Scales of Environmental Justice Essays

Scales of Environmental Justice Essays Scales of Environmental Justice Paper Scales of Environmental Justice Paper Abstract This paper examines the spatial point pattern of industrial toxic substances and the associated environmental justice implications in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA. Using a spatial analysis method called Ripley’s K we assess environmental justice across multiple spatial scales, and we verify and quantify the West Oakland neighborhood as an environmental justice site as designated by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Further, we integrate the ISCST3 air dispersion model with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identify the number of people potentially affected by a particular facility, and engage the problem of non-point sources of diesel emissions with an analysis of the street network. Introduction Environmental Justice Theory Environmental injustice has multiple meanings to different people, but can be thought of simply as occurring when a particular social group is disproportionately burdened with environmental hazards (Pellow 2000). Pellow defines environmental racism, an environmental justice issue, as the institutional rules, regulations, and policies of government or corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for least desirable land uses, resulting in the disproportionate exposure of toxic and hazardous waste on communities. Environmental inequality addresses structural questions that focus on social inequality of power, resources and environmental burdens. Environmental justice cases in California have focused recently on air pollution exposure from urban traffic (Houston et al. 2004), especially with regards to public schools (Morello-Frosch et al. 2002b; Pastor et al. 2002), and public policy for health risk measurements (Dunsby 2004). Additionally, environmental justice has been addressed in California’s water management (Haughton 1998), Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI; volume and location of emissions from facilities), and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDF), though the geographic focus has been primarily on Southern California and Los Angeles rather than the San Francisco Bay Area (Boer et al. 1997; Morello-Frosch et al. 2002a; Morello-Frosch et al. 2001; Sadd et al. 1999). The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Air Toxics and Environmental Justice teams at the Region 9 Office recently focused their assessment of justice and equality on the health impacts of air toxics on a dense minority and low-income area in West Oakland, California in the San Francisco Bay Area through a sequence of events. Citizens suspected that their health was at risk from odorous releases from the many facilities in the area. Additionally, heavy diesel truck (vehicular) traffic was increasingly becoming a problem due to truck routes through their residential neighborhood (Pacific Institute and Coalition for West Oakland Revitalization 2003). The community of West Oakland mobilized (for mobilization on a transit issue, see Rodriguez 1999) and approached the US EPA for help. A working relationship does not in itself push a community to the top of the US EPA list. Two additional factors made West Oakland a top priority: an unusually high number of pollutant sources and a high density of minority and lowincome people, all of which were matters of high public awareness in the region. On this base of perception, there was then need for valid empirical demonstration of congruent clustering of emissions and of minority residential populations. The agency needed to know the numbers of pollutant sources and the population structure in West Oakland before designating this area for priority attention. We analyzed environmental justice in West Oakland across multiple scales with a point pattern analysis of spatial statistics new to environmental justice. Our objectives were to pinpoint statistically significant clusters of point source polluters and examine the surrounding demographics. Through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) we investigated non-point source pollution in addition to estimating the demographics affected by the most dangerous point-source polluter via a Gaussian plume model. The purpose of this research was to answer and quantify questions of scale in environmental justice. The underlying processes that lead to environmental injustices can be political, economic, historical, and social. Politically, this could be lack of representation or participation, lack of lobbying power, greed among politicians, NIMBYism (not in my backyard), unequal power in the legal system and inadequate laws (Cole 1992), zoning (Maantay 2001), and inadequate regulations/enforcement/permitting (Levenstein and Wooding 1998; Mank 1999; Weinberg 1999). Economic processes include suburban sprawl (Ellis et al. 2002), widening income gaps (Krugman 2002), capitalism externalities (Levenstein and Wooding 1998), and market dynamics (Been 1994). Historical processes vary for different peoples, but these might include slavery, Jim Crow laws1 , land ownership (Romm 2000), disenfranchisement, persecution, anti-immigrant laws, genocide, access to health care (US Commission on Civil Rights 2003), and immigrant work programs (Marentes 2004). Social processes include stereotypes (Bobo 2001), ra cism (Pulido 1996), language barriers, segregation, hegemony, social construction, affirmative inaction and mismatched attitudes (Blackwell et al. 2002). Critics of environmental justice have cited methodological problems (Friedman 2003; Oakes et al. 1996; Yandle and Burton 1996), alternative causal interpretations such as market dynamics of capitalism (Been 1994), and misplaced priorities such as poverty over pollution (Foreman 1998). Further, it has been argued that potentially hazardous industries would provide compensation such as jobs for minorities and that increased wealth leads to increased health benefits (Adler 1999; Simon 2000; Tiebout 1956), but these arguments neglect the scale at which wealth and health benefits relate to the detrimentally affected local people. Facilities may not employ local residents nor pay an equitable wage (Pellow 2000). Further, even if facilities are not directly polluting, accidents can occur (Bolin et al. 2000). Legislatively, environmental justice in the U.S. is addressed in a number of media. The 14th Amendment mandates equal protection under law, but intent must be shown to prove discrimination (such as clearly selective enforcement, unequal municipal services, or statements by government officials). Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination by Federally funded programs, and the Supreme Court requires intent to be shown if a lawsuit is brought under Section 601, yet only disparate impact for administrative complaints under Section 602 (Mank 1999; Weinberg 1999). Disparate impact may be evaluated through five steps (Mank 1999): Identify the affected population, especially those in close proximity to the facility; Determine the demographics of the affected population through mapping technology such as GIS; Determine the universe(s) of facilities and total affected population(s), especially the cumulative pollution burden of neighboring facilities; Conduct a disparate impact analysis both by examining the racial or ethnic composition within the affected population and by comparing that composition to unaffected populations in other relevant areas; Determine the significance of the disparity through the use of standard statistical methods. We follow the steps outlined above in this research. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) historically has failed to enforce Title VI because of conflicts with the agency’s primary goal to reduce pollution (Mank 1999). In 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898, which mandated all Federal agencies to address environmental justice in minority and low-income populations. Although the US EPA created an Office of Environmental Justice for guidance (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1992; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1998), the Office of Inspector General2 released a review report stating that the US EPA had not been consistently implementing the intent of the Executive Order (Office of Inspector General 2004). Among the Office of Inspector General’s findings were that the US EPA had recently deemphasized minority and low-income populations in environmental justice, and that the methods of analysis, including the use of GIS, had been inconsistent. The US EPA must follow a methodology by whi ch disparate impact can be assessed, and populations can be analyzed appropriately and consistently. Spatial Analyses of Environmental Justice In this paper we apply a point pattern statistical approach to environmental justice research that avoids pre-determined units of analysis to identify appropriate scales of analysis. A number of studies have integrated point pattern analysis into a GIS framework and have explored the value of this approach to epidemiology (Gatrell and Bailey 1996; Kingham et al. 1995) in the context of detecting clusters (Bhopal et al. 1992; Fotheringham and Zhan 1996; Gatrell et al. 1996). Our spatial point pattern analysis is based on Ripley’s K-function (Ripley 1976), which has been broadly applied in ecological spatial patterns; examples include landscape dynamics of forest disease (Kelly and Meentemeyer 2002), distribution patterns of herbs (Kenkel 1993), desert shrubs (Prentice and Werger 1985; Skarpe 1991), and tropical forest trees (Sterner et al. 1986). OBrien et al. (1999) used Ripley’s K to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of canine cancers in Michigan. Barff (198 7) analyzed the second-order point pattern of manufacturing plants in Ohio for economic and social justice. Ripley’s K examines the test statistic across various spatial scales and reveals the scale at which the pattern of events is operating most strongly. Furthermore, our analysis avoids the use of census tracts3 , which are politically defined and can change with time. Ripley’s K addresses the distributive theory of equality in questioning whether or not certain communities are burdened with a disproportionate number of facilities. Not only does the statistic provide agencies such as the US EPA with sound backing of statistical significance and a link to equality and justice theory, but it also helps guide policies at the appropriate political-spatial scale- from international, national, and regional/state to county, city, and neighborhood. Initial studies in environmental justice showed that emissions are concentrated in minority relative to predominantly white residential areas, with consequently differential health impacts among racial groups (Bullard 1994; United Church of Christ Commission on Racial Justice 1987). However, critics were quick to point out flaws in the analysis with emphasis on scale- results and conclusions can change depending on the range of space and time analyzed (Anderton et al. 1994; Friedman 2003). Maantay (2002) reported that there is a need to develop more accurate methods for determining the geographic extent of exposure and the characteristics of the affected populations, to use dispersion modeling and advanced proximity analysis, and neighborhood-scale analysis. Rhodes (2003) suggested the use of several different spatial measurement units with geographic problems and to be sensitive if or when the indications of environmental justice problems change. We implement the conclusions of thes e researchers here, with particular attention to varying spatial scale, neighborhood-level analysis and dispersion modeling. The standard spatial scale of analysis for environmental justice with GIS in the US has been the census tract level (Bowen et al. 1995; Buzzelli et al. 2003; Cutter et al. 2002; Szasz and Meuser 2000; Yandle and Burton 1996). The focus on the census tract assumes that point sources and the population are distributed uniformly throughout the census tracts, which are inconsistent in size and shape. Researchers have attempted to avoid the census tract level with proximity-based assessments of demographics within a certain radius of a given facility. The exact radius is often fitted, subjective, or arbitrary (Anderton et al. 1994), however, and should depend on air movement. Radius sizes have ranged from 0.5 km (Dunn and Kingham 1995; Dunn et al. 2001; Dunn et al. 1995), 0.8 km (Baden and Coursey 2002), and 1.6 km (Bolin et al. 2000; Glickman and Hersh 1995), to 4.0 km (Anderton et al. 1994); Pastor et al. (2004) examined a range of 0.8 km, 1.6 km, and 4 km buffers. Additionally, these a uthors employed a range of statistical tests, such as Chisquare, Cramer’s V (Cramà ©r 1999), raised incidence modeling (Diggle and Rowlingson 1994), and the Townsend index of deprivation (Townsend et al. 1988). Some authors were content with producing maps with no statistics. Scholars have debated what the unit of analysis should be, from the â€Å"community† that is based on census block groups and travel time (Taquino et al. 2002) to raster-based (Mennis 2002) or multi-scalar analysis (Williams 1999). There has also been criticism that the choice of target predetermines the evaluation of social impact. We take a different path: scale becomes a variable rather than a pre-determined measure. We seek to identify the scales at which clusters, and congruence among them, are more and less likely to exist for different analytical purposes. Methods Data The main demographic information (e.g. population density, race breakdown) was obtained from the US Census Bureau’s 2000 survey at census tract, block group, and block spatial scales. We used TRI for 1999 (to compare to the 2000 Census data) for the point pattern analysis4 . The annual TRI records the volume and location of self-reported releases from private sector and federal facilities. All industries that meet the following criteria have mandatory reporting: (a) the production facility’s primary Standard Industrial Classification is manufacturing; (b) the facility has 10 or more full-time employees; and (c) the facility manufactures or processes over 25,000 pounds of at least one of the over 600 TRI chemicals, or uses more than 10,000 pounds of at least one TRI chemical (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1997; U.S. General Accounting Office 1991a; U.S. General Accounting Office 1991b). Specifically, TRI chemicals in West Oakland included: chlorine, chromium, nitrate compounds, and zinc compounds, though the carcinogen acetaldehyde is perhaps the most harmful. Data are provided for each release medium, including air, water, underground injection, land, and off-site transfers. A critical methodological issue is the accuracy of the locations of point-source hazards found in US EPA data sets (e.g., Glickman and Hersh 1995; Scott et al. 1997; Stockwell et al. 1993). But, the US EPA TRI data offers the most comprehensive measures of industrially released hazardous emissions in the United States, particularly after we checked for locational validity by geocoding each TRI location to its correct street address (Bolin et al. 2000; Daniels and Friedman 1999; Krieg 1998b; Mitchell et al. 1999). Addresses used in geocoding were verified as the facility address rather than the office address. The BAAQMD health risk screening was based on the US EPA’s Industrial Source Complex Short Term (ISCST3) air dispersion model (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1995; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1999), and those risks were estimated in accordance with procedures adopted by Cal/EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) for the Air Toxics Hot Spots Program. The ISCST3 model has been validated successfully for a number of pollutants in a variety of locations (e.g., Elbir 2002; Kumar et al. 1999; Lorber et al. 2000; Mazzeo and Venegas 2004). Dispersion is a term that describes advection (horizontal movement) and diffusion (mixing) of gases. Air dispersion models can range from simple models that require minor computation to complex threedimensional models that require extensive data and computation, the type of which depends on the scale of the problem and the input data available. Chakraborty and Armstrong (1995) detail the methodology by which to determine demographic composition of a population affected by the release of toxic substances. They describe the Geographic Plume Analysis approach that takes a dispersion model, which outputs a dispersal â€Å"footprint†, and superimposes it on a demographic database. We follow this approach here. The data were processed in a GIS database containing air pollutant source data (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1997) for US EPA Region 9 (Arizona, California, Nevada and the Pacific Islands) and detailed demographic information for West Oakland from the 2000 US Census (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2000). We integrated the database with ESRI’s ArcGIS 8.1 and S-Plus 6.0. The main statistical processing of point pattern analyses relied on SPlus 6.0, and analyses and map production on the ArcMap component of ArcGIS 8.1. The data were projected into Albers Equal Area with the North American Datum 1983 to preserve area measurements. Analysis Clusters of point source polluters were identified through point pattern analysis that combined intensity distributions and Ripley’s K. Intensity is defined as the mean number of points per unit area; intensity distributions reveal first-order properties of a spatial point process and variation through space to assess the spatial dependence between points. First-order properties of a spatial point process describe how the mean number of points per unit area (the intensity) varies through space. For a stationary process, the intensity is assumed to be constant over the bounded region of interest. We initially followed a weighted edge correction (Ripley 1977), though Lancaster and Downes (2004) specify that edge correction is not necessary for length-scale assessment of clusters. Intensity distributions show where clusters are occurring, Ripley’s K reveals statistical significance of those apparent clusters. Ripley’s K is a second-order (variance of distances) function for spatial point pattern and is used to detect spatial randomness (Ripley 1976). A spatial point pattern is a collection of points irregularly located within a bounded region of space (e.g. pollutant sources within a county). The data set may consist of locations only, or it may be a marked point process, with data values associated with each location (e.g. longitude/latitude with associated emissions). The analysis is termed â€Å"second-order† because of its focus on the variance of the test statistic across a series of progressively larger areas- the size of the step is set to reveal the inter-event distances at which clustering, if present, is strongest. By examining the test statistic at various spatial scales (e.g. region, county, city), the scale at 6 which the pattern of events (points) is operating most strongly (highest statistical significance and confidence) can be determined. Ripley’s K e xamines the null hypothesis of Complete Spatial Randomness (CSR) for a mapped spatial point pattern. CSR is defined by the following criteria: a) the intensity of the point pattern does not vary over the bounded sampling region, and the pattern follows a homogeneous Poisson distribution; b) there are no interactions among the points. Ripley’s K can reject the null hypothesis that the spatial pattern of points is random. After the data were analyzed by the Ripley’s K method, a plot of count K(h) versus distance h revealed deviations as expected under CSR. The deviation was tested for statistical significance. One test employed the calculation of constant approximate confidence intervals around CSR (Getis and Franklin 1987; Szwagrzyk and Czerwczak 1993). Another test used Monte Carlo methods to determine statistical significance of the results by determining the amount of variation to be expected in sample statistics from computergenerated data (e.g., Manly 1991). In the context of spatial pattern analysis, Monte Carlo methods simulate randomly generated plots of the same dimensions of the observed plot thus creating confidence intervals from the highest and lowest values of K(h) (Haase 1995). We plot ((K(h)/Ï€) 0.5 – h) or simply (L(h) – h) against h to show the deviation of K(h) from CSR. If the deviation of the sample statistic from zero expectation is positive and above the upper limit of the confidence interval, then a clumped distribution can be assumed, while negative deviation indicates a regular pattern, otherwise the null hypothesis of CSR cannot be rejected (Haase 1995). Our GIS analysis followed the point pattern analysis with an examination of the communities and pollutant sources in the proximity of identified clusters of point source polluters. We determined race and income distributions in addition to the presence or absence of environmental goods (e.g, parks). With the BAAQMD health risk screening based on the US EPA’s ISCST3 air dispersion model, we evaluated in the West Oakland cluster the potential exposure by the facility Red Star Yeast (LaSaffre Yeast Corp.), which the US EPA determined posed the greatest health risk due to carcinogenic emissions of acetaldehyde (personal communication Grow 2001). LaSaffre Yeast, which operates in over 180 countries, ranked 8th of all SF Bay Area facilities for cancer health risks, and 2nd in Oakland for air pollution health risks (Greenaction.org 2003). Finally, we assessed mobile source pollution with an examination of the road network and travel routes within and around the neighborhood. Results First- and Second-Order Spatial Analysis An initial examination of point sources in the US EPA’s Region 9 in California shows clusters unsurprisingly in the major population centers of the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. With the question of West Oakland in mind, we first analyzed all TRI sources from 1999 in the San Francisco Bay Area cluster, which includes the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco (Figure 1a). An intensity distribution revealed multiple peaks, with the two largest clusters located in the East Bay (Figure 1b). Our Ripley’s K test found that the two major clusters were statistically significant whereby the deviation of the sample statistic from zero expectation was positive and above the confidence interval (Figure 1c). The distribution of Ripley’s K above the upper confidence interval indicates clustering, between the confidence intervals indicates random spatial pattern, and below the lower confidence interval indicates a regularly distributed pattern. The y-axis represents the deviation of the sample statistic from CSR; the units are in count numbers, but have been transformed as per Haase (1995). The x-axis represents distance (units are in degrees of longitude and latitude here), and the distance shows the extent of the clustering. Second, we examined the East Bay (Alameda County) TRI clusters specifically, again with the intensity distribution and Ripley’s K (Figures 2a, b, and c). The intensity distribution shows the evident positioning of facilities along the west side, but cannot distinguish clearly individual clusters within that swell of facilities. Fig. 1. (a) TRI (1999) facilities in the San Francisco (SF) Bay Area. (b) Intensity distribution for TRI (1999) sources in the SF Bay Area of points per grid cell in longitude by latitude. (c) Ripley’s K test for TRI (1999) facilities in the SF Bay Area. The distribution above the upper confidence interval indicates clustering at the scales of degrees. The distribution between the confidence intervals indicates a random spatial pattern. Below the lower confidence interval would indicate a regular spatial pattern. The y-axis represents the deviation of the sample statistic from CSR; the units are in transformed count numbers. The x-axis represents distance (units are in degrees). We were able to distinguish the individual clusters within that swell with the Ripley’s K plot as evidenced by the three peaks in the clustered area of the plot (Figure 2a). Fig. 2. (a) TRI (1999) facilities in Alameda County. (b) Intensity distribution for TRI (1999) facilities in Alameda County. (c) Ripley’s K test for TRI (1999) facilities in Alameda County. Because the US EPA was interested in validating the identification of West Oakland as an  environmental justice site, we examined in depth the City of Oakland cluster (Figure 3a). The intensity distribution illustrates the two clusters of facilities, but cannot determine if those peaks are statistically significant clusters (Figure 3b). The Ripley’s K plot shows that there is still statistically significant clustering occurring, though the data have become limited at this small of a spatial scale so this is the smallest scale at which we can examine with Ripley’s K (Figure 3c). Fig. 3. (a) TRI (1999) facilities in the City of Oakland. (b) Intensity distribution for TRI (1999) facilities in the City of Oakland. (c) Ripley’s K test for TRI (1999) facilities in the City of Oakland. GIS Analysis for West Oakland After determining the presence, scale, and location of clusters, the next step in an environmental justice framework is to examine the communities within the extent of those clusters. Using the US Census Bureau 2000 survey, we analyzed the block level data (a block is roughly equal to a city block) for the cluster at West Oakland. The greatest density of West Oakland residents is situated in the center and along the eastern freeway border of the area; the Fig. 5. Median household income by block group (frequency) in US Dollars. western industrial port is largely uninhabited. We created a broad race distribution map based on the racial majority for each block (Figure 4). This map shows that the majority of the West Oakland community is African American. In West Oakland, African Americans (Black) comprise 65% of the population, the rest of the population is made up of Caucasians (White; 9%), Latinos (Hispanic; 7%), Asians (9%), and â€Å"Other† (racial mixes, Native Americans/American Indians, Hawaiian; 10%). The median household income per year is roughly $20-25,000US, which is lower than that of the surrounding areas (Figure 5). There are 14 schools in West Oakland, half of which are within 600 m of a TRI facility. There are some parks (an environmental good), but the newest one is rarely used as it is adjacent to  the freeway and a Superfund site . There are no hospitals in West Oakland. Figures 6. (a) and (b) Extent of Red Star Yeast emissions based on BAAQMD’s Health Risk Screening Analysis on population density per square mile. (c) Total number of people potentially affected by Red Star Yeast emissions. We split air pollutant sources into stationary (e.g. factories) and mobile (e.g. vehicles) sources. Stationary sources are scattered throughout West Oakland, but they are not equal to each other in their relative health threat to the community. Now, from a TRI database with thousands of facilities the US EPA can focus on the facilities that pose the greatest health threats- in the case of West Oakland, the carcinogenic emissions of acetaldehyde by Red Star Yeast. We integrated the BAAQMD air modeling analysis of Red Star Yeast’s emissions into the GIS (Figures 6a and b). We overlaid the ISCST3 air dispersion model on top of the block level population layer in order to determine the number of people potentially affected by Red Star Yeast (Figure 6c). The resulting estimate of 5,628 people is derived from the maximum extent of the BAAQMD model, including the whole of those blocks cut by the model, but the number of people who live within the high-concentration areas is under 268. Furthermore, the air dispersion model is drawn in much more detail closer to the facility, whereas uncertainty leads to a generalized rough rectangle for the maximum bounds. The highest concentrations of acetaldehyde emitted from the facility effect those populations living closest to Red Star Yeast, and the associated health effects are subject to the assumptions of the model. Here, we found the estimated number of people potentially exposed to Red Star Yeast’s emissions based on the block level demographic information within the boundaries of the ISCST3 model. The mobile source in West Oakland is primarily from heavy diesel truck traffic through the community to the Port of Oakland. Chemicals in diesel pollution may cause cancer, harm the reproductive system and aggravate asthma (Kagawa 2002; Morgan et al. 1997). The Pacific Institute and Coalition for West Oakland Revitalization (2003) offered a number of ideas to alleviate these problems. With GIS we assess two of their recommendations: install traffic barriers on prohibited streets, and create a designated truck route not through the neighborhood. As communicated by the US EPA, the truck drivers indicated that there are only a few gasoline (petrol) stations near the port and those stations are unavoidably in the middle of the densely populated neighborhoods (personal communication Grow 2001). We mapped the population density, road network, port terminals, and all gasoline stations (15) within a 2.4-km Fig. 7. Road network, port terminals, gasoline stations, and an alternative driving route around the high population density. (1.5-mile) radius of the center of West Oakland along with the major terminals (Figure 7). Based on the two recommendations and Figure 7, we found an alternative driving route around the high population density. The roads currently used- which cut through the community- are crossed off with X’s, and the alternative route is highlighted. In sum, the key results here are: 1) detection of the cause of the problem- the three roads that run into the community; and 2) recommendation of a solution to the problem- an alternative route around the community. Without site familiarity, the US EPA would have little sense of road spacing and gasoline station locations. The GIS can provide a clear picture to the arguments posed by the residents and truckers on transit routes and gasoline stations. Discussion We used Ripley’s K combined with GIS to identify not only statistically significant areas of clusters, but also the scales at which those clusters exist. This research focused on narrowing down the extensive region- and statewide datasets into local neighborhoods that can be applied with local remedies. It is not unusual that a hierarchy of politics and economics exists across spatial scales for environmental justice (Simmons 2004). At the local level, new issues emerge that may not otherwise be evident at larger scales, such as the road network and transportation problem. Corrective justice, which is the notion that polluters should be punished and held responsible for cleanups and should compensate or repair communities damaged by historic pollution, can be implemented at the local level (Lazarus 1993). But, intermediate scales of clusters were also seen in, for example, the clustering of facilities in the East Bay relative to the San Francisco Bay Area as a whole. We focuse d on West Oakland not only as a directly applicable problem, but also as a means to raise and answer broader questions and purposes to be applied generally. As the spatial scale becomes smaller we necessarily lose the amount of data points to work with and the analysis and interpretation of the intensity distributions and Ripley’s K plots likewise changes. At the scale of the San Francisco Bay Area, clustering is most dominant in the East Bay, though geography influences clustering and edge effects as well (water and topography constrain potential sites at this scale that play less of a role at other sites and scales). The intensity distribution can show where clumping occurs, but the largest peaks are likely the most important clusters because the peaks are based on a scale relative to one another. At the scale of Alameda County, the intensity distribution reveals little about individual clustering, as it seems that the point sources are evenly spread along the water (large peak on the west side). The Ripley’s K plot, however, is more informative at the county scale where geography and edge effects are minimized. Three clear peaks in the plot point to three areas of clusters all within the broad cluster along the water. Analysis of one of those three peaks- the City of Oakland- shows two areas where facilities are located. The intensity distribution shows a cluster where West Oakland is defined, and another more intense peak (the facilities are clustered closer together) further south. The Ripley’s K plot is not as clear at this scale because the data have become so sparse relative to the larger scales. As with other EPA hazard data, there are recognized limitations to the TRI data. In addition to not providing human exposure information, the data are restricted to large manufacturing facilities and exclude releases from smaller firms, landfills and abandoned industrial sites, hazardous waste facilities, and power plants (Bolin et al. 2000). Pastor et al. (2004) report that it is difficult to make time series or longitudinal comparisons in TRI emission reporting due to periodic changes in the reporting requirements, but this paper focuses primarily on issues of  spatial scale. Further epidemiological work is still needed. The literature on GIS and spatial analysis for environmental justice has focused on census tracts or proximity-based assessments within variable radii from facilities. Critics have argued the need to assess environmental justice across different spatial scales; additionally, dispersion modeling and neighborhood-scale analysis has been called for (e.g., Maantay 2002). Further, no clear consensus on appropriate spatial statistics has emerged, because each statistic addresses different types of questions. We add to the environmental justice literature a method that: avoids census tracts and radii-based proximity assessments; assesses environmental justice across large and small spatial scales; integrates a welldeveloped air dispersion model with demographic data; and includes a measure of statistical significance for cluster evaluation. The Office of Inspector General criticized the US EPA’s de-emphasis of minority and low-income populations in addressing Executive Order 12898. While the criticism is certainly justified, the US EPA must grapple with changing political power and administrative changes that lead to these shifts in emphasis. The method we present here approaches the issue of environmental justice without starting with race or income, since such a starting point might lead to bias in data interpretation. In other words, our results showed that clusters of polluters are statistically pinpointed first, and then the surrounding demographics are examined next rather than the other way around. Unfortunately, minorities and low-income populations are often coupled with these clusters nonetheless, hence the rationale behind the environmental justice movement, though certainly many minorities and poor people live in clean environments. This analysis also ties into â€Å"disparate impact† as was discussed on Section 602 in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Disparate impact is now connected to communities living within statistically significant clusters, or a disparate number, of TRI facilities relative to other communities. The US EPA can apply these results to implement policies, but based on what notions of justice or equality? Theories of justice (Miller 1999; Rawls 1999; Wenz 1988) range from utilitarian (greatest good for greatest number), libertarian (greatest individual benefits without harm), communitarian (community over individual), and egalitarian (greatest benefit to least advantaged- maximize the minimum). Theories of equality (Sharder-Frechette 2002) include distributive justice (equal apportionment of social benefits and burdens), participative justice (equal rights to self-determination in societal decision-making), and procedural justice (equal distribution of enforcement, monitoring and othe r processes). Some theories of justice and equality simply are insufficient to base policies on. A utilitarian approach, for instance, might justify disproportionate environmental burdens if society as a whole is better off economically due to production, but Lejano et al. (2002) has already found that there is no justice in this approach, at least for air quality policies in Southern California. Procedural justice has been argued as insufficient in the environmental justice in California and the Southwestern US to advance environmental equality (Pulido 1994). Although the State of California’s EPA has emphasized participative justice in environmental justice policies (California Environmental Protection Agency 2003), this may be more difficult to apply at a federal level for the US EPA. Other theories of justice and equality need to be reinforced through policies. The egalitarian approach is lacking because West Oakland, considered as the least advantaged in terms of income, exposure to po llution and access to environmental goods, is not realizing the greatest benefits. The US EPA must implement distributive justice because these social burdens are not equally apportioned. Areas like West Oakland may be obvious areas for targeting environmental justice research due to the high amounts of pollution coupled with high minority concentrations, and the communities mobilized to solve their local injustice found there. For future inquiry, however, other communities may be less mobilized and empowered or the clustering of pollutant sources may be less obvious than those studied here. Although the spatial data analysis techniques were used to verify existing environmental justice areas, these methods can be used to identify new areas for study relatively 12 quickly and efficiently. The creation of potential environmental injustice areas may be proactively avoided if the US EPA has an efficient data monitoring strategy whereby clusters of possible polluters would trigger a statistical alarm. Certainly, not every cluster would necessarily be an environmental justice site, but this would at least provide a mechanism for the US EPA to focus their efforts for further research. Additionally, if the air dispersion model can be applied to many facilities simultaneously, then a possible aggregate impact could be assessed. It is important that the US EPA continue to use GIS and spatial data analysis to approach these issues and expedite the process to the enforcement stage. Following the completion of this analysis (but before publication), the US EPA applied our results in combination with community members, activist groups6 , and Federal, State and local agencies to apply pressure on Red Star Yeast to significantly restrict emissions or face sanctions and be shut down. Further, BAAQMD did not renew Red Star Yeast’s air emissions permit. Subsequently, Red Star Yeast announced that they would close their facility in West Oakland due to â€Å"market conditions† and â€Å"challenging California environmental conditions.† From an environmental justice standpoint for the community, the closure was a victory that came from activism, science, and involvement with government agencies. References Adler, J.H. 1999. Theres no justice in EPAs environmental justice policy. Corporate Environmental Strategy. 6:183-189. Anderton, D.L., A.B. Anderson, J.M. Oakes and M.R. Fraser 1994. Environmental Equity: The Demographics of Dumping. Demography. 31:229-248. Baden, B.M. and D.L. Coursey 2002. The locality of waste sites within the city of Chicago: a demographic, social, and economic analysis. Resource and Energy Economics. 24:53-93. Barff, R.A. 1987. Industrial clustering and the organization of production: A point pattern analysis of manufacturing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 77:89-103. Been, V. 1994. Locally Undesirable Land Uses in minority neighborhoods: Disproportionate siting or market dynamics? Yale Law Journal. 103:1383-1421. Bhopal, R.S., P. Diggle and B. Rowlingson 1992. Pinpointing clusters of apparently sporadic cases of Legionnaires disease. British Medical Journal. 304:1022-1027. Blackwell, A., S. Kwoh and M. Pastor 2002. A Changing America. In Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground New Dimensions of Race in America Eds. A. Blackwell, S. Kwoh and M. Pastor. Norton, New York, pp. 21-26. Bobo, L. 2001. Racial Atttitudes and Relations at the Close of the Twentieth Century. In America Becoming Racial Trends and their Consequences Eds. N. Smelser, W.J. Wilson and F. Mitchell. National Research Council, Washington, D.C., pp. 264-301. Boer, J.T., M. Pastor, J.L. Sadd and L.D. Snyder 1997. Is there environmental racism? The demographics of hazardous waste in Los Angeles County. Social Science Quarterly. 78:793-810. Bolin, B., E. Matranga, E.J. Hackett, E.K. Sadalla, K.D. Pijawka, D. Brewer and D. Sicotte 2000. Environmental equity in a sunbelt city: the spatial distribution of toxic hazards in Phoenix, Arizona. Environmental Hazards. 2:11-24. Bowen, W.M., M.J. Salling, K.E. Haynes and E.J. Cyran 1995. Toward Environmental Justice: Spatial equity in Ohio and Cleveland. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 85:641- 663. Bullard, R. 1994. Environmental Justice for all: Its the right thing to do. Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation. 281 Buzzelli, M., M. Jerrett, R. Burnett and N. Finklestein 2003. Spatiotemporal perspectives on air pollution and environmental justice in Hamilton, Canada, 1985- 1996. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 93:557-573. California Environmental Protection Agency 2003. Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Environmental Justice to the Cal/EPA Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice. California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento, CA, pp. 13-35. Chakraborty, J. and M.P. Armstrong 1995. Using geographic plume analysis to assess community vulnerability to hazardous accidents. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. 19:341-356. Cole, L. 1992. Empowerment as the key to environmental protection: The need for environmental poverty law. Ecology Law Quarterly. 19:634-683. Cramà ©r, H. 1999. Mathematical Methods of Statistics. Princeton University Press. Cutter, S.L., M.S. Scott and A.A. Hill 2002. Spatial variability in toxicity indicators used to rank chemical risks. American Journal of Public Health. 92:420-421. Daniels, G. and S. Friedman 1999. Spatial inequity and the distribution of industrial toxic releases: evidence for the 1990 TRI. Social Science Quarterly. 80:244-262. Diggle, P. and B. Rowlingson 1994. A conditional approach to point process modelling of elevated risk. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A 157:433-440. Dunn, C.E. and S.P. Kingham 1995. Modelling air quality and the effects on health in a GIS framework. In Innovations in GIS 3 Ed. D. Parker. Taylor Francis, London, pp. 205-213. Dunn, C.E., S.P. Kingham, B. Rowlingson, R.S. Bhopal, S. Cockings, C.J.W. Foy, S.D. Acquilla, J. Halpin, P. Diggle and D. Walker 2001. Analysing spatially referenced public health data: a comparison of three methodological approaches. Health Place. 7:1-12. Dunn, C.E., J. Woodhouse, R.S. Bhopal and S.D. Acquilla 1995. Asthma and factory emissions in northern England: addressing public concern by combining geographical and epidemiological methods. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 49:395-400. Dunsby, J. 2004. Measuring environmental health risks: The negotiation of a public right-to-know law. Science, Technology Human Values. 29:269- 290. Elbir, T. 2002. Application of an ISCST3 model for predicting urban air pollution in the Izmir metropolitan area. International Journal of Environment and Pollution. 18:498-507. Ellis, J., C. Mason, B. Shamasunder and C. Garzà ³n 2002. Brownfields Neighborhood Revitalization. In Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit Summit II. Urban Habitat, Oakland, CA, pp. 1-12. Foreman, C. 1998. The Promise and Peril of Environmental Justice. Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 1-33 pp. Fotheringham, A.S. and F. Zhan 1996. A comparison of three exploratory methods for cluster detection in point patterns. Geographical Analysis. 28:200-218. Friedman, D. 2003. The Environmental Racism Hoax. American Enterprise Institute. Gatrell, A.C. and T.C. Bailey 1996. Interactive spatial data analysis in medical geography. Social Science and Medicine. 42:843-855. Gatrell, A.C., T.C. Bailey, P.J. Diggle and B.S. Rowlingson 1996. Spatial point pattern analysis and its application in geographical epidemiology. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 21:256-274. Getis, A. and J. Franklin 1987. Second-order neighborhood analysis of mapped point patterns. Ecology. 68:473-477. Glickman, T. and R. Hersh 1995. Evaluating environmental equity: the impacts of industrial hazards on selected social groups in Allegheny County Pennsylvania. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC. Greenaction.org 2003.  Action Alert. Greenaction.org. Grow, R. 2001. Air Grants and Program Integration Office, San Francisco, CA. Haase, P. 1995. Spatial pattern analysis in ecology based on Ripleys K-function: Introduction and methods of edge correction. Journal of Vegetation Science. 6:575-582. Haughton, G. 1998. Geographical equity and regional resource management: water management in southern California. Environment and Planning B: Planning Design. 25:279-298. Houston, D., J. Wu, P. Ong and A. Winer 2004. Structural disparities of urban traffic in Southern California: Implications for vehicle-related air pollution exposure in minority and high-poverty neighborhoods. Journal of Urban Affairs. 26:565- 592. Kagawa, J. 2002. Health effects of diesel exhaust emissions a mixture of air pollutants of worldwide concern. Toxicology. 181:349-353. Kelly, M. and R.K. Meentemeyer 2002. Landscape dynamics of the spread of sudden oak death. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 68:1001-1009. Kenkel, N.C. 1993. Modeling Markovian dependence in populations of Aralia nudicaulis. Ecology. 74:1700-1706. Kingham, S.P., A.C. Gatrell and B. Rowlingson 1995. Testing for clustering of health events within a Geographical Information System framework. Environment and Planning A. 27:809-821. Krieg, E. 1998b. Methodological considerations in the study of toxic waste hazards. The Social Science Journal. 35:191-201. Krugman, P. 2002. For Richer. In The New York Times, Sunday Magazine, p. 62. Kumar, A., N.K. Bellam and A. Sud 1999. Performance of an industrial source complex model: Predicting long-term concentrations in an urban area. Environmental Progress. 18:93-100. Lancaster, J. and B.J. Downes 2004. Spatial point pattern analysis of available and exploited resources. Ecography. 27:94-102. Rodriguez, J.A. 1999. Rapid transit and community power: West Oakland residents confront BART. Antipode. 31:212-228. Romm, J. 2000. The Coincidental Order of Environmental Justice. In Justice and Natural Resources Eds. K.M. Mutz, G.C. Bryner and D.S. Kenney. Island Press, Washington, DC. Sadd, J.L., M. Pastor, J.T. Boer and L.D. Snyder 1999. Every breath you take : The demograhics of toxic releases in southern California. Economic Development Quarterly. 13:107-123. Scott, M., S. Cutter, C. Menzel, M. Ji and D. Wagner 1997. Spatial accuracy of the EPAs environmental hazards databases and their use in environmental equity analysis. Applied Geographic Studies. 1:45-61. Sharder-Frechette, K. 2002. Distributive Justice, Participative Justice, and the Principle of Prima Facie Political Equality. In Environmental Justice: Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 23-34. Simmons, C.S. 2004. The political economy of land conflict in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 94:183- 206. Simon, T.W. 2000. In defense of risk assessment: A reply to the environmental justice movements critique. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. 6:555- 560. Skarpe, C. 1991. Spatial patterns and dynamics of woody vegetation in an arid savanna. Journal of Vegetation Science. 2:565-572. Sterner, R.W., C.A. Ribic and G.E. Schatz 1986. Testing for life historical changes in spatial patterns of four tropical tree species. Journal of Ecology. 74:621- 633. Stockwell, J., J. Sorensen, J. Eckert and E. Carreras 1993. The US EPA geographic information system for mapping environmental releases of toxic release inventory (TRI) chemicals. Risk Analysis. 13:155-164. Szasz, A. and M. Meuser 2000. Unintended, inexorable: The production of environmental inequalities in Santa Clara County, California. 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Reexamining environmental justice: a statistical analysis of historical hazardous waste landfill siting in metropolitan Texas. Social Science Quarterly. 77:477-492.

Navigating Amazonland

Navigating Amazonland So, you want to sell your books on Amazon? There is no magic to it, just hard work. Before you bother trying to figure out the secret handshake, Ill tell you what most authors will tell you: First, write a darn good book. If youre an indie author, the next thing you should do is hire a darn good editor, then a professional cover designer, then write an amazing book blurb. Write the kind of blurb that will grab the readers For indies, its all about free. You can create a FaceBook page for your book to build excitement, list your book on Goodreads, make a book trailer and then advertise it on indietrailers.wordpress.com. All of these things are free. Keep getting your name out there. You can make an About me page. Get on Twitter. Run contests or give aways on your FB page and on Goodreads. Coax your local papers into running press releases. Chat it up on Kindle Boards. Run an ad inBookbub, or on EReader News Today. All of these ideas will work in your favor, some free, some not. But lets talk free promotion on Amazon. First go to Author Central, a free webpage you can create on the Amazon site. Show the world who you are. Here, readers can see your latest tweet, read your

The Use of Emotional Focused Therapy Research Paper

The Use of Emotional Focused Therapy - Research Paper Example Attachment theory is the basis of information for attachment injury work. John Bowlby considered the "father" of attachment theory found that the way that children form attachments based on their early attachments to their primary caregiver. If they are able to bond strongly with this individual, they have a strong foundation for love, respect, self-esteem, and self-confidence. Farley (2004) studied Bowlby's work and suggests that children are always looking for the presence of their caregiver and asking the question,   Ã‚  "Is the attachment figure nearby, accessible, and attentive?" If the answer to this question is "yes", the child will grow up feeling confident and secure and may be able to explore their environment easier; they will be more prone to have close friends and to be very social. If the child perceives that the answer to this question is "no," they will more likely feel anxious and afraid, and will constantly seek out attention because they are looking for the careg iver. These children develop a lack of trust because they feel that the attachment figure will not be available to them, and it also means that they may not be able to reestablish a connection with the attachment figure (Farley, p. 1). Translating this information to adult attachment therapy, Farley states that "the same motivational system that gives rise to the close emotional bond between parents and their children is responsible for the bond that develops between adults in emotionally intimate relationships" (p. 1). The challenge is that when an attachment is not clear or has not developed in childhood, as children grow into adults, they may experience attachment injuries.

Marble Cinery Urn Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marble Cinery Urn - Term Paper Example The major theme of the art on the cinery urn is spoils of a war. It is a striking rectilinear box covered with aspects of war like weapon armor, piles of trophies, carriages, and clubs. The fragmentary nature of the marble cinery urn makes it more captivating. The panels making the piece are of high quality, identifying the urn as a unique commission. Other available urns are baskets and vases which make this type of earn unique. The name of the deceased was inscribed on the front but the writing is missing. The marble cinery urn was excavated in south East Rome in a tomb in Anagni in the year 1899. The craftsmanship and the iconography of the art identify it as sarcophagi of the mid imperial period. (metmuseum.org, n.p) A commemorative urn shows the existence of loyalty, love and the beauty of ancient culture. Social messages to the deceased were easily put across using the urns and other portraits. There are other types of urns each with different purposes and cultural meaning. Ancient Romans could choose between burying their dead or cremating them, the choice was left for the family to decide. Cremation was more prevalent in this time since the burying was more foreign before the second century AD. This practice of cremation is evident in their art. Images and the themes of the dead and those mourning were common in the poetry. The urns were used to store the ashes of the dead after cremation. The marble cinery urn described above was probably used to store a victim of war that is why the urn has the weaponry engraved on the outer surface of the urn. The urns containing the ashes were placed in underground chambers or tombs with each individual urn having its own space. The chambers were personal properties or collective burial grounds. There was mass production of the urns but each urn was personalized that is why each urn is different from the other. Traditionally a final sigh signaled the death of a person. The relatives of the deceased would surround the death bed chanting his or her name. Calling of the name would be done continuously to ensure that the deceased had really died and for the burial process to officially start. People believed that this practice was equating breathe and the soul. A close relative would give a deceased a last kiss to catch the soul. The deceased eyes were also closed. Much weight was given to last words of a dying person (Hope, 168). Bodies were removed from the death beds placed on their knees for some time and then placed on the ground for the female relatives to clean it. Wrapping corpses with a black cloth or a white toga signaled the start of the wake. All honors the deceased had achieved in life were placed on the deceased and two cy press branches were planted on the entrance of the home. This was to show that there was a corpse in that specific house. Bodies were placed on a funeral beds in the residence, where people gave their last respects. To indicate a peaceful death the deceased feet were placed facing the door (Hope and Marshall ,34) . Funerary practices had long standing traditions referred to as mos maiorum drawn from Roman traditions and religion. It was one of the means through which cultural and family heritage was preserved and celebrated. Funeral processions (pompa) were made public with professional mourners being part of it. Wealthy families acquired actors who would dance in a satirical way to scare away evil spirits. Mimicking the lifestyle and speech of the deceased was done by the actors. Wax masks were worn by those representing the family’s ancestors who were prominent. Songs, hymns and other chants

Participants in the study Essay Example for Free

Participants in the study Essay Of the 40 participants in the study, 26 delivered the maximum shocks while 14 stopped before reaching the highest levels. It is important to note that many of the subjects became extremely agitated, distraught and angry at the experimenter. Yet they continued to follow orders all the way to the end. So 65% of the participants in Milgrams study delivered the maximum shocks. There were also questions asked regarding the ethics of the study, if we compare it to the British Psychology Societys summary of ethics guidelines (1990) for the conduct of psychological experiments. General Distress Distress to participants must be avoided but does not seem to be the case in this research with participants concerned they are harming the learner. Informed Consent this must be gained with an explanation of the research where ever possible. In this study to the give the participant a full explanation would not have had the results that they got in the first place. They would have caused questions regarding the validity of the research. This then leads us to:- Deception They were not fully aware of what was going on or the aims and objectives of the research so therefore they were deceived. Debriefing Milgram fully debriefed the participants and did this extensively and out of all of the participants that 84% were glad to have participated, while only 1% regretted their involvement. The right to withdraw the participant does have this right but this was not really the case here as here when a participant wanted to stop the experiment, the experimenter probed the subject to continue, pressure was added to continue the study so as not to affect the data. Protection of Participants now this is from both physical and psychological harm which was not the case in either component. This study would not be able to be completed today due to the ethical issues affecting this but as you saw in the results that it did prove that people would obey even after they believe its wrong. Now if we look at Zimbardos (1971) in his study The Stanford Prison Experiment he was looking to see people conforming to social roles according to what people believe about a given situation. So for example this was how the prisoners would obey the guards orders if they believed that they were in jail. The reason that this appealed to Zimbardo was he was a former class mate of Milgram and was interested in expanding on his research. Zimbardo set the experiment by first placing an advert in the paper asking for male students to participant in a prison life experiment. The students who applied there were 24 in total they were selected from larger group that had applied for the study because they had no psychological issues, medical condition and no criminal backgrounds. They were all agreed to be in for one to two weeks for the experiment. The experiment was due to last two weeks but this had to be stopped early due to what was happening to the participants. The guards became abusive and prisoners began to show signs of extreme anxiety and stress. Neither the prisoners nor the guards were advised on how to interact with the each other. The guards began to behave like real life guards but they were also aggressive towards the prisoners, and the prisoners became passive and depressed. Five of the prisoners began to experience such severe negative emotions, that they had to be released from the study early. According to Zimbardo and his colleagues, experiment shows the powerful role that a situation can play in human behaviour. Because the guards were placed in a position of power, they began to behave in ways they would not normally in their everyday lives or in other situations. The prisoners, placed in a situation where they had no real control, became passive and depressed. The experiment could like Milgrams could not be repeated by researchers today because it fails to meet the standards established by numerous ethical codes which I am going to look at now, by comparing the experiment to the British Psychology Societys summary of ethics guidelines (1990) for the conduct of psychological experiments. General Distress this was caused to both the prisoners and the guards, as the prisoners were humiliated and the guards became more and more aggressive which was caused by them wanting to do what they were supposed to do. Informed Consent This was again something that they were unable to do as this may have had an effect on the results of the experiment, the participants were aware of certain things like that they were part of a prison experiment but not the aims and objectives of the experiment. Deception due to the fact they the participants were not fully aware of what was going on and what was expected or wanted means there is a certain level of deception in the experiment. Debriefing Zimbardo did debrief all of the participants but there has been suggestions that this was not enough or a through as Milgrams debriefing process. Right To Withdraw Like during the Milgram experiment the participants did have the right to withdraw but when they asked or showed that they wanted to leave they were persuaded to stay. Eventually a few of the participants had to be allowed to leave early as they were beginning to show extreme stress. Protection of Participants this was the biggest area that was had ethics question raised, the participants were under a lot of stress, they began to believe the things that were being said to them and how they were being spoken to, they began to lose their identity which again caused stress, many of the participants became emotional under this pressure and some even became aggressive. The guards were inflicting this on them but this was situational. The experiment came to an end early when another psychologist realised on how far this had gone. Even Zimbardo himself said that he began to believe that he was the prison warden not the lead psychologist. Despite the criticism that this study received it is still important in psychology and how a situation can influence behaviour. The study more recently was brought to light when there were questions being asked of soldiers treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, and many people and even Zimbardo himself suggested that this may have been the real world example of what he was trying to achieve through research. To conclude there are many things that influence behaviour in people, wither that be their own beliefs and opinions or other people being around them at the time, they way in which people work is very complex and the study although brilliant at the times with the break through that they made into the social side of psychology have raised questions over the ethical issues that are also something to be looked at. Today the studies would not have been able to take place and in some ways this is a shame as we would not may be have had the knowledge that we have now because of them. Yet if they had thought of other ways around to come up with the same type of results then this would have been better for all of the subjects concerned. I think the research that was done was invaluable and that psychologists will always believe this just the questions over the methods leave a small black cloud over something rather brilliant. References Books Cardwell, Clark, Meldrum, Wadeley. Psychology A2 for AQA (Fourth Edition) HarperColins. Gross, Richard Psychology, the Science of Mind and Behaviour -Hodder and Stoughton Gross, Richard. , McIlveen, Rob. , Coolican, Hugh. , Clamp, Alan Russell, Julia. Psychology a new introduction for A2 Hodder and Stoughton. Websites  http://wilderdom.com

A Sense of Gothic Expressed in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein Essay

A Sense of Gothic Expressed in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein The term ‘Gothic’ has many forms. Its origins go back to the medieval period and can be seen in architecture such as Westminster Abbey in London and the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. It can also be applied to art in the works of Hieronymus Bosch who’s grotesque and haunting imagery depicted ugly distorted humans who are morally degenerate and depraved, and to William Blake who visualised Dante’s Divine Comedy. In literature, the Gothic novel is credited as starting with Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, (1764) which characterised most of what would become the essential ingredients in the Gothic genre. I will for the purpose of this assignment discuss what constitutes ‘Gothic’ in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein novel. Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus was first published in London in 1818 and again with an edited edition in 1831. It was a novel of its time in respect to its romantic style of flamboyant and extravagant characters, which are placed in mysterious, remote and exotic settings. Shelly’s ‘hideous progeny’ of a novel was largely inspired by her own tragic personal circumstances which saw the untimely death of her mother, half-sister who committed suicide and the death of two of her daughters, one of which died two weeks after a premature birth. Shelly’s nightmarish vision during a tremendous thunderstorm while on vacation at the villa Diodati at Lake Geneva had a profound effect on ...

Group Discussion

Introduction Discussions of any sort are supposed to help us develop a better perspective on issues by bringing out diverse view points. Whenever we exchange differing views on an issue,we get a clearer picture of the problem and are able to understand it. The understanding makes us better equipped to deal with the problem. This is precisely the main purpose of a discussion. The dictionary meaning of the word Group Discussion is to talk about a subject in detail. So,group discussion may refer to a communicative situation that allows its participants to express views and opinions and share with other participants.It is a systematic oral exchange of information,views and opinions about a topic,issue,problem or situation among members of a group who share certain common objectives. G D is essentially an interactive oral process. The group members need to listen to each other and use voice and gesture effectively,use clear language and persuasive style. GD is structured: the exchange of ideas in a GD takes place in a systematic and structured way. Each of the participants gets an opportunity to express his/her views and comments on the views expressed by other members of the group.GD involves a lot of group dynamics, that is, it involves both -person to person as well as group to group interactions. every group member has to develop a goal oriented or group oriented interaction. A participant needs to be aware of needs of other group members and overall objectives of the discussion. Definition: Group discussion may be defined as – a form of systematic and purposeful oral process characterized by the formal and structured exchange of views on a particular topic,issue,problem or situation for developing information and understanding essential for decision making or problem solving.Group Discussion and Other forms of Oral Communication There are several types of oral group communication. In Public Speaking,the speaker is evaluated by the audience;however there is not much interaction between audience and speaker. Audience,for the most part would only listen to the speaker. In the interview,a panel of members would assess the candidate for the requirement of selection or promotion etc. In meetings,there are discussions on issues mentioned in the agenda. Meetings may have multiple agenda.A chairperson conducts the meeting and controls and concludes the deliberations.. Group Discussion differs from debate in nature,approach and procedure. Debates include representation of two contrasting viewpoints while GD can include multiple views. A GD may help achieve group goals as well as individual needs. The examiner observes the personality traits of several candidates who participate in the G. D. Importance of Group Discussion skills A Group Discussion helps problem solving , decision making and personality assessment.Whether one is a student, a job seeker ,a professional engineer or a company executive one needs effective GD skills. Students need to participate in academic discussions, meetings, classroom sessions or selection GDs for admission to professional courses. A job-seeker may be required to face selection GDs as part of the selection process. Professionals have to participate in different meetings at the workplace . In all these situations, an ability to make a significant contribution to group deliberation and helping the group in the process of decision making is required.The importance of GD has increased in recent times due to its increasing role as an effective tool in a)problem solving b)decision making c)personality assessment. In any situation of problem, the perceptions of different people are discussed, possible solutions are suggested. The best option is chosen by the group. While taking a decision, the matter is discussed, analysed, interpreted and evaluated. While using GD as a tool for personality assessment, a topic-a problem, an opinion or a case – is given to the group consisting of eight t o ten members seated in a circle.The total time given for discussion is usually 30 minutes. Each candidate is expected to voice his opinion and offer counter arguments. The selection committee evaluates the candidates on the basis of their personality,knowledge,communication skills and leadership skills. Hence it is important to be able to take part in the GD effectively and confidently. Participants should know how to persuade their group members, how to reflect leadership qualities and how to make the group achieve its goal. Characteristics Of Successful Group DiscussionFor any group discussion to be successful,acheiving group goal is essential. Following characteristics are necessary: Having a clear objective: The participants need to know the purpose of group discussion so that they can concentrate during the discussion and contribute to achieving the group goal. An effective GD typically begins with a purpose stated by the initiator. Motivated Interaction: When there is a good level of motivation among the members, they learn to subordinate the personal interests to the group interest and the discussions are more fruitful.Logical Presentation: Participants decide how they will organise the presentation of individual views, how an exchange of the views will take place, and how they will reach a group consensus. If the mode of interaction is not decided, few of the members in the group may dominate the discussion and thus will make the entire process meaningless. Cordial Atmosphere: Development of a cooperative, friendly, and cordial atmosphere avoid the confrontation between the group members. Effective Communication skills: The success of a GD depends on an effective use of communication techniques.Like any other oral communication, clear pronounciation, simple language, right pitch are the pre-requisites of a GD. Non-verbal communication has to be paid attention to since means like body language convey a lot in any communication. Participation by all can didates: When all the members participate,the GD becomes effective. Members need to encourage each other in the GD. Leadership Skills: Qualities like initiation, logical presentation, encouraging all the group members to participate,summarizing the discussion reflect the leadership qualities. Evaluation in a GDIn any kind of GD, the aim is to judge the participants based on personality,knowledge,communicative ability to present the knowledge and leadership skills. Today team players are considered more important than individual contributors. Hence the potential to be a leader is evaluated and also ability to work in a team is tested. The evaluators generally assess the oral competence of a candidate in terms of team listening, appropriate language, clarity of expression, positive speech attitudes and adjustments, clear articulation, and effective non-verbal communication.Personality: Even before one starts communicating,impression is created by the appearance,the body language,eye-c ontact,mannerisms used etc. The attire of a participant creates an impression,hence it is essential to be dressed appropriately. The hairstyle also needs to suit the occassion. Other accessories also have to be suitable for the occasion. The facial expression helps to convey attitudes like optimism,self-confidence and friendliness. The body language, a non-verbal communication skill gives important cues to personality assessment.It includes the posture of a person, the eye-contact and overall manner in which one moves and acts. In the entire participation in the GD,the body language has an important role in the impact created. As non-verbal cues such as eye contact, body movements, gestures, facial expressions, and so on can speak louder than words, examiners closely watch the non-verbal behaviour of candidates. They generally evaluate the body language cues of candidates to determine personality factors such as nervousness, cooperation, frustration, weakness, insecurity, self-confi dence, defensiveness, and so forth.So, it is important to be careful while using non-verbal messages. However, one should recognise the power of non-verbal messages and use them effectively. Content: Content is a combination of knowledge and ability to create coherent, logical arguments on the basis of that knowledge. Also a balanced response is what is expected and not an emotional response. In a group discussion, greater the knowledge of the subject more confident and enthusiastic would be the participation. Participants need to have a fair amount of knowledge on a wide range of subjects.The discussion of the subject must be relevant, rational, convincing and appealing to the listeners. One needs to keep abreast with national and international news, political, scientific, economic, cultural events, key newsmakers etc. This has to be supplemented by one's own personal reasoning and analysis. People with depth and range of knowledge are always preferred by dynamic companies and orga nisations. The topics for GD tests may include interesting and relevant ideas pertaining to social, economic, political or environmental problems; controversial issues,innovations or case studies.To read daily newspapers, relevant magazines and periodicals, to watch news bulletins and informative programmes on television are is a simple ways to gather the general knowledge. One can use the Internet to improve one's knowledge about recent developments in different areas. Internet is a valuable source to acquire information along with mulitimedia form. Subject knowledge also includes the ability to analyse facts or information in a systematic way and to place them in the context of the framework of one’s personal experiences. For the expertise in the GD, the only way is to practice wherever one can.The other members can evaluate the performance and give suggestions. Communication Skills: First and foremost feature of communication skills is that it is a two way process. Hence t he communicator has to keep in mind the listeners and their expectations. The participants need to observe the group dynamics. Since GD tests one’s behavior as well as one’s influence on the group, formal language and mutual respect are obvious requirements. One may not take strong views in the beginning itself but wait and analyse the pros and cons of any situation. If one needs to disagree, learn to do so politely.One can directly put forward the personal viewpoint also. One may appreciate the good points made by others;can make a positive contribution by agreeing to and expanding an argument made by another participant. An idea can be appreciated only when expressed effectively. A leader or an administrator has the ability to put across the idea in an influential manner. Hence the participants in a group discussion must possess not only subject knowledge but also the ability to present that knowledge in an effective way. Since oral skills are used to put across the ideas, the ability to speak onfidently and convincingly makes a participant an impressive speaker. The members of the selection committee closely evaluate the oral communication skills of the candidates. The effective communication would imply use of correct grammar and vocabulary, using the right pitch, good voice quality, clear articulation, logical presentation of the ideas and above all, a positive attitude. It is expected that there are no errors of grammar or usage and that appropriate words, phrases etc. are used. One should try to use simple and specific language. One should avoid ornamental language.Clarity of expression is one of the important criteria of communication. When there is clarity of thinking, there is clarity in usage of language. Positive Speech Attitudes is another criterion of evaluation in the GD whereby the participant’s attitude towards listeners including other group members is judged. The temperament of the participant is also evaluated through t he speech pattern. Listening Skills: Lack of active listening is often a reason for failure of communication. In the GD, participants often forget that it is a group activity and not a solo performance as in elocution.By participating as an active listener, he/she may be able to contribute significantly to the group deliberations. The listening skills are closely linked to the leadership skills as well. Leadership Skills: The success of any group depends to a large extent upon the leader. One of the common misconceptions about leadership is that the leader is the one who controls the group. There are different approaches to the concept of leadership. By studying the personality traits of great leaders or actual dimensions of behavior to identify leadership one can learn to cultivate essential traits of leaders.In a GD, a participant with more knowledge, one who is confident,one who can find some solution to the problem and display initiative and responsibility will be identified as the leader. A candidate's success in a GD test will depend not only on his/her subject knowledge and oral skills but also on his/her ability to provide leadership to the group. Adaptability, analysis, assertiveness, composure, self-confidence, decision making, discretion, initiative, objectivity, patience, and persuasiveness are some of the leadership skills that are useful in proving oneself as a natural leader in a GD.The leader in a group discussion should be able to manage the group despite differences of opinion and steer the discussion to a logical conclusion within the fixed time limit. The examiners will assess whether each participant is a team player who can get along with people or an individualist who is always fighting to save his/her ego. Employers today look for candidates who can work in a team-oriented environment. GD participants need a number of team management skills in order to function effectively in a team. Some of the skills needed to manage a group effective ly include adaptability, positive attitude, cooperation, and coordination.In a selection GD, the group, which may consist of six to ten persons, is given a topic to discuss within 30 to 45 minutes. After announcing the topic, the total GD time, and explaining the general guidelines and procedures governing the GD, the examiner withdraws to the background leaving the group completely free to carry on with the discussion on its own without any outside interference. In the absence of a designated leader to initiate the proceedings of the discussion, the group is likely to waste time in cross talks, low-key conversations, cross-consultations, asides, and so on.The confusion may last until someone in the group takes an assertive position and restores the chaos into order. It could be any candidate. In order to get the GD started, the assertive, natural leader will have to remind the group of its goal and request them to start the discussion without wasting time. A few examples of the ope ning lines are given below: †¢ Well friends, may I request your kind attention? I am sure all of us are keen to begin the GD and complete it within the allotted time. Let me remind you that we have only thirty minutes to complete the task. So, let us get started. My dear friends, may I have your attention please? As you all know, we have to complete the discussion in 45 minutes and we have already used up five minutes. I think we should start the discussion now. Hello everybody. I am sorry to interrupt but I have something very important to say. We are here to discuss the topic — † Human cloning should be banned. â€Å"—and the time given to us is just 30 minutes. Let us begin, shall we? Leadership functions during a GD include initiative,analysis,assertiveness and so on. GD doesnot have a formal leader, hence one of the participants is xpected to take the initiative. The leader will promote positive group interactions; point out areas of agreement and disa greement;. help keep the discussion on the right track and lead the discussion to a positive and successful conclusion within the stipulated time. The ability to analyse a situation is a quality of leadership. Analytical skills and objectivity in expressing opinions are absolute requirements for leadership. With patience and composure one can develop the analytical skills. Reaching consensus by considering the group opinion will make the GD successful.Assertiveness, that is an ability to bring order to the group by handling the conflict is another desirable quality of leadership. Self confidence is a quality which helps win the agreement from other participants. In GD, participants can make a favourable and forceful impact on the group by being persuasive and convincing. In order to be persuasive, one has to advance strong, convincing, and logical arguments properly supported by factual data and forceful illustrations. A firm tone and a sober voice would also help in establishing on eself.A leader's ability to convince others and make them accept his/her views and suggestions will establish his/her credentials for leadership. Leaders are charactrerised by a high level of motivation and can motivate others too. A person with motivation can work hard to do the best job possible and can achieve targets. Team Management skills are important for a leader to manage the members of varied interests. Some of the skills needed to manage a group effectively include adaptability, positive attitude, cooperation, and coordination. Try this quiz

Legal Studies †Basic Legal Concepts Essay

Law – is a set of rules that is binding the community. A set of rules that can be enforced and is officially recognized. Law must be capable or reform and change as society’s values and ethics change. Relationship between customs, rules and laws- Customs and rules govern behavior but the courts do not enforce them on community members. The community may generally see a custom as right but it is not legally enforceable. Rules, however, may punish offenders but rules only apply in certain circumstances and areas. Laws are legally sanctioned and are enforced by the courts. Although the community generally accepts all three, rules and customs do not have the same legal sanction as laws. An example of this is smoking in public restaurants. It was a custom for shop owners to provide a smoking and non-smoking section in their restaurants. Once the dangers of smoking became known rules were put in to prevent smoking in restaurants. Laws were then passed in public interest to make sure that smoking was only allowed in outdoor sections of restaurants. * They are all types of rules  * They can all be made into laws * They all regulate human behaviour * They all carry consequences when they are breeched, sanctions Values- Principals or attitudes which society sees as important. The moral principles and beliefs which reflect society’s judgment about the importance of different things. a personal belief system Ethics- a set of moral beliefs governing behaviour. Ethics define what we consider to be the right and wrong way to behave. a code of conduct; moral principles Characteristics of Just Laws * It is enforceable * It is binding on the community * It is in the public’s interest * It is discoverable * It is accepted by the community * It reflects community morality Nature of Justice * Equality- equal treatment or equal opportunity. That all people are entitled to enjoy the same rights, responsibilities, opportunities and that no one should be privileged or disadvantaged. * Fairness- achieving equal outcomes for people. Achieving reasonable and equal outcomes according to generally accepted ideas about what is right and just. * Accessible  Procedural Fairness, Principles of Natural Justice * The right to be heard * The right to have a decision made by an unbiased decision maker * The right to a decision based on logically relevant evidence Justice- a concept about what is right and wrong and what is fair and unfair. A combination of elements such as, equality, fairness and reasonableness Rule of Law – Everyone is subject to the same laws, no one is above the law. Punished equally through sanctions (penalty) Anarchy- a state of chaos resulting from the absence of laws and/or government. Tyranny – rule by a single leader holding absolute power in a nation-state

Free Essays on Prostitution

â€Å"There are women who search for love, and there are those that search for money.† Today, the term woman simply denotes one’s sex. It does not define her character, morals and values, or even her profession. However, this was not always the case. At the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, during the Progressive Era, there was a drive for reform. Various social problems became targets for investigation and intervention: child labour, juvenile delinquency, corruption in city government and police departments, and prostitution. These things were newly discovered social problems; the only differences during this period were the new assumptions, strategies, and expectations of a broad organization of activists. Progressive reform actively decided to take more of a role in regulating the social welfare of its citizens, and those private and public spheres of activity could not be disentangled. Prostitution was an issue that underscored th e relationship between home life and street life, wages of ‘sin’ and low wages of women workers, double sexual standards and transmission of venereal disease. The late nineteenth century response to prostitution revealed the competing ideologies within Progressive reform activity over social justice and social control. â€Å"Most attempts to ‘deal with’ prostitution have consisted almost exclusively of more or less vigorous attempts to suppress it altogether – by forcing the closing of brothels, and by increased police activities against individual prostitutes and against those individual places, such as taverns, where prostitutes frequently solicit.† This paper seeks to prove that the reformers were unable to stamp out prostitution during the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century for a variety of factors. First, I will look at why women in the late nineteenth, and early twentieth century became prostitutes. The gender differen... Free Essays on Prostitution Free Essays on Prostitution Prostitution Should be Illegal Prostitution should be cleaned off our streets. It first started in the early 1800’s. Prostitution is defined as providing sexual service, for the return of money. Exchange of money for sexual service. Heterosexual prostitution is the most common. Homosexual, gays and lesbians exists on smaller scales. Prostitution is a hazardous business. People selling themselves are at high risk. The women more then men. Both men and women are at risk in getting disease that has no cure. Prostitution all together should be stopped and put an end to. Prostitution takes place in many different places. Massage parlors, call-girl and call-men (also know as escort services), street prostitution, strip clubs, etc. It was believed that the most population in 1800’s was migrants. These migrants were mostly single men, husbands who left tem who left temporarily left their wives and children at home. Massage parlors were located close to railway stations. Prostitution increased during world war one when hardly and employment during world war one when hardly any employment for women was offered and it decreased during world war two for grater economic opportunities for lower-class women in war related industrials. 50% of the women in Toronto work for themselves. Street prostitution is the most visible form of prostitution that receives the most attention. Prostitutions needed the money not only to support themselves but to support but to support there family’s. Men and women take dangerous risks at night and in warm weather. Any â€Å"mental case† could take advantage of them and kill them where no one would be available to help you at the time and place where this could happen. Women are at higher risks then men. Physical assault, sexual assault, theft, sexually transmitted disease and murder are just few health risks prostitutes take on a daily basis when going out to these places with clients. Their ... Free Essays on Prostitution By James Bunch Prostitution: Should it be legal? Prostitution is said to be one of the world’s oldest profession, however, almost all the states in the U.S has it to be illegal. Nevada is the first state in the United States to legalize prostitution. Although the long-term effect of prostitution being legal is uncertain, the short-term effects have been economically beneficial to Nevada. Prostitution should be legalized because it financially benefits the country and it could also reduce crime. There are many reasons why prostitution is illegal in 49 U.S. states today. First of all, many people think that prostitution should stay illegal because it is immoral. Parents do not want their child to grow up thinking that prostitution is a normal way of living. Christianity also looks down upon prostitution because their belief says that sex is only to be done when a man and a woman are married. Another reason why the protection of morality is so important is that people's morals form the future of our nation. Many people feel that if prostitution is legalized, then its long term effects would be detrimental to the United States. The divorce rate in the United States is all ready really high. By the legalization of prostitution, this would allow room for husbands and wives to commit adultery. Second, prostitution is a great health risk to the U.S. because of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. A major concern about STD’s is the spread of AIDS, because a cure has n ot yet been found for the disease. The transmission of STD’s is already on the rise due to uneducated teenagers having unprotected sex. In addition, most of theses teens are not going to a physician to be screened for them. Because of this, many curable STD’s are going untreated and being spread throughout a community. Prostitution only adds to this problem because prostitutes have sexual contact on a daily basis, and rarely have themselves screened for STD’s.... Free Essays on Prostitution â€Å"There are women who search for love, and there are those that search for money.† Today, the term woman simply denotes one’s sex. It does not define her character, morals and values, or even her profession. However, this was not always the case. At the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, during the Progressive Era, there was a drive for reform. Various social problems became targets for investigation and intervention: child labour, juvenile delinquency, corruption in city government and police departments, and prostitution. These things were newly discovered social problems; the only differences during this period were the new assumptions, strategies, and expectations of a broad organization of activists. Progressive reform actively decided to take more of a role in regulating the social welfare of its citizens, and those private and public spheres of activity could not be disentangled. Prostitution was an issue that underscored th e relationship between home life and street life, wages of ‘sin’ and low wages of women workers, double sexual standards and transmission of venereal disease. The late nineteenth century response to prostitution revealed the competing ideologies within Progressive reform activity over social justice and social control. â€Å"Most attempts to ‘deal with’ prostitution have consisted almost exclusively of more or less vigorous attempts to suppress it altogether – by forcing the closing of brothels, and by increased police activities against individual prostitutes and against those individual places, such as taverns, where prostitutes frequently solicit.† This paper seeks to prove that the reformers were unable to stamp out prostitution during the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century for a variety of factors. First, I will look at why women in the late nineteenth, and early twentieth century became prostitutes. The gender differen... Free Essays on Prostitution Prostitution is simply an issue of individual liberty. The controls of a person’s own body is the most basic of human rights. Governments should not have the power to impose legal penalties upon the men and women who choose to be promiscuous. Government regulation causes an act of lawful and consensual sexual intercourse to be illegal when the exchange of money occurs. Granted that prostitution has been present in societies across the world for thousands of years, governments should recognize that prostitution cannot be eradicated. Most prostitutes that work in legalized brothels in Nevada and other cities such as Amsterdam(Netherlands) and Victoria(Austrailia) have said that they receive money for sexual gratification (www.realwomenca.com). Andrew Wyllie believes that those against legalized prostitution are hypocrites. He said in his debate article,† For some reason, one of the oldest professions on the planet is considered one of its least moral. Get off your high horse. You all like sex, and you know it. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind getting paid for it either.† Consequently, national governments should pass legislation that makes prostitution safer, rather than persist with futile and dangerous prohibition. Prostitutes have performed a valid social function for thousands of years. Prostitution has actually helped maintain marriages and relationships. Instead of a relationship, a purely physical transaction occurs in prostitution, a commercial exchange that does not jeopardize the emotional stability of a relationship. In Italy, for example, a visit to a prostitute does not violate the law against adultery. Many libertarian feminists consider that prostitution reflects the independence and dominance of modern women. The majority of prostitutes are women. Once the dangers of abuse from male clients and pimps are removed, the capacity of women to control the sexual response of men in a financially beneficial relationship is ... Free Essays on Prostitution Prostitution is Here; Whether You Like it or Not Suppose you are a male between the ages of 18 and 22. Your girlfriend of two years has broken up with you a few weeks ago because she was involved with another man. You have no idea what to do about the situation you are now in. You had spent practically every conscious and unconscious moment for the past 730 days with her, and now you feel betrayed because she had been cheating on you, for God knows how long. It is Friday night, a few weeks later, and this was the first time that your friends could get you out of that filthy apartment you live in. So you go out with your boys, get drunk, and talk to a few girls. Later on in the night, one of your friends, Brian, suggests getting you a couple of prostitutes to get your mind off your girlfriend. You think to yourself, what is he talking about? Prostitutes are illegal, and even if you wanted one, you would never be able to find one in Bloomsburg. Just because prostitutes are illegal and seemingly to be unheard of in rural areas like Bloomsburg, does not mean they do not exist. Prostitution has, is, and will exist- illegal or not. Everyday, women of this profession are physically beaten or mentally crushed by their pimps or clients. Sunday through Saturday, these women are at risk for sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, because they are either ashamed to go to clinics, or do not have sufficient funds to get the help they truly need. This is why prostitution should be decriminalized, everywhere. By doing this, we can keep a closer eye on this line of work; women will be less intimidated by medical doctors, less likely to stay with pimps who abuse them, and possibly a better chance at getting out of the business with enough money to start their lives over. According to the Los Angeles Times, a federal judge has denied a request to legalize prostitution in Florida, saying prostitution would have much more harmful e... Free Essays on Prostitution Prostitution is the performance of sexual acts solely for the purpose of material gain. Persons prostitute themselves when they grant sexual favors to others in exchange for money, gifts, or other payment. In legal terms, the word prostitute refers only to those who engage overtly in such sexual-economic transactions, usually for a specified sum of money. Prostitutes may be of either sex, but throughout history the majority have been women. Prostitution is said to date back as far as we can remember. In ancient Rome Street prostitutes offered services to patrons of the theater, races and gladiator contests. When contests were over, prostitutes would take the patrons to arches beneath the public buildings known as the cellae fornicae. This is where the word fornication came from, meaning sex between unmarried individuals. Through the years, prostitution remained as a means of employment for poor women. Selling sexual favors was their main hope for survival. In the beginning of the 20th century, prostitution was done in houses which many called â€Å"hoar houses†. The prostitutes lived in these homes and performed their acts their. Small red lights were used to show the houses were open and they became known as red light districts. These houses are still around in Nevada and parts of Europe. There are five different types of prostitutes. Starting from the lowest standard to the highest The first type is a street walker- this is a prostitute who sells themselves on the street. Streetwalkers usually walk through the night and but when walking through the day they usually stay in front of x-rated movie houses. After getting a customer the prostitute usually goes back to her apartment or a cheap hotel. Other places where streetwalkers sell themselves are rest areas on highways. The second type are bar prostitutes. There is usually an arrangement between the bar owner and the prostitute. The owner does this beca...