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Introduction of the Scenario (2)
Deliberating Stratification
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Introduction of the Scenario
There is a small yacht that is carrying 12 passengers and the captain. The demographics of the individuals include a teenage girl, a police officer, a 65-year old man college president, a 55-year old female nurse, a pregnant woman, her husband, a Black Lives Matter activist, a gay man, a ballet dancer, a botanist, a professional athlete, and a famous playwright. Suddenly, the yacht begins to sink while still far from the share of an island that has not been inhibited. The captain discovers that the radio is not functional so he opts to use the lifeboat to ferry people to the distant island. However, the dilemma is that the lifeboat can only hold eight (8) people otherwise it will sink. Additionally, the lifeboat only has enough gas to make one trip to the island. Because the boat has a total number of 13 people (captain included), you agree that four people and the captain will remain behind for the sake of everybody’s survival while 8 proceed to go to the island. This text is an attempt to make a decision about which four individuals will remain behind and who will be rescued. It makes a case for each member left behind and each member who is rescued. This is a tough call to make seeing that the chances of being rescued are rather minimal.
Members to Take and Why
In this scenario, I would make the hard decision of saving the teenage girl, the 55-year old female nurse, the pregnant woman, her husband, a gay man, a Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist, the professional athlete, and the famous playwright while the rest of the individuals remain behind. Although the decision is a difficult one to make, I would endeavor to save the lives of the most vulnerable people and those that would be most helpful, given the situation at hand. This is not to say that some lives are important than others. To begin with, I would make the decision to have all women present board the lifeboat and proceed to the island. This is because I believe women and children are most vulnerable in times and suffer the most in times of crisis. As such, I would first rescue the teenage girl, the 55-year old girl, and the pregnant woman. The pregnant woman should be a priority because she is carrying another life and having her go to the uninhabited island protects the life of not one but two people. Moreover, I would proceed to rescue the husband of the pregnant child for two main reasons. I would like to keep them together since they are a family and leaving the man behind leaves the woman without a person to help her in case of an emergency. I would not deny a child a chance to grow up with his father. The man can also be of help in navigating the lifeboat. I would also make the decision to save the gay man seeing that he belongs to a minority group. I would also save the Black Lives Matter Activist by virtue of the work they do and the impact they are making in society. The professional athlete would board the boat on the premise that he is physically fit which makes him the most suitable person to navigate the lifeboat. With the assistance of the pregnant woman’s husband and the gay man, the athlete will ensure the boat gets to the island. I would also rescue the famous playwright on the premise that they are in the creative field which does not have many people in the profession.
Members to Leave Behind and Why
In addition to the captain, I would leave the police officer, the 65-year old male college president, the ballet dancer, and the botanist behind. My reason for leaving the police officer behind would that compared to the other men who I rescued, the police officer is used to crisis by the nature of his profession. He has gone through training to help him get through tough situations. As such, he is better placed to fight for his life even after the boat capsizes. I am assuming that the police go through swimming training. I would leave the 65-year-old man who is a president at a nearby college because he is more expendable than the women and the men who were rescued. It would be better to give a younger person a chance of survival. Additionally, I would settle on leaving the botanist behind because compared to the women, the gay man, the husband, and the activist that were rescued, the botanist is more expendable. Even if I rescue the botanist, he is less likely to make any impact particularly because of the work he is involved in. The Ballet dancer would also remain behind because unfortunately, their demographic is more expendable than the others. A ballet dancer is creative but given the situation, I would only save one creative at the expense of the others. This is why I had the famous playwright board the lifeboat.
Reflections on My Beliefs
My choices say a lot about my personal beliefs. I believe that in times of crisis and uncertainty, women and children are the ones that suffer most, and for this reason, they should always be prioritized. I also believe that from a sociological perspective women are more important than men because of the role of childbearing which they carry. What I mean is that women should be protected because, without them, society would not grow its population. While one man can make many women pregnant at once, a woman can only give birth to one child at once. This shows that as long as women are present, society will continue growing in size. Additionally, from the analysis, I feel that minority groups such as LBGTI individuals should be protected at all cost and that aged people are more expendable than the younger population. I also believe that a person’s career influenced my decisions largely, for instance, I rescued the athlete because he is physically fit meaning that he will help navigate the lifeboat bringing everyone to safety.
Reflections of Assumptions
As I was deciding on who to rescue and who to leave behind, I made various assumptions. I assumed that the professional athlete is a man although their gender is not mentioned. I made this assumption because I wanted him to provide manpower because compared to women, men are stronger than women. Additionally, I assumed that the Black Lives Matter Activist, the police officer, and the captain is a man. I assumed the police officer is a man because men are more likely to join the police service than women. This is not to mean that women are not capable of being police officers. Society associates the field with insecurity and risks which discourage women from joining the police service. I also assumed that the Black Lives Matter Activist does not identify as an LGBTI individual. LGBTI activists do not necessarily mean that the individual has to identify as LGBTI, they simply have to believe in the cause. I also assumed that the police officer can swim because of the comprehensive training they go through before joining the service industry.
Reflections about the Current Periods and Culture
My choices to the fact I am the current time of this occurrence is before the dawn of technology and the internet. The call I made to ensure I save as many lives as possible show that I am part of a new culture that recognizes the different needs of various demographics, For instance, if the situation happened in the current age where there are cell phones, I would have made calls on the mainland or send a text requesting for assistance. I also recognize that women, youth, and children are delicate beings who are disproportionately affected in times of crisis that is why I ensured that they there the first to board the lifeboat.
Conclusion
In the case of a scenario that involves choosing which lives to save and which ones to leave behind, it is rather hard to decide, there is no correct way to approach it. In this scenario, choosing the people to board and the ones to save is just a matter of prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable. This does not mean that the lives of some people are more important than others. I made the hard decision of saving the teenage girl, the 55-year old female nurse, the pregnant woman, her husband, a gay man, a Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist, the professional athlete, and the famous playwright while the rest of the people remain behind.
Since time immemorial the debate on whether death penalty is right or not has always existed
Death Penalty Literature Review
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Since time immemorial the debate on whether death penalty is right or not has always existed. Various scholars have often tried taking a stand on why or why not capital punishment is wrong. Pro death penalty scholars have often argued that death [penalty is needed in a society so that law and order may exist. According to Mona Lynch (2002), she looks into the topic and as to why capital punishment should not be banned. According to Lynch, capital punishment despite the cost it bears serves a role of punishing offenders. In examining the effectiveness of this punishment Lynch look at innocent victims as well as the evil (capital murderers). Often murders are likely to be put on death row and according to Lynch there is nothing wrong about punishing someone who killed another ruthlessly using the capital punishment. Most victims who have experienced the evil of crime such as their family member being killed are likely to support death penalty as compared to people who may not really understand what it feels.
According to Sethuraju R. and Sole J. in their journal titled “Understanding Death Penalty Support” they look at the debates taken by both sides. From the journal, death penalty is the most intense form of sentence one can get. With a death penalty then one is likely to have committed a very heinous crime. Those in support of the punishment have argued that death penalty helps in deterring certain crimes from happening. When a person knows the risk of committing a certain crime then they are likely to avoid it. For the abolitionist, most have argued that death penalty does not serve the role of prisons which is helping people become better. The chances of also putting an innocent man on death row are also high and once this is done, nothing much can be done. The research closely looks at the arguments that seems to arise on both sides including the fact that death penalty is an expensive mode of punishment and that money being used to punish these offenders may be channeled into something else (Sethuraju, 2016).
According to Gross et al (20014) the Death penalty was introduced in the United States as a legal practice used a tool of delivering justice to those who have committed crimes.it is regarded as necessary to those who have committed a crime in the united states. Thus, the judicial systems developed such as the death penalty that is in contemporary society referred to as capital punishment. Although on the decline death penalty continues to arouse controversy in the justice department especially on how it is being used, its legality and how it is effective in reducing recidivism and prevent people from committing capital offenses (Gross et al 2014). The development of this review in order to be complete highlights the history of the death penalty, the reduced number of deaths penalties and the likelihood of its reducing further and further. It shows the minimal contribution of the death penalty to their main aim that is reducing the committing of capital offenses. It shows the effectiveness of the death penalty as a way to reduce the chances of one recommitting an offense. And showing how the Americans are against the constitutional provision of the death penalty as the majority of these people call for its abolishment’s. The death penalty is regarded as a practice that has come of age and that it should be banned by the federal government. The review develops a gap in the review of the death penalty as there is an impact on the families of the victims who are executed convicts, thus the need to asses psychological and mental effects.
There have been arguments that have been presented on how effective death penalty is especially in deterring crimes. According to a research conducted by John Lamperti (1994), he examines the role of Capital punishment in deterring murder. In his research he concluded that capital punishment had a little deterrence to homicides and murder. He gives example of people who have killed in order to invite execution as a form of execution. A good example is where he cites how Clinton Duffy who was a warden in San Quentin prison stated that several homicide cases were as a result of the death penalty and the punishment did not deter the crime.
Since the first use of the death penalty in 1608, there has been a number of documentaries developed to focus, analyses and discuss the practice. The first execution was experienced in the British North American colonies where they executed Captain George Kendall at Jamestown colony through the firing squad. Captain George was convicted for trying to spy on the Spanish government. The execution was shown often carried out by either the firing at the convict or hanging of the convict (Shirley & Gelman,2015). By the year 1991, in the view of Gross et al (2014), there had been over 15,200 cases of people executed after being sentenced to death. Cruel and unusual punishment was prohibited by the American constitution upon the 8th amendments of the bill of rights adopted in 1789, (Shirley & Gelman,2015). It is from the historical period in which death sentences attracted controversies with Barkan and Cohan (1994) extensively studying resistance movements against the implementation and use of the death penalty. According to Barkan and Cohan (1994), death sentences and resistance to these practices begun as early as 1846 in the United States. The case of Gregg vs Georgia saw the height of abolition of the death penalty although the authors through a number of states had abolished the practice before this case (Barkan & Cohan,1994).
The judiciary took a proactive approach in reduction of the number of death penalty cases reducing the death conviction cases drastically. A study by Shirley and Gelman in 2015 showed how differently the citizens of the United States perceived the legality of the death penalty. Majority of the Americans thought perceived the death penalty as a cruel and unusual punishment that the state and the federal government should abolish. These were developed as finding from the study whose focus was on the effectiveness of the death penalty practice. Although these findings suggested otherwise, the federal government and other state governments widely use the death penalty and are still recommended for federal cases (Shirley & Gelman,2015).
There was a major development in the death penalty practice in 1972 when the supreme court suspended the use of the death penalty against crimes of a capital offense. Although the suspension did not last for long, Welsh and Pfeffer (2013), viewed that this suspension came as a huge relief to the public who had mixed reactions. According to the authors, the use of the death penalty is was a violation of the fourth and eight amendments of the American constitution thus being unconstitutional (Welsh and Pfeffer,2013). This suspension did not remove the death penalty from the constitution as it was only the opinion of judges without a rationale. In a legal bombshell, the writers show how the death sentences were reduced from the pending death conviction to life imprisonment. Welsh and Pfeffer (2013) noted that the suspension was developed as a result of inconsistencies before the law thus it did not guarantee equality.
Although death sentences have been in effect since 1608, capital offences are still being reported every day showing the inefficiency of the death penalty. A study by Canes-Wrone, Clark and Kelly (2014), the finding showed that Americans thought of the death penalty as an ineffective measure to reducing or stopping people from committing capital offenses. The study shows that the united nations tend to enforce the death penalty not as a measure of deterring but as a way of showing those with intent to commit an offense to often think before committing. The study proves that Americans do not think twice before committing a capital offense as there are a number of murder cases being reported on a daily basis. Use of death sentence to deter capital offences is no longer an effective way (Cane-Wrone, Clark and Kelly, 2014). The study is supported findings from a study by Acker (2017) that recorded a 59% of Americans who acknowledged and viewed the death penalty as a cruel unusual punishment thus unconstitutional. Every person has a right to live hence as a democratic nation, the United States should lead in protecting the rights of its citizens (Acker,2017). The findings from Acker’s study show that the black community view the death sentence as a scheme to infringe on their rights by the dominant race (Barkan & Cohan,1994).
Although the application of the death sentence across 30 states and its recommendation by the federal government, the review findings show that it is on the decline. The review shows the development of the death penalty as a punishment of capital offences dating back to 1608. From the studies reviews, they confirm that the 30 counties still apply the death penalty as a punishment for capital offenders. The review findings indicate that the United States view the use of death sentence although not that effective as a way to deter people from committing capital crimes (Shirley & Gelman,2015). It shows various resistance for the application of the death sentence and how it is unconstitutional based on the American constitutional amendments that abolished the use of cruel and unusual punishments in its 8th amendment. It is believed that with the landmark ruling that suspended the use of death sentence by the supreme court in 1972, the cases of death sentences convictions are drastically reducing.
References
Acker, J. R. (2017). Scrutinizing the death penalty: State death penalty study commissions and their recommendations. The death penalty today (pp. 45-76). CRC Press.
Barkan, S. E., & Cohn, S. F. (1994). Racial prejudice and support for the death penalty by whites. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 31(2), 202-209.
Canes-Wrone, B., & Clark, T. S. Kelly., Jason P. 2014.“. Judicial Selection and Death Penalty Decisions.” American Political Science Review, 108(1), 23-39.
Lamperti, J., Marshall, J., & Nixon, R. M. (1994). Does Capital Punishment Deter Murder?. URL (consulted 17 May 2004) http://www. dartmouth. edu/~ chance/teaching_aids/books_articles/JLpaper. pdf.
Lynch, M. (2002). Capital punishment as moral imperative: Pro-death-penalty discourse on the Internet. Punishment & Society, 4(2), 213-236.
Sethuraju, R., Sole, J., & Oliver, B. E. (2016). Understanding death penalty support and opposition among criminal justice and law enforcement students. SAGE Open, 6(1), 2158244015624952.
Shirley, K. E., & Gelman, A. (2015). Hierarchical models for estimating state and demographic trends in US death penalty public opinion. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 178(1), 1-28.
Vito, A. G., & Vito, G. F. (2014). Capital punishment. The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology, 1-4.
Welsh, B. C., & Pfeffer, R. D. (2013). Reclaiming crime prevention in an age of punishment: An American history. Punishment & Society, 15(5), 534-553.
Thank you for the feedback provided. I have gone through it and the following is my explanation
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for the feedback provided. I have gone through it and the following is my explanation. The paper instructions demanded that I pick an article, provide a summary and critique, and then prepare a presentation for the second part. The instructions then provided key required steps in a very succinct report format.
I chose to focus on the article by Denault and Jupe (2018), Justice At Risk. I was very careful to follow the format provided in the instructions. I introduced the article and offered my view of the book. My thesis statement was that the article was very well written and defined non-verbal communication in the confines of law and justice as an important element, one that requires more research and scholarly attention.
In the body paragraphs, I proceeded to offer an opinion and critique based on the sections provided in the instructions. I arranged the paper as follows:
An Analysis within Academic Literature and Importance of the Article in Nonverbal Communication
A Definition of Basic Concepts and Conclusion of the Article
A Critique of the Article
Application to Other Situations
I then closed my argument, summary, and critique in the conclusion paragraph. All through, I offered a detailed analysis of the text by Denault and Jupe (2018). I included arguments from extant literature to base my opinion on academic content. The use of these external sources was strictly for purposes of supporting my argument and trying to bring to light what other authors discussed on matters relating to the topic.
In part 2 of the assignment, my presentation was written strictly as per the presentation instructions. I checked the instructions again and again to ensure I did not miss any points.
Truthfully, I have spent a lot of time to search materials relevant to the article I chose to analyze. I prepared well ahead of the deadline because I hoped to score very well in this paper. From my presentation, I am sure you can tell just how much effort I have put into the task.
Fully cognizant of the feedback you provided, I would really appreciate if you can reconsider the score awarded. I really hoped to pass the work. I promise that I will continue to improve and work harder based on what you provided as feedback. Looking forward to more growth.
Kind Regards