Author: Andre Coleman

Peer Pressure can be a huge problem for some young adults. It can sometimes be positive, but most of the time its negative and destructive. Depending on the persons social group, peer pressure represents social influences that effect adolescents. The stress of wanting to belong can lead to reckless behavior.. Peer Pressure has been blamed for adolescent behaviors ranging from choice in clothing to drug usage. The need for parental guidance is at an all time high. Parents need to play a role in preparing their child for dealing with the pressures the face from their peers.

Peers influence your life, even if you don’t realize it, just by spending time with you. You learn from them, and they learn from you. It’s only human nature to listen to and learn from other people in your age group. Peer pressure is defined as the social pressure by members of one’s peer group to take a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise conform in order to be accepted. (peer pressure, 2009) Teenage is that phase of life when you are exposed to the world outside. These are the years when you spend most of your time with your friends. Teenage is the phase of beginning to become independent in life; the years of forming your ideals and principles, the years that shape your personality and the years that introduce you to your own self.

In order to understand peer pressure it is important to identify risk factors involved. Risk factors are any circumstances that may increase the likelihood of youths’ engaging in risky behaviors. Risk factors have been identified within individuals, family environments, schools, peer or social relationships and the community. Individual risk factors include anti-social behavior, anxiety or depression, rebelliousness. Family risk factors include divorce, uninvolved parents, negative communication, unclear rules and expectations. School risk factors include academic failure, school transitions, negative labeling, truancy, and low commitment to school. Peer risk factors include associating with those who use drugs, rejection, and gang involvement. Community risk factors include permissive laws, drug availability, lack of meaningful roles, and low socioeconomic status. It is also important to note that exposure to many risk factors has a cumulative effect and reckless behavior.

There should be a distinction between risk behavior and reckless behavior. According to Arnett, risk behaviors are socially approved, such as motorcycle riding and bungee jumping. In contrast, reckless behaviors are those that lack social approval. (1992) Young people who engage in one type of reckless behavior are likely to participate in others. (Arnett, 1991) Various reckless behaviors include reckless substance use, reckless sexual behavior and reckless driving.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are plenty of high-risk behaviors your adolescent might feel pressured to engage in. Many adolescents are engaging in behaviors that place their health at risk — including cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, illegal drug use and sexual activity. And in all likelihood, their peers are pushing them to try these behaviors.

Emerging into adulthood is a time when conscious choices are made and individuals explore and have to choose between various possibilities. Researchers comparing the influence of parents and peers on emerging adult problem behavior have found peer influences to be stronger. (Clapper, 1994) Reckless behavior usually occurs in peer contexts. Reckless substance use is usually a group activity. Reckless driving occurs with multiple passengers. Reckless sexual risk taking requires someone else to participate. (Teese & Bradley, 2008)

Peer Pressure has negative effects that can lead to a variety of issues all of which can have devastating effects. From the social learning perspective, experimental smoking is primarily a function of peer role modeling and vicarious reinforcement that leads youth to expect positive physical and social consequences from smoking. From this perspective, it should be youth who spend the most time with peers and friends who smoke who are the most likely to perceive the positive social benefits of smoking and to experiment with smoking themselves. (Karcher &Finn, 2005)

Although students drink for a variety of reasons (Baer, 2002), peer pressure plays an important role in maintain these patterns. (Crawford & Novak, 2007) Binge drinking is a major health concern and the negative problems associated with it are well documented (Wechsler, Davenport, & Dowdall, 1994). A recent European study on the characteristics of binge drinkers concluded that males were more likely to binge drink and that peer pressure was one of the strongest influencing factors (Kuntsche, Rehm, & Gmel, 2004).

Early adolescence is generally regarded as the time when peers begin to exert a significant influence on child behavior (Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). Peer pressure is one of the most dangerous aspects of adolescence to which teenagers are exposed. The difference between negative and positive peer pressure is the outcome. Consequently, parents should care more about their adolescents until they overcome this critical age. Connectedness to parents and teachers serve as controls against risk taking by encouraging conventional behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. (Karcher & Finn, 2005)

Poor parental monitoring and inconsistent discipline have been shown to have direct relations with adolescent substance use. (Steinberg, Fletcher, & Darling, 1994) Parents must take an active role in their child’s life. They need to talk with their child about their friends and the influence they may have. Informing them about the cost of saying no can prepare a child for consequences they will face if they make poor choices. Parents can prepare them their children by discussing the different ways in which people experience peer pressure. They can role-play different scenarios with their children so they can practice saying no in difficult situations. It would also be valuable to share stories from the past about how they dealt with peer pressure. Empower your children by giving them excuses for getting out of tough situations. Most importantly make an effort to cultivate a positive personal identity and self-esteem in your child. There is a strong relationship between appearance and self-esteem during adolescence. Since adolescents pay more attention to others’ feedback and appearance is the link between the self and the others, each remark about appearance goes directly to the self (Morrison, Kalin, & Morrison, 2004).

Peers set plenty of good examples for each other. Having peers who are committed to doing well in school or to doing their best in a sport can influence you to be more goal-oriented, too. Peers who are kind and loyal influence you to build these qualities in yourself. Even peers you’ve never met can be role models! For example, watching someone your age compete in the Olympics, give a piano concert, or spearhead a community project might inspire you to go after a dream of your own.

Teens involved in sports, student politics, or even the chess club, are also being influenced by peer pressure. The desire to remain or become a part of any group will cause a teenager to strive to fit in, whether it means running the fastest mile, winning the spelling bee, or being the loudest cheerleader. The key to making peer pressure work in your favor as a parent is to stay involved in your child’s life. Know their friends, know where they go, and know what they do when they are gone. Don’t assume because your children are involved in positive religious or school groups that they are always doing the right thing. Parents need to set clear expectations for behavior, establish rules about communicating where and with whom their teenagers are spending their time, and should pre-set consequences for lying about activities or where they are going. By communicating your expectations, your adolescent cannot claim they “did not know” that you would be upset.

Parent-child relationships that at the beginning are powerful and fully nurturing can become undermined as our children move out into a world that no longer appreciates or reinforces the attachment bond. (Neufeld & Mate, 2005) Among young people, it is critical to understand that they are far more influenced by each other–their peers–than by parents, teachers, or other adults in their lives. (Gartner & Riessman, 1998) Peer pressure can lead to experimentation with drugs and alcohol, sex, skipping school, and various high-risk behaviors.

Parental involvement is at the core of dealing with peer pressure. According to Hansen and Dusenbury, parents should increase their parenting qualities including communication, supervision, and setting clear standards for behavior through positive parental attention. (2004) Strengthening parental skills and improving family strengths are key elements in preventing substance abuse and other behavior problems. Parents need to develop nurturing skills that support their children as well as discipline and guide them. Children need to gain an increased appreciation for parents and acquire skills for dealing with stress and the pressure they face from their peers.

It is critical to understand that they are far more influenced by each other–their peers–than by parents, teachers, or other adults in their lives. One of the best things that parents and teachers can do is instill self-confidence in their children. Self-confidence comes from being able to make a choice based on what you know is right and remain assertive in the face of peer adversity. Teach kids to think for themselves as well as help them how to consider consequences and weigh their decisions.

Protective factors are any circumstances that promote healthy youth behaviors and decrease the chance that youth will engage in risky behaviors. School protective factors include promoting a positive attitude towards school. High expectations in a high quality school with clear standards. Living in a stable community that promotes safe and healthy environments along with high community expectations.

A strong support from family, an ability to differentiate between the positive and the negative and a skill to choose friends from the peers – this three-pronged strategy is the best way to keep away from negative peer pressure.

According to Ennett, Bailey, & Federman, the quality and supportiveness of the relationships youth experience are another source of potentially risk-enhancing or risk-decreasing effects on behavior. (1999) According to social learning theories, youth who have role models for deviant behaviors and who perceive these behaviors as being sanctioned by significant others are more likely to engage in the behaviors than youth who do not have these role models and sanctions. (Bandura, 1977)

We have discovered that one of the most important reasons of teenage drug usage is peer pressure which has the devastating effect of depression. Some teens feel an enormous pressure to fit in. This may not seem like an important thing as adults, but to them it’s more important than a lot of things. Teens will do just about anything to fit in with the group they are seeking acceptance in. Loneliness is a feeling many teens go through. Teens sometimes abuse drugs to pass their time because they are lonely. For a parent with a child suffering with teen depression it is imperative that the parent becoming involved in their child’s life.

References

Arnett, J. (1992). Reckless behavior in adolescence: A developmental perspective. Developmental Review, 12, 339-373.

Baer, J. S. (2002). Student Factors: Understanding Individual Variations in College Drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. Supp. 14, 20-53.

Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Clapper, R. L., Martin, C. S., & Clifford, P. R. (1994). Personality, social environment, and past behavior as predictors of late adolescent alcohol use. Journal of Substance Abuse, 6, 305-313.

Elizabeth Madson Ankeny. (2007). Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 15(4), 249-251. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1232468031).

Eva M Kung, & Albert D Farrell. (2000). The role of parents and peers in early adolescent substance use: An examination of mediating and moderating effects. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 9(4), 509-528. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 71720326).

Jamison, , & Myers, . (2008). Peer-Group and Price Influence Students Drinking along with Planned Behaviour. Alcohol and Alcoholism : International Journal of the Medical Council on Alcoholism, 43(4), 492-7. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from ProQuest Health and Medical Complete. (Document ID: 1508714561).

Karolyn Tyson, William Darity Jr, & Domini R Castellino. (2005). It’s Not “a Black Thing”: Understanding the Burden of Acting White and Other Dilemmas of High Achievement. American Sociological Review, 70(4), 582-605. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 890542951).

Kuntsche E, Rehm J, Gmel G. (2004). Characteristics of binge drinkers in Europe. Soc Sci Med 59:113-27.

Lizabeth A Crawford, & Katherine B Novak. (2007). Resisting Peer Pressure: Characteristics Associated with Other-Self Discrepancies in College Students’ Levels of Alcohol Consumption. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 51(1), 35-62. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source. (Document ID: 1261952451).

Michael J. Karcher, & Laurel Finn. (2005). How Connectedness Contributes to Experimental Smoking Among Rural Youth: Developmental and Ecological Analyses. Journal of Primary Prevention, 26(1), 25-36. Retrieved October 5, 2009, from ProQuest Health and Medical Complete. (Document ID: 790246111).

Michael T Ungar. (2000). The myth of peer pressure. Adolescence, 35(137), 167-180. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 53847979).

Morrison, T.G., Kalin, R., & Morrison, M.A. (2004). Body-image evaluation and investment among adolescents: A test of Sociocultural and social comparison theories. Adolescence, 39, 571-592.

Natalie Lefkowitz, & John Hedgcock. (2002). Sound barriers: influences of social prestige, peer pressure and teacher (dis)approval on FL oral performance. Language Teaching Research, 6(3), 223-244. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 800242501).

Neufeld, G. & Mate, G. (2005). Hold on to your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers. New York: Ballantine Books.

Peer pressure. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peer pressure

Peterson, K., Paulson, S., & Williams, K.. (2007). Relations of Eating Disorder Symptomology with Perceptions of Pressures from Mother, Peers, and Media in Adolescent Girls and Boys. Sex Roles, 57(9-10), 629-639. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1370459621).

Steinberg, L., Fletcher, A., & Darling, N. (1994). Parental monitoring and peer influences on adolescent substance use. Pediatrics, 93, 1060-1064.

Steinberg, L., & Silverberg, S. (1986). The vissitudes of autonomy in early adolescence. Child Development, 57, 841-851.

Susan T Ennett, Susan L Bailey, & E Belle Federman. (1999). Social network characteristics associated with risky behaviors among runaway and homeless youth. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 40(1), 63-78. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 40293154).

Teese, R., & Bradley, G.. (2008). Predicting Recklessness in Emerging Adults: A Test of a Psychosocial Model. The Journal of Social Psychology, 148(1), 105-26. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1478055071).

Wechsler H, Davenport A, Dowdall G. (1994). Health and behavioral consequences of binge drinking in college. A national survey of students at 140 campuses. J Am Med Assoc 272:1672-7.

William B Hansen, & Linda Dusenbury. (2004). All Stars Plus: a competence and motivation enhancement approach to prevention. Health Education, 104(6), 371-381. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 771247511).

Migration is worldwide phenomenon. Although it is occurred due to political, humanitarian, economic and environmental reasons, it is recognized as a part of economic development everywhere. Nowadays, more people are moving than ever before as part of such economic process. The gaps of socioeconomic development between rural and urban and countries of origin and destination are known as push and full factors of migration. Urban areas and countries of higher level of development are the attractive destinations for migrants. Previous studies have pointed out that in Asian countries the level of internal and international migration has increased. It is due to improvements in national and international transportation that facilitate human mobility easier and faster than ever before (Deshingkar, 2006; Guest, 2003; Sciortino & Punpuing, 2009; UnitedNations, 2003).

Therefore, many scholars have considerable paid attention on migration and health due to the fact that moving of people is not only across boundary but also across diseases zone. Thus, it has effect on health of both migrants and non-migrants. Migrants tend to move from relative poorer place to better social settings. Although some scholars have mentioned that migrants are not different from non-migrants in terms of biological factors for diseases susceptibilities, the social settings between place of origin and destination may be much more different (Adanu & Johnson, 2009; Carballo, 2007; Stilwell, et al., 2004).

It is believed that migrants are more likely to be more vulnerable when compare with host populations regarding diversity of biological and social reasons and changing lifestyles. Their patterns of health are associated with those new spatial and social interactions which may threaten physical and psychological health. In addition, migrants are segregated into low social position, indicating that they have higher risk of morbidity and premature mortality when compare to non-migrants, in particular those are at a high social position (Carballo, 2007; Sundquist, 2001; WHO, 2003).

The degree of migrants’ vulnerability depends on a wide variety of factors, including their legal status to their overall environment that can influence the health and well-being of migrants. One of the most important determining factors of whether migrants face barriers to accessing health services is the question of their legal status in the country (WHO, 2003). For this reason, we need to concern about migrants’ rights where laws and policies can prevent migrants from accessing social services, including health care services. At place of destination, migrants’ health is the responsibilities of the state. Therefore, it needs to prepare its staff to understand policies and strategies to work with mobile populations. It also needs to provide healthcare services that are consistent with migrants’ contexts such as culture, language, and living condition. In addition, health staff should understand related laws in order to provide appropriate health care along with moral support and concern for ethical implications(Duckett, 2001)

The International organization for Migration recommended that to achieve health equity for all should be providing prevention, disease control and healthcare services to all people living in the given country, regardless of race, nationality, religion, social identity, political beliefs, legal status, sexual orientation, age, or type of illness. Moreover, it should be the commitment to response emerging in the context of contemporary migration that calls for concerted action by all countries (IOM, 2009)

Reaching of health for all needs research results that can be translated into action at international, national and local levels, we need for more migration and health data, analysis of factors influencing health of migrants and its impact. In addition, a better understanding of the complex interrelationships between migration and health is also needed. Therefore, establishing a study center of migration and health with collaboration of interdisciplinary and international will be one of means for serving as basis for policy formulation/advocacy and prioritization of resources in this area to improve migrants’ well-being.

2. Objective

The overall objective of this study is to establish a study center of migration and health, focusing on internal and international migration and health. A focus of migrants’ health includes HIV/AIDS, malaria, dengue, tuberculosis, reproductive health, occupational health, children of migrants’ health and health care system. This study center is organized by the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University in collaboration with several organizations and networks in the region and outside the region.

Specific objectives include:

1. To gather evidence from results of social science research that will serve as a basis for informed advocacy and the development of sustainable health policies, implementation and evaluation of migration-related health programs

2. To provide training appropriate to integration of social sciences into research and practice in the health sciences and health professions

3. To be interdisciplinary and international studies center by building regional and inter-regional collaboration and networks

3. Study Design

The process of the studies center will be conducted in six phases. The phases of this project are foreseen as follows:

• Phase One:

A preparation phase to establish a studies center. The study team will meet to discuss and then develop the proposal and strategy for the studies center.

• Phase Two:

Building collaboration and networks, including existing and new networks. During this time, study team will submit related papers to the conferences, such as Society for Applied Anthropology and Population Association of America. The studies center also needs to seek fund for organizing session on migration and health for a meeting f the Asia Pacific Population Association which will be held in Bangkok in 2012. The goal is to strengthen the collaboration and networks in the region and inter-region.

• Phase Three:

Reviewing existing literature and gathering evidence from results of social science research that will serve as a basis for informed advocacy and the development of health policies, implementation and evaluation of migration-related health programs. A team meeting will be held to review the analysis, develop the recommendations and strategy for sustainable of studies center.

• Phase Four:

Preparation training course for appropriate to integration of social sciences into research and practice in the health sciences and health professions. A team will meet and develop training course and continuously review the training module.

• Phase Five:

Providing training course to targeted groups. During this time monitoring and evaluation will be conducted in order to develop training course

• Phase Six:

Implement the strategy for dissemination making the information more accessible to policy and program decision-makers as well as other stakeholders.

4. Study Team

The study team is interdisciplinary and international, potentially including anthropologists, economists, demographers, geographers, social scientists, epidemiologists and specialists in diseases known to be associated with migration and health.

5. Support Proposed

The Institute of Population and Social Research (IPSR) at Mahidol University will oversee the management the studies center. Funding for the first two phases of this study will be provided by the extension of project from Rockefeller Foundation. Financial support for the remaining four phases will be requested from the funders who are interested in migration and health (e.g., for instance, International organization for Migration, Global Fund, Gate Foundation, etc…)

References

Adanu, R. M. K., & Johnson, T. R. B. (2009). Migration and women’s health. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 106, 179-181.

Carballo, M. (2007). The Challenge of Migration and Health. Vernier, Switzerland: International Centre for Migration and Health.

Deshingkar, P. (2006). Internal Migration, Poverty and Development in Asia: Including the Excluded. IDS Bulletin, 37(3), 88-100.

Duckett, M. (2001). Migrants’ rights to health. Geneva: UNAIDS.

Guest, P. (2003). Bridging the Gap: Internal Migration in Asia. Paper presented at the Conference on African Migration in Comparative Perspective.

IOM (2009). Healthy Migrants, Healthy Thailand: A migrants Health Program Model. Bangkok: International Organization for Migration.

Sciortino, R., & Punpuing, S. (2009). INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION IN THAILAND 2009. Bangkok: International Organization for Migration.

Stilwell, B., Diallo, K., Zurn, P., Vujicic, M., Adams, O., & Poz, M. D. (2004). Migration of health-care workers from developing countries: strategic approaches to its management. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82(8), 595-600.

Sundquist, J. (2001). Migration, equality and access to health care services. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 691-692.

United Nations (2003). Levels and Trends of International Migration to Selected Countries in Asia. New York: United Nations

WHO (2003). International Migration, Health and Human Rights (No. 4). Geneva: World Health Organization.

Anorexia is seen as deviant because it defined as an illness. People literally starve themselves at times. It is a world known behaviors especially in women. Many women become victims to anorexia due to society and the media creating the “perfect” body for people. (deviance sociology) this is mentioned in the functionalist theory which looks at society.

Obesity people are seen as deviant because people stereotype them as lazy, slobs and ugly. Medically overweight people are those who are 20 percent over their ideal weight. (deviance)

The media is one of the most influential cultures; it can impact individuals and cause society issues. It can impact society negatively due people relying on media for information. (Wright 1986).

How does society define the right weight? If there was no gym or healthy table how would you know if you had the right weight? American Company Metropolitan established the first table of the right weights and height in 1942; it was based on the measurements and life spans of a large number of their clients. (Deviance and social control p. 129).

Healthy people find it easier to get insurance, somebody suffering from obesity or anorexia will struggle to get health insurance.

Women have been stereotyped there image since history could remember. In ninetieth century to be thin signaled nervous exhaustion and lack of fitness to fulfill the ideals of wife and motherhood (Ewen 1988). Only in the 1920’s did the image of women start to change.

Anorexia can be seen as a form of rebellion

A Sociologist’s looks at issues from a different perspective, they focus their attention on social factors. They look at regularities as with all social behavior, it is socially patterned.

Emile Durkheim

Deviance has to do with going against the norms of a particular society. For years it has been discussed how celebrities and their super slim bodies have tainted the self-image of the very impressionable youths. We have reached a point where eating disorders have saturated the adolescent population and as such society has expressed their disgust. Previously it was a topic that was avoided as much as possible but the realization has come forth that the only way to attack this problem is head-on. As such, a very negative stigma has been placed on eating disorders especially anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. This stigma has caused those affiliated with the act to be viewed as deviants and treated as such. They are institutionalized so that they can be rehabilitated and released back into society when it is thought that they can function normally.

The Interactionist Perspective emphasizes things such as peer pressure, the influence of role models, and the role of peer groups on an individual (Adler and Adler 49). Because people often associate with others who are similar to themselves, the obese person’s peer group becomes many other obese people. Often, these people reinforce each other’s eating and exercise habits, as well as beliefs concerning obesity. It becomes an acceptable practice to eat often and poorly as well as not exercise. These peer groups perform the function of support and acceptance, making the obese person feel better about him/herself. The group even allows its members to feel a sense of normalcy about themselves. Outside of this peer group, however, these people are seen as deviant.

According to McLorg and Taub, as a part of developing the deviant identity, people experience both primary and secondary deviance (Adler and Adler 247-250). Between these stages is societal reaction. In primary deviance, the person violates norms that do not affect self-concept or social role performance. In this stage, the person overeats, but has not yet begun showing signs of being overweight or obese. They do not feel differently about themselves. Between stages, the person begins to be visibly deviant, and is labeled obese by society. In secondary deviance, the person deviates in response to society’s having labeled them. Once this has occurred, the obese person internalizes that identity and begins to interact with others in such a fashion. It affects his or her self-concept and social roles. One begins to associate with others like him/herself. At this point, the deviant has achieved a new status that defines him/her. Additionally, the people surrounding the deviant often expect the person to fulfill the deviant role.

Deviance is not the person who is being breaking the rules but the social groups who apply those rules. The deviant behavior is who labels the people (Becker 1963:9).

According to downs 1999 labelling theory has had a dramatic impact on social policy. It stresses the negative consequences of societal reactons to deviance that have more to do wth stigmatizing outsiders than attempting to prevent crime. Obesity can be considered deviant due to its societal reaction. Obesity is visibly deviant, therefore, making it easier for the labeling process to occur. Once the obese person has been labeled, he or she is deviant. besity has become statistically an average behavior in the United States. Nevertheless, it is still “abnormal.” The norm stands that thinness is attractive and worthy (Adler and Adler, 245). So long as this norm is upheld, obesity will be deviant and people will be labeled for their deviance and inability to conform.

Also, it has been noted in a study done by Hammarlund et al, that poor family functioning and parental control are risk factors contributing to childhood obesity. Adult obesity is often rooted in childhood obesity making it harder to lose weight later in life (Wardlaw 324).

Deviant behaviour is pathological in that it repents the viollateion of shared norkms

(Elliott et al. 1985) have shown thast young people behaviour needs to be understood in terms of immediate goals (such as doing well in school, being popular and being successful in sporot) as well as long term economic success ( Lawson snd heaton 1999:58).

Women are taught that image is their master status and that those who do not meet a lofty

standard will be branded as inferior or unfit (or in the words of Tepperman, citing Erving

Goffman, “stigmatized”. [Tepperman, 52])

Becker 1963:9:

What kinds people commit deviant acts (Roach Anleu 2006:26).

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sujpport claims

use the sociological models to organize the argument

atleasst 10 references

It further questions why, given those definitions, some people come to be defined as deviant, and what consequences this has for them (downes 1999:223).

Girls as young as six or seven years of age react to being labeled. This labeling often

originates when mothers pressure their young daughters into becoming aware of their

physical appearance. (ibid) This image pressure can range from nominally harmless activities

like encouraging children to play with make-up and dresses to overtly telling a “chubby” child

that she should lose weight. By enshrining image and appearance near the top of the child’s

list of cultural goals, mothers often render their daughters susceptible to further and perhaps

more harmful pressures from other sources in their adolescent years.

Mertonian Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism are only two of the many

sociological perspectives that make substantial contributions to our understanding of eating

disorders

One particular example of research that an SI sociologist might perform would be an examination of the “intervention” process. Many individuals who are perceived to suffer from a psychological illness, including those related to body image such as obesity and anorexia, are subject to interventions and confrontations by their friends and family.

During an intervention, a wide variety of social sources attempt to get the subject to admit to having a problem. This strategy of confrontation is not unlike the way that psychiatric hospital staff treat patients who insist they are not actually ill, as developed David Rosenhan’s famous study that utilized SI paradigms. (Rosenhan)

Since the beginning of Human Rights until recent Human Rights issues, the interpretation and concept of Human Rights have been diversified significantly. Western construct have played a big role in the creation of Human Rights and in questioning the meaning of ‘universal’ rights. “The rights one has because one is human” is a clear and concise meaning of human rights, which is an appurtenance to an individual, where certain parts are not included, such as benefits. The western ideology of Human Rights have greatly inputted in Human Rights through various concepts that have been introduced to non western societies. These various concepts of western construct have influenced Universal Human Rights, where western politics have greatly altered the concept of Human Rights, also through colonisation which is particularly affected Indigenous communities, and by western cultures and societies. The western construct of Human Rights is eminently viewed in Human Rights, which are present in both western and non western societies.

Human Rights have gradually been altered and changed to insert western values and political thoughts into non-western states and societies. The western political emphasis for “the right to development and to freedom from hunger” is predominate in Africa as a rightYet, some of these rights do not correlate within societies in Africa. In result of this, many African leaders repudiated western political emphasis of Human Rights into their societies and designed their own Human Rights Charter, or also known as the “African (Banjul) Charter on Human Rights”, to suit their society.3 Even though the African Charter was created to suit the African society, western political influence is still clearly evident in the charter. “Individual freedoms and rights as values” has lost its significance in non western political thought, which is much of a variance, though non western societies have trouble determinating this significance that would be easier in western societies. Political influence is widely viewed in Human Rights and it influences the rights that are also used in non western societies.

The western concept was also brought through colonisation and it too affected the Human Rights significantly. It is how the western ideology was introduced in non western societies. Colonialism creates the basis and idea of Human Rights throughout history. The colonisation of certain states that have Indigenous People has influenced the Human Rights that are present in their societies. The fleet that arrived in countries with Indigenous People, particularly Australia, were asserted in the Indigenous Community without their permission, thus resulting in ascendancy in the communities. Bringing “civilisation” and “the religion of Christianity” was a priority for the fleet, to introduce them with their style of Human Rights. Though, this occurrence ended in a bloody way by killing and damaging many of the Indigenous People in order to universalise “universal moral values.” Indigenous People were greatly affected through colonisation all due to insertion of western construct of Human Rights, which resulted in many casualties questioning whether basic Human Rights have been breached just for introducing the western construct of Human Rights.

The post colonisation period, many Indigenous people have been ridiculed and degraded in society. Many rights, which are of western construct, are evident in the Indigenous society, where it lacked some rights or in some cases the rights did not fit in. Group rights, which are rights intended for a group of people, created problems in the Indigenous community. Group rights were mainly to do with economy and social class, rather than individual problems such as racism and ethnicity. Some speculate that if the existence of Group Rights was not evident, “ethnic integration” would not have been as difficult, and an end to “ethnic hostility” would have been seen.6 Indigenous People are seen to be excluded from the “social life” and “economic opportunity”, through practical questions such as “why are their health conditions worse?” et cetera. Only a handful of governments apologised to the Indigenous People, which brought them closer to the western society and the reconciliation process was starting to take effect.6 Colonisation was seen to affect Indigenous Communities and result in western rights implemented into their societies.

Through colonisation, western culture has been introduced and changed, through Human Rights, in non western societies and cultures. It differs greatly from the cultures evident in non western societies. Indigenous Rights, in Latin America, was seen to be the main priority. It focused on the state abusing the Indigenous people and pushing for Indigenous people to have rights to their land and culture The Spanish community and people in Latin America have been introducing western culture into the Indigenous community of Latin America, thus implementing the Human Rights as a western construct. It is evident that in Universal Human Rights, the “cultural imperialism” is dominant by the west. The argument brought by Fernando Teson is that domination of certain attitudes seen in cultures, are accordingly “appropriate” and “moral. Another point Teson argues is that “ethnocentrism” that relativists view are not supplying the same basic rights to “non western cultures” as opposed to the “western cultures” receiving those rights. Western culture has been a big influence in the non-western cultures and societies, it change the rights significantly in the non western society and adapted the western idea and thought but in the same time the western construct of rights was viewed differently in the non western cultures.

The western society has also greatly impacted on the non western society, with the influence of western life and living which altered the Human Rights, and thus impacting it on the non western society. Human Rights, to a certain extent, accepts the idea that they are “rights of the human in society”. In 1789 the French recognised and stated the fundamentals of Human Rights which are evident in society, suggests that society too is in power to deliberate those rights, stating that western society can change and dismantle any specific right in any society.Edmund Bourke creates one of the most protruding “historical criticism” of the notion that Universal Human Rights derives from western construct and western societies that are implemented into non western societies. He argues that the French revolution changed the rights of many individuals and groups in society into a western for of rights. Bourke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France”, states a large argument of “traditional communities” and problems in “traditional values”, such as “religion and loyalty”, creates problems, disorder and integrity of western societies, thus the western societies alter many of the rights in order to suit their desires and to comply with the way they live Western society has changed many of the traditional concepts in non western society, thus the western society impacting greatly on non western societies with Human Rights.

It is evident that the western construct has greatly impacted and significantly changed and altered the idea of Human Rights. These Human Rights are being implemented into non western societies, and the eastern oriental community are having to follow these concepts and ideas. The ironic title of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is much seen as a western creation of Human Rights. The examples shown in this essay argues the idea of western construct in the universal human rights through various factors such as politics, culture, colonisation and society.

Sociology is the understanding of the human society, which this essay is forcing more towards the sociology among family members. Moving on into studies to explore the various solutions on how things around the context of a family can feed off each other. Things like spatial qualities that will affect the family’s social interaction. Exploring into different avenues in the design contexts like the balances between the private and public spaces within a home to solve the issue of bonding and interaction. An in-dept analysis of a few different case studies, local and international will to help understand and broaden the perspective of the various practical techniques on how this few designers explore the spatial quality to prove the point that spatiality do plays a part in the social interaction among family members. Therefore the main objective is to express the point that sociology is the aim and the dream of reviving once more the closeness, warmness and most harmonious type of socialization bond between family members.

The main definition of sociology is a series of development; structure and a functioning of understanding the human society. Therefore from the understanding of the word, looking into the various possibility of the definition, expanding into sub issues that will lead back to sociology. One of them is social problem, problems that occur in society around us no matter being in a big or small society. The reason for this problem to occur is due to the fact that each individual member of a society in this case focusing more into the family circle group, that lives close enough together will have conflicts. It is virtually impossible to avoid having conflicts among close family member who are staying together in the same house. They do not always get along seamlessly as each individual has their own unique character. From this sector it is important to acknowledge that social problems will affect the social interaction within the family society. Hence social interaction is another possibility section that will lead back to sociology. The in-depth studies of the importance of social interaction will be illustrated in the next part of this essay. But in the mean time from these two various possible issues in sociology, conclusion can be made that sociology is the aim and the dream of reviving once more the closeness, warmness and most harmonious type of socialization bond between family members. From this conclusion further studies will be made to explore the various solution on how other things around the context of a family can feed off each other. Things like spatial qualities that will affect the family’s social interaction. Exploring into different avenues in the design contexts like the balances between the private and public spaces within a home to solve the issue of bonding and interaction. Moving on further into the essay studies will be made on a few different case studies, local and international. These case studies will to help understand and broaden the perspective of the various practical techniques on how this few designers explore the spatial quality to prove the point that spatiality do plays a part in the social interaction among family members. Allowing the family to socialize without being intermitted. Theories will be presented to support the study of how spatiality is blend with sociology. Therefore this essay will elaborated the in-depth understanding of a few key points that will help achieve the main objective for a closeness, warmness and harmonious family lifestyle in a home.

Sociology

The term social interaction refers to particular forms of externalities, in which the actions of the family members affect an individual’s preferences. Therefore, the observation of large differences in outcomes is the balance between the interpersonal dynamics and the home environment. It is critical to organize the effectiveness of interaction that happens among the family member. From this many of social interactions exhibit strategic complementarities, which occur when the marginal utility to one person of undertaking an action is increasing with the average amount of the action taken by one family member. Consequently, a change in fundamentals has a direct effect on behavior and an indirect effect of the same sign. The direct effect on behavior will change toward the direct change in fundamentals. Although the family is made up of a group of very like-mindful people, there are still certain ways to control the functionality of the family and the behaviors within them, which make individual family distinguishable from others. In the case the head of the family will of course be the father following with the mother second, as a partner they are to set a good example in their sociality among each other so that the children’s at home will also be influence by their action and behavior, sometime unknowingly. Therefore, the father as the head of the family is the one who keeps order by setting rules and enforcing on them. Hence if a family does not have the sociality quality in their values it will have a chain reaction in their behavior, leading the family to face more sociology problems causing their behavior to influence other society out there being in their working environment or their friends in schools. Social interaction can also seen in the way of which it is an action that will lead up to a reaction. It is not only a one-way traffic but it takes two parties to work holistically together to achieve the successful outcome. There are sustain hierarchy within the family society and each family member has his or her societal roles to play. There is some ideal issue that the family should study or know. They should distinguish between the understanding of a correlation of the individual characteristics within the family society, to the influences of the society that occur outside the boundaries of the home allow the family to recognize the key traits that from their own unique family society. Therefore, ” Bott (1957: 99) argues that the immediate social environment of urban families are best considered, ‘not as the local area in which they live, but rather as the network of actual social relational maintain, regardless of whether these are confined to the local area or run beyond its boundaries.” From this argument maintaining an active social interaction within the family help balance a healthy social relationship among individual family members. Hence is will also decrease the tension in the interaction of matters in their socialization bring together a number of elements such as solidarity, commitment, mutuality and trust. By having this healthy social relationship, no boundaries will be generated, allowing them to have the two-way traffic of interaction. Another point that will help maintain this healthy social relationship is the physical spatial environment.

Form the research that was made, physical spatial environment do play a part in determining the interaction with social space that will affect the human’s social behaviors and the ability of a social individual to influence others. These spatial elements such as the buffer zones between the private and general space, surveillance within the family and shares the common pathways that affect the social interaction in the house. These buffer zones are flexible to change over the physical function such, as it can be a formal social interaction area or an informal one. On the other hand segregation of spaces can also be a part of a family that from this separation they will function better as a whole. There are some activities that individuals will be far more comfortable performing them in their own space. As Schelling [1978] demonstrated that when an individual can chose the location and the presence of these interactions. Results in segregation across spaces may occur, even in situation where the typical individual would be content to live in integrated space, which in this solution are their own individual rooms. Therefore, to my opinion a statement can be made that spatial quality does influence the social behaviors unknowingly.

Design

Behavior comes to mind as a recurrent theme in our interests, overlapping concerns such as the architecture expression and their complexity of the relationship that capital and generational change. Hence, it is an attempt to understand the patterns and influence of the transformation of behavior over time. Behavior could also be the central to a hypothesis, which is the understanding of the correlations between the human life, nature and the built environment. Each individual building can be viewed as a sentient creature, endowed with their own unique intelligence and a defining set of living characteristics. Analyzing the input from research, physical design does influence social interaction in a static way by some of these factors.

Firstly, is the informal social factor, factor that focus on the social dynamic that is the relationship between individuals and individual in groups. Secondly, is the formal social factor, which is the management of communal spaces that allows interaction to occur. Thirdly, the personal factors that is the pro-community and the pro-socializing attitude with similar values and norms. Lastly, the physical design factors, which is the density of proximity. The division of spaces that has a buffering zone between the private and general spaces, the shared pathways is one for the factor that affects social interaction among family members. Another factor is the communal spaces that have the quality and accessibility to allow family member to come together as one to have common activities together with out feeling intimidated. Therefore, how the family members perceive and understand the physical environment can determine the frequency and quality of their social interaction.

The psychosocial ‘buffer zone’ between individuals and the physical environment plays an important role in determining how the interaction unfolds. The social interaction and the layout of space reciprocally influence each other. The plan is the generator that has order and willfulness; it also holds itself the essence of sensation. The mass and surfaces are elements by which architecture manifests itself. Therefore, the mass and surfaces are determined by the plan. The plan is at its basis. As Le Courbusier quote “Without plan there can be neither grandeur of aim and expression, nor rhythm, nor mass, nor coherence.” Therefore the plan is calls for the most active imagination and the critical discipline too. What determines everything is the plan as the among of interaction the family will achieve or the social problems that the family will face. Therefore, to make a plan is to determine the main objective and fix ideas. Looking at the Schroeder house for inspiration, it is a house that perfectly demonstrates how spaces could help bring family member together to share and have their social interaction bond. It is a house, which have the plan-less idea that has been a very powerful idea in the development of architecture since modernism. The transformable and plan-less idea allows a logical way of working whereby the members are either all having their private spaces of they are all gathered in to one common space. The study of the plan informed us that is can be achieved by simply having partitions, that can be moved in a manner such that the spaces could only make sense when every family member is having the same kind of privacy level. From this way of planning it will increase the social interaction among member in the family, as they are unknowingly focus to work and interact in a common space.

The balance between the common spaces that is open incorporates the focus point of the main house. The expression of ‘openness’ and ‘closeness’ can also be achieved through the careful alignment of furniture with the help of openings and walls. Furniture acts as a jig, positioning the human body to react, while sharing the same space together. It supports and encourages social interaction by the arrangement in space to remove barriers between family members. It is also good to have the design element such as blurring the boundaries between the human life, nature and the built environment.

Case Studies

Local

Looking all the back into history on the planning of the traditional kampong houses in Singapore, how they are layout as a community to maximum the social interaction among families living there. The kampong were layout in the way where they will have a common areas in which people gathered, mixed around and spend time with each other. Spaces flow into each other freely with few boundaries or obstructions. The kampong with no physical barriers allows a flexibility in accommodate two or more needs of extending when needed, which is not available in our modern housing estate today. Studying in-depth for the interior layout of a kampong enable us to see that the architecture plays with a lot of voids, opening and have an open plan with minimum partition.

This self-drawn diagram is my analysis of a kampong house. The house can be broken down into three sectors. First sector acts as a transition space between the open public and private sectors. It is also the sector where the family will entertain their guests. The second sector will be the private area where all the private family activities happen. The living area is a common open area where family members are able to see the movement of each other. Lastly will the kitchen, the reason of having a bridge that separate the living area and the kitchen is because the kitchen is often used by the woman’s community as a space where they can chat and socialize therefore the bridge is there to set the boundaries for the public. The kitchen is also a semi-private area because there is a second entrance from the back to access to the house. From this analysis, we can see that the layout of a typical kampong house has a clear hierarchy system that segregates the public zone and the private living area. We can adapt a few key points from this study, the hierarchy system and the open plan that they have.

Moving on to the study of our modern HDB flats. HDB was first development to replace the kampong living style in February 1960. The reason for doing so was Singapore was facing an acute housing shortage at that period of time. Therefore, the government decided to build HDB units for the low-income group of people. Through the years residences had to adapt to the emphasis of the housing program, the shifted from quantity of housing to quantity of life. Studying the typical interior layout of a modern HDB allows me to understand better why family now a day space lesser social interaction time with each other. The reason is that the spaces within a house layout is clearly defined by solid walls which break the visual connect that is an important part that allows social interaction to happen. The percentage of the common area in the house is always lower than the percentage compared to the individual private space. But however, common corridor does exist in some HDB units but the function of it seems to just be a connector to the private spaces rather then a space where family members interact. Is there a problem with the size of the corridors, giving the prescription as just a path for walkway and not a space to interact?

Comparing this two local case studies, the traditional kampong house to our modern HDB flats we can see that the quantity of living is different. As for the modern house, we have family members that are all separated from one another by walls, which discourage interaction and by not interacting family member will lose the healthy socialization values. Compared to the traditional kampong layout where they have an open living and common space where visualization are not broken among family members.

International Case Studies

The project for a brick country house done by Mies Van de Rohe in 1923 demonstrates the idea of using walls to divide the space but does not go as far as to divide them off into rooms. By doing this it suggests spatial divisions by setting up relationship with the site from within. On the other hand, his Barcelona Pavilion of 1929, uses walls as the element to set up views and suggest spaces but they are not dividing the space as the whole pavilion is open-air. Compared to the Schroder House that as built in 1924, by Gerrit Rietvield. Different method has been used to demonstrate the plan-less theory. In this case, all the main services are positioned on the perimeter of the house and next to them are retracted sliding partitions, which can be pulled out to divide the spaces into rooms. Such as the space acquires more possibilities, compared to when the screens are close, there is no one name to label the spaces. However, these walls provide only a certain amount of prescribed flexibility. If these walls are completely independent of the structure, the moveable walls will become screens, which is essentially furniture. Therefore, western architecture has various ways and method to tackle the issue of social interaction. The freedom within the layout of the interior allows ways to alter to one’s needs hence it is adaptable to the engender bonding between the occupants and the building through continuous physical involvement. By doing this the interaction level within the family can be adjustable to the function that is formed at anytime opening up the partition to allow each family member to remain the visual connect that will allow social interaction to happen. Not knowing focusing them to start a conversation as there is isn’t any physical wall.

Interestingly enough in Japan, the Japanese traditional house takes on an entirely different attitude to spatial division and living pattern. While planned as the same meaning as the Western architecture, walls do not. In a typical Japanese screened house, the rooms other than the service rooms have on one purpose. Within these the functions takes on the meaning of the activity that is performed and their functions can be changeable with the activities. Quoted from Nishihara explanation of the difference of the Western thinking compared to the Japanese thinking is “the Western thinks in terms of function and makes his rooms accordingly, whereas the Japanese simply set up zones.” In Japan, when it is time for dining, a portable table and food will be brought out; when it’s working time a writing desk will be taken out; and when it is time for bed, bedding that are typically stored in the cupboard will be unrolled and rolled back to be stored in the morning. Leaving the space to be purposeless and multi-purpose at once.

From these two case studies, we can see the how two different cultures approach the understanding of an open-less plan concept. Here is an illustration of the comparison diagram between the Japanese concept and the western concept.

Image taken from,

Works Cited & Bibliography

Work Cited

http://www.helium.com/items/629105-family-values-the-importance-of-strong-family-bonds

http://www.doccentre.org/docsweb/urban-issues/hawkers/hawkers13.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/sby/sby02.htm

http://www.sageofasheville.com/primary_prevention.html

http://www.fashioncentral.pk/living-lifestyle/home-garden/story-25-home-interior-decoration/

http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/2007/11/au_students_debate_the_interne.php

http://www.malaysiasite.nl/kampong.htm

http://www.infed.org/community/community.htm

http://www.sjsu.edu/people/thomas.leddy/courses/c2/s1/Le_Courbusier.doc

Poverty is a global phenomenon that affects the whole world specially the developing nations. Poverty has affected millions of people suffering from hunger and thirst. Food, clean water, shelter and clothing are the basic needs for an individual to survive. However, people under poverty line have no access to these basic needs maybe due to economic reasons or other factors. According to Gilbert (2004), absolute poverty is the condition of people whose incomes are too low to satisfy their most basic needs (p. 3). Almost half of the world-over three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day (Global Issues, 2013). Poverty is a social issue that needs to be understood how certain class of people were able to cope under certain situation. Sociology bears the importance of helping me to understand poverty by applying sociological concept. Poverty has existed centuries ago and up to now it is still evident in recent society. As a society with interconnected parts, poverty affects not only a single person but rather the rest of the community. It is interesting to learn the different facets that contribute to poverty and how sociological perspective can be of use in understanding this dilemma.

Illiteracy is one factor that contributes to poverty. Without proper education, people would find it hard to look for a decent job to sustain its everyday consumption and expenses. Generally, if a person cannot read and write, jobs correlating to his qualification would depend on his abilities. Poverty affects the nation economically and pulls the nation behind compared with other industrialized nation. Illiteracy brings down a society to poverty leading to widespread hunger and malnutrition. For instance, according to Igboanusi (2014), there are eight West African countries listed among the lowest ten countries in the world with regards to literacy rates including Burkina Fuso, Niger, Sierra Leone, Benin, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, and Guinea (p. 83). These are also the poorest countries in the world- an obvious indication that poverty rates and illiteracy rates are closely connected (Igboanusi, 2014, p. 83).

The social-conflict approach is a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change (Macionis, Jansson & Benoit, 2013, p. 12). Applying this sociological concept means that there is an unequal distribution of wealth between the rich and the poor which creates conflict among developing nations. The inequality between the two dimensions creates a gap which makes the poor becomes poorer and the rich becomes richer. To cite a specific example would be my country where I came from, the Philippines. In the Philippines, people who are in authority holds the power and through their power they take advantage of the poor. Philippine elected politicians use their position to benefit themselves like pocketing the money allotted for public development funds. Recently, there were three Philippine Senators who were charge with graft and plunder cases for taking part in monopolizing the priority development assistance fund (Cayabyab, 2014. para. 1). Also charged is alleged mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, whose bogus non-government organization were allegedly used as dummy fronts to pocket billions of public funds through ghost projects (Cayabyab, 2014, para. 6). Though recently, President Aquino’s administration has been combating enormously to counter corruption in the Philippines and seeks transparency in all government activities. Looking back to social-conflict approach, the inequality between the rich and the poor creates conflict and change in the same way as it is portrayed in the Philippine government. In addition, poverty is a difficult thing to address unless there is a balance and equal opportunity given to all people.

The Feminism and Gender-Conflict approach is a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between men and women (Macionis, Jansson & Benoit, 2013, p. 13). Feminism, in my opinion, seeks to find equality between two genders as not to place one gender ahead of the other. In my understanding, gender-conflict approach means that there is a preference of one gender over the other in terms of opportunity and employment sector. A specific example is the nation Botswana. Poverty in Botswana is a gender-based problem that disproportionately affects men and women (Raditloaneng & Mulenga, 2003, p. 5). The feminization of poverty is based on measures of poverty as they relate to male and female headed households (Raditloaneng & Mulenga, 2003, p. 6). These measures include income, head count ratios, and poverty sector approaches to gender-based poverty (Raditloaneng & Mulenga, 2003, p. 6). Women and female headed households tend to suffer poverty and economic marginalization more acutely than male-headed households in Botswana (Raditloaneng & Mulenga, 2003, p. 6).

Furthermore, Gilbert (2004) states that women experience a higher rate of poverty than men the world over (p. 179). When we measure poverty by the standard of “capabilities,” rather than simply income, the gender gap appears even wider, since females have less access to education, are often legally disadvantaged compared to males, and in many parts of the developing world do not yet have an equal voice in the political process (Gilbert, 2004, p. 179).

The race-conflict approach is a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories (Macionis, Jansson &Benoit, 2013, p. 14). In my opinion, race-conflict approach means that there is a prejudice among selected people when it comes to origin and background especially to the colored people. They are less regarded in term of employability. This approach relates to underprivileged black people in history wherein they were denied their rights. According to Baldwin & Johnson (1996), “when labor supply curves are upward-sloping, wage discrimination against black men reduces not only their relative wages but also their relative employment rates (p. 302). Intersectional research highlights how barriers to employment for low-income Black women are symptomatic of their double-jeopardy, due to marginalized racial and gender identities (Branch & Scherer, 2013, p. 355). Employment options available to black women were characterized by instability, exploitation, and invisibility (Branch & Scherer, 2013, p. 355). Driven by economic interests combined with assumptions shaped by gender and race, those in power actively blocked black women from entering better jobs time after time (Duffy, 2013, p. 1130). Though this perception has been casted out in our modern society. I believe in equality to all people whatever their race or ethnicity.

In conclusion, seeing a society in a sociological perspective helps me to understand the relationship among individuals and the society he lives in. It gives me a broader idea that a society is an interconnected network of people and people live together and creates their own culture, tradition, and ways of living through interaction. Different sociological theory or approach should be analyzed and understood to be able to relate to what is happening in our present surrounding why people behave in that manner and even sociological events that happen in the past. Likewise, poverty issue is a complex matter that encompasses a lot of sociological concept. It means that to be able to see it in a sociological perspective, I should consider using various approach to be able to understand the culture behind poverty and its consequences to people.

References

Baldwin, M. L., & Johnson, W.G. (1996). The Employment Effects of Wage Discrimination Against Black Men. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 49(2), 302-316.

Branch, E., & Scherer, M. (2013). Mapping the Intersections in the Resurgence of the Culture of Poverty. Race, Gender & Class, 20(3/4), 346-358.

Cayabyab, M.J. (2014). Ombudsman files graft charges vs Napoles, Revilla, Estrada, and

Revilla: Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net

/609757/ombudsman-files-graft-charges-vs-napoles-revilla-estrada-enrile

Duffy, M. (2013). Opportunity denied: Limiting Black Women to Devalued Work. The American Journal of Sociology, (4), 1129.

Galbraith, J. (1979). The Nature of Mass Poverty. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Gilbert, G. (2004). World Poverty: Contemporary World Issues. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO Inc.

Igboanusi, H. (2014). The Role of Language Policy in Poverty Alleviation in West Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2014(225), 75-90. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2013-0066.

Macionis, J., Jansson, S. M., & Benoit, C. (2013). Society the Basics. Ontario, Canada: Pearson Canada Inc.

Raditloaneng, W., & Mulenga, D. (2003). Rethinking Poverty and Illiteracy: A case study of Botswana’s Urban Women. Convergence, 36(2), 5-27.

Shah, A. (2013). Poverty Facts and Stats: Global Issues. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Cultural artefact has recently become the main study within the sociology department, due to the research sociological interest in fashion is increasing. Cultural artefact is the influence that is produced through our unawareness responses and attitudes toward the society. Hence fashion is important resource that illustrates the reflection of the current society or the era, at the same time individuals form and create their personal aspects of unique identity. Through this context, Crane (2000) who studied the social role in fashion states the fascination of the subject where one interprets their purpose about specific form of culture through clothing. In fact, appropriate appearance was the common powerful example of manifestation at point of time. Furthermore, style of clothing or fashion is the indication of the social status and gender, which strongly influences either maintaining or breaking down the symbolic boundaries.

According to Bourdieu, societies reinforce their distance or differentiate themselves from other classes through tastes, which is determined and maintained by the dominant of symbolic hierarchy. Thus, taste becomes ‘social ammunition’ that defines and retrains cultural objects; legitimate from the illegitimate, hence, in the lights of taste formation of fashion, this would be high fashion from the mass fashion (Bourdieu, 1995).

This essay focuses on to explain Bourdieu’s theory of consumer taste and formation where fashion is applied strategically. Finkelstein notes that “fashion is an organisation of knowledge based on restricted access to goods and services” (Finkelstein, 1998:80), and that the ability to recognize the fashionable reflects an actor’s cultural capital. This is illustrated perfectly in the work of Joanne Entwistle and Agnes Rocamora, ‘The Field of Fashion Materialized: A Study of London Fashion Week’ which has aided me greatly in exemplifying Bourdieu’s key concepts of the field, capital and habitus in amplifying our consumer preferences in fashion. In this essay, I will attempt to clearly define the concept of field, habitus and capital and how these concepts are used to understand the social phenomena particular to fashion.

Bourdieu’s theory is in continuous subject of interest, which is characterised by the ‘cultural reproduction’ or ‘cultural capital’. Especially, it is evaluated that his forms of capital has brought a fundamental shift through bridging Marxist’s distinction of class with Weber’s cultural status to his theory. Bourdieu has distinguished that within the competitive society, the forms of capital are classified as implements according to various activities. Hence important concept introduced by Bourdieu is that of ‘capital’, which he encompasses beyond the notion of material assets to capital that may be social, cultural or symbolic (Bourdieu 1986: cited in Navarro 2006: 16). The period from material to cultural and the symbolic forms of capital is the majority, which conceal the foundation of inequality. Furthermore, Bourdieu states that there are three crucial mechanisms in the forms of capital in class reproduction. Thus ‘economic capital’, the foundation of the structural class and based on this creation and standing in the invariable condition, will provide the ‘cultural capital’ and ‘social capital’ to convert into economic capital. “Cultural capital – and the means by which it is created or transferred from other forms of capital – plays a central role in societal power relations, as this provides the means for a non-economic form of domination and hierarchy, as classes distinguish themselves through taste” (Gaventa 2003: 6).

The most important contribution and emphasis in Bourdieu’s capital awareness is an ability to distinguish the capital which could not be captured with only economic capital in the reproducing mechanism of social class. These forms of capital are equally significant, and can be accumulated and transferred from one arena to another (Navarro 2006: 17). Bourdieu stresses the common feature of the cultural and social capital, which is used without distinguishing them. Due to the following reasons, two types of capitals are applied strongly as the mechanism of the production, where the social justice was approved. First of all, to be able to possess these two capitals requires long-term investment; therefore people who are attempting to raise their class may experience difficulty in overcoming these obstacles. Secondly, unlike economic capital, it is difficult to qualify and for the social members to recognise the role of their capital visualisation within the social production. Therefore, the possessions of the cultural / social capital are related to the ability of generating the diversion in the social status and cultural preferences in the large community, which by all means fashion. Fashion itself state’s one’s social class, which strongly relates to Bourdieu’s idea of social capitalism. “fashion is treated as a cultural subject, in which most emphasis is on fashion as a badge or a means of identity.” (P. Braham, 1997, p.121) However, relationship between class and fashion can be divided in two opinions, agreeing to emphasis correspondence view to disagreeing, in terms of preferences in clothing and fashion is symbolically expressed to differentiate the status of class. In addition, looking through Bourdieu’s concept of capital, there are two theories, which apply with the correspondence of emphasising the association between class and fashion. One focused on the relation with economic capital and fashion, the other being the cultural capital and fashion. Furthermore, the opposing views signify the connection between different characteristics other than class to fashion.

Within the significance of focusing the relationship between fashion and economic capital to class and fashion, there is a common concept by Simmel known as the ‘Trickle Down theory’, which illustrates the clothing act and fashion. Simmel perceived fashion as the product, which the economic capital is the foundation of structural class. He also at the time identified the ‘Paris fashion’ as the dynamic interclass mimicry and desire of many kinds. Since the lower class continuously mimic the upper class, the upper classes are in need to search for the new mode to differ from others. Thus, according to Simmel (1997), fashion can be seen faddish, however, the flow of the communication from ‘top to bottom’ is considered to be persistent. Moreover, after the WWI, the aesthetics of functional ready-to-wear products were introduced; hence the opposing of the ‘top to bottom’ flow became the movement of Western fashion history.

Veblen’s ‘conspicuous consumption’ model is in attention with the itemised consumption within the fashion, which is idealised with the revelation of individual’s economical capital. His work on ‘The theory of the leisure class’ (1899-1983) introduces the first response of ‘conspicuous consumption’ as the development of criticising an idea for the America’s capital concept in profligacy. Veblen’s states the one’s reputation is represented by the ownership and conspicuousness, which provokes jealousy and symbolises the level of wealth within the group. Furthermore, the typical variation are established in upper-class, for example, one’s idleness of spending inconvenient production of time, sophisticated preferences, manners, lifestyle, and so on. All of the above examples are the necessity of time and expenses shown through the economic capital to symbolise one’s ability and status. “Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentlemen of leisure.” (Veblen, 1899/1983)

Veblen argues different view on accepting the class of trend to Simmel. Thus, opposing to accepting new style in order to expose the indication of the discrimination between the lower-class to the community who aims to raise their social standing, the group of society in foundation to inherit the stabilised high status has relatively low tendency of interest in the latest fashion. These analyses has provided with the evidence of people’s motivation on accepting fashion. This leads to Bourdieu’s primary idea of ‘Habitus’; the text ‘La Distinction’ demonstrates the manifestation of habitus. Habitus is considered as one of Bourdieu’s most influential concept in his studies. The concept refers to our physical action such as, habits, characteristics, and abilities that we acquire throughout our life experiences which the idea is based on the cultural capital. In addition, it can also be seen as the structure, which is produced by through our thoughts and movement. This in turn, creates our external social world and structured by the social world. Therefore, habitus can be seen as the collective individuated, through the biological individual. Furthermore, habitus can be similar within groups of people; hence seen as a collective phenomenon. Habitus in fashion can be considered as style, it is depended on one’s characteristic, the era of the society, and one’s social status. This again is emphasised in forms of capital where, without money these types of forms will not exist.

To explain the idea of habitus Bourdieu frequently uses the metaphor from the sports “feel for the game.” Meaning although our body and mind are constantly reminded of our surrounding, without having to consciously acknowledging it, each individuals has an embodied kind of ‘feeling’ of the social positions of themselves. Habitus can also be counted as ‘taste’ for the cultural items such as fashion, art, food and lifestyle. Adapting this into fashion is reasonably obvious, by observing people’s taste in fashion; others are able to identify the mode at the time and also their characteristic, as nowadays individuals use fashion products to reveal their selves. Accordingly, Bourdieu focuses on French society, where all the above cultural items are considered as social class positions. He strongly argues that the artistic sensibilities are surrounded by habitus. For example, the upper-class individuals are able to enjoy the rich culture without any limit compared to others, as they are exposed to the culture since the young age and this becomes their lifestyle unconsciously. Whereas the working-class are too busy and have limited access to the ‘high art’, therefore, they are unaware of such lifestyle. Hence, Bourdieu’s saying ‘feel for the game’ cannot be applied to the working-class, as they are not culturally developed and is unaware of the ‘game’. This same rule also applies in fashion, only the upper-classes are flooded with pre-shows and various kinds of information about trends. After filtering through the ‘designer wears / brands’, it trickles down to the street fashion, which then the working-class have chance to view and follow on with less price. However, the unconscious minds of the working-class have strong need to follow the fashion and tends to over spend on things they do not need, they will never be able to feel and experience same way as the upper-class, therefore their demands are higher and cannot see the bigger picture. These kinds of inequality are mistakenly believed that some are born with finer things in their life compare to others; therefore this is where the middle-class appears. Middle-class society; the new money are introduced to guide the working-class to the better life. Nonetheless, although the middle-class may be wealthier than the working-class, their demands in consuming goods are higher than the upper-class. Before the middle-class was created, the high demands of the working-class was not much, as they were busy with their life and had limitation with their spending from the income. However, when the new money society arrived, they were stuck in between, they hope for the high culture social position, as well as having to work hard to stabilise their lifestyle. Therefore, they are

However according to Navarro “Habitus is not fixed or permanent, and can be changed under unexpected situations or over a long historical period” (Navarro, 2006, p.16)

A third concept that is important in Bourdieu’s theory is the idea of ‘fields’, which are the various social and institutional arenas in which people express and reproduce their dispositions, and where they compete for the distribution of different kinds of capital (Gaventa 2003: 6). A field is a network, structure or set of relationships which may be intellectual, religious, educational, cultural, etc. (Navarro 2006: 18). People often experience power differently depending which field they are in at a given moment (Gaventa 2003: 6), so context and environment are key influences on habitus:

‘While Bourdieu is concerned to pay attention to both struc-ture and practice, his field theory errs too much in the direction of a struc-turalist analysis that neglects to fully document the ways in which fields are reproduced through the enactments of agents in daily practice and localized set-tings’ (Crossley, 2004).

The world we live in is divided up by various kinds of fields. A field is considered as an organised production of characteristic of the social status, which influences the social situation for the society. However, this so-called arrangement and the association with objective status are fixed in forms of capital. Nonetheless the significance of the form of capital lies within the field. In other words ‘capital’ is applied to ensure the position of the agent clear in its field. Hence in the society, the predominant in terms of field is considered as the social status. The social statuses are depended on money, which also plays a major part in the form of capital. The source is able to gain its power and influence by using the capital in certain fields. Therefore, the relation between habitus, fields and capital are the transitional source.

Bourdieu believe that the social world is divided into various fields within every event and subjects, and within those small communities they hold their own set of rules, understanding and forms of capital. Despite the fact that some types of fields may have something in common, Bourdieu distinguishes each type of field as being independent from others. For example, fashion has countless fields; hence, each brand has their uniqueness and there are countless fashion brands which hold relatively similar products. However, although they may have similar designs people undertake those point of view as each brands interpretation of the common. Likewise, Bourdieu’s idea of field lies within these type of division. Although each field holds their own sets of beliefs it is the inevitable fact that they may have something in common, and within those area some field may suffer from loosing competition with other related fields. It is inevitable cycle that goes around any type of field, for instance field of fashion, each generation of designers and producers are required to overturn the well-known artists who came before them. Nonetheless, this cycle continues only to be evaluated by the next new generations of ‘avant-garde’ who also may believe themselves as unique and powerful, therefore this cannot be redeem in any kind of sense. It can be considered as a fact rather than a cycle, this continues competition to win and survive in each field one belongs to, this idea of cycle or fact is crucial. As Boyne (1993: 248) argues, field is a ‘macro-structural concept’, which allowed us to capture the role and socio-temporal orchestration of the event. Thus, in bringing together the field participants into one spatially and temporally bounded event, LFW renders visible, through its orchestration, wider field characteristics, such as field boundaries, positions, position taking, and habitus. This rendering of the field is the key to understanding LFW as a critical moment in the life of the field as a whole. Despite its ostensible aim to simply showcase next season’s fashionable clothing, reproduce and legitimate the field of fashion and the positions of those players within it.

The positions of the agents in the field are determined by the amount and weight of the capitals they have. Field are simultaneously spaces of conflict and competition as agents compete to gain a monopoly in the species of capital that most effective in the particular field. For instance agents in the field of fashion, may use social and economic capital to gain a monopoly on theaˆ¦..

Bourdiu him self conceptualizes field as being more like magnetic fields. These varieties of field each have its own internal logic and regulatory principles govern the ‘game’ on the field.

The most important field though is the field of power. The hierarchy of the power relationship within the political field serves to structure all the other fields. Society then assembled of relatively autonomous sphere of play that cannot be collapsed under any overall social logic, like capitalism, modernity or postmodernity. The very shape and division of it becomes a central stake to the agents. Altering the distribution and relative weight of the different forms of capital within a field become ten a mount to modifying structure of the field. Therefore fields have historical dynamism about them to have merely ability that avoids the determinism of the classical structuralism.

Bourdieu’s theory of capitals, habitus, and fields exist in many form of category in society. However, these types of theories rely on the social status, and by adapting this theory in fashion illustrates that majority of mode relies on money and upper class society. Without, upper class’s experience and adventure in establishing mode, others would not have high chance in experiencing the minimum. This is shown through people’s taste in fashion. Fashion has now become key item to reveal one’s character and social status.

Bourdieu’s form of capital illustrates one’s identity and their social status, habitus is considered as the unconscious mind revealing itself through style. Fields shows the division of social class. “Bourdieu (1980) accounts for the tensions and contradictions that arise when people encounter and are challenged by different contexts. His theory can be used to explain how people can resist power and domination in one [field] and express complicity in another” (Moncrieffe 2006: 37)

Domestic violence is a transgression that takes place regularly all over the world. Domestic violence has been confirmed to be a product of psychological, physical, sexual and mental forms of anguish or suffering. Domestic violence also referred to as spousal abuse or family violence, refers to a pattern of violent behaviors executed by one spouse against another in an intimate affiliation such as courtship, family, matrimony, or who are staying together. In majority of the cases, the abusers seek to gain power and authority upon their victims (Boss, Doherty, LaRossa & Steinmetz, 1993).

Domestic violence occurs in various forms: physical abuse (beating, kicking, cutting, shoving, limiting, slapping, throwing items); emotional abuse; sexual abuse; dictatorship; intimidation; pestering; passive abuse (neglecting); as well as financial deprivation. Other forms of domestic violence include endangerment, criminal oppression, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment, intruding and harassment (Boss, Doherty, LaRossa & Steinmetz, 1993).

Domestic violence is a social issue: women are assumed to be the weaker gender in the society and for this reason, majority of them are the main victims to domestic violence. The magnitude of domestic violence executed on women is more damaging than the type of abuse executed by women (Boss, Doherty, LaRossa & Steinmetz, 1993). Domestic violence has been reported to be passed from one generation one generation to the next. When children witness domestic violence within their homes, they grow up knowing the domestic violence is acceptable and grow to be abusers (Cyleste & Dressier, 2008). For these reasons, it is very important to treat domestic violence as a social problem and appropriate steps should be put in place to eradicate the practice.

Impact of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a punishable offence in majority of the nations and its impact on the society is often tolerated by governments in the form of court overheads and trial related expenses. Additionally, a lot of time and resources is wasted on domestic violence trials and either one or both of the parties often lose their jobs in the process of pursuing the cases (Adelman & Kil, 2007). However, the utmost societal impact is experienced by children that witness and experience the violence while growing up. Social scientists believe that children whose guardians have had an abusive affiliation have a higher possibility of being abusers in their relationships in future. These children mature to be persons that strive for control and power in their relationships; they aim for control by abusing their partners. Power can be defined as the capability to acquire what one desires especially in the presence of an opponent whereas authority refers to the institutionalized legal power. Bearing in mind that children form the future generation, it is dangerous to tolerate domestic violence given that it will spread to the future generations (Adelman & Kil, 2007).

Theories of Domestic Violence

Various social theories and rules have been proposed so as to assist in understanding the reasons behind domestic abuse: symbolic interactionism theory, social conflict theory and Structural Functionalism Theory. The social conflict theory holds that domestic violence occurs in an intimate relationship when one partner possesses more resources than the other partner, so as to compensate for one’s wounded ego, the hurt partner usually resort to violence (Chibucos & Leite, 2005).

On the other hand, the structural functionalism theory holds that domestic violence arises when the government (learning institutions) and the nuclear family fails to appropriately execute its roles. The structural functionalism theory also proposes that domestic violence occurs when women strive to occupy instrumental roles that are meant for men. According to O’Leary K, Smith and O’Leary S (2007), the main victims of domestic violence are women because men seek for an alternative through violence when they cannot occupy the instrumental roles in the society.

The symbolic interactionism theory maintains domestic violence arises when partners in a relationship fail to understand each other’s symbols and meanings. The symbolic interactionism theory maintains that it is very important for the two partners to share symbols and meanings in marriages, otherwise, domestic violence arises (Lehrner & Allen, 2008).

Theories Explaining Domestic Violence
Applied Paper Step 2

Domestic violence is currently on the rise and is normally associated with intimate relations between husband and wife. Different sociologists and researchers have developed different theories that explain the causes of domestic violence. The domestic violence theories explain the reasons behind domestic violence practices and propose solutions to domestic violence. The researchers believed that domestic violence is as a result of control and power issues, whereby the perpetrators felt the need to have control over their partners. Understanding the proposed theories of domestic violence theories will assist in minimizing the domestic violence cases.

Characteristics of Domestic Violence Theory

There are various characteristics that are associated with the domestic violence theories. One common characteristic in all the domestic violence theories is the fact that they present possible reasons behind domestic violence. The theories propose different principles that have to be followed, otherwise, domestic violence arises. The theories mainly suggest that domestic violence is as a result of power, insecurity and control issues. The main purpose of domestic violence according to the theories is evaluation of power; when one party feels inferior, they resort to domestic violence.

Conflict theory

Conflict Theory holds that the society is often in a state of eternal conflict and there is competition for scarce resources. According to the conflict theory, individuals who possess wealth continuously seek to increase their riches at the expense and misery of individuals who do not have wealth. The conflict theory holds that there is a power struggle in the society that is frequently won by the rich elite and often lost by the ordinary person (American Psychological Association, 2010).

Marriage as a social institution contains a variety of resources that may not be equally distributed. Some of the resources include job, talent, repute and money. When one partner lacks the resources, a sense of inferiority complex is generated and thereafter a sense of conflict occurs. When the intensity of conflicts rises, it results to abusive behavior causing domestic violence. Most of the times, conflicts arises in an intimate relationship when one partner possesses a better job than the other, or earns more money than the other partner. So as to compensate for one’s wounded ego, the hurt partner normally resort to domestic violence (Boss, Doherty, LaRossa & Steinmetz, 1993).

Structural Functionalism Theory

According to the Functionalist Theory, the society is often in a continuous state of balance and maintained in that condition through the on-goings of the society. According to the social functionalist theory, men are supposed to hold instrumental position within the society whereas women are expected to occupy expressive roles. Social functionalist theory holds that this arrangement works well to the benefit of the entire society. Domestic violence especially by men is executed so as to offer an alternative when they cannot occupy the instrumental roles in the society.

In functionalism, the nuclear family is considered to be a positive organization that is advantageous to the entire society. The functionalists hold that the nuclear family executes meaningful functions for the benefit of the whole society. The functions include: reproduction whereby the nuclear family produces children that sustains the human race; primary socialization where the nuclear family educates the children about acceptable behavior as well as the acceptable values; economic support whereby the nuclear family offers financial assistance and provides food and shelter to every family member (American Psychological Association, 2010). When these functions are not executed, domestic violence arises. Additionally, people are considered to be the result of the social controls upon them: their relations, acquaintances, educational surroundings and their contact with the media (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008).

According to the functionalist point of view, the government is supposed to provide basic schooling for the children of the nuclear family in the society, which sequentially pays duty on which the government depends to sustain itself. To be precise, the family depends on the school institutions so as to assist children to grow up uprightly and afterwards have good professions so that they may also raise and maintain their own families in future. Consequently, the children turn out to be law-abiding, respectable and taxpayers who later support the state (Lehrner & Allen, 2008).

According to the Functionalist Theory, domestic violence arises when the government (learning institutions) and the nuclear family fails to appropriately execute its roles. When the school fails to offer basic education for the children, they fail to understand the morals of the family and consequently perpetrate domestic violence. Additionally, when the nuclear family fails to reproduce, train children and fail to provide financial support, domestic violence arises. This is because the family will not be at peace and there will also be pressure to get the missing items and hence resulting to domestic violence (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008).

Symbolic Interactionism Theory

Interactionism can be categorized into two theoretical forms: social exchange and social symbolic interaction. Symbolic Interaction theory holds that the society is made up of pervasive interactions amongst people who share symbols as well as their meanings. Symbolic Interaction theory is essential when trying to understand relationships and in improving interactions.

Symbolic Interactionism is very influential in helping individuals to understand one another. Partners in an intimate relationship have to apply symbolic interactionism so as to understand other people’s point of view. So as to understand other people’s symbols and meanings, both the partners need to be on a common ground. Even in marriages it is very important for the two partners to share symbols and meanings, otherwise, domestic violence arises (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008).

Comparison of the Domestic Violence Theories

Evaluation of the three domestic violence theories provides a clear understanding of the motives behind domestic violence. According to the social conflict theory, domestic violence also crops up when one of the partners feels the desire to have more control over the other partner because of unequal distribution of resources. The conflict is mostly instigated by the partner who desires to have more power According to American Psychological Association (2010).

On the other hand, the social functionalist theory, men are supposed to hold instrumental position within the society whereas women are expected to occupy expressive roles (Boss, Doherty, LaRossa & Steinmetz, 1993). There exists a power and authority variation within the patriarchal family where man is believed to be in control. According to the social functionalist theory, most of the abusers believe that it is their responsibility in society to make sure that their women are kept in line. Domestic violence occurs when women strive to occupy instrumental roles that are meant for men. At the moment, there are many women within the labor force despite the fact that men still seem to possess more wealth and ideological authority than women. Keeping this in mind, violence is considered to be a technique of exercising control and also maintaining power. Domestic violence is considered to be a social issue that has its foundations in gendered principles and in continuing wealth inequities (Eaton, Davis, Barrios, Brenner, & Noonan, 2007).

According to symbolic interactionism theory, the society affects an individual’s behavior through various constraints posed by different societal norms and principles. Symbolic interactionism theory holds that individuals live in a symbolic society and a physical world. People normally have different interpretations for different symbols. So as to understand human conduct, it is significant to understand the meaning of a behavior. When two partners in a marriage understand each other’s symbols, they ultimately have a mutual understanding and know each other better (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008). For this reason, they will not have any reasons for domestic violence in their relationship. The partners in a relationship learn about themselves and form personal feelings founded on they react to each other when they interact with each other.

Applied Paper Step 3

Most reviewed literature suggests different reasons that cause domestic violence and thereafter try to suggest appropriate solutions. Most literature forms identify control and insecurity issues to be the main causes of domestic violence. The literatures tend to prove the three domestic violence theories: symbolic interactionism theory, social conflict theory and structural functionalism theory.

Method Used

Most theorists treat domestic violence as a social issue. The researchers utilized qualitative research methods such as interviews and focus group discussions were used for data collection. A qualitative method was considered by the researchers to be the most appropriate in presenting the opportunity to obtain a rich contextual comprehension of the dynamics from the participant’s point of view. Additionally, qualitative methods prioritized participants’ opinions hence increasing the precision of the research. The research conclusions confirmed the hypotheses of the theories that maintained that power and control issues are the main causes of domestic violence.

Conclusion

Domestic violence mainly arises when one partner feels inferior and consequently resorts to conflicts so as to make up for feeling inferior. Domestic violence and violent relationships amongst parents negatively affects the personality of the children and also affects the manner in which they handle their future intimate relationships. In order to end domestic violence, children should be raised in a peaceful surrounding in which they are nurtured to nourish and respect relationships. Additionally, domestic violence in parents causes depression and negatively affects the children’s emotional health (Murrell, Christoff, & Henning, 2007). When children suffer from stress and depression at tender age, their learning abilities are negatively affected and this impairs their health.

Scientific methodology in sociology, the study of the social world, is most often associated with what is known as the positivist approach. In this essay, to determine whether or not it is indeed possible to apply scientific methods to the study of the social world, I will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of positivist sociology. “As developed by Auguste Comte, positivism is a way of thinking based on the assumption that it is possible to observe social life and establish reliable, valid knowledge about how it works.” (Johnson p231) This established knowledge was then to be used to affect the course of social change and it would help improve humanity. Comte’s work was in part a reaction to the ‘anarchy’ that besieged France in the wake of the revolution. Comte sincerely believed that scientific rationality could temper the raw human emotions that had lead to such chaos. Sociology, in his definition (and others), literally the science of society, could apply such scientific rationalism, empiricism and positivism to social life, thus improving it and preventing continued anarchy. “Comte believed that social life is governed by underlying laws and principles that can be discovered through the use of methods most often associated with the physical sciences.” (Johnson p231) One would identify the methods of positivism thus;

careful observation – measurement;
quantification;
formalisation of concepts – precision in definition;
operationalisation of theoretical questions
mathematisation (connects with all of the previous features;
logic and systemisation of theory
symmetry of explanation & prediction;
objectivity understood as value neutrality.

“It consists in deliberately investigating phenomena with the expectations derived from the theory in mind and seeing whether or not the facts actually found agree with these expectations.” (Delanty p52) “If observed facts of undoubted accuracy will not fit any of the alternatives it leaves open, the system is in need of reconstruction.” (Delanty p53)

Positivism, “Is above all a philosophy of science. As such, it stands squarely within the empiricist tradition. Metaphysical speculation is rejected in favour of positive knowledge based upon systematic observation and experiment. The methods of science can give us knowledge of the laws of coexistence.” (Marshall p510) However, as shall hopefully be shown later, these scientific methods can not show us anything about the inner ‘essences’ or ‘nature’ of things. Broadly speaking structuralism is, “Used loosely in sociology to refer to any approach which regards social structure (apparent or otherwise) as having priority over social action.” (Johnson p646) Positivism and structuralism are generally highly complementary, positivism effectively being the scientific methodology of structuralism. This can be observed in the works of Comte, Marx, Durkheim and the Vienna circle. Later theorists such as Parsons can also be described as both structuralist and positivist although in Parson’s case he does consider certain interpretivist sensibilities. Marx, Durkheim, Comte, the Vienna circle and many others all saw sociology as a science and all believed that social structure was the core component of society. “Perhaps one of the most important traits in naturalistic or positivistic sociology is the belief that social phenomena are patterned and are subject to deterministic laws much as are the laws governing the natural sciences. Sociological theory then becomes a quest for laws similar to the law of gravity or the law of material density in physics” (Poloma p3)

The main difference between the social and natural worlds is that the subject of study in the social world is humanity. People, in basic terms, have a consciousness where as the subjects of the natural sciences, rocks or atoms or chemicals, do not. People are aware of themselves and their surroundings in a way that rocks, for example, are not. This, clearly, is a potential problem for positivist sociology. However, this problem is resolved, in positivist science, by arguing that the self-consciousness of human beings (the ability to think, act and feel) is not a significant factor in our ability to understand social behaviour. This, according to positivists, is because people’s behaviour is, at its genesis, always a reaction to some form of stimulation. This stimulation can be from their socialisation (as we shall see in Parsons work), or it can be something more direct like the need to earn a living or a confrontation with another human. This produces one of the criticisms of positivist sociology, as we shall see, action and the meaning placed on that action becomes unimportant for study, only the cause of the action, the stimuli, has any sociological value for positivists.

The positivist view of sociology, of its aims, of its methods, is certainly a contentious one. Two of the first sociologists to question these methods, and the first that can be labelled as interpretivist, were Weber and Simmel. “Weber argues that sociology is not concerned with totalising explanations; only individuals have an ontological reality, society does not exist in that real sense, and so sociological explanations must be in terms of individual events and processes.” (Craib 1997 p51) Rickert’s term of Geisteswissenschaften (literally ‘the sciences of the spirit/mind) greatly influenced Weber’s conception of what sociology should be. The ontological reality which Weber speaks of is that humans are very different from other natural beings. We have free will, an inner life, use symbols, possess language, live in culture and act meaningfully. This ontological reality ensures that humanity cannot be studied using positivist scientific methodology, or any other conventional scientific methodology, sociology must use other methods. While the natural sciences wish to explain natural events, sociology, as understood by Weber, Rickert or Simmel, wishes to understand social action. Social scientists should endeavour to understand social action in very much the same way as one attempts to understand other people, by communicating, through empathy, and through argument. These views are also associated with, and expanded upon, by the philosopher Peter Winch. (Winch 1958) As Weber states, “Even the knowledge of the most certain propositions of our theoretical sciences – e.g., the exact natural sciences or mathematics – is, like the cultivation and refinement of the conscience, a product of culture.” (Delanty p110) In many ways the objective ‘fact’ of scientific enquiry is a fallacy.

“Sociology differs from the natural sciences in that it does not deal with a pre given universe of objects. People attribute meaning to their social world and act accordingly.” (Baert p97) Weber, in his Methodology of The Social Sciences, points out that all knowledge of cultural reality is always from a particular point of view. The philosophical idea that there is no truth, only human opinion is prevalent in this argument. Simmel emphasises and expands upon this point, “In the last resort the content of any science doesn’t rest on simple objective facts, but always involves an interpretation and shaping of them according to categories and rules that are a priori of the science concerned.” (Stones p74) Any scientific conclusion, be it in the field of physics or sociology, has to be interpreted by its author, then represented by that same author and then reinterpreted by those that read it. In these interpretations any ‘truth’ or ‘law’ is surrendered to human opinion, human meaning, human understanding. This criticism of positivist sociology is probably best illustrated by a discussion of a classic positivist sociological text, Emile Durkheim’s suicide study.

In his study, Durkheim analysed the differential distribution of the occurrence of suicide by country and region. Durkheim professed to have found “suicidogenic currents” (Durkheim 1963) in society; the pressures to commit suicide, the laws of suicide. “These are called ‘social currents’…They come to each one of us from without and can carry us away in spite of ourselves.” (Delanty p28) Through a positivist, scientific methodology, Durkheim identified the pressures to commit suicide were greater in regions where the Protestant faith was dominant, and weaker where Catholicism dominated. Durkheim’s account posits an external force (suicidogenic currents) as the cause of suicide – cause and effect. (Durkheim 1963) However why suicide occurs tends not to be the issue. To say that suicide is caused, not entirely obviously but in part, by the following of the Protestant faith is to assume that the term suicide is a simple one, a fixed one, with no room for differing meanings. This view is wrong. What is of importance is how a “suicide” comes to be defined as such by the coroner’s court. One must remember that a suicide is not an objective fact, but a interpretation, an interpretation that can be influenced by the coroner’s own personal feelings. If a ruling of suicide is likely to cause the deceased’s family pain and suffering, as is likely if they are Catholics, then the coroner may be inclined, where ever possible, to not record a suicide verdict, but an accidental death instead

This alerts us to the problematic nature of Durkheim’s, and positivist sociology in general, reliance on statistics. For Durkheim takes those statistics as giving a ‘true’ picture of the incidence of suicide. But do they? Are they rather a representation of the interpretation of suicide as opposed to cold hard objective fact? Interactions/ interpretive work on suicide states that suicide statistics are a construction involving police, courts and coroners. Thus for a death to be counted as a suicide involves a complex social process concerning meaning and interpretation, two unquantifiable characteristics of humanity. Thus suicide is not just the effect of a societal cause, but an interpretation of events, thus not a positivist, scientific event. Therefore if sociologists wish a knowledge of social life, they cannot explain social actors’ action in terms of cause and effect. Rather, they must seek out what the social actors themselves say they are up to, what they mean. “Comte’s view shifted in later life, under the influence of Cloitilde de Vaux. He came to see that science alone could not be a binding force for social cohesion as he had earlier supposed. He argued that the intellect must become the servant of the heart, and advocated a new ‘religion of humanity.’” (Marshall p509) Comte, the originator of the positivist sociological methodology shifted his emphasis away from positivism in his later work, thus exposing the inherent problems and weaknesses at its methodological core. “Positivism has had relatively little influence in contemporary sociology for several reasons. Current views argue that positivism encourages a misleading emphasis on superficial facts without any attention to underlying mechanisms that cannot be observed.” (Johnson p231) For example, we cannot observe human motives or the meaning that people give to behaviour and other aspects of social life, but this does not mean that meaning and motive are nonexistent or irrelevant.

The best way to illustrate the above points is to set them within the context of a positivist sociological study, in this case Parson’s work on personality.

For society to function, it is logical according to Parsons to deduce that the individual members of society have to agree with society’s rule. “For Parsons, the social system is…made up of the interactions of individuals. Of special concern is… that such interactions are not random but mediated by common standards of evaluation. Most important among these are moral standards which may be called norms.” (Hamilton p155) When people in society interact the interactions themselves, the emotions that seemingly control them, the goals that the individual actors (people) are hoping to obtain, they are all in fact controlled by the norms of society. “The concept of order is located predominantly at the level of the social system itself and the cultural system becomes a mechanism of the functioning of the social system.” (Hamilton p146) These norms are adopted and agreed by each member of the society for Parsons and this is his consensus theory. Importantly Parsons’ theory suggests that the power of societal expectations, the power of norms, is more pervasive than merely being a moral standard that mediates interaction and personal relationships. They are in fact the organisational foci of personality, of people themselves.

“Socialisation is the process by which we learn to become members of society, both by internalising the norms and values of society, and also learning to perform our social roles (as worker, friend, citizen and so forth.)” (Marshall p624) The family, for instance, is controlled by the same norms as society because it is that society, just it is a smaller component of it. The subsystems of society are analogous to body parts in the Parsonian model, they are all essential, each provide their own unique function and all interrelate, interpenetrate and are dependent upon one another. Analogous to the human body where each body part has a specific function to perform, and all of those parts work in unison to keep the structure going, so society is organised. Immersion within these subsystems, such as the family leads to internalisations of norms and objects, and this in turn creates personality. Because personality is internalised from society, “The foci of organisation of both types of system lies in…the value systems.” (Parsons p357) The values of society are the values of people, or personality. People are not just guided by the norms of society, but their very personalities are organised by the very same norms and principles and morals, according to Parsons. Thus peoples actions are quantifiable, reducible to a law since they are mediated by common standards. As gravity is a constant, so are the norms of a society and therefore of personality.

The positivist law here is that personality, every action of a human is controlled by the same standards of evaluation as society. The person’s personality is derived directly from society, it is society. Thus a scientific study of society is possible because there is cause and effect, there is a reaction to stimuli. Socialisation is the stimulation that people react to. For Parsons, laws can be discerned from humanity because people will react in predictable ways, mediated by norms, to the stimulation of events and socialisation. Thus sociology can be scientific, empirical and positivist.

A major problem with Parson’s work is that it reduces human personality to being produced and organised solely by societal expectations and norms. This societal determinism fails to acknowledge or explain where certain feelings, motives and actions originate. Goffman argues that “it is . . . against something that the self can emerge. . . Without something to belong to, we have no stable self, and yet total commitment and attachment to any social unit implies a kind of selflessness. Our sense of being a person can come from being drawn into a wider social unit; our sense of selfhood can arise through the little ways in which we resist the pull.” (Goffman 196 p305) A favourite example of this for Goffman was that of mental patients in asylums. The total institution of an asylum probably forces more strict adherence to societal expectation than most other social situations by using methods such as drug induced control and disciplinary measures such as EST. Yet in these institutions, despite being forced to play the role of the mental patient, to conform to societal expectation), patients still resisted those expectations. The hoarding of banned materials being an example of this. The motivation to do this does not come from internalisation of norms, as the correct way to behave is to not horde banned items. It comes from a need to keep ones own identity, to satisfy needs and drives and wants. These needs drives and wants are absent from the Parsonian model and a full understanding or explanation of society and social actions needs to take them into account.

“The maintenance of this surface of agreement, this veneer of consensus, is facilitated by each participant concealing his own wants behind statements which assert values to which everyone present feels obliged to give lip service.” (Goffman 1990 p20-21) The norms and laws that Parsons believes to control personality and society, are revealed by Goffman as only being a veneer. Furthermore Goffman states that other feelings and motives in fact influence social action, not just norms. If, as Goffman claims, the so called common standards of evaluation that Parsons identifies are in fact a veneer that hides other motives and feelings, then the actions of humanity are not as easily quantifiable, reducible to a scientific, positivist law, as Parsons first shows.

Freud’s metapsychology deals with the general structure of mental life. For Freud there were three psychic structures. The first, the id, contains, “those basic drives we have by virtue of being human, of which sexuality is the most important.” (Craib 1989 p3) The Id is often equated to by Freud as being like an infant, demanding immediate satisfaction irrespective of societal expectations. The Id makes up the greatest part of the unconscious and it is in this unconscious realm of basic biologically influenced drives that the motivational forces that Parson’s can not identity come from. The Id influences personality. It is important to remember that, as opposed to biological instincts driving us to act like a shark would, a mindless automaton, “the unconscious is composed not of biological instincts but of the mental representations we attach to these instincts.” (Craib 1989 p4) Thus each individual creates their own mental representation for their drives thus meaning that every persons internal world has a different geography. This clearly poses problems for the positivist approach to personality and society and social action, as represented by Parsons here, for if reaction to stimulation is not predictable because each person acts differently, then universal scientific laws can not be established.

The second structure of personality according to Freud, the ego or the ‘I’ is the central organiser of mental life. The third, the superego is thought of as the conscience. “The superego is the internalisation of external control which demands the renuncification of instinctual satisfaction in order that society might be formed and maintained.” (Craib 1989 p21) The superego is the part of personality that Parson’s identifies the part that internalises norms. The basic drives of the id demand immediate satisfaction, immediate gratification of those drives, these demands are contrary to the superego norms and morality, and the conflict has to be resolved by the ego. Our consciousness, predominantly consisting of the ego and superego, protects us from our own id impulses that, if they were followed, would leave it impossible for us to exist within society. Freud stated that “Civilisation depends upon repression…If we tried to gratify all our desires, sexual or otherwise, as and when they arose, society, civilisation and culture would vanish over night.” (Craib 1984 p195) For Freud the ‘I’, is the resolution of the conflict between the id biologically directed drives, and the superego’s societal restraints. Therefore personality is the site of the, hopefully, resolved conflict between the normative mind evaluated by common standards as Parsons identifies, and the basic id drives. These Id drives, as I shall show, influence personality thus influence social action and society. This being the case then Parsons’ explanation for personality is insufficient and so is the positivist claim for the scientific study of society. The positivist tenants of careful observation and measurement; quantification; formalisation of concepts – precision in definition; operationalisation of theoretical questions; mathematisation; logic and systemisation of theory; symmetry of explanation & prediction and objectivity cannot be applied to individualistic Id drives and impulses. “The desire to kill anyone who frustrates us thus becomes unconscious, but none the less remains.” (Craib 1989 p24) Evidence for these desires for Freud appears in slips, where the unconscious desire can ‘slip’ into conscious conversation. “Freud quotes the husband who supposedly said, ‘If one of us two die, I shall move to Paris.” (Craib 1989 p24) One can not scientifically measure how these unconscious desires influence and effect social action, especially since it can be so hard to identify them as existing in the first place.

“A feature of human life is that an instinct such as the sexual instinct is not directed at any one object, but has to be socially channelled, in our society usually towards members of the opposite sex.” (Craib 1989 p4) “Human beings are restrained by social organisation from a free and good expression of their drives. Through its oppression, society forces people into neuroses and psychoses.” (Craib 1989 p19) For Freud the very problems that he and other psychoanalysts dealt with were in fact often as the result of the repression of id drives by the superego and societal repression. As such the very existence of neuroses and psychoses can be seen as evidence to the fact that this conflict does indeed exist, that the resolution of this conflict does indeed produce the ‘I’ with all its faults and problems. To fully understand society, sociology needs to be aware of societal pressures, the Parson’s personality through positivism, but also needs to recognise the other meanings and emotions that cannot be quantified, cannot be analysed scientifically. Sociology needs to use interpretivism and positivism together. In terms of this example, Parsons positivist models needs to be considered at great length and detail as he does indeed identify a huge force in shaping society, that of norms and how they do penetrate into the psyche and personality. However, a study that only concentrates on the positivist methodology misses the crucial aspects of personality that Goffman and Freud identify, and that is not in the interest of any sociologist.

“Positivism may be dead in that there is no longer an identifiable community of philosophers who give its simpler characteristics unqualified support, but it lives on philosophically, developed until it transmutes into conventionalism or realism. And even if in its simpler philosophical forms it is dead, the spirit of those earlier formulations continues to haunt sociology.” (Halfpenny p120) In conclusion positivism’s attempt at scientific sociological methodology, though fallacious is admirable and certainly many of the aspects of positivism should be considered desirable. As quoted elsewhere, “positivism is a way of thinking based on the assumption that it is possible to observe social life and establish reliable, valid knowledge about how it works.” (Johnson p231) The desire for reliable, valid knowledge is of course a relevant and important sociological aim and some of the tools that positivism uses to try to reach such knowledge are useful and worthwhile. Careful observation, measurement; quantification; formalisation of concepts – precision in definition; operationalisation of theoretical questions; logic and systemisation of theory; symmetry of explanation and prediction and objectivity, if all of these tenants of positivism can at least be attempted in a sociological study then that sociological study will indeed be the better for it. However, sociological study needs to recognise, as Comte himself did, that these aims, in their fullest, are unobtainable and that those aims are not ends in themselves, rather a very rough guide to sociological methodology. As I have hopefully shown above, sociological analysis needs positivism, needs scientific methodology, but a carefully tempered and monitored positivism. The aim of sociology is understanding and that understanding should not be limited by methodology, especially a methodology that is inherently flawed. Positivism shows us how to analyse data, data that is essential to sociological understand, but that data must not be treated uncritically thus a synthesis of positivism and interpretivism is recommended. To study the social world using a strict scientific methodology is impossible, that does not, of course, mean that scientific methodology is not a useful and critical tool in sociological study.

Bibliography

Baert, P, 1998. Social theory in the twentieth century. Polity press

Craib, I, 1984. Modern social theory. Wheatsheaf books Ltd

Craib, I, 1989. Psychoanalysis and social theory the limits of sociology Wheatsheaf

Craib, I, 1997. Classical social theory pub by Oxford university press

Delanty, G, 2003. Philosophies of social science. Open university.

Durkheim, E, 1963. Suicide, a study in sociology. Routledge

Goffman, E, 1961 Asylums. Doubleday Anchor

Goffman, E, 1990. The presentation of the self in everyday life. Penguin

Halfpenny, P, 1986. Positivism and sociology. Routledge

Johnson, G 2000 The dictionary of sociology Blackwell

Hamilton, P, 1992. Talcott Parsons critical assessments. Routledge

Marshall, G 1998. Oxford dictionary of sociology. Oxford university press

Parsons, T, The structure of social action Free Press 1949

Poloma, M, 1979. Contemporary sociological theory. MacMillan

Stones, R, 1998. Key sociological thinkers. Palgrave

Winch, P, 1958. The Idea Of a Social Science. Routledge

History of anti-terror laws in India

Terrorism has immensely affected India. The reasons for terrorism in India may vary vastly from religious to geographical to caste to history. The Indian Supreme Court took a note of it in Kartar Singh v. State of Punjab[1], where it observed that the country has been in the firm grip of spiraling terrorist violence and is caught between deadly pangs of disruptive activities. Apart from many skirmishes in various parts of the country, there were countless serious and horrendous events engulfing many cities with blood-bath, firing, looting, mad killing even without sparing women and children and reducing those areas into a graveyard, which brutal atrocities have rocked and shocked the whole nation Deplorably, determined youths lured by hard-core criminals and underground extremists and attracted by the ideology of terrorism are indulging in committing serious crimes against the humanity.

Anti-terrorism laws in India have always been a subject of much controversy. One of the arguments is that these laws stand in the way of fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution. The anti-terrorist laws have been enacted before by the legislature and upheld by the judiciary though not without reluctance. The intention was to enact these statutes and bring them in force till the situation improves. The intention was not to make these drastic measures a permanent feature of law of the land. But because of continuing terrorist activities, the statutes have been reintroduced with requisite modifications.

At present, the legislations in force to check terrorism in India are the National Security Act, 1980 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. There have been other anti-terrorism laws in force in this country a different points in time. The first law made in independent India to deal with terrorism and terrorist activities that came into force on 30 Dec 1967 was The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.

After the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the world’s outlook towards the terrorist and terrorist organization has changed the laws have become much more stringent to curb such activities. The Indian outlook also changed specially after the 13 December attack on the Indian parliament which is seen as a symbol of our democracy then it became necessary to enforce a law which would be more stringent so that the terrorist cannot go Scot free because after the lapse of TADA in 1995 following the wide spread complaint that it was being abused there was no law which could be used as a weapon against the rising terrorist activities in India.

Prevention Of Terrorist Activities Act, 2002

In 2002 March session of the Indian parliament the Prevention Of Terrorist Activities (POTA) Act was introduced and it had widespread opposition not even in the Indian parliament but throughout India especially with the human rights organization because they thought that the act violated most of the fundamental rights provided in the Indian constitution. The protagonists of the Act have, however, hailed the legislation on the ground that it has been effective in ensuring the speedy trial of those accused of indulging in or abetting terrorism. POTA is useful in stemming “state-sponsored cross-border terrorism”, as envisaged by the Home Minister L.K. Advani. The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA), was seen as a controversial piece of legislation ever since it was conceived as a weapon against terrorism. Human rights groups as well as opposition parties have expressed strong reservations against the move, which they say violates citizens’ fundamental rights.

One of the most controversial features of the new law was a clause which makes it a duty for all citizens to report any suspicious terrorist activity they notice. It also empowers the police to arrest and keep in its custody for three months without filing any charges anyone suspected of involvement in terrorist activity. Proscribed groups Twenty-three organisations seen as encouraging terrorist activities have been outlawed in the ordinance. These include a number of separatist groups active in Kashmir, such as Lashkar-e-Toyeba and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Several rebel groups operating in Punjab and Assam have also been banned. Human right groups as well the opposition parties say such provisions would make people more vulnerable to harassment by the police. But the government rejects these allegations.

Analysis of some important sections of POTA-

In the case of People’s Union for Civil Liberties Vs. Union of India[2], the constitutional validity of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 was discussed. The court said that the Parliament possesses power under Article 248 and entry 97 of list I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India to legislate the Act. Need for the Act is a matter of policy and the court cannot go into the same. Once legislation is passed, the Govt. has an obligation to exercise all available options to prevent terrorism within the bounds of the constitution. Mere possibility of abuse cannot be a ground for denying the vesting of powers or for declaring a statute unconstitutionally. Court upheld the constitutional validity of the various provisions of the Act.

1.Section 3(a) Defining terrorist act- Whoever with the intent of threatening the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India or strike terror in the minds of people or any section of the people does any act or thing by using dynamite or explosive substances or inflammable substance or firearms or other lethal weapon or poisonous or noxious gases or other chemical or any substance of a hazardous nature in such a manner as to cause death or injuries to any person or loss or damage to property or disruption of any supplies or services essential for life.

Case Law- Devender Pal Singh Vs. State of N.C.T. of Delhi[3]. In a case where 9 person had died and several other injured on account of perpetrated acts The court said that such terrorist who have no respect for human life and people are killed due to there mindless killing. So any compassion to such person would frustrate the purpose of enactment of Tada and would amount to misplaced and unwarranted sympathy. Thus they should be given death sentence.

2. Section 4 Possession of certain unauthorized arms- Where any person is in unauthorized possession of any- bombs, dynamite or hazardous explosive substance or other lethal weapons capable of mass destruction or biological or chemical substances of warfare in any area, whether notified or not.

Case Law- Sanjay Dutt Vs. State through C.B.I [4]. The expression possession though that of section 5 of Tada has been stated to mean a conscious possession introducing thereby involvement of a mental element i.e. conscious possession & not mere custody without awareness of nature of such possession and as regards unauthorized means and regards without any authority of law.

3. Section 7 Powers of investigating officers – If any officer (not below the rank of SP) investigating an offence committed under this act, has reason to believe that any property in relation to which an investigation is being conducted represents proceeds of terrorism he shall with prior approval in writing from Director General of Police of which the property is situated can make an order to seize or attach such property.

Case Law – T.T. Anthony Vs. State of Kerala[5]. This plenary power of police to investigate a cognizable offence is not unlimited. It is subject to certain limitations such as if no cognizable offence is disclosed & still more if no offence of any kind is disclosed the police would have no authority to undertake an investigation.

4. Section 21 Offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation-

A person commits an offence if
He invites support for a terrorist organization , and
The support is not , or is not restricted to, the provisions of money or other property
A person commits an offence if he arranges, manages or assists in managing or arranging a meeting which he knows is-
to support a terrorist organization, or
to further the activities of a terrorist organization , or
to be addressed by a person who belongs or professes to belong to a terrorist organization.
A person commits an offence if he addresses a meeting for the purpose of arranging support for a terrorist organization or to further its activities.

Case Law – Vaiko’s Case. One of the petitions in this regard admitted by the Supreme Court has been filed by Vaiko, the general secretary of the (MDMK), a constituent of the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre. Vaiko had defended POTA in Parliament during the debate on it. Therefore his petition challenging the validity of Section 21 of the Act assumes particular significance.

5. Section 22- Fund raising for a terrorist organization to be an offence-

(1) Whoever commits an offence if he-

invites, receives or provides money or other property
intends that it should be used, or has reasonable cause to suspect that it may be used, for the purposes of terrorism.

The second component that was not there in TADA is, if you try and earn money through a crime, that is, through terrorism, there are two offences which flow out of that. Whoever funds terrorism is also held guilty. By funding terrorism you are abetting terrorism. You are giving resources to terrorism. The old terrorist laws the world over never had a chapter on funding of terrorists. But now you must create a fear and scare in the minds of those who fund terrorists.

6. Section 27 Powers to direct for samples, etc.- when a police officer investigating a case requests a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate to obtain hand writing, footprints, photographs, blood, saliva, semen, hair, voice of any accused person reasonably suspected to be involved in the commission of this act it will be lawful for the judge to give such orders as the case may be. If any accused person refuses to give such samples the court shall draw adverse inference against the accused.

Case Law – S. Srinivasa Vs. M/s Deccan Petroleum Ltd.[6] The court said where the order of refusal to issue summons for production of document was prejudicial to accused then such order is not sustainable. The most important part of the section says that the power to take samples is not given to the police authorities but when a police officer investigating a case requests a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate to obtain samples of any accused person reasonably suspected to be involved in the commission of this act and then if only the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate gives the order to obtain such samples its only then he can force the accused to give such samples. If any accused person refuses to give such samples the court shall only then draw adverse inference against the accused.

7.Section 32 Certain confessions made to police officers taken into consideration – A confession made by a person before a police officer not lower in rank than a S.P. and recorded by him out of which sound or images could be reproduced shall be admissible in trial of such person for the offence under this act.

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967

The UAPA was designed to deal with associations and activities that questioned the territorial integrity of India. When the Bill was debated in Parliament, leaders, and cutting across party affiliation, insisted that its ambit be so limited that the right to association remained unaffected and that the executive did not expose political parties to intrusion. So, the ambit of the Act was strictly limited to meeting the challenge to the territorial integrity of India. The Act was a self-contained code of provisions for declaring secessionist associations as unlawful, adjudication by a tribunal, control of funds and places of work of unlawful associations, penalties for their members etc. The Act has all along been worked holistically as such and is completely within the purview of the central list in the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.

Repeal of POTA and its comparison with UAPA.

Finally on September 17, 2004 the Union Cabinet in keeping with the UPA government’s Common Minimum Programme, approved ordinances to repeal the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 and amend the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. By the promulgation of

Ordinance No.1 of 2004, it repealed POTA, a law specially designed to deal with the menace of terrorism with its repeal, the state apparatus combating terrorism has been debilitated.
By Ordinance No 2 promulgated on the same day, virtually all the penal provisions of Pota concerning terrorist organisations and activities were transferred to the pre-existing milder sounding Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA). By Ordinance No 2, the definition of unlawful association has been expanded to also include any association which has for its object any activity which is punishable under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, or which encourages or aids persons to undertake any such activity, or of which the members undertake any such activity. Section 153A is about promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.
All terrorist organizations banned under POTA would continue to remain banned, under the Unlawful Activities Act, after the repeal of the Act.
Some of the clauses contained in POTA, which are completely dropped in the amended Unlawful Activities Act, are: the onus on the accused to prove his innocence, compulsory denial of bail to accused and admission as evidence in the court of law the confession made by the accused before the police officer.
In another major departure from POTA, the government has removed all traces of strict liability. Meaning, the burden of proof has shifted from the accused to the police. There is no presumption of guilt under UAPA. Like under any other ordinary criminal law, the police will have to establish that the accused person had a criminal intention for committing the offence in question.
Another glaring shortcoming in the new law pertains to the dichotomy in the provision for banning terrorist organisations and unlawful organisations. UAPA was originally meant only for banning unlawful organisations. Now it has a separate chapter for banning terrorist organisations as well. Thus, the procedures prescribed by the same law for the two kinds of bans are different. But the problem is that the procedure for banning a group on the charge of terrorism is easier than to ban it on the milder charge of unlawful activities. The government cannot, for instance, ban any group for unlawful activities without having its decision ratified within six months by a judicial tribunal headed by a sitting high court judge. There is no such requirement if the ban is on the charge of terrorism. This anomaly has arisen because of the strategy adopted by the UPA government to hide special provisions in an ordinary law.

Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2004- It would however be simplistic to suggest, as some critics did, that the new law has retained all the operational teeth of POTA or it has made only cosmetic changes. The difference between POTA and UAPA is substantial even as a lot of provisions are in common.