Abstract John Locke, in his exploration of the basis of human social and political order through the retrogression of society to first principles, attempts to explain why the disproportionate possession of property evident in human society throughout history is a just outcome of human social and political evolution. As this essay argues, however, Locke's argument is flawed in a number of key respects, most notably in regard to the question of inherited property which Locke significantly omits to consider altogether.
Abstract This paper explains that the over-representation of minority or non-white students in special education and the quality of their educational experiences have been regarded as one of the most significant issues facing the U.S. public school system in the past thirty years because the existence of this disproportionality has been used as evidence of potential discrimination. The author points out that, from a legal point of view, evidence of a pattern of over-representation has been sufficient enough to begin a legal action to reduce disproportionality. The paper argues that the problem of disproportionate representation of minorities in special education must be examined in a larger societal context by addressing issues of inadequate educational resources, use of culturally inappropriate instruction and inadequate teacher qualifications.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
A History of Litigation
English Language Learners
Court Cases Involving Disproportionality of Minorities
Regulations Regarding Disproportionate Representation
Amendments to IDEA
Measuring the Problem
Composition Index (CI)
Relative Risk Ratios (RRRs)
Disproportionality and the "Least Restrictive Environment" (LRE)
Re-Defining the Problem
Is Disproportionality Significant?
Conclusion
From the Paper "An issue with the use of RRRs and other methods of calculation is that there is no one recognized approach for determining when disproportionality is large enough to be important. While there are methods for establishing statistical significance (i.e., is this RRR significantly larger, or smaller, than 1.0?), these methods are somewhat complex, raise other calculation problems, and may produce different results depending on the size of the district. A more common approach has been to randomly select a cutoff value at which disproportionality is viewed as socially significant."
Tags: measurement, esl, discrimination, index, research
Abstract This paper shows that if capital punishment in the United States was truly judged on fairness and on the doctrine of equal protection under the law, every state would join the current moratorium against employment of the death penalty. The paper shows that it has been argued for years that a disproportionate number of minorities, indigent and under-educated individuals end up paying the ultimate price and too often so it seems because they were too poor or uneducated to prove their innocence.
From the Paper "According to a recent study, an estimated 90 percent of American criminal defendants incarcerated for a capital crime are living in poverty when arrested, and nearly all have no money to pay for their defense by the time their case reaches the appeals stage. This means that at least 90 percent of these prisoners must rely upon court appointed attorneys, who many times are inexperienced and/or disinterested. In fact there are countless cases of counsel falling asleep at trial, or even arriving drunk."
Tags: American, Bar, Association, death, row, Supreme, Court
This paper argues that the federal government should end racial profiling by requiring police and law enforcement officers to keep detailed records of each individual they stop to question or search.
Abstract This paper explains that racial profiling is the practice of stopping and searching African-American or Hispanic drivers at rates far disproportionate to their numbers on the road. The author points out that a number of cases of racial profiling have led to altercations, slayings, and national protests. The paper stresses that racial profiling undercuts our national commitment to justice for every person and that every citizen has the right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty.
From the Paper "One example of racial profiling reported in Black Enterprise was that of Robert L. Wilkins, a Harvard-educated Washington attorney. He was traveling along U.S. Interstate 68 in 1992, returning from his grandfather's funeral, when a Maryland state trooper pulled the family's rented Cadillac over for speeding. The trooper asked to search the car and its contents, but Wilkins refused. So the trooper set loose a drug-sniffing dog to comb the car's exterior, including the windshield, the hubcaps, and the taillights while Wilkins and his family stood in the rain. No drugs were found, and the Wilkins family was completely humiliated. They were later awarded a $95,000 settlement from the Maryland State Police, as well as an agreement by the agency to keep records to help prevent occurrence of discrimination (Jones, 2000). This is a valid example of racial profiling, which should be stopped."
This paper reviews several judicial court decisions to seek the meaning of "cruel and unusual punishment" as based on the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Abstract This paper explains that, on the Federal level, the decision to apply the death penalty depends on the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment" that is cited in the Eighth Amendment; however, the U. S. Supreme Court disagreed with the use of the death penalty, reflecting a moral concern when it has claimed that the punishment is freakish. The author points out that, in "Coker v. Georgia", the Supreme Court remanded the case because the death sentence is a "disproportionate penalty" for rape, based on "the objective evidence of present public judgment", the Eighth Amendment bars "barbaric" and "excessive" punishment. The paper states that the Supreme Court must still determine whether it is necessary to demonstrate that the racial discrepancy is a consequence of "a pattern of intentional discrimination" and determine how large a discrepancy must be shown to constitute a violation of equal protection and "cruel and unusual punishment" clauses.
From the Paper "The argument was formally raised in McCleskey v. Kemp, when an African-American petitioner was found guilty of killing a white police officer in an attempted armed robbery of a store. The accused man's habeas corpus petition included the Baldus study, a statistical study which shows that there is a disparity in the imposition of the death penalty in Georgia, claiming that capital punishment is determined based on the murder victim's race and, to a lesser degree, the criminal's race. The study took more than 2,000 Georgia murder cases into account and conclusively determined that black murderers who kill white victims have the greatest likelihood of receiving the death penalty."
Abstract This paper assesses the disproportionate degree to which poverty plagues women in America and discusses the impact of that imbalance on women and society as a whole. The author focuses his study on three reasons for this burden: (1) single parenthood, in which women head the household alone; (2) lack of education; and (3) personal tragedy, such as divorce or death of spouse.
From the Paper "There seems to be proof that marriage, in many cases, eliminates poverty or low income status for mothers. "Disadvantaged women who had children out of wedlock had substantially lower rates of subsequent marriage than other women. Poverty and welfare receipt were substantially lower for those who married and stayed married than for those who never married or were divorced. The economic benefits of marriage were especially strong among women from disadvantaged families. However, poverty rates for women who married but later divorced exceeded those of women who never married" (Lichter, et al 2003 60)."
Tags: poor, women, single, impoverished, society, underclass, working
Abstract Since the introduction of PL-142 (Education of All Handicapped Children Act) in America, the Special Education system has received both praise and criticism. Special Education Programs are an essential component to our educational system. The current special education system has aided many people but improvements are desperately needed as rates of enrollment increase and the number of special education teachers decrease. This paper discusses the increase in the American special education population. It discusses the factors that have contributed to the increase, including the effect of PL-142 on the growth of the special education population, early identification of special needs, the additional conditions that qualify students for special education, the placement of low achieving students in special education programs, accountability reforms and pressure from parents. Other areas investigated are the disproportionate amount of minorities that are placed in special education programs and the disproportionate amount of males that are placed in special education. The paper includes a table.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Increases in the Special Education Population
The Effect of PL-142 on Increases in the Special Education Population
Early Identification of Special Needs
Conditions that Qualify Students for Special Education
Placement of Low Achieving Students in Special Education Programs
Education Reforms
Pressure from Parents
Disproportionate Amount of Minorities in Special Education Programs
Disproportionate Amount of Males in the Special Education Population
Results
Discussions
Recommendations
Conclusion
From the Paper "Horn and Tynan (2001) believe that the best way to educate this group is through direct instruction, individualized attention and feedback. They contend that these students learn best when they have access to classrooms that provide consistent instruction at a slow pace. The authors also assert that if teachers would teach these children effectively there would be a marked improvement in their performance. Horn and Tynan suggest that teachers should focus on figuring out the specific reading problem that a child may have so that they can aid the child in overcoming the problem. In addition, the authors suggest that children with attention deficit disorder should be taught not to rely on medication alone."
Abstract This paper describes the current Canadian electoral system and explains single member plurality, disproportionality and proportional representation. The paper argues that disproportionality is the most problematic aspect of the Canadian electoral system since it causes the distorted representation and the regional polarization of federal political parties which both can be cured by the merits of proportional representation. It examines how in spite of its overall superiority over the current electoral system, proportional representation has a problem of lack of accountability for specific regional concerns. It looks at how a hybrid electoral system like the one in Germany would be the ideal solution for the current situation.
From the Paper "Since 1967, Canada's federal and provincial elections have been performed under the single-member plurality system, also called as first-past-the post. The way this system works is simple: eligible voters select one from a list of competing candidates, and the candidate receiving more votes than any other is the winner. This simplest form of electoral system is, according to Johnston, common only to Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and a few formerly British territories (341). If there are only two candidates competing, the winner will easily win with a majority of votes. But as the number of candidates rise, which is more common case, the winner will be less likely to get the support of the majority of voters."
Tags: germany, hybrid, plurality, proportional, representation, single, voters
Provides an overall picture of the seriousness of the rate of Type 2 diabetes in the African-American community and, especially, for African-American women.
Abstract This paper examines the conjunction of the economic, social, and cultural status of African-Americans in Louisiana and their rates of Type 2 diabetes. African-Americans in Louisiana, as is true across the South and, indeed, across the nation, suffer from diabetes at seemingly disproportionately high rates. However, once economic, social, and cultural factors are taken into account, those rates no longer seem disproportionate. They are tragic, but comprehensible.
From the Paper "It must be noted that despite the terrible conditions under which many African-Americans continue to live that they are in general much better off than were their grandparents. We all know that beginning in the early 1960s the Civil Rights brought to the nation's conscience the terrible conditions under which the majority of black Americans were living and helped begin the steady, if painfully slow, progress toward fuller civil rights and full inclusion in the promise of American citizenship. In large measure as a response to the Civil Rights movement, a number of federal, state, and local government programs were developed and implemented to help combat poverty and the effects of racism on African-Americans (Polednak, 1997, p. 38). While these programs were not directed primarily at diabetes reduction, of course, or even specifically toward improving the health of African-Americans, they tended to do so overall. One of the most important risk factors for early death and for a range of illness from diabetes to cancer to AIDS is poverty. By alleviating poverty, a society also alleviates unnecessary suffering from diseases."
Tags: civil, rights, poverty, discrimination, poverty-correlated, diseases, blacks, whites, gap
Abstract The need for guns in American society may be directly related to a disproportionate fear of violence. This fear is exacerbated by media reports of violence, not only in the United States, but also around the world. This paper argues that the public concept and related fear of crime becomes disproportionate to the actual occurrence of crime. This, in turn, creates the perception that the public needs to be armed in order to protect people against the many unapprehended criminals. The paper argues that this leads to unnecessary violence, such as accidents, or unforeseen violence, such as children having access to parents? weapons in the home.
From the Paper "Ironically, gun violence often starts with the family that bought a gun in order to protect themselves against this very violence. The greatest tragedy is that children are often either the victims or the unknowing perpetrators of this. Of course the media plays a large part here as well. Children are exposed to violence on television, and parents are not always able to supervise what these children see or what they are encouraged to see by school friends."
Abstract The paper looks at the ideas of Tonry in "Malign Neglect" where the author addresses the disproportionate number of African Americans in the criminal justice system and maintains that this is due to social biases and preconceived notions as well as disproportionate limitations on the ability of minorities to defend themselves in a money driven legal justice system. The paper looks at Tonry's suggested solutions that tackle the nature of racial disparities.
From the Paper "Tonry in Malign Neglect (1996) explains that the disproportionate number of African Americans in the criminal justice system can in part be blamed on disproportionate applications of sentencing, incarceration and parole, not in the disproportionate development of criminality of minorities. Tonry believes that the war on drugs with all its demonstrative judicial changes is largely to blame as such changes along with the application of tougher sentencing and reduced utilization of parole for minorities based on a along held bias regarding criminality in the population create a disparity that is alarming to say the least. "
Tags: minorities, discrimination, sentencing, incarceration, parole
Abstract This paper presents an in depth examination of the death penalty and the racial influences on the matter. The author argues that the death penalty is administered in a racially disproportionate manner and provides proof of this accusation. Included is a brief overview of other debates around the topic such as moral grounding and fairness.
From the Paper "It is hard to understand how anyone could not view the death penalty as morally problematic, although clearly many Americans do not view the practice as morally objectionable or there would not be so many advocates of the practice. One of the most problematic of all aspects of the death penalty as it is imposed in the United States is that is administered in a racially disproportionate manner. "
Abstract A discussion of the truth behind claims of diminishing gender inequalities. The author looks at why despite their increasing participation within the labor force, many women in today's world are still subject to unfair treatment in regard to pay, prospects and power. The findings are that society still condones a situation whereby women's pay remains lower than that of men; where women are disproportionately represented in managerial and senior positions; and where women's double burden of employment and child rearing results in the erosion of their employment rights and conditions.
From the Paper "The primary reason for writing a paper on the topic of Women in the Workplace is to establish the level of truth, or fallacy, that lies behind the increasingly widespread claims of diminishing gender inequalities. Few topics continue to provoke such a wealth of academic research, political discussion and controversial debate, as the lengthy battle for sexual equality and the ending of gender discrimination, yet there exists, within many areas of the public, a general misconception that the fight is now over. It is true that, during the last twenty-five years or so, a combination of government legislation and changing social attitudes, have contributed towards reducing the gulf of disparity that existed between men and women."
This paper reviews Bonacich & Appelbaum's "Behind the Label", a view of the re-emergence of sweatshops in the garment industry in Los Angeles, California.
810 words (approx. 3.2 pages), 1 source, 2002, $ 28.95
Abstract This paper discusses the wide array of factors presented in the book "Behind the Label" that contributes to worker mistreatment in the manufacture of clothing. The paper reviews the multiple causes of the "new-age" sweatshop: Globalization of the world's economy, governmental backing of this movement with treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), decline of unionization in the United States, the manufacturer's desire to shift the risks of the fashion industry by contracting out their labor and the disproportionate power of the extremely large clothing retailers. The paper author feels that there might be some improvement since the publication of this book.
From the Paper "One area of attack extensively discussed in the reading is the enforcement of labor and immigration law by state and federal agencies. The most effective of these strategies, the Concentrated Enforcement Program (CEP) by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) of the state of California, was notable for the number of staff involved and its concentration upon the garment industry. But as the political winds shifted, funding for this program was lost, staff was cut and the enforcement of the exact same laws became ineffective because of backlog of cases."
Abstract This paper looks examines whether or not the Russia that has come to exist since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991 has successfully established a capitalistic free market economy with democractic institutions. The author examines in great detail whether or Russia, which was a totalitarian society has become a democracy since Putin's rise to power. The paper discusses the different styles of governing since the 1917 revolution and argues that even with this new era, the czarist style has remained. The structure of the Federal Assembly, the nomination process and the election process are all detailed in the constitution, but according to this paper, the President still holds a disproportionate amount of control over the all elements of government. Using the press as an example, the paper refers to several experts who feel that Russia is now a controlled or managed democracy which allows its citizens enough freedom to feel that there have been changes and to give the outside world the impression that democracy is alive and well in Russia.
From the Paper "Many Kremlin watchers, believing that old habits die hard, felt certain that if Yeltsin had not won that general election in a run-off, he would have reasserted his authority with force -- something he showed himself quite capable of when he dismissed parliament at gunpoint. On the other hand. no one is certain about what Putin would have done had he lost in 2000. However, Putin, the former KBG chief, like the spy that he was, left little to chance and came away with an easy victory in an election that international observers said was fair and without flaw. In fact, although he won handsomely, several Putin candidates were defeated. In the study of governments, there is much discussion about transition being an inevitable part of the formation of every government. From Plato to Aristotle to Machiavelli, each saw dictatorships as either necessary or inevitable in times of disarray. A strong hand is required to bring order so as to pave the way for a more populist government if not a fully democratic one. Of course democracy can have its own tyrannical side."
