthetic based upon individual subjective experience as opposed to tired patriarchal stereotypes. Bibliography Furniss, Maureen. Isuues of Representation(Chapter 12), in: Art in Motion. Animation Aesthetics. London: John Libbey, 1998, pgs.231-249 Law, Sandra. Putting Themselves in the Pictures. Images of Women in the Work of Joanna Quinn, Candy Guard and Alison De Vere, in: Pilling, Jayne(ed.) A Reader in Animation Studies. London: John Libbey, 1997, pgs. 49-70 Mulvey, Laura: â€Å"Cinema Visual Pleasure and Narrative† 1975 in Penley, C. Feminisim and film theory. London: BFI 1988, pgs, 57-68. Mulvey, Laura: Film, Feminism and the Avant-Garde, in OPray Michael. The British AvantGarde Film 1926-1995. Luton: Luton University John Libbey Press, pgs. 199-21 Wells, Paul. Understanding Animation. London: Routledge, 1998. Films Black Dog, The. (Alison de Vere, 1987) Body Beautiful. (Joanna Quinn, 1989) Daddy’s little bit of Dresden China (Karen Watson, 1987) Girls Night Out (Joanna Quinn, 1986) Red hot riding hood (Tex Avery, 1943) What about me? (Candy Guard) Whishful Thinking (Candy Guard) Who framed Roger Rabit? (Robert Zemeckis, 1989)

McDonalds Case Analysis Essay -- Mcdonalds business Case Analysis Ess

McDonald's Case Analysis I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Objectives McDonald's mission was to provide customers with quality food at a low price with a focus on the speed, service and cleanliness they received while patroning one of their restaurants. The case focuses on a specific segment of the McDonalds restaurant chain that was opened in 1996, McDonald?s India. This segment of the restaurant giant had a more specific mission/philosophy to fulfill and had developed a special menu for these Indian customers to take into account their culture and religion. When it was realized that beef extracts were found being used in producing McDonald?s fries, outraged vegetarians and Hindus across the United States and Canda filed a class action lawsuit. Along with this, riots and demonstrations at restaurants in India took place, with mobs calling for the closure of all McDonald?s in India. II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Customer Scenario   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By 2001, McDonald?s had expanded its operations to 116 countries with a total of over 30,000 restaurants. McDonald?s sold to over 15 billion people every year! The company?s target market encompassed everyone as they tried to offer menus that accommodated fast food lovers, vegetarians, the health-conscious as well as different religious sects. III.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nucleus of Control   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  McDonald?s restaurant chain is comprised of company owned restaurants as well as franchised restaurants, which make up over 65% of the operating McDonalds outlets; because of this many of the restaurants are controlled and run separate from one another. The whole segment of McDonald?s India has a board of managing directors that oversee McDonald?s operations in India. From a management standpoint, McDonalds can be seen to have different varying stances. The company can be viewed as a mature company that was introduced over 65 years ago and now encompasses virtually the entire globe with its operations. However, it seems that McDonald?s, large in size already, keeps expanding internationally as well as in the United States. While many of these newly opened restaurants are separately run franchises, it seems that while the McDonald?s name and idea may be mature, the company as whole seems to still have a growing, entrepreneurial stance. IV.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Functional Analysis A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Top Management The company was started by two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald and was later purchased by a curr... ... marketing department. This would help to combat major catastrophes from happening and leading to more allegations and lawsuits. 3. Create a separate department within the company to keep consistency among the many McDonald?s franchises. While this would be a great tool in the overall operation of the company, there are probably too many franchises to be able to carry it out in a cost effective manner. VII.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Recommendations Both alternatives one and two should be combined for the overall success of improving McDonald?s corporation. Marketing has done a terrible job in many areas and could use a fresh start, but must rely on top management for the ultimate say. VIII.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Implementation These alternatives can be put into place effective immediately. They should not bear large costs, with any costs relying soley on the hire of new employees and/or top management to compensate for the extra workload. The most important benchmark to judge our decisions will be customer satisfaction. This can be done simply by surveys, online or focus groups. In the long term the benefits may be seen on a larger scale by viewing the perception of the company in the US as well as globally.