Teenager Case Study Substance Abuse - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1056 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/09/15 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? For youth leaders, this is a study of a teenager who has a substance abuse problem and was released from a detention center. It involves a seventeen old male who abuses marijuana, alcohol, and ecstasy; and is also the son of two ministers. This story should help readers understand the dynamics involved with a teenage drug user and will also help youth leaders develop effective skills for reaching out to a troubled teen in need of support, especially after incarceration. A seventeen-year-old male, Jimmy, lived in a middle-class suburb. Jimmy was referred to me by his sister, because she felt my knowledge and past experiences might be helpful in reaching him. Later on I decided to meet and conduct an interview at his house, with his sister present in an adjacent room. During the conversation, several facts emerged. Jimmy had been in trouble with the legal system, mostly for drug possession and motor vehicle infractions. He said he had been kicked out of high school because of his drug use. He had been using alcohol and marijuana since he was about 13. He had more recently been taking ecstasy. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Teenager Case Study: Substance Abuse" essay for you Create order When asked why he used drugs, he claimed it reduced his boredom and provided a way to escape and have fun. Additionally, it was discerned that his father worked long hours (in the mental health field), and was basically absent from the family. Later, I learned that his father denied his son’s habits. The family, which also includes a younger 16-year-old brother, had gone to see a therapist but Jimmy was an unwilling participant. Jimmy noted that he does have a problem with authority figures, like the police, because he believes they are corrupt. Jimmy did admit that police have a job to do, in terms of protecting people from harmful practices. Jimmy also realized that there are consequences of drug use and that he was headed for a state prison sentence if he did not improve his actions. He learned that his mother could be arrested under law if he had drugs in her house; this bothered Jimmy. I researched about what state prison was like and told him all about it. Throughout the intervention, then I listened and affirmed the young man without condoning his bad behavior. In the end, I gained his trust and told him that his personal feelings would be kept confidential. I recommended that Jimmy be careful when he with his peers, and I encouraged him to select a friend who would help hold him accountable. I shared my phone number with him. Jimmy’s behavior improved. The relationship between teens and drugs has been around for decades; however, this is not what you would call positive. Substance abusing (which is using drugs or alcohol in ways than can cause physical harm) is often associated with crime. But why do youths take drugs? Youth take drugs for the following reasons: social disorganization, peer pressure, family factors, emotional, or rational choice. Social disorganization deals with drug abuse to poverty and disorganized urban environment. Drug use by youth minority group members has been tied to factors such as racial prejudice, low-esteem, social status, and stress produced from environment. The National Youth Survey found that drug use tends to be higher among urban youths. From my past experiences, although I lived in a small country, in my school the drug problem was bad and the police officer and teachers that worked at my high school had no idea whatsoever what was going on right under their noses seriously, I remember people at football games found this place behind a shed where no one went and they used to smoke and do drugs, it was bad. But of course no one could say anything about anything they saw otherwise that person will get death threats and get their tires slashed in the parking lot and have to go to homecoming fearing for their life. Like one time I remember this girl said something and everyone in the school hated her and she was instantly unpopular. So yes there is a huge drug problem and getting students to rat each other out is so not going to happen. In a perfect world maybe, but in the real world, not a chance. Jimmy is a classic case of a lonely teenager who is never with his parents and is basically always hanging out with his friends which are a very bad influence. The pattern that I recognize from Jimmy is that he has been wanting to get his parents attention and the only way he gets it, is by consuming excessive alcohol or illegal drugs. Teens feel alone at home and family. They look for something attractive that pleases them. They dont get enough attention from parents. They were not used to get enough attention when they were kids. But when they were kids there were a lot of childish things that could make them busy and temporarily happy. But when they reach 14, those things can not attract them anymore. They still suffer from lacking of attention and the things that could be a relief for them, have lost their attraction. So they look for new things. Definitely these new things cannot be found in family. They are already disappointed about family. Parents should be trained and educated about these things. They should know that all of these problems come because of lack of attention from one or both parents. One hour attention to children and teens saves hundreds of hours of therapy in future. It prevents a lot of problems that addiction is only one of them. By interviewing Jimmy I found that teenagers see taking / using drugs are just a way of teenage-hood, most youth will try some sort of drug, maybe just to try it out or maybe for a reason. This teen said he has taken drugs because it was something to do, and everyone else around him was doing it and it was seen â€Å"cool† to take drugs and that it was a way to escape from the real world. Interviewing Jimmy was very interesting because I could sort of relate what he is going through from when I was in high school. Luckily Jimmy is acting on time before he goes to the wrong path and becomes a failure in life.

John Donnes The Flea Poetry Analysis - 786 Words

Report Card: 1. The Flea (1633) 2. John Donne (1572-1631) 3. The flea is the main metaphor/character in the poem, symbolizing the union between the man and the woman, the other two subjects of the poem, who are inferior to the power that the flea holds upon them and their union, whether intimate or otherwise. 4. The man and the woman (i.e. the writer and the woman courted) are secondary characters in this poem and, as mentioned above, are influenced by the flea, which is the main symbol of Donnes work, a metaphor for intimacy. 5. The setting is intimate; whether it is or is not a bedroom is questionable, though the author does mention a bed. 6. The person speaking in the poem is the man, or the author, as this poem is told in first person. 7. The poem begins with the description of a flea, which bit both the narrator and the woman to whom he speaks. Because of this flea, according to the subsequent lines, the two bloods of these individuals are mixed. Despite the bite, however, the author assure that whom he courts that her innocence would not be lost (nor loss of maidenhead), and that if they were to engage in any sort of intimacy, their acts would be more innocent than the fleas bit. In the subsequent stanza, the author speaks of marriage and an eventual union (marriage bed, marriage temple), though again, in the context of encouraging intimacy rather than courting for marriage. He also tells the woman that if she will not give into his requests sheShow MoreRelatedThe Flea By John Donne1558 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"The Flea† Essay â€Å"The Flea† by John Donne when looked at briefly is simply a poem about a man trying to seduce a woman into participating in pre-material sexual relationship with him. However, â€Å"The Flea† constructs many more important arguments than simply that one. The poem touches on religion, love, and sex in a non-romanticized way, contrasting the normal glamorized stance seen in most of poetry. Most of John Donne’s poems have either romantic themes or religious themes; â€Å"The Flea† has both. ItRead MoreTHE MAIN FEATURES OF THE METAPHYSICAL POETRY ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN DONNE1637 Words   |  7 Pages THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE METAPHYSICAL POETRY ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN DONNE The term metaphysical poetry is used to describe a certain type of 17th century poetry. Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man. It means that the poetry is about showing knowledge and thoughts from different areas of experience, especially about love, romantic and sensual; about mans relationship with God and about pleasure, learning and art. Read More A Structural and Vocabulary Analysis of John Donnes The Flea1267 Words   |  6 PagesA Structural and Vocabulary Analysis of John Donnes The Flea In his poem The Flea, John Donne shows his mastery in creating a work in which the form and the vocabulary have deliberately overlapping significance. The poem can be analyzed for the prominence of threes that form layers of multiple meanings within its three stanzas. In each of the three stanzas, key words can be examined to show (through the use of the OED) how Donne brilliantly chose them because of the various connotationsRead More Social Context in the Poetry of John Donne Essay example1671 Words   |  7 PagesSocial Context in the Poetry of John Donne Contemporary literary theory has thoroughly debunked the traditional view of the artist as a divinely inspired, completely original and creative individual. This view has been replaced with the more apt view of the author as a product of his or her environment and the existing discourses of the society in which he or she lives. In this new attitude toward the writer as a product of society, the author is considered, according to Dr. James E. PorterRead MoreJohn Donne And Cecile Day Lewis1088 Words   |  5 Pagesexperiences love or how a poet chooses to express those experiences. It is mainly the poet’s era and life experiences that dictate how he/she represents love. Thomas Wyatt, John Donne and Cecile Day Lewis are good examples of how life experiences can determine the poets’ divergence of traditional courtly and pastoral love. An abreast analysis of the above poets’ lives and their works allow us to draw parallels between their life experiences and their subversions of conventions of love. Thomas Wyatt’s subversionRead MoreA Brief Description of the Concept of Courtly Love1200 Words   |  5 Pagespart plays its role in the scenario. Nevertheless, I will keep Capellanus’ definition for the later analysis of the poetry of John Donne in order to clarify which aspects of courtly love may be represented in his verse. John Donne has largely been considered by scholars to be the most original of the metaphysical poets from the seventeenth century. â€Å"He [Donne] affects the metaphysics†, says the poet John Dryden, â€Å"not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; andRead MoreJohn Donne : A Medieval Man But A Metaphysical Poet2279 Words   |  10 PagesRobyn Leatherwood ENGL 3313 Dr. Speller Dec 3, 2014 John Donne: A Medieval Man but A Metaphysical Poet When examining writings from the Baroque period, John Donne is widely acknowledged as the leader of metaphysical poetry. While there are other well-known writers who made this style of poetry popular, Donne is by far the most discussed and most analyzed. The term metaphysical developed from John Dryden describing Donne’s work as â€Å"[affecting] the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in hisRead Morethatcher4803 Words   |  20 Pagesfeel the fell of dark†¦Ã¢â‚¬  2. William Shakespeare, Sonnets 1-7 3. John Donne, â€Å"Valediction Forbidding Mourning†, â€Å"The Flea†, â€Å"Hymn to God, My God in my Sickness† 4. George Herbert, â€Å"The Collar†, â€Å"The Altar†, â€Å"Love III† 5. Andrew Marvell, â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† 6. T.S. Eliot, â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock†, â€Å"Journey of the Magi† 2. Poems for individual reading: 1. William Shakespeare Sonnet 73 (â€Å"That time of year†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) 2. John Donne, â€Å"Holy Sonnet I† (â€Å"Thou hast made me†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ), â€Å"Holy Sonnet IX†Read MoreThe s Coy Mistress By Andrew Marvell And The Flea1919 Words   |  8 PagesThe representation of sexual pleasure and intercourse throughout â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† by Andrew Marvell and â€Å"The Flea† by John Donne functions as a way to present, confirm and refute the traditional stereotypical view of carpe diem love poetry. The speakers within both poems aim to â€Å"seize the day† by wooing and taking advantage of women and their virginity and sexuality. They not only want to take advantage of the time they have but also make sure they do not regret not doing anything in the future

From A Sociological Perspective, Explanations For Criminal

From A Sociological Perspective, Explanations For Criminal- Ity Are Fo Essay und in two levels which are thesubculture and the structural explanations. The sociological explanations emphasize aspects ofsocietal arrangements that are external to the actor and compelling. A sociological explanation isconcerned with how the structure of a society or its institutional practices or its persisting culturalthemes affect the conduct of its members. Individual differences are denied or ignored, and theexplanation of the overall collective behavoir is sought in the patterning of social arrangements thatis considered to be both outside the actor and prior to him (Sampson, 1985). That is, the socialpatterns of power or of institutions which are held to be determinative of human action are alsoseen as having been in existence before any particular actor came on the scene. In lay language,sociological explanations of crime place the blame on something social that is prior to, external to,and compelling of any particular person. Sociological explanations do not deny the imp ortance ofhuman motivation. However, they locate the source of motives outside the individual and in thecultural climate in which he lives. Political philosophers, sociologists, and athropologists have longobserved that a condition of social life is that not all things are allowed. Standards of behavior areboth a pro- duct of our living together and a requirement if social life is to be orderly. The conceptof a culture refers to the perceived standards of behavior, observable in both words and deeds, thatare learned, transmitted from generation to generation and somewhat durable. To call such behaviorcultural does not necessar- ily mean that it is refined, but rather means that it is culturedaquired, cultivated, and persistent. Social scientists have invented the notion of a subculture todescribe variations, within a society, upon its cultural themes. In such circumstances, it is assumedthat some cultural prescrip- tions are common to all members of society, but that modifica- tions and variations are discernible within the society. Again, it is part of the definition of a subculture, asof a culture, that is relatively enduring. Its norms are termed a style, rather than a fashion, onthe grounds that the former has some endurance while the latter is evanescent. The quarrel comes,of course, when we try to estimate how real a cultural pattern is and how persistent. Thestandards by which behavior is to be guided vary among men and over time. Its is in this changeand variety that crime is defined. An application of this principle to crimin- ology would find thatthe roots of the crime in the fact that groups have developed different standards of appropriatebehavior and that, in complex cultures, each individual is subject to competing prescriptions foraction. Another subcultural explanation of crime grows readily out of the fact that, as we have seen,social classes experience different rates of arrest and conviction for serious offenses. Whenstrata within a society a re marked off by categories of income, education, and occupational prestige,differences are discovered among them in the amount and style of crime. Further, differences areusually found between these social classes in their tastes, interests, and morals. Its is easy todescribe these class-linked patterns as cultures. This version of the subcultural explanation ofcrime holds that the very fact of learning the lessons of the subculture means that one aquiresinterests and preferences that place him in greater or lesser risk of breaking the law. Others arguethat being reared in the lower class means learning a different culture from that which creates thecriminal laws. The lower- class subculture is said to have its own values, many of which runcounter to the majority interests that support the laws against the serious predatory crimes. Oneneeds to note that the indicators of class are not descriptions of class. Proponents of subculturalexplanations of crime do not define a class cultur e by any assortment of the objective indicators orrank, such as annual income or years of schooling. The subcultural theorists is interested inpattern- ed ways of life which may have evolved with a division of labor and which, then, are calledclass cultures. The pattern, however, is not described by reference to income alone, or byreference to years of schooling or occupational skill. The pattern includes these indicators, but it isnot defined by them. The subcultural theorist is more intent upon the variet- ies of human value. these are preferred ways of living that are acted upon. In the economists language, they aretastes. The thesis that is intimated, but not often explicated, by a subcultural description ofbehaviors is that single or multiple signs of social position, such as occupation or educa- tion, willhave a different significance for status, and for cultures, with changes in their distribution. Moneyand education do not mean the same things socially as they are more or less equitably distributed. The change in meaning is not merely a change in the prestige value of these two, but also betokenschanges in the boundries between class cultures. Generally speaking, whether one believestendencies to be good or bad, the point of emphasis should be simply that the criteria of socialclass that have been generally employed- criteria like income and schooling-may change meaningwith changes in the distribution of these advantages in a popula- tion. Class cultures, like nationalcultures, may break down. A more general subcultural explanation of crime, not necessarily indisagreement with the notion of class cultures, attributes differences in crime rates to differences inethnic patterns to be found within a society. Explanations of this sort do not necessarily bear thetitle ethnic, although they are so designated here because they partake of the general assumptionthat there are group differences in learned prefer- ences-in what is rewarded and punished-and thatthese group differences have a perisistence often called a tradition. Such explantions are of apiece whether they are advanced as descriptions of regional cultures, generational differences, ornational characteristics (Hirschi, 1969). Their common theme is the differences in ways of life outof which differ- ences in crime rates seem to flow. Ethnic explanations are proposed under anassortment of labels, but they have in common the fact that they do not limit the notion of sub-culture to class culture (Hirschi). They seem particularly justified where differences in socialstatus are not so highly correlated with differences in conduct as are other indicators of culturaldifference. Thus many sociologists in this field argue that in the United States economic andstatus positions in the community cannot be shown to account for differences between whites and Negroes or between Southerners and Northerners (Freeman, 1983). Inrelevance, an index of Southerness is found to be highly correlated with homicide rates in theU nited States. Therefore, there is a measureable regional culture that promotes murder. The hazardof accepting a subcultural explanation and, at the same time, wishing to be a doctor to the bodypolitic is that the remedies may as well spread the disease as cure it. Among the prescriptions issocial action to disperse the representatives of the subculture of violence. Quite apart from thepolitical difficulties of implementing such an en- forced dispersion, the proposal assumes moreknowledge than what is available. We, as a society, do not know what pro- portion of the violentpeople would have to be dispersed in order to break up their culture; and, what is more important,we do not know to what extent the dispersed people would act as culture-carriers andcontaminate their hosts. While sociologists acknowledge the plausibility of med- leys of causesoperating to affect crime rates, their atten- tion has been largely diverted to specific kinds of socialarrangements that may affect the dama ge we do to each other. Among the more prominenthypotheses stress the impact of social structure upon behavior. These proposals minimize the factsof subcultural differences and point to the sources of criminal motivation in the patterns of powerand privilege within a society. They shift the blame for crime from how people are to where theyare (Sampson). Such explanations may still speak of subcultures, but when they do, they use theterm in a weaker sense than is intended by the subcultural theorist. A powerful and popularsociological explanation of crime finds its sources in the social order. This explanation looks tothe ways in which human wants are generated and satisfied and the ways in which rewards andpunishments are handed out by the social system. There need be no irreconcilable contradictionbetween subcultural and structural hypotheses, but their different em- phases do produce quarrelsabout facts as well as about remedies. An essential difference between these two explana- tions isthat the structuralists assume that all the members of a society want more of the same things thanthe sub- culturalists assume they want (Herrnstein, 1985). In this sense, the structural theses tendto be egalitarian and demo- cratic (Herrnstein). The major applications of structuralism assume thatpeople everywhere are basically the same and that there are no significant differences in abilities ordesires that might account for lawful and criminal careers. Attention is paid, then, to theorganization of social relations that affects the differential exercise of talents and interests whichare assumed to be roughly equal for all individuals of a society. Modern structural explanations ofcriminogenesis derive from the ideas of the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Durkheim viewedthe human being as a social animal as well as a physical organism. To say that a man is a socialanimal means more than the obvious fact that he lives a long life as a helpless child depending onothers fo r his survival. It means more, too, than that homo sapiens is a herding animal who tends tolive in colonies. For Durkheim, the significantly social aspect of human nature is that humanphysical survival also depends upon moral connections. Moral connections are, of course, social. Psychology-Naturalistic Observation EssayFrom this theoretical stance, the savagery of the urban gangster for example represents merely thenatural outcome of a failure in child upbringing. Similarily, on a simple level of explanation, manysociolo- gists and anthropologists believe that hostile behavior can be learned as easily as passivebehavior. Once learned, the codes of violence and impatient tendencies of the mind are their ownpositive values. Fighting and hating then become both duties and pleasures. For advocates of thissociopsychological point of view, it is not necessary to regard the barbarian whose words anddeeds laugh at goodness as having the same motives as more lawful per- sons. It needs noradical vision to agree that the school systems of Western societies presently provide pooraprenticeship in adult- hood for many adolescents. A poor apprenticeship for being grown up iscriminogenic. In this sense, the structure of modern countries encourages delinquency, for thatstr ucture lacks institutional procedures for moving people smoothly form protected childhood toautomonmous adulthood. During adolescence, many youths in affluent societies are neither wellguided by their parents nor happily engaged by their teachers. They are adult in body, but childrenin responsi- bility and in their contribution to others. Now placed in between irresponsibledependence and accountable independance, they are compelled to attend schools that do notthoroughly stimulate the interests of all of them and that, in too many cases, provide theuninterested child with the experience of failure and the mirror of denigration (Herrnstein). Educators are conceiving remedies. This engages a dilemmaa dilemma of the democraticeducators. They want equality and individuality, objectives that thus far in history have eludedsocietal engineers. Meanwhile, the metro- politan schools of industrialized nations make aprobable, but measurable, contribution to delinquency. Some crimes are rational. In such cases, thecriminal way appears to be the more effecient way of satisfying ones wants. When crime isregarded as rational, it can be given either a structural or a sociopsychological explanation. Theexplanation is structural when it emphasizes the conditions that make crime rational. It becomes asociopsychological explanation when it emphasizes the interpretations of the conditions that makecrime rational, or when it stresses the training that legitimizes il- legal activities. No one emphasisneed be more correctmore use- fulthan another. Conduct, lawful and criminal, always occurswithin some structure of possibilities and is, among n ormal people, justified by an interpretation ofthat structure. Both the interpretation of and the adaptation to a structure of possibilities are largelylearned. It is only for convenience that we will discuss the idea that crime may be rational as one ofthe structural, rather than one of the sociopsychological, explantions. The most obvious way inwhich a social structure produces crime is by providing chances to make money illegally(Herrnstein). Whether or not a structure elevates desires, it generates crime by bringing needs intothe view of opportunities. This kind of explanation does not say that people behave criminallybecause they have been denied legitimate opportunities, but rather it says that people break the law,particulary those laws concerning the definition of property, because this is a rational thing to do. the idea of rational crime is in accord with the common-sense assumption that most people willtake money if they can do so without penalty. Obviously there are differences in personality thatraise or lower resistance to temptation. These differences are the concern of thosesociopsychological explantions that emphasize the controlling functions of character. However,without attending to these personal variables, it is notable that the common human proclivity toimprove and maintain status will produce offenses against property when these tendencies meet theappropriate situa- tion (Ferrington). These situations have been studied by crimin- ologists in fourmajor contexts. There are, first, the many situations in civil life in which supplies, services andmoney are available for theft. Theft is widespread in such situations. It ranges from taking whatisnt nailed down in public settings to stealing factory tools and store inventories to cheating onexpense accounts to embezzlement. Second, t here are circumstances in which legitimate workmakes it economical to break the criminal law. Third, there are able criminals, individuals whohave chosen theft as an occupation and who have make a success of it. These expert thieves aresometimes affiliated with musclemen or organizers in a fourth context of rational crimes, thecontext in which crime becomes an economic enterprise fulfilling the demands of a market(Ferrington). Now specifically on these contexts, crime has been seen as a preferred livelihood. The conception of some kinds of crime as rational responses to structures indicates that in thestruggle to stay alive and in the desire to improve ones material condi- tion lie the seeds of manycrimes. some robbery, but more burglary; some snitching, but more boosting; some automobiletheft by juveniles, but more automobile transfers by adults represent a consciously adopted wayof making a living. All organized crime represents such a preference. The organization of largescale theft adopts new technologies and new modes of opera- tion to keep pace with increases inthe wealth of Western nations and changes in security measures. Such businesslike crime has beenchanging form craft crimes to project crimes involving big- ger risks, bigger takes, and morecriminal intelligence. Conversations with successful criminals, those who use intel- legence to planlucrative acts, indicate considerable satisfaction with their work. There is pride in ones craft andpride in ones nerve. There is enjoyment of leisure between jobs. There is ex- pressed delight inbeing ones own boss, free of any compelling routine. the carefree life, the irresponsible life, isappreciat- ed and contrasted with the drab existence of more lawful citizens. Given the low risk ofpenalty and the high probability of reward, given the absence of pangs of guilt and the presence ofhedonistic preferences, crime is a rational occupational choice for such individuals (Sampson). Ona level of lesser skill, many inhabitants of metropolitan slums are in situations that make criminalactivity a rational enterprise. Young men in particular who show little interest in school, but greatdistaste for the authority of a boss and the imprisonment of a predictable job, are likely candidatesfor the rackets. Compared to work, the rackets combine more freedom, money and higher status ata relatively low cost. In some organ- ized crimes, like running the numbers, risk of arrest is low. therationality of the choice of these rackets is therefore that much higher for youths with the requisitetastes. In summary, the structuralist emphasis on the criminogenic features of a stratified society isboth popular and persuasive. The employment of this type of explanation becomes political. If theanomie that generates crime lies in the gap between desires and their gratification, criminologistscan urge that desires be modified, that gratifications be increased, or that some compro- mise bereached between what people expect and what they are likely to get (Christiansen). The variouspolitical positions prescribe different remedies for our social difficulties. Radical thinkers use theschema of anomie to strengthen their argument for a classless or, at least, a less stratified society. Conservative thinkers use this schema to demonstrate the dangers of an egalitarian philosophy. Atone political pole, the recommendation is to change the structure of power so as to reduce thepressure toward criminality. At the other pole, the prescription is to change the publics perceptionof life. Criminologists are themselves caught up in this debate. The major tradition in socialpsychology, as it has been developed from sociologists, emphasizes the ways in which perceptionsand beliefs cause behavoirs. Between how things are (the structure) and how one responds to thisworld, the social psychologist places attitude, belief, and definition of the situation. The crucialquestion becomes one of assessing how much of any action is simply a response to a structure ofthe social world, and how much of any action is moved by differing interpretations of that reality(Sampson). Social psychologists of the symbolic-inter- actionist persuasion attempt to build abridge between the struc- tures of social relations and our interpretations of them and, in thismatter, to describe how crime is produced. BibliographyBIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Blumstein, Alfred. 1979. An Analysis. Crime and Delinquency 29(October): 546-60. 2. Christiansen, K.O. 1977. A Review of Studies of Crimin- ality. In Basesof Criminal Behavoir, ed. S.A. Mednick and K.O. Christiansen, p. 641, 654-669 New York:Gardner. 3. Ferrington, David P. 1991. Explaining the Beginning and Progress. In Advances inCriminological Theory, ed. Joan McCord, vol. 3, p. 191-199,New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction. 4. Freeman, Richard B. 1983. The Relationship Between Criminality and the Disadvantaged. Ch. 6In Crime and Public Policy, ed. James Q. Wilson, p. 917-991. San Francisco: ICS Press. 5. Herrnstein, Richard J. 1985. Crime and Human Nature. P. 359-374, New York: Simon andSchuster. 6. Hirschi, Travis. 1969. Causes of Delinquency. P. 30-31, 89-102, Berkeley: Universityof California Press. 7. Sampson, R.J. 1985. Neighborhood Family Structure and the Risk ofVictimization. In The Social Ecology of Crime, ed. J. Byrne and R. Sampson, 25-46. New York:Springer-Verlag.

Vietnam War Essays - Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh, V Nguyn Gip

Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a military struggle starting in 1959 and ending in 1975. It began as an attempt by the Vietcong (Communist Guerrillas) to overthrow the Southern Vietnam Government. This research paper will discuss the Vietnam War, US involvement in this war, and significant battles. Following the surrender of Japan to the Allies in August 1945, Vietminh guerrillas seized the capital city of Hanoi and forced the abdication of Emperor Bao Dai. On September 2 they declared Vietnam to be independent and announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, commonly called North Vietnam, with Ho Chi Minh as president. France officially recognized the new state, but the subsequent inability of the Vietminh and France to reach satisfactory political and economic agreements led to armed conflict beginning in December 1946. "Northern Vietnam was determined to gain it's freedom" (Davis 12). With French backing Bao Dai set up the state of Vietnam, commonly called South Vietnam, on July 1, 1949, and established a new capital at Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). "Where as the Southern Vietnam government seemed content to be a sort of a colony" (Davis 12). The following year, the U.S. officially recognized the Saigon government, and to assist it. President Harry S. Truman dispatched a military assistance advisory group to train South Vietnam in the use of U.S. weapons. In April 1961, a treaty of amity and economic relations was signed with South Vietnam, and in December, President John F. Kennedy pledged to help South Vietnam maintain its independence. Subsequently, U.S. economic and military assistance to the Diem government increased significantly. In December 1961, the first U.S. troops, consisting of 400 uniformed army personnel, arrived in Saigon in order to operate two helicopter companies; the U.S. proclaimed, however, that the troops were not combat units as such. A year later, U.S. military strength in Vietnam stood at 11,200. By the end of 1965 American combat strength was nearly 200,000. In February 1965, U.S. planes began regular bombing raids over North Vietnam. A halt was ordered in May in the hope of initiating peace talks, but when North Vietnam rejected all negotiations, the bombings were resumed. From February 1965 to the end of all-out U.S. involvement in 1973, South Vietnamese forces mainly fought against the Vietcong guerrillas. While U.S. and allied troops fought the North Vietnamese in a war of attrition marked by battles in such places as the Ia Dang Valley, Dak To, Loc Ninh, and Khe Sanh-all victories for the non-Communist forces. During his 1967-68 campaign, the North Vietnamese strategist, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, launched the famous Tet offensive, a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 urban targets. Despite its devastating psychological effect, the campaign, which Giap hoped would be successful, failed, and Vietcong forces were ultimately driven back from most of the positions they had gained. In the fighting, North Vietnam lost 85,000 of its best troops. In 1969, within a few months after taking office, Johnson's successor, President Richard M. Nixon, announced that 25,000 U. S. troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam by August 1969. Another cut of 65,000 troops was ordered by the end of the year. The program, known as Vietnamization of the war, came into effect, as President Nixon emphasized additional responsibilities of the South Vietnamese. Neither the U.S. troop reduction nor the death of North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, on Sept. 3, served to break the stalemate in Paris; the North Vietnamese delegates insisted upon complete U.S. withdrawal as a condition for peace. In April 1970, U.S. combat troops entered Cambodia following the occurrence there of a political coup. Within three months, the U.S. campaign in Cambodia ended, "It was as if the American military had just gone into Cambodia to waist time" (Davis 53), but air attacks on North Vietnam were renewed. By 1971 South Vietnamese forces were playing an increasing role in the war, fighting in both Cambodia and Laos as well as in South Vietnam. At this point, however, the Paris talks and the war itself were overshadowed by the presidential election in South Vietnam. The chief contestants were Nguyen Van Thieu, who was running for reelection, Vice-President Nguyen Cao Ky, and Gen. Duong Van Minh. Both Ky and Minh, after charging that the election had been rigged, withdrew, and Thieu won another 4-year term. Through the later months of 1971, American withdrawal continued so rapidly that "it seemed like there was a plague in Vietnam" (Sims 83). It coincided, however, with a new military buildup in North Vietnam, thought to