Components of the criminal justice system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Components of the criminal justice system - Essay Example Ensuing Problem in Law Enforcement A published report in Ten8 (2010) entitled â€Å"U.S. Homeland Security Issues Alert: Mexican Assassin Teams Targeting U.S. Law  Enforcement† proffers pending problems pertinent to summarily assassinating law enforcement officers and other members of the criminal justice system extending to their families by the Barrio Azteca gang, a notorious Mexican gang, allegedly retaliating on a reported crackdown of its members. According to a report published by the Homeland Security Newswire (HSNW, 2010), â€Å"the Barrio Azteca gang, which formed in Texas prisons in the 1980s, is a brother organization to the Aztecas gang in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the epicenter of Mexico’s violent drug war†¦ members of the gang’s â€Å"assassination teams† are thought to work for very small monthly fees. One official from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has said Aztecas have been known to kill for as little as $100† (par. 7). The factors that contributed to this problem is the imposition of restraint and forceful regulation in activities of the members by law enforcement officers. As indicated in the HSNW (2010) report, â€Å"the paramilitary-style gang has an â€Å"open policy† to kill its rivals and may turn its sights toward local law enforcement officers† (par. 4).

Leadership Styles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership Styles - Essay Example Today most of the Fortune 500 are from USA, not because of the human capital, diversification, creativity, (although they too contribute in business success) but due to the leaders they have such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jack Welch and so on. We know that these people have inspired millions through their big ideas, inspirations, their timely decision making processes etc. When Jack Welch took charge of General Electric, the total worth of company was US$ nine billion and at the time when he left General Electric, after almost twenty years, the company's financial worth was US$ 500 billion. This figure itself speaks about the leadership skills Jack Welsh possesses. He is a man who has a lot of energy. During his stay in General Electric he acquired a lot of new businesses, streamlined plenty of strategic business units and plenty of mergers and acquisitions which needed loads of enthusiasm, courage and timely decision making. From day first in the General Electric, Jack always came up with new ideas and notions, which reaped fruitful results for his company. He is a man of change, he believed that keep changing positively will leave the competitors far behind, because while changing you grow according to the needs and wants of the customer.

Identity theft through the use of the internet and how businesses and Literature review

Identity theft through the use of the internet and how businesses and people are affected by its continuous threats - Literature review Example In the end, the mission critical data is compromised, resulting in severe losses for organizations. Generally, the business functions and processes, which exist electronically and digitally within the organization needs to be protected. The people who use Internet, provides a lot of personal information on the Internet in order to perform banking, registration, subscription, purchasing a product or service. The personal information has enormous dimensions to get extracted and become vulnerabilities. One of the most common threats in the context of misusing personal information is identity theft A network dictionary demonstrate the concepts of Identity theft as â€Å"Identity theft is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personal information, such as Social Security or driver’s license numbers, in order to impersonate someone else. The information can be used to obtain credit, merchandise, and services in the name of the victim, or to provide the thief with false credentials.† In order to protect identities of the customer, organization need to protect and manage identities. A good definition of identity management is illustrated in the network dictionary as â€Å"Identity Management is an integrated system of business processes, policies and technologies that enable organizations to facilitate and control their users’ access to critical online applications and resources while protecting confidential personal and business information from unauthorized users†. In the code of deferral regulations (CFR), identity theft is defined as a fraud that is conducted by using the identity information of another person without permission. Identity theft can also contribute to other crimes. For instance, identify theft is successful in document fraud, bank fraud, immigration fraud and in the form of burglary and robbery. Consequently, the challenges for eliminating identity theft including victimization, offending and prosecution rate s, needs to be considered by the congress, as these threats are arising by the contribution of identity theft and related crimes (Finklea 2009). Online privacy policy is of great concern, when considering identity theft as privacy policies of some websites does not satisfy the users for disclosing their personal data. There is no undertaking from the website owner for securing the contents provided by the user online. This is one area, which needs research and improvement, in order to provide a mechanism of securing data privacy, policies that are implemented by web services to ease privacy concerns associated with information related to their clients and adhere to legislative measures. Moreover, this also involves the undertaking for personal data usage including, what organizations would do or not with the personal information of their clients. This is crucial as some websites may sell personal information of their clients to cyber criminals or other competitors in terms of cash. This personal information is substantial for online cyber criminals to extract and guess passwords and retrieve credit card numbers, once they break into the email account of users. In order to eliminate identity theft appropriate measures are required. Identity theft is categorized into two domains i.e. Physical identity theft and

Art History Essay Example for Free

Art History Essay Jose De Ribera, Martydom of Saint Bartholomew, ca. 1639. Oil on canvas * Ribera uses this piece to scorn idealization of any kind. * The drama and brutality expresses the harsh times of the Counter-Reformation. * We notice Caravaggio’s influence on Ribera through the naturalism and drama used in Martydom of Saint Bartholomew and Caravaggio’s many works. Francisco De Zurbaran, Saint Serapion, 1628. Oil on canvas * Serapion was a British martyr who was supposed to fight the Moors in Spain, who ended up being butchered in Algeria. * What makes this piece different is a complete lack of violence. There is no blood or any sign of a wound, as we can see his white robe is spotless. * Unlike most martyr paintings that make the subject seem heroic and brave, Zurbaran captures the true helplessness of the saint, winning the viewer’s emotions. Diego Velazquez, Water Carrier of Seville, ca. 1619. Oil on canvas * This piece captures the social issue of the rich and poor of Spain during the time. * The contrast of dark and light shows elements of Caravaggio, who Velaquez had studied. * Although this scene shows everyday life, the care it conveys suggests a deeper meaning. Diego Velazquez, Surrender of Breda, 1634-1635. Oil on canvas * Velazquez aided Philip IV in regaining power by using Surrender of Breda as propaganda. * This piece was not only a symbol of Spanish nationalism, but a tribute to Ambrogio Spinola, the Spanish general of this war. * Velazquez’s relationship with Spinola made Surrender of Breda especially historically accurate. Diego Velazquez, King Philip IV of Spain (Fraga Philip), 1644. Oil on canvas * Velazquez portrays Philip as a military leader by focusing attention on his marvelous red and silver campaign dress. * The painting is also known as Fraga Philip, because it was painted in the town of Fraga in Aragon. * This portrait was just another example of Velazquez’s propagandistic images used for King Philip IV. Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas, 1656. Oil on canvas * The use of depth and content in this piece helped prove Las Meninas as Velazquez’s masterpiece. * The mirror on the back wall seems to be the reflection of the king and queen, meaning they are being painted on the other side of the room. * Velazquez actually painted himself as the artist in the room. Peter Paul Rubens, Elevation of the Cross, 1610. Oil on panel * Rubens used elements both from the Renaissance and of the Italian Baroque to create the first Pan-European style, as seen in Elevation of the Cross. * The tension is emotional and physical, as seen in Christ’s face and the grief of his followers. * The drama is intensified by the strong use of light and dark. Peter Paul Rubens, drawing of Laocoon, ca. 1600-1608. Black-and-white chalk drawing with bistre wash * The predominantly black chalk drawing shows Rubens’ study of classical representation of the human form. * This piece is obviously a revisit of the marble sculpture that depicted Laocoon and his sons breaking free from serpents. * Rubens had a big focus on mastering the human body, which led him to copy classical works of earlier master artists, such as this piece. Peter Paul Rubens, Arrival of Marie de’ Medici at Marseilles, 1622-1625. Oil on canvas * The painting depicts Marie arriving in France after a long voyage from Italy. * The women waiting for her is an allegory personified to represent France, and the goddesses, Neptune and the Nereids (daughters of the sea god Nereus), represent the sky and the sea rejoicing her safe arrival. * The surfaces are enriched with decoration to further bring the painting together. Peter Paul Rubens, Allegory of the Outbreak of War, 1638. Oil on canvas * The beautiful human forms and energy that take away attention from the chaos of this piece is a recurrent theme in Rubens’ other works. * The Thirty Years’ War was Rubens’ reason to create Allegory. * The woman clothed in black, deprived of her jewels and ornaments is an unhappy Europe. Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I Dismounted, ca. 1635. Oil on canvas * Charles I turns his back on his attendants as he looks over his domain. * His location on higher ground gives us the idea he is higher than all of his observers and followers. * The king impersonates as a noble man for a casual walk in the park, but no one can take their eyes off his regal poise. Hendrick Ter Brugghen, Calling of Saint Matthew, 1621. Oil on canvas * The naturalistic presentation of the subjects echoes the work of Caravaggio. * This piece differs from work of Caravaggio because the use of color, rather than extreme contrast of light and dark. * There is a definite claustrophobic effect as noticed by the figures being crammed into a well-lit room. Gerrit Van Honthorst, Supper Party, 1620. Oil on canvas * In this painting, Honthorst portrays the darker side of humanity. * The man on the right being fed by the woman is sometimes interpreted as a warning by Honthorst to avoid the sin of gluttony. * Honthorst frequently placed a hidden light source in his paintings, such as Supper Party, to work with violent dark and light effects. Frans Hals, Archers of Saint Hadrian, ca. 1633. Oil on canvas * The Archers were one of many militia groups that helped in liberating the Dutch Republic from Spain. * In this portrait, each man is a troop member yet individually different from the next. * The troop members’ attire further helps create a certain rhythm to the piece. Frans Hals, The Women Regents of the Old Men’s Home at Haarlem, 1664. Oil on canvas * This piece captures the details of each sitter and their cultural characteristics. * The women seem to have different emotions all around, from complete disinterest to concern of their environment. * The monochromatic theme of this painting further adds to the painting’s restraint. Rembrandt Van Rijn, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632. Oil on canvas * The students’ individual faces tell us each has different feelings and thoughts about the man being dissected. * Van Rijn diagonally placed the body to break away from the strict horizontal orientation found in traditional paintings. * Rembrandt chose to have the students all on the left side to highlight Dr. Tulp and the body.

English Settlers of the Chesapeake Region and New England Essay

English Settlers of the Chesapeake Region and New England Although New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled largely by people of English origin, by 1700 the regions had evolved into two distinct societies. As English settlements in North America began to progress, social, economical, and religious ideas divided the English immigrants. The settlers journeyed to North America to meet their individual needs and beliefs. Whether they were fleeing to become wealthy or to escape religious pressures; all of these settlers came attempting to improve their lifestyles. The Chesapeake region and New England settlements proved how two English settlements could have differing societies. English origins seemed to be their only common trait. Life for the earliest Chesapeake settlers was brutal and deadly. Diseases such as malaria, dysentery and typhoid shortened life expectancy, while nearly half of the Virginia and Maryland settlers didn’t live to see their twentieth birthday. This frail Chesapeake region continued a slow growth primarily because a majority of the settlers were â€Å"single men in their late teens to early twenties†(Document C). Because of the overpopulation of men and the scarcity of women, families became sparse. However, despite the harsh beginnings of its society, the Chesapeake region continued to endeavor by acquiring an immunity to diseases and increasing birthrates. The Chesapeake region also held its own economic standards. When 120 men arrived in Jamestown on May 14th,1607 they relied on the hopes of discovering gold. Most of the settlers’ time was devoted to searches for gold instead of the stabilization of their... ...regularly preached in New England schools. They also included a religious attitude towards their economy. â€Å"This court †¦.in the interim recommends (that) all tradesmen and laborers consider the religious end of their callings.(Document E)† The Chesapeake region and New England societies differed mainly because of the ways their settlements were first organized and developed. The Chesapeake region began with a irresponsible development, which led to severe consequences. An overpopulation of men with desires to strike gold, slowed the settlements growth by making gold the only priority. New England, on the other hand, settled as families with family priorities and values. They developed well organized towns with Puritan teachings. Also, New Englanders used practical resources to begin the process of developing their economy.

Spas in Roman Times :: essays research papers

What is the â€Å"spa†? The word â€Å"spa† is rooted in the Latin language and means â€Å"salus per aquam.† For those of you who are not very polished on your Latin, that means â€Å"health from water.† â€Å"Spa† is also the name of a small village in Belgium where hot mineral springs were discovered by ancient Romans and used by soldiers to treat aching muscles and wounds from battle. When? It is unclear when the Romans used the first public bath, but during the reign of Caesar Augustus from 27 B.C. to 14 A.D., there were approximately 170 baths throughout Rome.At this time, citizens of Rome began to view baths as a way of providing rest, relaxation, and solace to all people, not just those weary of war. Spa in England In 70 A.D., the Romans built a spa and dedicated it, as a shrine consisting of a reservoir around the hot springs at Bath, in what is now England, a complex series of baths, and a temple, to the honor of the goddess Sulis Minerva. As the Roman Empire grew, so did the number of public baths. By the year 300 A.D., there were over 900 baths throughout the empire. The oldest Roman spa still in existence today is located in Merano, Italy, providing evidence of the idea that the Romans used natural springs in an organized manner to provide treatments. Types of Spa   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After exercising, bathers entered the tepidarium, a room where they would prepare for their bath. The first step was to remove the oil from their body. Oil was used as a substitute for soap, which was reserved for only the very wealthy in ancient Rome, then scraped off with an implement known as a strigil, removing dirt and grime with it. Upon completing this step, bathers were ready to enter the caladarium. This room was very hot and filled with steam, created by sunken pools of hot water. Some baths also included a room that was very hot and dry, very much like our modern day saunas, called a laconicum. Visits to the hot rooms were followed by a visit to the frigidarium. As the name implies, this room was cold and served to close pores that were open from sweating in the hot rooms. This room also frequently contained either a small pool of cold water for washing away sweat or a large pool of cold water for swimming.

Enron Ethics Essay

This article tries to show how the company’s culture had profound effects on the ethics of its employee? And particularly in this case: how did Enron lose both its economical and ethical status? This question makes the Enron case interesting to us as business ethicists. Enron ethics means that business ethics is a question of organizational â€Å"deep† culture rather than of cultural artifacts like ethics codes, ethics officers and the like. BackgroundAt the beginning Enron faced a number of financially difficulty years. In 1988, the deregulation of the electrical power market took effect and Enron redefined its business to energy broker and got a thriving company. The company became a â€Å"matchmaker† in the power industry, bringing buyers and sellers together. Enron embraced a culture that rewarded â€Å"cleverness†. Pushing the limits was considered a survival skill; the motto of the CEO Jeffry Skilling was â€Å"Do it right, do it now and do it better†. This culture admires innovation and unchecked ambition and publicly punishes poor performance can produce big return in the short term. However, in the long run, achieving additional value by constantly â€Å"upping the ante† becomes harder and harder. A lot of smoke and mirrorsWith Enron’s spectacular success, the business community rewarded Enron for its cleverness and Enron’s executives felt driven by this reputation to sustain the explosive growth of the late 1990s, even when they logically knew that it was not possible. In order to indicate that the company was not as successful as it appeared, Enron entered into a deceiving web of partnerships and employed increasingly questionable accounting methods to maintain its investment-grade status. PartnershipsTo push the value envelope, Enron created â€Å"special purpose vehicles† (SPV), pseudo-partnerships that allowed the company to sell assets and â€Å"create† earnings that artificially enhanced its bottom line. Enron exaggerated earnings by recognizing gains on the sale of assets to SPVs. An example is the partnership with Blockbuster which was intended to provide movies to homes directly over phones lines. In this case Enron recorded $ 110.9 million in profits prematurely, even if these profits were never realized as the partnership after only a 1,000-home pilot. Therefore booking  earnings before they are realized were rather â€Å"early† than wrong. The culture at Enron was quickly eroding the ethical boundaries of its employees. Keeping debt off the balance sheetTo avoid that a highly leveraged balance sheet would threaten its credit rating, Enron parked some of its debt on the balance sheet of its SPVs and kept hidden from analysts and investors. This can be read as another example of ethical erosion, but Enron’s decision makers saw the shuffling of debt rather as a timing issue and not as an ethical one. Partnerships at â€Å"arm’s length†Enron enlisted help from its outside accountants and its attorneys to guarantee that the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) did not consider its partnerships as Enron subsidiaries. Enron crafted relationships that looked (legally) like partnerships, although they were (in practice) subsidiaries. A closer look at the partnerships would have revealed that the outside investments came from companies that were owned by Enron. Conflicts of interestEnron officials obviously had close ties with its partnerships. For example, the CFO war partial owner of two of the most important partnerships. The culture of cleverness at Enron started as a pursuit of excellence that devolved into the appearance of excellence as executives worked to develop clever ways of preserving Enron’s infallible faà §ade of success; for the good of the company, Enron’s executives also began to bend the rules for personal again. Once a culture’s ethical boundaries are breached thresholds of more extreme ethical compromises become lower. The self-reinforcing decline of EnronThe sum of incremental ethical transgressions produced the business catastrophe. As partnerships began to fail with increasing regularity, Enron was liable for millions of dollars it had not anticipated losing. The financial implosionThe partnerships that once boosted earnings and allowed Enron to prosper became the misplaced card that caused the Enron  house to collapse. The very results Enron had sought to prevent – falling stock prices, lack of consumer and financial market confidence – came about as a direct result of decisions that had been driven by Enron’s culture. The Enron case of ethical failure consists of more than a series of questionable business dealings. Enron employees, who had been encouraged to invest heavily in the company, found themselves unable to remove and salvage their investments. The company culture of individualism, innovation, and aggressive cleverness left Enron without compassionate, responsible leadership. Leadership mechanisms and organizational culture at EnronLeadership is the critical component of the organization’s culture because leaders can create, reinforce or change the organization’s culture. According to Schein (1985) there are five primary mechanisms that a leader can use to influence an organization’s culture: attention, reaction to crises, role modelling, allocation of rewards, criteria of selection and dismissal. AttentionIf the leaders of the organizations focus on the bottom line, employees believe that financial success is the leading value to consider. Enron executives’ attention was clearly focused on profits, power, greed and influence; â€Å"Profits at all costs†. As Stern has suggested, if the organization’s leaders seem to care only about the short-term bottom line, employees quickly get the message too. Reaction to crisesSchein asserts, that a crisis tests what the leader values and brings these values to the surface. With each impending crisis, leaders have an opportunity to communicate throughout the organization what the company’s values are. Enron was facing a crisis of how to sustain a phenomenal growth rate. Leaders reacted by defending a culture that valued profitability, even when it was at the expense of everything else. The mantra at Enron seems to be that ethical wrongdoing is to be hidden at any cost; deny, play the dupe, claim ignorance, lie, quit. It appears that the truth and its consequences have been a part of the Enron culture. Role modeling (how leaders behave)Actions speak louder than words –  therefore- modeling behaviour is a very powerful tool that leaders have to develop and influence corporate culture. Employees observe the behaviour of leaders to find out what is valued in the organization. Perhaps, this was the most significant shortcoming of Enron executives. Enron’s leaders’ primary message about their values was sent through their own actions. They broke the law as they concentrated on financial measures and used of the creative partnerships. It also sent a message to employees that full and complete disclosure is not a requirement, or even recommended. If the company achieved short-term benefits by hiding information, it was acceptable. The leadership of Enron almost certainly dictated the company’s outcome through their own actions by providing perfect conditions for unethical behaviour. Just as the destiny of individuals is determined by personal character, the destiny of an organization is determined by the character of its leadership. Allocation of rewardsThe behaviour of people rewarded with pay increases or promotions signals to others what is necessary to succeed in an organization. To ensure that values are accepted, leaders should reward behaviour that is consistent with the values. Enron’s reward system established a â€Å"win-at-all-costs† focus. The company’s leadership promoted ant retained only those employees that produced consistently, with little regard to ethics. â€Å"The moral of this story is break the rule, you can cheat, you can lie, but as long as you make money, it’s all right†. The company’s compensation structure contributed to an unethical work culture, too – by promoting self-interest above any other interest. Enron’s reward system rewarded individuals who embraced Enron’s aggressive, individualistic culture and were based on short-term profits and financial measures. Criteria of selection and dismissal (how leaders hire end fire employees)The selection of newcomers to an organization is a powerful way of how a leader reinforces culture. Leaders often unconsciously look for individuals who are similar to current organizational members in terms of values and assumptions. This tends to perpetuate the culture because the new employees typically hold similar values. The CIO of Enron (Skilling) perpetuated a focus on short-term transactional endeavours from the very beginning by  hiring employees that embodied the beliefs that he was trying to instil: aggressiveness, greed, a will to win at all costs, and an appreciation for circumventing the rules. The way a company fires an employee and the rationale behind the firing also communicate the culture. Some company deal with poor performers by trying to find them a place within the organization where they can perform better and make a contribution. At Enron, fifteen to twenty percent of producers were let go or fired after a formal evaluation process each year. Final comments and suggestions for future work†Consequences of unethical or illegal actions are not usually realized until much later when the act is committed†. Enron’s culture is a good example of groupthink where individuals feel extreme pressure not to express any real strong arguments against any co-workers’ action. Employee were loyal in an ambiguous sense of the term, they wanted to be seen as part of the star team and to partake in the benefits that that honor entailed. Two of the most important lessons to learn from the Enron culture history is that bad top management morality can be a sufficient condition for creating a self-destructive ethical climate and that a well-filled CSR (corporate social responsibility) and business ethics toolbox can neither stop nor compensate for such processes. Enron is a case of deceiving corporate citizenship and of surface or faà §ade ethics. A typology with moral cultures can be draft with two dimensions: ethicalness of an organization culture and presence of business ethical tools of artifacts (ethics officers, codes of ethics, value statement). Enron looks at first sight like â€Å"type I†, like a classical business ethics case, with a typical mix of â€Å"amorality† and â€Å"immorality†. But the thesis of the authors is that Enron is an at least as good illustration of â€Å"type II†, of window-dressing ethics, with talking instead of walking, ethics as rhetoric. While â€Å"type II† looks modern, â€Å"type III† looks like the old-fashioned type of moral business ethics, CSR, marketing and public relations were invented with collective moral conscience as consistent label and content, perhaps additionally communicating moral humbleness, with a  touch of British understatement. â€Å"Type IV† refers to a moral role business culture in the age of marketing and public relations, with walking the talk, with showing and confessing openly its collective moral conscience. Bibliography: http://www.springerlink.com/content/p712j1555807774r/ Enron Ethics (Or: Culture Matters More than Codes) – Ronald R. Sims, Johannes Brinkmann