Uniform Crime Report Essay Example for Free

Uniform Crime Report Essay A Uniform Crime Report is a data series published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that has been collected since 1930 and has been widely used by criminal justice researchers to collect data on crime. (Maxfield Babbie, 2012) Law enforcement agencies provide the crime data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and then the reports are compiled and created. The Uniform Crime Report does not count all crimes that are reported to the police. Part I offenses such as murders and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft, and motor vehicle theft are all counted in the Uniform Crime Report. (Maxfield Babbie, 2012) There are a large number of crimes that are not measured in the Uniform Crime Report because they are considered to be Part II crimes. Part II crimes consist of shoplifting, drug sale or use, fraud, prostitution, simple assault, vandalism, receiving stolen property, and other non-traffic offenses. (Maxfield Babbie, 2012) Part II crimes are counted on the Uniform Crime Reports only if that person has been arrested and charged with a crime. These crimes do represent a large number of offenses that occur across the United States. And since they are only reported if a person has been arrested and charged with a crime, this does create some measurement errors in the Uniform Crime Report. In the 1920’s, the International Association of Chiefs of Police formed the Committee on Uniform Crime Reports. (Atlas, 2011) This committee wanted to establish a system of uniform police crime statistics. This committee evaluated various crimes based on how serious the crime is and how frequent that crime occurred as well as the likelihood of it being reported to law enforcement in all areas of the country. (Atlas, 2011) After the studies and evaluations were completed in each state, the Committee completed a plan for crime reporting that became the foundation of the Uniform Crime Report Program in 1929. (Atlas, 2011) Every month, law enforcement agencies across the United States submit results on the amount of Part I index offenses to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The index offenses consists of criminal homicide: the willful non-negligent killing of one human being by another or a death caused by negligence, attempted killings, and suicides; Forcible rape: the knowledge of raping a female forcibly and against her will and attempts or assaults excluding statutory offenses; Robbery: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the custody or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force; Aggravated assault: an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury with the use of a weapon; Burglary: The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft; Larceny theft: the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another such as bicycles, shoplifting, and pocket-picking; Motor vehicle theft: the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle; Arson: any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud a house, public building or any other personal property of another. (Atlas, 2011) Arson was not included in the Part I crime index’s originally when the Committee first formed the Uniform Crime Report. It was later added in 1979 to be included on the Uniform Crime Report. Before looking into the Uniform Crime Report statistics, violent crime in Illinois seems to have been on the rise especially the major metropolitan areas like Chicago. Just based on the news reports and changes in the communities that I have seen over the years has led me to believe that violent crime has increased tremendously. But after looking into the statistics more and reviewing the Uniform Crime Reports for the state Illinois I was able to really determine how violent crime was measured and recorded in Illinois. I will be reviewing violent crimes consisting of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault from the years of 2006 through 2010. I have included a table showing the crime reporting statistics for the state of Illinois from 2006 through 2010. Table 1, State of Illinois The statistics that appear in table 1 from the Uniform Crime Report show that in the categories of aggravated assault, robbery, forcible rape, and murder and non-negligent homicide, the number of violent crimes overall has decreased or stayed approximately the same from the years 2006 through 2010. Aggravated assaults in the years 2006 and 2010 had noticeably dropped while robberies stayed approximately the same throughout the five years with the biggest drop in the years 2006 and 2010 as well. Aggravated assaults in 2006 were reported at 40,858 and 32,042 in 2010. Forcible rape also stayed consistent during the five years with the exception of years 2006 and 2010. In 2006, forcible rape was reported at 4,078 and 3,033 in 2010. Murders and non-negligent homicides were surprisingly reported approximately about the same from 2006 through 2010. That category also had the biggest change in the year 2006 and 2010. Overall, the crimes reported show that crime has had its biggest decrease in the year 2010 in all four crime index categories. There isn’t a significant amount of differences amongst the numbers reported for violent crimes, but there still shows some improvement from the years 2006 through 2010. When looking at other states violent crime statistics between the years of 2006 through 2010 in comparison to Illinois, I reviewed Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. These three states were similar to Illinois in population. Violent crime trends in Illinois did not mirror these states at all. Tables 2, 3 and 4 show the crime rates between Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania between the years of 2006 through 2010. Table 2, State of Michigan Table 3, State of Ohio Table 4, State of Pennsylvania Although the Uniform Crime Report numbers for these states above are very different from one another, there were some noticeable changes within all four states. While Michigan and Illinois had similar aggravated assaults, Ohio had a significant amount that was less. The biggest difference is shown in the year 2006 where Illinois had 40,858 aggravated assaults, and Ohio only had 15,973. Forcible rapes were pretty consistent in decreases in the four states, but Ohio had the highest reduction from 2006 through 2010. Robberies is also an area where the statistics reported were shown to have decreased consistently in all four states throughout the same years. This was a major similarity between the four states with Illinois reporting the highest robbery crimes amongst Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The last crime offense what was looked at was murder and non-negligent homicide. This is another area where it showed a consistent decrease amongst all four states with Ohio having the lowes t amount of murders and non-negligent homicides reported in the year 2010 compared to the other states. Most of the areas in each state showed trends of a consistent pattern even though the numbers reported and shown were different from year to year. Overall, there is a pattern that shows in all four states that violent crimes appear to be decreasing starting from the year 2006 through 2010 which is good. There were some discrepancies that were reported with the forcible rape offenses in the state of Illinois. According to the Uniform Crime Report in the year 2006, Illinois data include arrests made for rapes of male victims. Therefore, Illinois figures for forcible rape include only forcible rape offenses from Rockford, Illinois that had female victims. (Justice, 2007) In other words, Rockford, Illinois is the only part of the state that is submitting data for female victims of forcible rapes whereas the remaining area is not. Therefore the national Uniform Crime Report did not include all of the arrest data. There are other crimes that are not reported in the Uniform Crime Report suc h as drug sale or use, vandalism, simple assault, prostitution, and all other non-traffic offenses. Because of this, a large number of crimes reported are not measured in the Uniform Crime Report. (Maxfield Babbie, 2012) The hierarchy rule is also another measurement error in the Uniform Crime Report that is used by police agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to classify crimes. Under the hierarchy rule, if multiple crimes are committed in a single incident, only the most serious is counted in the Uniform Crime Report. (Maxfield Babbie, 2012) This is what was seen in the crime statistics for Illinois. According to the Uniform Crime Report for Illinois, valid counts for murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault were available only for agencies in cities 100,000 and over in population. (Justice, 2007) The only available data generated by the Illinois State Program were totals based upon an incident-level system without indication of multiple offenses recorded within single incidents. (Justice, 2007) Therefore, the Uniform Crime Report hierarchy rule could not be applied in order to convert the state’s data to Summary format. (Justice, 2007) To arrive at a comparable state estimate to be included in national compilations, the Illinois State Program’s totals were reduced by the proportion of multiple offenses reported within single incidents in the National Incident-Based Reporting System database. Data for cities 100,000 and over in population were excluded from the reduction process. (Justice, 2007) Even though there are many measurement errors in the Uniform Crime Report, I still believe that the report is very useful throughout the United States. It gives an estimated figure on violent and property crimes from state to state. This is important because based on the measures of accurately assessing these crimes, more tactical ways to minimize crime amongst police agencies can be developed based on what is being reported in the Uniform Crime Report. We all want our communities to be as safe as possible and this is a great way to start along with monthly meetings about what is being reported in each area of the cities. Works Cited Atlas, N. (2011, January 26). Summary of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Retrieved October 5, 2012, from Summary of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program: http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/a_crimereport.html Justice, U. S. (2007, September 1). Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 10 05, 2012, from Crime in the United States: http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_05_dd.html Maxfield, M. G., Babbie, E. R. (2012). Basics of Research Methods. In M. G. Maxfield, E. R. Babbie, Basics of Research Methods (p. 90). Belmont: Cenveo Publisher Services.

Descartes Skeptical Argument And Reponses By Bouwsma And Malcolm Essay

Descartes' Skeptical Argument and Reponses by Bouwsma and Malcolm In this essay, I will examine Rene Descartes' skeptical argument and responses by O.K. Bouwsma and Norman Malcolm. I intend to prove that while both Bouwsma and Malcolm make points that refute specific parts of Descartes' argument in their criticisms, neither is sufficient in itself to refute the whole. In order to understand Descartes' argument and its sometimes radical ideas, one must have at least a general idea of his motives in undertaking the argument. The seventeenth century was a time of great scientific progress, and the blossoming scientific community was concerned with setting up a consistent standard to define what constituted science. Their science was based on conjunction and empirical affirmation, ideally without any preconceived notions to taint the results. Descartes, however, believed that the senses were unreliable and that science based solely on information gained from the senses was uncertain. He was concerned with finding a point of certainty on which to base scientific thought. Eventually he settled on mathematics as a basis for science, because he believed mathematics and geometry to be based on some inherent truths. He believed that it was through mathematics that we were able to make sense of our world, and that the ability to think mathematically was an innate ability of all human beings. This theory becomes important in Descartes' Meditations because he is forced to explain where the mathematical ideas that he believed we were born with came from. Having discussed Descartes' background, I will now explain the specifics of his argument. The basis of Descartes' entire argument is that the senses can not be trusted, and his objective is to reach a point of certainty, one undeniable truth that fixes our existence. He said it best in his own words, "I will . . . apply myself earnestly and openly to the general destruction of my former opinions."1 By opinions he meant all the facts and notions about the world which he had previously held as truths. Any point which had even the slightest hint of doubt was discarded and considered completely false. Descartes decided that he would consider all things until he found that either nothing is certain, which is itself a point of certainty, or he reached the one undeniable truth he was searching for. In order to accom... ...admirable case for the validity of the senses, but upon careful examination he says very much the same thing as Bouwsma. Namely, that the senses are real to us. Bouwsma came to this point by examining the idea of the evil genius and the idea of "illusions". Malcolm came to it through examining the differences between fact, belief and sensory information. Despite the differences in how they discovered it, they both came to the same conclusion. The point is valid and their reasoning is sound, but it does not prove that Descartes is wrong. The strength of the skeptical argument lies in the fact that it can not be completely disproved. No one can prove or disprove the existence of an evil genius, they can only go so far as to say that it does not matter. This is essentially what Bouwsma and Malcolm have done. They tried to prove that the existence of the evil genius would not make a difference in our lives. For this reason, I believe that although Bouwsma and Malcolm have made a valid point, they have only touched the surface of Descartes' argument. They have succeeded in proving that life is not meaningless, but that was not the purpose of Descartes' argument to begin with.

Rivalry Between Friends

In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, the theme of opposites plays a prominent role. Shakespeare explores several relationships in this play, but the most intriguing is the relationship between Hermia and Helena. Specifically, Shakespeare calls the reader’s attention to the relationship between Hermia and Helena and their distinct differences. It is because of these differences that Hermia and Helena develop a mutual respect and admiration for one another, though in the beginning of the play, the girls have a much rockier relationship. At first glance, these two girls do not seem to be all that different, but as the play progresses, the reader realizes that a relationship of rivalry and jealousy exists. Hermia and Helena are both portrayed as beautiful young women. Helena is in love with a man named Demetrius, who happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Demetrius, however, does not return Helena’s affections, but attempts to woo Hermia. Hermia is not interested in Demetrius’ attempts to win her heart, as she is deeply in love with Lysander. It is within this love triangle that Hermia and Helena’s relationship exists in the form of a rivalry. By the end of the play, a noticeable change in Helena has occurred, and it is obvious that she As the play begins, the reader is thrust into this love affair between Hermia, Demetrius, Helena, and Lysander. Hermia’s father, Egeus, has forbidden her relationship with Lysander, forcing the two lovers to concoct a plan to elope together. In this scene, the reader senses through her actions that Hermia is sure of both herself and her impeding elopement to Lysander. Hermia appears to be completely content with the man who loves her, and very secure in her own skin. Hermia confesses her plans to elope to her friend, Helena, who tells Demetrius of the plan in order to gain favor in his eyes. Helena, too, appears to be confident in her appearance and intelligence. Although she is confused by Demetrius’ obvious disinterest in her, Helena make is very clear to the reader that she thinks very highly of herself. This attitude is apparent when Helena says, â€Å"Through Athens I am thought as fair as she† (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 227). Although Helena appears to be overconfident in herself, she also has a side of her that is very insecure with herself, and envious of Hermia and the attention that Demetrius showers on her. Although Helena has made it clear that she is just a beautiful as Hermia, Helena believes that Demetrius is only in love with Hermia because of her beauty. It is apparent that Helena believes that she has more than just beauty to offer Demetrius when she says, â€Å"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind† (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 134). A short while later, Puck, the right hand to the Fairy King, Oberon, attempts to give Helena her precious Demetrius. The plan, however, backfires, and it is Lysander who is made to woo Helena. When Lysander approaches Helena and tells her of his newfound feelings for her, she doesn’t believe him and thinks that it is a joke. Helena yells at Lysander because she thinks that he is making a fool of her. â€Å"Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?† (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 129-130).   This contradicts Helena’s earlier feeling of being just as attractive as Hermia, and just as deserving of those things that she has. While Lysander is pursuing Helena, Hermia awakens to find her love missing. The reader is again shown how confident and secure Hermia is when she worries that Lysander has been killed. The thought of Lysander being unfaithful to her never enters Hermia’s mind, and she assumes the worst when he is not there when she wakes. At the end of the play we see Helena and Demetrius are together, thanks to the correction of Lysander’s assisted feelings for Helena. Helena seems to have accepted Demetrius’ affection, whether real or not, and decides to be with him. This shows that, contrary to previous actions, Helena is starting to believe that Demetrius’ feelings are true. Whereas earlier in the play she was running away from Demetrius, sure that he was mocking her in his attempts to woo her, now she is marrying him and committing her life to being with him. This marriage and Demetrius’ sudden change of heart also calm Helena’s jealousy for Hermia. Originally, Demetrius had left Helena to woo Hermia, and now in Helena’s mind, order has been restored by Demetrius’ return to her. At the end of the play we see a more secure character and obviously a much happier Helena. In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, every character goes through an evolution and by the end of the play, everyone is wiser for the experiences they endured. In the beginning of the play, we see Helena as an overconfident and jealous girl who is desperately chasing after the man she loves. Hermia is a more stable, self-assured character, completely confident in her relationship with Lysander. As the play wears on, Helena becomes extremely insecure and suddenly unsure of herself, whereas the reader never sees Hermia falter. Hermia runs away from the man that she had been chasing after for so long, and questions his affection for her. In the end, all’s well that ends well for Helena. She accepts Demetrius’ love and affection by marrying him, which creates more security for Helena, and gives her a sense of order restored in her life. Throughout the play, the reader sees Helena mature from an outwardly cocky, but yet inwardly insecure young woman into a self-assured and confident woman. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1980.         

Economic Growth and Market Dynamics - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 1971 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/10/10 Did you like this example? Introduction When an economy increases its ability and the capacity to produce goods and services, it is said to be growing. Economic growth is the ability of an economy to raise the output regarding goods and services. It is determined when the comparison is made between different periods of time. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Economic Growth and Market Dynamics" essay for you Create order Its measurement is regarding nominal or real terms with the latter referring to inflation. Combined economic growth is conventionally measured regarding GNP (Gross National Product). However, this is not the only measure of economic growth. Sometimes, alternative metrics are used. Market dynamics refer to the valuing indications molded from the changes in the supply and demand levels in a particular market. It is involved in the description of the price changes that are as result of the continuous changes in the demand and the supply of a particular product or an aggregate of goods. Breakdown of market dynamics A change in either supply or demand of particular product results to a change in the other which has an impact on price signals. The determinant of the price of a good or service is the market. This is particularly when there is no single entity which has an influence on the market. Changes in the market are attempted to be explained using the economic model by making use of the available relevant variables. However, it is not all the variables that can be quantified. A different sort of market changes is created by human emotions in a financial market. This is due to the existence of professionals in who are known to make rational decisions versus the existence of other market participants with little knowledge about the market. Breakdown of Economic Growth The rise in aggregate productivity which is also known as economic growth correlates with the increase in marginal productivity. It brings about a case where an average worker in a given economy on average raises his productivity. Sometimes, economic growth is possible without the individual rise in the marginal productivity via the increase of birth rates as well as increased immigration into a free economy. For an economy to be said to be growing, it tends to provide more goods and service than before. However, the measure of growth should be regarding quality and not just quantity. This because despite the increased production, some commodities are more valuable than the others. For example, computers are more expensive than pillow cases. Economic growth deals with numerous problems with the first one being the subjective nature of the value of products. This means that different individuals place different value on different products. For example, a heater is more valuable to the people living in the tundra and arctic regions than those in the equatorial regions. The best measure is, therefore, the current market value. For example in the United Kingdom, it’s measured regarding sterling pounds. A higher aggregate produced market value is considered much more valuable. Higher economic growth is also associated with a better quality of life and the standards of living. Economic growth is generated in a few ways. This can be through the discovery of better economic resources. For example, the discovery of crude oil before its ability to produce power which means that the resource can be translated to a cheap source of power for the countries’ firms. It can also be through the generation of more skilled labor which is translated to higher productivity. Another way to generate economic growth is through the discovery of better technology. In a nutshell, the rate of mechanical development depends on the degree of savings and investment since they are necessary for venturing into research and development. The last method of generation of economic growth is through increased specialization. Workers incline more towards their areas of expertise which is translated to increased productivity. GDP and how it is measured The value of economic activity within a nation is measured using the GDP. It also refers to the total value or the prices of the final products (goods and services) produced within an economy within a specified period. GDP, however, has three critical definitions with notable distinctions. Firstly, the expression of the worth of a country in the local currency is a definition of GDP. Secondly, it tries to capture the final products of a particular country as long as they are produced within the borders of the same state. This ensures that the sum of the total value of the products is represented within the GDP. Third, gross domestic products are calculated within a specified duration which may be annual, quarterly among others. Computation of GDP Calculation of GDP can be hectic since it relies on the total monetary value of all goods within an economy. Acquiring these values for specific product require strict exploration of the market for a specified period. This brings about a critical output that is equally important when broken down to large constituent values. A standard set of classes is utilized by the macro economists to break down the economy into its constituents. This creates an instance where GDP is calculated as the sum of the consumers’ expenditure, investment, government buying and net exports as shown in the equation. Y = C + I + G + NX In the equation, every section of the state economy is captured by Y. the value also represents GDP as well as the income of the state. This occurs because the change of ownership of money from one person to another represents expenditure for one party and income for the other party. Since all these values are captured and represented by Y, it is then said to represent the net economy (the entire economy) Validity of using GDP as a measure of economic output The unusual expansion of the economy for the last 50 years was a success in term of GDP where the general economy of the world has grown for around six times and the per capita income on average has tripled. But what about the impact on the ecology due to sustained high economic growth? What about the concern for growth in the developed world about the festering media earnings and widening disparity? There is almost a global agreement that growth and prosperity cannot be correctly measured using GDP. GDP may be anachronistic and misleading. It may fail entirely to capture the complex trade- offs between present and future, work and leisure, ‘good growth’ and ‘bad growth. Its great virtue, however, remains that it is a single, concrete number. For the time being, we may be stuck with it.† As stated in the financial times. GDP has not even kept pace with the dynamic nature of economic activities. The design of GDP is in measuring the physical production of commodities and services in the market economy; it is not well suited to account for the private and the public sector services that have no products that can easily be measured with ease by counting some components produced. It’s also not involved in the assessment of improvements regarding the quality and the diversity of goods and services or the estimation of environmental degradation and resources depletion as a result of the production process. Also, transformative dynamics in tech is not easily evaluated using GDP because the consumers enjoy much of the benefit. Therefore, as GDP is used in the definition of the report, there should be an improvement of the GDP accounts which helps in the definition of new metrics of importance which would create a more firm image of well-being. How the consumer price index and GDP work together to measure price index changes from year to year GDP is a representation of the total value of all the goods and services that are produced within a specific duration. The consumer price index measures represent the goods and services that people are buying which are annotated as a theoretical basket of goods and services. All these goods that the people buy are then averaged and weighed against each other depending on their importance to the households. CPI is an indication of what the economy is experiencing in terms of deflation, inflation, or stagflation. CPI and GDP thus have a close relationship though a few differences exist between them. The constant rise in the prices of certain goods is referred to as inflation. It is calculated using the CPI. Central CPI is used by most economists as a measure of inflation because food stuff is excluded since they have a more unstable valuation. Most people are always in need of economic growth but not fast growth. If there is a too fast growth, then inflation grows at the same speed whi ch is translated to a high cost of living as reported through CPI. This makes it hard for people to cope up with. It is then hard for the people to afford the new prices of the goods because the rate at which the people receive their income and the rate at which the income increases is slower than inflation. The rise in CPI is translated to a rise in wages because CPI is used in income adjustment. These adjustments in taxes, retirement benefits, and wages are done by the BLS. The government is, however, slower than the markets. Then if the growth of GDP is rapid, it is difficult for the government to make all the necessary adjustments essential for the citizens to have a good life due to the rapid rise in the cost of living. Both GDP and CPI are very crucial in the economy and tend to affect each other. The negative impact of GDP and CPI on each other can only be avoided through study flow of the economy. Importance of business cycle relating to labor market and economic activity The changes in unemployment can be analyzed using Lucas and Rapping’s theory of intertemporal substitution in the supply of labor. The real Keynesian model and the actual business model can also be analyzed via the use of the same theory. The main assumption is that laborers make a decision regarding how much they will work at every juncture and taking the wages as given at that time. The time that work is done keeps on changing as payments move creating an extent that the supply of labor becomes elastic. The business cycle is of importance to both the employer and the unemployed. The employers determine the best time to employ more workers and also recruitment. In the business recession, when the rate of unemployment goes up, there is a decrease on the side of the market. When the market is down, the employer does not create the entrance rate of employment to maintain the maximum profit in the market. The unemployment and job seeking rates affect the wages paid to the workers. When the business and the profits of the firms get back to normal, there is the creation of job vacancies. This leads to decrease in the unemployment, and hence it becomes hard to find workers. Due to low supply of the employees in the market, the unemployed can bargain the wage to be more than when the unemployment is high. On the side of the workers who do not match wishes that the wages should be lowered so that the job creation could increase. Formula for a key labor market indicator Key labor market indicator that is used to measure the labor force participation is given by the formula below. RL = CL/CP Where RL is the rate labor force participation, CL is the number of the people in the civilian labor force and CP is the total population of the civilian who are from 16 years old and above. This indicator can be broken down into groups depending on the age and the rate is given in percentage of each group.