Strategies to Develop Patient Centred Care

Strategies to Develop Patient Centred Care Sneha Praveen MIS Practicum Final Report Analysis of online patient reviews and its effect on healthcare providers Introduction With the advent of social media, online forums have become a major platform where users share their views and these platforms affect all the involved stakeholders sometimes positively and sometimes adversely. Word of mouth has become an important tool for publicity and sometimes a bad review posted without ulterior motives can do much damage. Most of such reviews and posts that we read on platforms like twitter, Facebook and online forums affect our decision making as we tend to trust judgment of others. But healthcare as an industry is still not very patient centric and not enough importance is given to patient’s opinion. This case is even more valid in the context of USA as there is no official channel for patients to leave their reviews and experience about a healthcare provider. This is very surprising as all other industries food, retail, and consumer industries revolve around what customers have to say and millions of dollars are spend on â€Å"customer satisfaction†, whereas, healthcare industry still relies on their processes without bothering to collect feedback from patients they serve. The main reason accredited to this could be that as payers, insurance companies and as service providers, physicians play the most important role. Patients in this context are mere subjects of treatment who are assumed to be not very vigilant of their own health condition. But is this situation same all around the world? And if not, then US healthcare needs to adapt and learn from such countries to improve its care and service quality. One such online forum implemented in the United Kingdom is â€Å"Patient Opinion†. This forum acts as a bridge between patients and healthcare providers to help improve the healthcare quality provided by National Health Service (NHS) to its citizens. In this paper, I will analyze data collected from patient opinion forum and present by findings answering how USA can benefit from a review outlet like Patient Opinion and how this forum has helped NHS to improve their quality and service. Why Patient-Centric Care: It is well proven that any industry benefits from customer reviews and helps in reducing cost and improve service. Slowly, healthcare needs to move towards Patient-centered care which supports active involvement of patients and care givers. It means being responsive to patient’s preferences, needs and feedback to ensure that service quality improves and slowly there is more involvement of patient in healthcare delivery and design. [1] A patient centered care has below attributes [2]: Whole-person care. Coordination and communication Patient support and empowerment Ready access Autonomy A patient centered care focus on guiding patients by giving them information about options and risks. It means considering patient’s preferences and background and valuing their feedback. According to 2001 Institute of Medicine a focus on patient centered care is one of the factors constituting high quality health care. Source: http://hcca-act.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html The current system is physician centered which means that effective care is defined by physician’s standards and skills instead of centering on patient’s satisfaction from the service rendered. For example- orthopedic surgeons use the Harris Hip score to judge the success of a hip replacement. This was designed solely by physicians and does not include any feedback from patients to include their satisfaction from the procedure [3]. Thus, it is impossible to correctly define the output of any model in healthcare until the patient experience has been taken into account for. What Patients Want Most tools that we use to judge patient satisfaction or outcome of a medical service cannot be accurately quantified. Also, the success metric for a medical care varies from physician and patient’s point of view. An example of such tools was administered by Steward.et al in 2000 where many physician-patient interactions were audio taped and patients rated these conversations. After analysis, it was deduced that patients recovered faster, had better emotional health and perceived the care as satisfactory if the care was patient-centered. The faith of patients on their healthcare providers increased when there emotional needs were taken care of by the physicians leading to less number of diagnostic tests and fewer referrals. A similar methodology can also be used to study physician empathy. Researchers at Jefferson University developed the Jefferson scale to test physician’s empathy where physicians rated their own empathy but this scale could not be used to judge patient satisfaction. Thus, a new scale called Jefferson Scale of Patient’s perception of Physician Empathy was used which judges patient’s rating of physician’s empathy which correlated to patient’s satisfaction. Mostly what patients want is a relationship of empathy with physicians, who can help them communicate with the problem and develop a personal relationship with them. The perception of care is different from physicians and patient’s point of view and we need to move our focus from â€Å"what’s the matter† with our patients to â€Å"what matters† to our patients. [1] Hindrance in achieving true patient centric care One of the most crucial factors stopping US in achieving true patient centric care is the current reimbursement system and focus on physician practice model. There is no measure in US to gauge the quality of care, empathy and relationship of a physician with patients. Reimbursement is not correlated to these factors, instead it is based on per patient encounter. Due to this, primary care physicians focus on increasing the volume of patients and reduce the time spent with each patient. Most physicians are in a hurry and under stress which leads to misdiagnosis, useless tests and referrals, decrease in quality of care and a very formal relationship between physician and patients. [6] Next important factor is that physicians employed by hospitals are incentivized or prized depending on number of patients that they bring but there is no measure to the quality of care they impart. The volume of patients precede quality because the financial benefits are huge e.g.- Each lab tests physicians’ order, each referrals they make, benefits hospitals in terms of huge monetary benefits which in turn becomes a basis of primary care physician’s salaries. Thus, understandably what drives physicians is to employ methods to increase volume of patients, decrease time spent with each patient and other ways to monetize each patient-physician interaction. [3] The third hindrance is hospitals hiring generalists called hospitalists to provide care to patients with the goal of reducing patient days per admission. This might lead to improve in care for a certain amount of time but the reason behind hiring such individuals is not to improve patient care but instead to benefit hospitals financially. The Patient Centric Approach model Patient Centered Medical Home Patient Centric medical home helps address the patient centric approach by emphasizing on high quality patient care and lower the healthcare cost. They reorganize primary care practice by recognizing the importance of patient’s experience and works on system based approach to transform health services being offered. PCMH centers their service on elderly with acute care needs, patients with physical disabilities and with specific preferences in terms of culture and values. The care offered is comprehensive and designed to meet patients’ needs including physical and mental attention, chronic care and long term assistance like help in performing daily ablutions for patients with functional limitations. [8] Accountable Care Organizations ACOs have been set up with the goal of ensuring high quality of care is given to patients at the right time to prevent medical errors and reduce medical costs. Mostly ACOs are formed by group of doctors and hospitals who voluntarily come together to serve Medicare patients. [9] The basic promise that ACOs hold is to have patient centered care and treat patients with empathy, care and work towards avoiding unnecessary costs and develop a personal relationship with patients. Thus, government should incentivize formation of more ACOs to ensure more patient- centric approach. Strategic IT investment IT is the obvious answer to increase efficiency, reduce medical errors and improve quality of care in US. Though there are many facets of IT that can be used, use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Electronic Medical records (EMR) are the most important tools to use. EMRs are digitized version of patient record keeping for a physicians. EMR has been instrumental in reducing medical costs overtime by enabling better interactions between departments and monitoring patient’s visiting time and medical information. Patients can also log on and know about their health records and be better prepared. EHRs stores patient’s records so that if needed emergency departments can access it before giving them any medicines. This saves the cost of duplicate tests because all the data needed to prescribe medicines are present in EHRs. Feedback and review model: Patient Opinion Patient opinion was founded in 2005 and is the leading feedback platform for healthcare in UK. They allow patients to write their reviews/ stories about their experience and tag the particular provider. Other users can then favorite the post if they have experience the same thing. Patient Opinion also has an analytical engine which does sentiment analysis for each hospital and show what areas need improvement and which departments received positive reviews. The hospitals can read these reviews posted about them and respond to the complaints and praises. This helps them to improve their quality of care and address the issues raised by patients. Patient Opinion is a social enterprise and a NGO which is independent of NHS but share the same values. It is funded through user subscriptions, healthcare providers and healthcare Commission. Providers subscribing to Patient Opinion get the access to all patient feeds and can respond to the reviews. Though, use of patient opinion by patients is free. Patient Opinion is available across England but not (yet) the rest of the UK. It covers all acute trusts. As of today, 600 hospitals are registered with patient opinion and working together to improve the healthcare quality in UK. [5] How Patient Opinion fits the review model: It allows patients to give feedback on their health services and to see what others are talking about. It also acts as a platform to hear and respond to reviews and complaints posted by patients. They can compare their ratings with other hospitals and find out which of their departments are doing good and bad. All the opinions are reviewed before publication and editorial policies are public. The critical reviews are marked and directed to the healthcare providers while maintaining patient identity. Below are some feedback posted by patients for â€Å"King’s Mill Hospital† over a period of 2 weeks: Taking â€Å"King’s Mill Hospital† as our example for this study, let us look at some figures which help us better understand the Patient Opinion model: *Data collected is for the month of April: Analysis: Analysis: As of now, for the entire Patient Opinion database, feedback opinion so far is around 50% positive, 30% mixed and around 20% critical. Below is data of number of posts till date: In the last month, of all the posts, 53% had a response from hospital staff and 6% of responses actually lead to change. The numbers do look small but in the larger picture, it is an incremental change which slowly is changing the face of UK healthcare. Conclusion: Patient centric healthcare is the answer to the problems of rising cost and low quality of healthcare in USA. A patient centered communication gives more satisfaction to patients and increase their faith on the physician and treatment. Emotional health is better when patients feel that they have a personal equation with their physicians and their preferences, culture and values are being considered while treatment. It is very important to increase emphasis on physician’s empathy towards patients and introduce feedback model to increase efficiency of hospitals. Patient Opinion is bringing change into the healthcare scenario of UK by making patient reviews an important tool of decision making. Hospitals are responding to these reviews, trying to make amends and improve the quality of care. Currently, healthcare of USA is financially driven and patients are not treated as a valued customer. In future, if we want the healthcare cost to go down and expect better service, it is very important to bring the focus on patients and build the system around them. References: [1] Jo Anne L. Earp, Elizabeth A. French, Melissa B. Gilkey: Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality [2] Bechtel, Christine.If You Build it, Will They Come? Designing Truly Patient-Centered Health Care.Health Affairs [3] http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/01/24/patient-centered-care-what-it-means-and-how-to-get-there/ [4] Moira Stewart, Judith Belle Brown, Allan Donner, Ian R. McWhinney, Julian Oates, Wayne W. Weston, John Jordan, The Impact of Patient-Centered Care on Outcomes [5] https://www.patientopinion.org.uk/info/about [6] Improving Patient Opinion Mining through Multi-step Classification, Lei Xia, Anna Lisa Gentile, James Munro, Josà © Iria [7] http://www.ncqa.org/Programs/Recognition/PatientCenteredMedicalHomePCMH.aspx [8] Ensuring That Patient-Centered Medical Homes Effectively Serve Patients With Complex Health Needs, AHRQ [9] http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/ACO/ [10] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC64755/

Fashion Branding

Dry. Hang Fashion brands in the Market place The Market place of MAC was solely built on the networking and the relationships the previous owners Frank Token, and Frank Angelo had with people in the fashion industry. The owners were tired of seeing makeup products that couldn't sustain the abuse of studio lights so they decided to make a quality makeup company. Frank Token was the idea behind the original project making formulas with his brother-in- law Victor Casual who was also a chemist (Evelyn, 2009).Frank Angelo came along to kind of help with the entrepreneurship aspect of the company, and they hit it off after that. Since both of the franks were already in the makeup, and hair industry they knew a lot of people that they could network their new makeup products too. Like I also mentioned before they were the first cosmetic line to offer a wide range of color lipsticks, most companies were mainly focused on skincare and facial products.MAC cosmetics were originally made for peop le in the high fashion industry, and were later pushed towards any and everybody in the fashion and keep industry (Evelyn, 2009). In 1986 MAC was styling fashion looks one being the concept of bald brides in Toronto fashion shows (Upgraded). In 1988 Henry Bended in New York was the first department store picking MAC's cosmetics , followed by a 1994 campaign of â€Å"Who is the M. A. C girl† starring Our Paul nearly raising $1 million for their M. A. C AIDS fund.All this leads to MAC's participation in their first New York fashion week with fashion designer Amateurs (Upgraded). MAC was also featured in one of the biggest fashion magazines Vogue in 1994 for the first time. That first New York fashion week runway then lead to MAC sponsoring over 850 shows, spread across 47 New York fashion week by 2012. By 2007 MAC's AIDS fund raised over 236 million dollars with the help of celebrities such as Mary J. Bilge, Ill Kim, Nick Mina], Lady Gaga, and Rick Martin. We love the idea of b eing able to champion and solidify a strong point of view for the next generation,† says an Est ©e Lauder executive. â€Å"We're a makeup-artist brand, and we're inspired by the runway?it's very organic. † said Esteem' Lauder executive (Upgraded). One of MAC's biggest introduction of endorsements were led by the likes of Pamela Anderson, Boy George, Debbie Harry, and other big stars in the ass's this led to the company's growth in the industry and marketplace (Evelyn,2009).

Importance of Literature Essay

There are a lot of things that come to mind when a person hears the word literature. Usually, one thinks of a book, story, classical work or some variation of the aforementioned but to ask someone to define the term literature, proves to be a much trickier task. Many are stumped when asked this question. People often answer by giving examples of literary works but fail to actually give an encompassing definition of the term. Welcome to the world of Webster (Dictionary that is). Webster’s Dictionary defines the term literature as the body of written works of a language, period, or culture. This definition seems be broad but continuing on in the definition there was one part that really stood as a more adequate representation of what literature is about. The definition reads as follows; Â…the body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field. This particular definition seems to hit at the core of literature; scholarship and specialization. Some feel that that all written works are forms of literature. I contend that a true work of literature must be written by a person who has studied a given field (specialization) and produced a work that allows the reader to gain some form of a lesson or viewpoint (scholarship), whether agreeing with the writer or taking an opposing stance of the information set fourth in the work. This is not to say that these types of works do not have any entertainment value but they have a type of entertainment that wraps the lesson, argument or viewpoint in an engaging style rather than being force-fed the authors’ stance. A true work of literature should evoke some form of discussion on the works main point. A work of literature needs all of the above, not only to be called a true work of literature but to also cement its place in history, which is the last piece of the puzzle when defining the term. Literature stands the test of time and can be discussed by great grandchildren as well as great grandmothers and all those in between. This all goes to say that the importance of literature is its ability to connect  a community known as the human race. Classical works of literature have been translated so that all human beings can share in a great piece, even being translated to an audio, so that those who can not read will not be stopped from participating in the act of community that literature provides. It is amazing that even though some might not share the same culture as others, they could start a discussion around a piece of literature. The literature in this instance acts as a unifier rather than just a book or story, thus proving the power of literature and the overall power of the written word. A true work of literature must have scholarship, specialization, a unifying human element and an entertaining delivery in order to stand the test of time. The points mentioned above give literature criteria on which to be compared. The importance of literature goes far beyond just having â€Å"a good read.† Literature possesses an intangible that can have a great impact on people’s lives. Great works of our time have brought nations together, stopped feuds, healed wounds, and have even taught humans how to be â€Å"human† again. Literature is extremely important and necessary to the growth of this world and for a creation of a global society.

Lewis Structures or Electron Dot Structures

Lewis Structures or Electron Dot Structures Lewis structures, also known as electron dot structures, are named after Gilbert N. Lewis, who described them in his 1916 article titled The Atom and the Molecule. Lewis structures depict the bonds between atoms of a molecule as well as any unbonded electron pairs. You can draw a Lewis dot structure for any covalent molecule or coordination compound. Lewis Structure Basics A Lewis structure is a type of shorthand notation. Atoms are written using their element symbols. Lines are drawn between atoms to indicate chemical bonds. Single lines are single bonds, double lines are double bonds, and triple lines are triple bonds. (Sometimes pairs of dots are used instead of lines, but this is uncommon.) Dots are drawn next to atoms to show unbonded electrons. A pair of dots is a pair of excess electrons. Steps to Drawing a Lewis Structure Pick a central atom. Start your structure by picking a central atom and writing its element symbol. This will be the atom with the lowest electronegativity. Sometimes its difficult to know which atom is the least electronegative, but you can use the periodic table trends to help you out. Electronegativity typically increases as you move from left to right across the periodic table and decreases as you move down the table, from top to bottom. You can consult a table of electronegativities, but be aware different tables may give you slightly different values, since electronegativity is calculated. Once you have selected the central atom, write it down and connect the other atoms to it with a single bond. You may change these bonds to double or triple bonds as you progress.Count electrons. Lewis electron dot structures show the valence electrons for each atom. You dont need to worry about the total number of electrons, only those in the outer shells. The octet rule states that atoms wit h eight electrons in their outer shell are stable. This rule applies well up to period 4, when it takes 18 electrons to fill the outer orbitals. Filling the outer orbitals of electrons from period 6 requires 32 electrons. However, most of the time you are asked to draw a Lewis structure, you can stick with the octet rule. Place electrons around atoms. Once you have determined how many electrons to draw around each atom, start placing them on the structure. Start by placing one pair of dots for each pair of valence electrons. Once the lone pairs are placed, you may find that some atoms, particularly the central atom, dont have a complete octet of electrons. This indicates there are double or possibly triple bonds. Remember, it takes a pair of electrons to form a bond. Once the electrons have been placed, put brackets around the entire structure. If there is a charge on the molecule, write it as a superscript on the upper right, outside of the bracket. More About Lewis Structures Here is more information about Lewis structures: Step: Exceptions to the Octet RuleLewis Structure Example Problem: Formaldehyde

buy custom Why We Commit Crime essay

buy custom Why We Commit Crime essay Why do people commit crime? According to Thomas (2011), this is a question that is often not asked even by many policy makers. He noted that in contrary, crime and terror has been increasing posing a lot of insecurity challenges all over the world. According to Thomas (2011), various governments are currently spending the better part of their budget on measures aimed at combating crime. New laws are enacted every year in various nations against the actions of crimes while at the same time new laws are passed in an attempt to combat crimes and criminals. Thomas (2011) emphasizes that it must be noted that people are never criminals at birth. He asserts that there could certainly be various circumstances and needs that help in the making of a criminal (Thomas, 2011). There are numerous causes of crime that have been identified ranging from poverty to those factors that are intrinsic within the individuals. Theoretically criminologists, sociologists and psychologist have come up with various theories in an attempt to explain why people commit crime (Thomas, 2011). These theories have attributed this trend to different factors depending of the discipline. In utilizing the relevant theories and integrating them with relevant causal factors, this study will try to answer the question Why do we commit crime? Community and Crime According to Thomas (2011), the role of community is determining criminal activities can be explained both theoretically and critically. However, any of the two concentrates its efforts in examining the opportunities a given community avails in an attempt to enable its members achieve their goals in life (Thomas, 2011). Important to the analysis is also the amount of pressure put by the community on the need for the realization of such dreams. Thomas (2011) notes that the rates of crime is normally higher in the communities which tend to present there members with unequal opportunities. According to him, such a system will automatically deny some individuals a chance to achieve their goals through legitimate means. These groups of individuals are normally forced to pursue their goals through illegal methods to meet the demands placed on them by the same community. Thomas (2011) concludes that as much as the society will still present different opportunity to its members, criminal beh aviors will never be eliminated. According to Thomas (2011), another way in which the community may breed violence is associated with the way in which it controls the handling of such technologies as handguns. Easy access to such lethal technologies in a community may make its members easily resort to violence as a means of solving problems. Thomas (2011) reports a study which showed that in U.S. alone, 333,000 among the 400,000 violent crimes in 1998 were committed using firearms. According this study, firearms related deaths rose to be the eighth in the United States. Thomas (2011) reported another case study in which the issue of unequal opportunities was much evidenced. The study was carried out on inmates in the U.S prisons in 1990s. The researched revealed that the majority of the prisoners had very low education levels. This was also reflected in the kind of crimes that they had committed. The crimes included: robbery, burglary, and automobile theft, drug trafficking, and shoplifting (Thomas, 2011). Asked why they had involved themselves in such criminal activities, most of the prisoners indicated that their low level of education could not allow them to secure well rewarding employment positions. Thomas (2011) emphasizes that lack of employment and provision of any employment below living wage does not help deter criminal activity. According to him, it only put people in a situation where they have to make a decision to either continue in their low income levels or join criminal activities. Theoretical Explanations There are a number of theories that linked crime to the action of the larger communities. According to the rational theorists, before one involves himself in any criminal act, he or she must reason rationally. Grant noted that every individual has their interest which they seek to accomplish through legitimate means (Grant, 2006). This position is supported by the strain theorists who explain that in any given community people have similar goals and aspirations. However, the community does not present its members with similar opportunities. According to Grant (2006), whenever the community fails to present these opportunities to its members, it is a usual phenomenon to find members resorting to criminal ways of achieving their goals. In such cases the need to satisfy ones interest supersedes the potential risks from committing crime (Grant, 2006). On the other hand the social organization theory explains that every behavioral choices made by the individuals are explained by ones immediate physical and social environments (Grant, 2006). According to these theorists, a society with loose social structures will most likely experience high rate of crime. Discussing this theory Grant (2006) sites factors relating to poor planning such as failing to demolish vacant and vandalized buildings and mixing of both commercial and residential houses as the factors that may fuel criminality in a place. The same thought is shared by the routine activities theorists who propose that the probability for one to commit crime is also directly related to the available opportunities to commit crime within a given community. According to Grant (2006), crime rates will always be high in communities with unorganized and unsupervised activities. Third is the social learning theory. This theory takes into account the way people associate with one another in its explanation of crime (Grant, 2006). That both the vigor and the skills of committing crime are developed form the individuals that one associate with. Forth is the social control theory which attributes the probability of crime commitment to the measure of control that is placed upon the individuals by the larger society. The theorists hold that societies whose social institutions have loose structures and lack well defined laws will experience high rate of crime (Grant, 2006). Another societal cause of crme is related to actions like stereotyping and labeling of individuals as criminals (Grant, 2006). This is mostly done or perpetrated by the community leaders whose positions in the society allows them to decide which acts can be considered as a crime. Studies by psychologists have indicated that the individuals who are labeled criminals in most cases turn out to be thus. This holds true because once a person is labeled a criminal, he is always denied his legitimate opportunities of achieving goals by the same community which demands prosperity from him (Grant, 2006). Media and Violence Several studies have linked both the video game violence, the television based movies and the print media to the increasing rate of crime. Surrette (2011) notes that even the simple childrens cartoonist and fantasies have been linked to the increasing aggression in children. According to Surrette (2011), such simple plays done repeatedly may breed violence in children. Studies have also found out a close link between video games and the todays increasing rates of bullying in the learning institutions. According to Surrette (2011), video game violence makes it easy for children to learn violence. He noted that the confirmation of the same by the FBI in its 2000 report when it listed violent video games among the activities that are closely linked to the shootings experienced in the learning institutions. Surrette (2011) noted the strong link between media game violence and increased aggression among todays younger generation. It has been a common phenomenon to find cases where violent video game players confess to have literally resorted to violence based methods as the means of achieving their dreams. Surrette (2011) also notes that it is always a hard task for the players of video game violence to forgive others whenever a dispute occurs especially when they were on the right. In addition, he noted that those who developed aggression from playing this game may totally loose their sense of apathy. According to Surrette (2011), it is also common among the video game players to want to display their strength leading to increased desire to involve themselves in violent related activities. The affected always find themselves reacting in a violent manner even without considering the risks involved. Study by Professor Eron of the University of Michigan also concluded that there is high probability of the boys who watched television crime to try committing the same crimes during their latter stages of life (Surrette, 2011). The study on the effect of crime images in the media by the Professor Brandon Centerwall of the University of Washington also revealed the same findings. It covered the first eight years after a wide scale introduction of TV in California. The study found out that there was an unusual increase in the rate of the reported murder cases in North America during this time. The same was confirmed during his second study in South Africa. According to Surrette (2011), these findings are still applicable as the images in the media still has the potential of making one to resort to being a life long criminal. Medias strong influence to criminology is also explained by the way it dramatizes crime. In most cases, the criminals in video game violence always end up receiving the glory. This acts of media points towards normalizing crime. Another aspect of the media which makes it risky is the king of publicity that it gives to the criminals. Studies have shown that the impression it creates has lured many young people into committing crime (Surrette, 2011). Similarly, the improvement in the field of communication has also ease the coordination of criminal activities. An example is the internet which has greatly enabled the criminals to find and share the information among themselves and also to influence new peers into their activities. Surrette (2011) noted that over the years, the rate of cyber crime has been on the increase especially among the middle and high school students. Some of the highly committed cyber related crimes today include digital piracy, pornography and online bullying (Surrette, 2011). Peer Pressure and Crime According to various studies presented by Smith and his colleagues (2009), there is a link between the kind of friends one has and the probability that he or she will be involved in criminal activities. They noted that effect of Peer pressure is largely felt among the children and the adolescents. According to their findings, most often, children and youths burn with desire to experiment what their fellow age mates are doing. This has led to an increasing number of youths beginning to take alcoholics and drugs. Through their interaction with other criminals, the newly deviant individuals also graduate into involving themselves in more complex activities (Smith et al, 2009). Smith (2009) comments that it is ironical that the often preferred treatment to deviant/criminal behaviors in majority of states is to put them together in some facility. According to Smith, criminality is common among certain adolescent groups and placing them together would worsen the situation. Smith (2009) further notes that there is also a link between exposure to criminal peers and increase in ones involvement in diverse delinquent behaviors. He explored a number of evidences to show that deviant peer influence is largely responsible for both the initiation and worsening of delinquency. According to Smith (2009), another issue that presents peers with an opportunity to advance in criminal activities is their segregation from the normal population. He faulted the initial researches done to determine the best developmental measures on deviant behavior. The researchers had recommended segregating these individuals. However, according to Smith and his colleagues (2009), the contributions of such measures are always offset by the influence the criminal peers have on one another. Their study also found out that putting deviant peers together greatly increases their likelihood of delinquency. Smith (2009) found out that the influence of peers was also rampant among the children. Another way in which the coommunity punishes criminal activities especially in the educational settings is suspension and expulsion. According to Smith and Colleagues (2009), these measures too have been proved to be more detrimental to the very children who are purported to be helped. When these suspended students are sent back from the learning institutions into the community, they meet and influence one another even to worse states than they were before. According to Smith and his colleagues (2009), the best option would be to leave the students in school settings. This would enable them to be exposed to and perhaps learn from their conforming schoolmates. They concluded that because of the considerable evidence, it should never be recommended for the society to continue with its policies of detaining juvenile offenders. This would expose the offenders to deviant peers while minimizing their interaction with the adult role models and their reformed peers. Cultural Values and Crime Both norms and values aspects of cultures relate directly to the rate of crime that is witness. According to Abril (2011), these two aspects of culture affect what a given culture perceives as a crime and the seriousness with which it is taken. He reports various findings to show that the rate of crime is relatively low in cultures which practice collectivism compared to those which practice individualism. Abril (2011) noted that every culture perceives crime differently. Certain communities have their own tribal laws and respond collectively to criminal activities. Such arrangements enable the members of a given culture to internalize and practice the community laws. The cultures which stress on community involvement normally experience lesser crime cases compared to the culture in which individuality is stressed (Abril, 2011). Within the larger culture, there are also the subcultures which may have totally different norms and values from those of the mainstream culture. According to Abril (2011), any attempt to explain the criminal activities in such sub-cultures must seek to analyze the discrepancy that exists between the norms and values of the mainstream culture and those of the specific sub culture. According to Walter Millers theory of Focal Concerns, criminal behaviors of a given small subculture, say gangs, can be described in terms of values and norms of the subculture (Abril, 2011). Walter Miller studied the gang subculture. According to him this group stresses on physical prowess, smartness in conning others, ability to take risk, fate and autonomy. He explained that any member of such sub-cultures must seek to direct their behavior towards living up to these values (Abril, 2011). To such a group being involved in crime is an indication of their autonomy and an opportunity for excitement. Abril (2011) concluded that the greater the discrepancies between the dominant cultures values and the subcultures values the more will be the opportunity of norm violating behavior. Theoretical Explanation Equally, there are theories which seek to explain criminality on the basis of the values and norms practiced by the cultures to which people belong. According to the theory of differential association, even the way in which a given culture defines what a crime is has the potential of making its members to engage in criminal activities (Grant, 2006). Grant explains that such definitions are leant by members from their social groups. Some individuals have therefore committed criminal acts based on the fact that their larger groups were not categorizing such acts as crimes. Grant (2006) reports that crime rate is normally high among social groups with loose definitions of what is considered as a crime (Grant, 2006). Sports (Athletics) and Crime According to the published reports by Valen, there is always one incident of crime involving an athlete in every two days (Valen, 2009). Domestic violence is the most common crime among the athletes. Benedict carried out a study focusing on the rates of sexual assaults reported from thirty major Division I Universities within the U.S. His report showed that one in every three sexual assault cases reported was committed by an athlete. Through the three year study, it was revealed that even though athlete students only constituted 3.3% of the entire college population, they were responsible for 19% of all the sexual assaults committed during this duration. At the same time their involvement in domestic violence related crimes remained high at 35% (Valen, 2009). Another study carried out in Georgetown yielded the same results. According to the study, the number student athletes were only 11 percent of the total population of the undergraduates within the town (Valen, 2009). Astonishingly, their rate of involvement in and being charged with violent assaults was more than twice that of the overall student population. Valen (2009) explains that even though many of the athletes are charged with crime, their charges were being freed every time. The study revealed that the conviction rate of athletes was as low as 38%. This can not be compared to that of the general population which still remains at around 80%. To Valen, these are some of the reasons for high involvement of athletes in crime. Some experts have also attributed the high rate of crime commission by the athletes to their aggressiveness. According to Valen (2009), the athletes also seem live in their own world with the huge salaries and free scholarships that they receive. Most of them see themselves as special and are determined to achieve their goals by whatever means. This has made most of the athletes to believe that the rules and laws which guide the conduct of the rest of the population are not applicable to them. Conclusion In conclusion, the factors such as media, does not directly cause crime by themselves. In order for the governments to successfully address the issue of criminality, thorough research on the operations of the society is required. Any of such research carried out in future should lead to changes in certain policies as well as seeking to involve the community at all levels. Buy custom Why We Commit Crime essay

Annotated Bibliographies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Annotated Bibliographies - Essay Example They argue that the decline of American students in STEM threatens the country’s competitive edge in the world economy. In response, they recommend the D2D Model to increase the number of students in STEM. Onjira and Gilbert (2009) illustrate the affordances of machine-processable competency modeling. They argue that machine processing is invaluable in e-learning and assessment. They emphasize its effectiveness in e-learning. In addition, Onjira and Gilbert (2009) present the competency model’s affordances in generating questions, distractors, and adaptive query sequences. In the article, they conclude that using machine-processable competency overcomes many limitations in interoperability, reusability, and portability. They demonstrate the ease of automatically generating questions using templates. The system enables them to generate many questions from one template. They further argue that the presence of plausible distractors poses a challenge in generating multiple-choice questions. They conclude the article by looking forward to a future with an automated feedback system. Ricardo et al. (2009) explains the role of mathematics and statistics in the expression of scientific ideas. They conclude that mathematics and statistics are the languages of science. Because of the effect of the internet on learning approach of students, Ricardo et al. (2009) explored innovative ways of learning and teaching methodologies. They advocated acquisition of core competencies by students, development of relevant software and better methods of assessment emphasizing on higher-level abilities. In addition, the researchers propose student-centered learning that students employ Information Technology in acquiring knowledge and self-assessment. Ricardo et al. (2009) present the R-QUEST as a new programming language that solves many statistical problems, thereby

The common drivers contributing to employees satisfaction at late Research Proposal

The common drivers contributing to employees satisfaction at late career stage - Research Proposal Example It is therefore critical for organizations to understand and outline what actually motivates employees working at the later stage of their career. This research study will focus on understanding and exploring as to what actually motivates employees working at the later stage of their careers. Employee motivation has been one of the hotly debated and discussed topics in academic literature with many theoretical underpinnings outlining as to what actually motivates an employee throughout his or her career. From Maslow’s theory of hierarchy to latest research on the topic indicates the overall importance of motivation within an organization. It is however, critical to note that every organization contains a mix of employees belonging to different age groups and career stages. Motivation drivers for employees working at three different stages of the career therefore may be different as compared to the motivators for employees at the early or mid-stage career. (Dwyer, 2009) Each employee pass through three different phases of career i.e. start, mid and later stage and at each stage, the level of motivation and motivators change because employee needs change with the passage of time. As a person ascends on the hierarchy of needs, the nature of motivators change and employees look for different and unique ways to get themselves motivated and generate the level of job satisfaction required to retain the job. The overall research problem is based upon understanding and exploring as to what are the key and common drivers of motivation and job satisfaction for employees working at the later stage of their career. As outlined above, the motivation and education needs of employees at three different stages of their career are different. The overall research objective therefore is to explore and assess as to what motivates employees who are at the later