We had some very interesting posts for Tuesday's class. You may now add new posts for Thursday's class here.
Below is a letter from the Governor of New York announcing a new policy regarding sex offenders:
Dear New Yorkers,
I have made clear throughout the fiscal crisis that despite our financial difficulties, New York will not shirk from the most fundamental of government obligations – the protection of its citizenry and of its communities. With that in mind, I would like to inform you of an important new initiative I signed and enacted into law that will enable you to automatically receive an alert when a moderate or high-risk sex offender moves into an area of interest to you or your family, NY-ALERT.
Through this new service, you can be notified by e-mail, text message, fax or telephone when a sex offender moves into or out of your community, or even when an offender relocates within a certain radius (from a quarter mile to 25 miles) of your home.
Here’s how it works: As part of the NY-ALERT system, through which 5.8 million New Yorkers receive alerts on everything from natural disasters to traffic congestion. Now, you have an option to sign up for sex offender alerts. After registering at http://www.ny.gov/governor/ and choosing various options, such as how you want to be notified and your regions of interest, you will receive sex offender relocation notices whenever a Level 2 (moderate risk) or Level 3 (high risk) sex offender listed on the public Sex Offender Registry moves into or out of your designated community of concern. If you do not have access to a computer, you can also subscribe to this important system by calling 1-888-697-6972 Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In addition to signing NY-ALERT into law, I have enacted several significant measures to protect New York’s children and families including signing a law (E-STOP) that requires sex offenders to submit their internet information, including e-mail addresses and screen names to the Sex Offender registry; enacting one of the toughest DWI laws in the country, the Child Passenger Protection Act (also known as Leandra’s Law); and signed into law legislation ending the practice of allowing the State’s most violent felons to receive credit for prior sentences, and thereby become eligible for parole far earlier than intended.
Together with the NY-ALERT legislation sponsors, Senator Jeff Klein and Assembly Member Rory Lancman, we will further enhance New York’s efforts at protecting our children and families. I hope that you and your neighbors will take advantage of this important, new service.
Best,
David A. Paterson
Governor of New York State
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Maëlig Le Delliou
ReplyDelete“North Korean defectors involved in insurance scam – Culture Conflict theory”
This article deals with the fact that a lot of North Korean defectors are/were involved in insurance scam: they purchase many insurance policies at the same time and pretend to be sick in order to pocket the money. One of them, Kim So-hyeong, is testifying.
This article can easily be linked to Sellin’s Culture Conflict theory. Those defectors have grown up in North Korea and have learned different values than those taught in South Korea. They have a different perception of insurance fraud and of crime in general. According to them, and as Kim herself underlines, it is “normal” to get insurance money and “foolish” not to. North Korean immigrants simply see insurance fraud as an easy and inoffensive way to make money that they can send to their families in North Korea or use to improve their living standards. However, mainstream South Korean culture condemns those acts and classifies them as criminal acts. Here, the dominant culture clashes with the North Korean subculture.
In our case, we are considering a first-generation immigration; but what of the second generation? Children of North Korean defectors may learn from their parents that making money out of insurance scam is acceptable behavior. They might thus become delinquents despite following norms – but those specific norms will differ from those of the broader/dominant society.
This shows the importance of education and cultural socialization outside of the family, especially in schools, particularly for children of immigrants.
Lastly, this case also demonstrates once more how relative and subjective “crime” can be…
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A high-profile North Korean defector has told the JoongAng Ilbo that defectors have often been caught up in insurance fraud and described her own involvement in the scam.
[…]“Buying five to six insurance policies was normal among defectors and I even saw some people who bought over 10 insurance policies,” Kim said. “There’s even a saying among defectors that it’s foolish not to get insurance money.”
Most of the insurance company workers involved are also from North Korea.
Kim said many defectors commit fraud not because of dire economic circumstances, but because they want a bonanza.
[…] “I regret the reality that defectors get involved in insurance fraud,” Kim said. “North Koreans who used to live like robots in the North risked their lives and came all the way here because they wanted to live like human beings.”
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2918053
Hey-In Kang
ReplyDelete-I am afraid that this is not for Thursday lecture, but for reviewing tuesday's lecture, I think it is good article for thinking about Labeling theory and the role of Institution.
"Teenagers Commit Assault, Incarceration, and Tresspassing"
I think this is relevant to the lessons of labeling theory, and make me thinking about the role or influence of institutions especially in group.
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In last Sunday (Mar, 21), three teenager boys attacked another teenager boy and broke in his house trying to steal something from his home. Teenagers were under protective supervision due to burglary, and met each other from Juvenile rehap in Busan.
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(This is Korean article and I couldn’t find English translation. I put every information as possible to see what happened in here.)
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The committed teenagers committed crime once before –burglary- and were under observation. This makes them labeled as criminal. Since they identify them as the criminal, they would feel more on committing crime. Also three of them met from juvenile institution for kinds of them. They might find some attachment each other from there, and might have some kinship.
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http://media.daum.net/society/affair/view.html?cateid=1010&newsid=20100323081814208&p=nocut
-Suh Young Yun
ReplyDelete-Five principals charged with accepting bribes
-This article deals with elementary school principals taking bribes from a consignment company that runs afterschool programs. The schools’ steering committee had no idea what was going on since the principals made a unilateral decision on choosing the company. Ultimately, the bribes came from the pockets of students’ families because the consignment company raised textbook and admission fees to supply the bribe to the principals.
The principals’ audacious acts can be explained with Gerald Mars’ grid dimension which ‘shows that occupational subcultures place different constraints on the opportunities for crime in the workplace‘(p.227). The principals can be categorized into the strong-group, weak-grid, or Vultures. The principals have limited freedom and their tasks and expectations are highly structured and there are many rules, functions and uniforms imposed upon them. This is concurrent with the strong-grid. As for matching with the weak-group, the principals have little group constraint, meaning they don’t have much face-to-face contact with other members or employees for them to realize what they’re doing. This type of ‘Vultures’ are free to ‘steal from employers and customers’ (receiving bribe money), ‘while enjoying the collective peer support of those in their network’ (together with other principals involved).
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Five elementary-school principals have been charged with taking bribes from a consignment company which ran after-school tutorial classes in their schools.
The Seoul Southern Prosecutors’ Office indicted the principals without physical detention on Wednesday, on charges of receiving bribes from a man surnamed Lee, 58, the head of consignment company A, which ran the after-school classes. Lee was also indicted without detention yesterday.
According to prosecutors, the principals each took a total of around 7 million won ($5,983) to 20 million won in three to 16 separate payments. The payments started in April 2003 and continued into September last year.
[…]
Since 2004, the Education Ministry had been pushing to popularize after-school classes as a countermeasure to reduce the country’s dependency on hagwon, or private education institutes. The relatively cheaper cost of the classes proved a useful alternative for students who couldn’t afford to attend hagwon. Under law, schools which decide to have these after-school classes can either operate and manage the classes themselves or find a consignment company to run them.
Prosecutors said that the principals asked for the bribes, threatening Lee that they would choose another company to run the classes or close the after-school programs altogether. In total, Lee handed the five principals a total of 67 million won, all in cash.
To lessen the financial burden of paying the principals, A had to raise its admission and textbook fees. Ultimately, the principals’ bribes came out of the students’ families’ pockets.
“The principals made a unilateral decision to select the consignment company and it appears that the schools’ steering committees had no idea what was going on, so they couldn’t protest,” said the official at the prosecutors’ office.
[…]
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2916295
1. Hye sung So
ReplyDelete2. Design Spotlight now shining on Seoul
3. Chung Kyung-won, chief design officer of Seoul Metropolitan Government's Design Seoul Headquarters introduce Seoul's 2010 World Design Capital(WDC).
WDC is an international organization that persue social, economic and cultural development through design.
I believe that this article is closely related with Design Ecology. According to the Design Ecology, physical design characteristics of urban could reduce street crime (p216). I believe that our environment can strongly influence our personality
; for example street crimes are often found in poorly design environments
According to Chung Kyung Won, there are several problems in Seoul. One of the problems is that there are millions of people in Seoul. As more people come to Seoul, the facility and road cannot keep up with Seoul's population.
Disorderly built buildings are also major influences in the increasingly street crime rate. Lots of people are exposed to undeveloped and hazardous environment which keep the street crime rate up.
Although catching offender is a direct way of preventing crime, changing a dark street culture and disordered environment is one of the desirable way to decrease crime. Seoul should focus on improving urban design constantly and consistently with the increasing population of Seoul.
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4. some people are skeptical about Seoul’s design-focused policies. Many of them wonder why the city needs to focus on enhancing its design amid an economic downturn. The criticism revolves around the view that design is a luxury, not a necessity. Therefore, critics say it should take a backseat to more pressing issues.
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5.http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2916100
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEunBin Suk
ReplyDeleteBusan police unfolds special crime prevention activity in the redevelopment area
There is a high level of alert in the Busan city because of the sex assault crime that occurred recently. Focusing on the redevelopment area of Busan, where there is a high level of crime, the police are trying to clear out the empty and deserted houses of the redevelopment site and search out thoroughly to prevent crime in the future. This article ties with the social ecology theory that assumes that there are some places that sustain crime. The redevelopment area of Busan is such a place and it can be categorized Zone 2 (Zone of transition), where there are empty and deserted houses that brings gangsters and juvenile delinquents together to form membership. Because this place is socially disorganized (low level of surveillance, little community feeling, and transitory relationships), the crime occurrence is high in this zone of transition. Therefore, the Busan police now are acting on to clear out the redevelopment area and reinforce surveillance and other crime prevention activities.
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Busan Police will root out the sexual assault crime
Unfolds special crime prevention activity in redevelopment area after proclaiming warfare with sexual assault crime
Asia News Agency, Sung-Taek Oh 2010.3.24 15:08
In order to root out sex assault crimes, Busan National Police which proclaimed “warfare on sexual assault crime” from March 18th unfolded special crime prevention activity along the redevelopment area at Busan.
On the 24th, according to Busan National Police Office, total of 420 people including the police, the Office of Education, and civil society participated on the special crime prevention activity and distributed fliers to prevent child abduction and opened crime prevention classes.
Especially, searching deserted and empty houses in the redevelopment area led to closing of 1,944 gateways, collection of 459 household goods that can be used as crime tool, and arrest of 5 wanted criminals (1 rape, 3 thefts, 1 violence).
Also, for the safety of students going home from school, about 3,869 people such as the police and child custodians were mobilized and strengthened patrol of school concentration area during to and from school and secured the safety of the road.
The police will regularly search all at once the Busan redevelopment site. In the mean time, with the cooperation from the local government, they are planning to demolish empty houses and reinforce CCTV and crime prevention facility.
The police officials said, “having the school’s highly dense area as the central focus, we will concentrate all the capability to make a safe Busan free of sex assault crime.”
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http://www.anewsa.com/detail.php?number=84266&thread=09r02