Wednesday, November 27, 2019

The legal response to domestic violence The WritePass Journal

The legal response to domestic violence Abstract The legal response to domestic violence AbstractChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Definition of ‘domestic abuse’ and a history of the police response.2.1 Definition2.2 Police Response to Domestic Violence Pre-19802.3 Police Response to Domestic Violence Post-1980Chapter 3: FeminismChapter 4: Legislation4.1 Criminal Law4.2 Civil LawChapter 5: Rates of reporting and non-reportingChapter 6: MethodologyChapter 7: DiscussionChapter 8: ConclusionReferencesRelated Abstract This dissertation examines the legal response to domestic violence, which, over the years has been subject to a variety of different terminology ranging from ‘wife battering’ (Pizzey, 1974; Walker, 1979) to ‘intimate partner violence’. Paying particular attention to the police, up until the early 1980’s some researchers described their general response and attitude towards incidents of domestic violence as being ‘dismissive and derogatory’ (Bourlet, 1990; Dobash and Dobash, 1980; Hanmer and Saunders, 1984; Edwards, 1989) and that, according to David Cheal (1991), the police perceive the family to be a private sphere to which ‘access to it by the state should be limited’. However, from the mid-1980’s it was recognised that there was a need for change not just in the police response, but the legal response as a whole and the Home Office began publishing papers on how domestic violence incidents should be tackled by the criminal justice system. Not only did this raise awareness of the issue but it also enabled different organisations, both statutory and voluntary, to work together which was part of the Home Office’s inter-agency initiative in 1995. More recently, there have been a number of statutes put in place that can further aid the police in their response to domestic violence and more importantly they enable them to treat incidents within the family between spouses as they would incidents that happen on the street between strangers. Chapter 1: Introduction Domestic violence has long been a problem amongst society, but until the 1980’s the agencies responsible for protecting victims of crime paid little or no attention to the issue itself, in particular the police showed reluctance to investigate and prosecute as they believed that ‘the family is a private sphere so access to it by the state should be limited’ (Cheal, 1991). However, it would be inaccurate to think that domestic violence is no longer a problem in society today and according to the 2009/10 British Crime Survey (BCS) seven percent of females compared to four percent of males aged between 16 and 59 are currently victims of domestic violence (Flatley et al., 2010). Statistics also show that between July and September 2009 there was a five percent increase in sexual offences which is in comparison to the same period of the previous year (Home Office, 2009). According to Walby and Allen, (2004) the British Crime Survey (BCS) estimated that a staggering 12.9 million domestic violence incidents against women and 2.5 million incidents against men happened in England and Wales in 2003 with 45 percent of women and 26 percent of men experiencing at least one incident of interpersonal violence in their lifetime. From this, it is therefore questionable whether or not domestic violence is regarded as being either legally or socially acceptable, as many researchers have found, from their research, that the criminal justice system appear to be ‘covertly tolerant’ (Berk et al., 1980) of the issue when really the offences committed in violent relationships are no different to that of an offence against the person. As a result of this alleged blasà © approach by the police to incidents of domestic violence, Smith (1989) found that victims of domestic violence only made contact with the emergency services as a last resort and on average s uffer 35 attacks before making the vital call to the police (Jaffe, 1982) which in effect goes against what the police as an agency stand for, that is, they are an emergency service and should act promptly and provide an effective service and not leave victims of domestic violence with very little faith in their work. However, according to Stanko (2000) even though only a small minority of victims report domestic violence to the police, with figures showing around 40 percent actually being reported to the police (Dodd et al, 2004; Walby and Allen, 2004; Home Office, 2002), they still on average receive one phone call every minute regarding domestic violence incidents in the UK amounting to an average influx of 1,300 calls a day or 570,000 calls per year. The next chapter to follow is the literature review in which the definition and ranges of terminology will be explored from past to present as to demonstrate the changes that have taken place throughout the years along with the apparent lack of coherence that have caused many researchers great difficulty when researching this particular area. The literature review will then continue to look at the police response to domestic violence from a historical perspective, namely pre-1980, and then move onto a more recent perspective from the 1980’s onwards as a comparative. Whilst the police response is of great importance to this dissertation, it is not solely directed at one single agency and the literature review will go on critically analyse the legislation, both civil and criminal, currently in place and legislation that was previously used to give an over view of the legal response as a whole and how it has changed alongside the changes in the police response. The final part of the literature review will look at rates of reporting and non-reporting of incidents to the police and examine whether or not there has been an increase of reported incidents since new legislation has been introduced and changes in police practices have happened or if there is still a reluctance by the victims to report it that has been evident in previous times. Chapter 2: Definition of ‘domestic abuse’ and a history of the police response. 2.1 Definition Over the years there have been a number of terms, ranging from ‘wife battering’ (Pizzey, 1974; Walker, 1979) to ‘intimate partner violence’, which have been used to describe what is most commonly known as ‘domestic violence’. One common issue that many researchers in the field have found is that of the definition and its lack of coherence between the writers of the issue, the Government and also the members of the public, who may merely use phrases such as ‘wife battering’ without fully appreciating the nature of the issue and the harm it can cause. In order to tackle this lack of coherence the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) set out an official definition of domestic violence which defines it as being â€Å"any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality†. (Home Office, 2010) This definition given by the Home Office has been expanded since the previous definition (Circular 19/2000), which vaguely described domestic violence as ‘any violence between current or former partners in an intimate relationship wherever and whenever it occurs’, and is now seen to further highlight the violence that can happen between family members who are 18 years of age and over and also includes various types of abuse that can also take place (e.g. financial, emotional etc.) as opposed to just being concerned with the physical violence. Previous to this updated definition, ‘domestic violence’ was recognised as the most commonly used phrase and the term of choice amongst researchers in the area (Smith, 1989) despite having a ‘far from uncritical reception’ (Mullender, 1996). Kashani and Allen (1998) commented upon this and stated that due to the sheer complexity of the issue, in terms of its elements (i.e. financial, emotional, psychological), that it would be unfair and unjust to solely regard it as an issue of ‘violence’ and so the term ‘abuse’ came about and has since made awareness of the fact that the issue isn’t just concerned with physical violence but also other aspects that aren’t considered to be violent, per se. 2.2 Police Response to Domestic Violence Pre-1980 Domestic violence is by no means a ‘new’ crime. Even dating back to the twelfth century domestic violence was prevalent, as church law stated in 1140 that ‘women were subject to their men’ and ‘needed to be corrected through castigation or punishment’. (Dutton, 1995 in Melton, 1999). The males have long been seen as having the power in the family and according to the Napoleonic Civil Code in 1804, ‘violence was only grounds for a divorce for a woman if the courts decided that it amounted to attempted murder’ (Dutton, 1995). English common law even allowed men to beat their wives with a stick no bigger than the width of their thumb, giving the term ‘rule of thumb’, and was said to be ‘uncivilised’ if the stick exceeded the rule (Brown, 1984). Given this, domestic violence wasn’t perceived to be a problem for the police as the laws in place actually condoned violence by men against women and only place d limitations as to how far the men could beat their wives, to which any further was only classed as being inappropriate, not criminal or punishable. More recently in the twentieth century, the police response to allegations of domestic violence has faced much criticism for their so-called ‘dismissive and derogatory way’ in which they have dealt with cases reported to them (Bourlet, 1990; Dobash and Dobash, 1980; Hanmer and Saunders, 1984; Edwards, 1989 also recognised by Women’s Aid). Buzawa (1990) describes the traditional response to domestic violence by the police as having an ‘overriding goal to extricate them from the dangerous and unpleasant duty with as little cost as possible and to re-involve themselves with real police work’. Berk (1980) went as far as saying that the criminal justice system show, through their policies and attitudes, a ‘covert toleration’ of domestic violence and further condone ‘rights of men to exercise their authority’ (Berk et al., 1980). Research by Smith (1989) suggested four main reasons as to why the police may have displayed this ‘dismissive and derogatory’ behaviour in their response and presented an unsympathetic attitude towards the victim. The first reason was that there were concerns surrounding the officers’ safety and research suggested that around 33% of all assaults against police officers happened whilst attending domestic incidents. Secondly, Smith suggested that the police didn’t regard it as ‘real police work’ and was often perceived to be ‘trivial’ with one Metropolitan police officer being quoted as stating that domestic disputes might be categorised alongside ‘stranded people, lost property and stray animals’ (Times, 4 October 1983). Thirdly, the police didn’t regard domestic violence incidents as ‘criminal’ as it happens within the family unit and they see this as more of private matter to which ‘access to it by the state should be limited’ (Cheal, 1991). Margaret Borkowski also stated in her book Marital Violence that the police thought that an arrest by them and a possible prosecution ‘may sometimes be unhelpful and may exacerbate strained marital and family relationships’. Finally, there was the view held that victims would be reluctant to cooperate and would eventually withdraw their allegations and drop the charges in due course. Stanko (1985) challenged these views held by the police and argued that the way in which the police responded to the female victims amounted to ‘secondary victimisation’. This idea of secondary victimisation was particularly evident in the findings of Katz and Mazur (1979) and Chambers and Miller (1983) which showed that women who did report domestic violence attacks to the police in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s had their ‘character and morality questioned in such a way as to imply some responsibility for their victimisation’. Likewise, Chambers and Miller (1987), from their research, presented a variety of ways in which the prosecution was found to use various ‘tactics’ to imply that ‘women complainants were somehow to blame for their victimisation and to throw doubt on the credibility of the case’. With reference to Adler (1987) ‘All but the most transparently flawless victim was liable to be bullied by interrogators and prosecutors, exposing her to a form of secondary victimisation’. This resulted in what Smith (1989) called the ‘don’t variety’ in which women were told ‘not to get upset, not to get things out of proportion, not to go out alone, not to go out at night, to avoid â€Å"dangerous areas†, not to put themselves at risk’ (Benn and Worpole, 1985 quoted in Walklate, 2004). This however was heavily criticised as it placed restrictions on the women’s sense of freedom and that anyone who failed to take notice of this advice should be at fault if she got attacked, as it was regarded as though she was being negligent and had brought it on herself. 2.3 Police Response to Domestic Violence Post-1980 From the mid-1980’s onwards the Home Office accepted that there was a need for change in police practices regarding domestic violence and rape. In 1983, the Home Office published a circular (Home Office, 1983) giving advice on how investigations should be conducted, the timing and conduct of medical examinations, the number of officers involved and, where possible, the importance of having female officers involved, as Chambers and Miller (1983) had found from research, conducted by the Scottish Office, that there was a widespread ‘lack of sympathy and tact by CID officers and un-uniformed policewomen’. With regards to police responses, a further circular published by the Home Office in 1986 (Home Office, 1986) gave more suggestions of effective working practices when dealing with domestic violence incidents and made it clear that it was of paramount importance to ensure and maintain the safety of the victim and also any children within the home. However, it was argued by Bourlet (1990) that in order for these suggestions to be effective then they must be adopted by the police within their policies and ‘translate directly into practice’ (Grace, 1995) in the fight against domestic violence. This was supportive of Edwards (1989) earlier argument that ‘police did not take seriously their response to crimes between intimates’. Changes in response finally came about with a circular to chief constables in 1990 (Home Office, 1990) with the aim of it being to urge the police to develop explicit force policies and develop specialist domestic violence units in all 43 forces. A number of central features were highlighted in the 1990 circular, that is, it was to impose an overriding duty to protect victims and any children by the police, to treat domestic violence as seriously as other forms of violence, as it was argued by Pahl (1985) that ‘police action differs between similar acts of violence, depending on whether they occur in the home or on the street’. The circular also put across the value of powers of arrest and made it clear that they should be exercised in these circumstances, it also reiterated the dangers of conciliation between the victim and the offender, the importance of effective recording and monitoring systems and also put forward the consideration to the police of pursuing a case, even if the victim had withdrew her support, as Hoyle (1998) found, along with many others previously, that victims of domestic violence were either very reluctant to make statements or completely withdrew them quite soon after making them, sometimes even before the offender was charged, so by the introduction, by the Home Office circular, of pursuing a case despite the victim withdrawing their statement enabled them to break the so-called cycle of the police ‘leaving the ball in the victims court’ (Hoyle, 1998). However, Dobash and Dobash (1992) argued that this change in police response articulated by the 1990 Home Office circular was one that ‘showed no sign of lasting improvement’ and that the police continued to adopt an approach that reflected ‘minimum involvement and disengagement’ based on their findings from their report in 1990 on an Assistant Chief Constable and police policies in South Wales. A later publication by the Home Office in 1995 (Home Office, 1995) encouraged the idea of inter-agency, or multi-agency approaches to domestic violence and has since then grown in popularity with the underlying idea that by different agencies, both statutory and voluntary, working together they can produce an effective approach by sharing their resources and the information that they have to provide a ‘seamless and consistent service’ (Hague, 1998). In 1999, the Home Office published the paper ‘Living without fear: An integrated approach to tackling violence against women’ (Home Office, 1999) which replaced their previous circular published in 1995. Within the paper, the Government gave recognition to the fact that violence against women was a ‘serious problem, with serious consequences’ (Harman, 2008), but also highlighted that there was some help for victims in certain areas, despite not being what Harriet Harman described as ‘comprehensive, consistent or easy to access’ in her 2008 paper ‘Tackling violence against women: A cross-government narrative’. However, for the majority, this help simply didn’t exist at all. Harriet Harmen, former Minister for Women and Equality, in the 2008 Government paper summarised and re-stated the main problems taken from the 1999 Home Office publication that the Government needed to tackle. That is, they needed to ensure that ‘violence against women was taken seriously by the Criminal Justice System, making it less of an ordeal for victims to testify in court and tackling the problems associated with securing convictions’. The issue of ‘addressing personal safety issues, including issues over housing; and protecting the children of victims of domestic abuse’ was also raised and finally they needed to ensure that ‘the Government acted in a ‘joined-up’ way to tackle violence against women’ and create a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach against it. Of late, the Home Office (2000a) 19/2000 Circular ‘Domestic violence’ which introduced the presumption of arrest where it was possible to do so, gave great emphasis on showing how local police forces deal with incidents of domestic violence based on their policies on how such incidents should be policed. A further Home Office paper ‘Domestic Violence: Breaking the chain, multi-agency guidance for addressing domestic violence’ (2000b) aimed to raise the awareness amongst all of the different agencies concerned with tackling domestic violence. Particularly, with regards to the Police, it was stated that ‘tackling domestic violence should be an integral part of their work’. It was also noted in the same publication that the Government, according to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, expects that the crime and disorder audits carried out identify the ‘local level of domestic violence and for the Police to work with its partners to develop a strategy to address it as part of their overall crime reduction strategy’. Chapter 3: Feminism For Feminists, the law has long been regarded as being made for men and being made in the interests of men and throughout history there has been what Sachs and Wilson (1978) describe as a ‘male monopoly of law’ whereby the woman is perceived as being ‘inessential’ (De Beauvoir, 1949). Radical feminists perceive the family and marriage as the key institutions of oppression in society as the males appear to dominate the women through domestic abuse or by merely threatening the act, because of this, Millet (1970) and Firestone (1970) go on to argue that all societies have been founded on patriarchy and they see the male as being the enemy who exploit and oppress women in society. In their opinion, the patriarchal society is the chief element in explaining the reluctance of the police to investigate incidents of domestic abuse effectively in previous years and that for this to be abolished the patriarchal society needs to be overturned so that woman can live independently from the males. Chapter 4: Legislation With regards to legislation, there appeared to be a ‘lack of protection’ in the early 1970’s in the form of remedies available, particularly under civil law, as they were either ‘not easy’ to obtain or ‘inadequately used’ (Hague and Malos, 2005). It was also only possible to obtain a civil order if you were married to the perpetrator, which obviously left victims who weren’t married to their perpetrator with even fewer options of protection compared with those who were married. From this, Women’s Aid recognised that there was in fact a need for change within the civil law so that victims could apply for protection along with obtaining an occupation order of the matrimonial home based solely on their case of domestic violence without it being linked to any other criminal proceedings that may arise from the assaults as there was a resounding number of females who sought shelter at women’s refuges who had been driven out of their home and who didn’t wish to pursue help via the criminal law. 4.1 Criminal Law As mentioned before, there is no specific offence of ‘domestic violence’ under criminal law and naturally this has created difficulty for the police when dealing with such incidents as there are many different forms of offences that fall within and contribute towards the issue and so alongside the many Government papers published by the Home Office suggesting ways in which police practices regarding incidents of domestic violence should be handled, there have also been a number of different pieces of legislation introduced in the late 1990’s designed to aid the police even further. Similarly, with the paper ‘Inter-agency Co-ordination to Tackle Domestic Violence’ published by the Home Office in 1995 which suggested that both statutory and voluntary organisations should work together, the Crime and Disorder Act (CDA) 1997 also placed a duty on the authorities, thus supportive of the 1995 Home Office paper, to work alongside the police and other agencies at a local level through the provision of a Community Safety Strategy initiative. The idea being that each local authority will have in place an action plan which will provide ‘effective multi agency working to tackle domestic violence and provide high quality services’ (Lewis, 2005) for the people living in the community who may or may not already be victims of domestic violence. Likewise, the Protection from Harassment Act (PHA) 1997 enabled victims of domestic violence to have extra protection in place against stalking by ex partners and specifically section 2(1) of the PHA 1997 stipulates that ‘a person who pursues a course of conduct in breach of section 1 is guilty of an offence’ as Wallis (1996) found that, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers, 40% of harassment cases did in fact involve stalking between ex-partners or those who had been in a close relationship, something which Wallis described as a form of ‘post-separation domestic violence’. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 also saw measures introduced which provided a link between civil and criminal law. As mentioned before s.2(1) provided an offence of criminal harassment, and, along with s.4 which provided a more serious offence of fear of violence, and so as a whole, the Act provided women with addition help in the form of a restraining order if their perpetrator was convicted of either offence. Section 4 proved to be particularly useful, despite there already being police powers under criminal law in existence, the powers in place only related to fear of actual physical violence whereas s.4 provided powers for fear of stalking which aimed to be more effective before any psychological or bodily harm had been caused, thus trying to nip the problem in the bus before escalating further. The Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act which was introduced in 2004 aimed to protect victims of domestic violence by firstly making common assault an arrestable offence (which has since been repealed by s.110 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005). Secondly, the 2004 Act made a breach of a non-molestation order not only arrestable but also a criminal offence and finally the Act was also concerned with widening the scope of the civil law in cases of domestic violence as it was particularly evident that the remedies available were designed and implemented for married opposite sex couples, which, as a result, left cohabiting same sex couples experiencing exactly the same treatment but more importantly with a feeling that there was nothing that could be done about it. 4.2 Civil Law Since 1976, injunctions against violent partners could be obtained under three different statues all with the underlying principle that it was designed to protect victims of domestic violence. The Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976 gave female victims of domestic violence the right to stay in the matrimonial home and also granted them exclusion orders against their abusive partners which would effectively suspend their right to live in the matrimonial home and, at that time, was considered to be a successful tool in ‘protecting victims more comprehensively than had ever been possible under criminal law’ (Booth, 2003). The Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates Court Act 1978 sought to aid the use of injunctions as a preventative for added violence to the victim by the perpetrator whilst the Matrimonial Homes Act 1983 was focused on simplifying the powers to cease the rights of the violence partner to live in the matrimonial home. The piece of legislation that was to be selected to aid the protection of the victim was dependant on a number of factors, for example, whether the parties were married or not and also if she lived with her abuser. However, research by Barron (1990) showed that in the majority of cases injunction that were made were ineffective and would soon be breached, in Barron’s words, ‘not worth the paper they are written on’. The introduction of the Family Law Act (FLA) 1996, particularly part IV, sought to eradicate the mess and confusion caused by the three earlier pieces of legislation with regards to imposing injunctions. The legislation itself, under part IV, introduced a concise set of remedies whilst widening the scope of eligibility to a wider range of family members, which since then have been extended further under the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004. Under the Family Law Act 1996 there are two main types of injunctions that can be applied for under part IV. Firstly, s.42 of the FLA 1996 provides that a victim of domestic violence can apply for a non-molestation order against their perpetrator by whom they have been harassed or threatened by and further states that an applicant can only seek an order against a person with whom they are associated with, as set out by s.62 FLA 1996. This proved to be a useful tool, particularly for those who were either married, in a civil partnership, were cohabitants or even former cohabitants and tried to encompass a number of different types of relations and circumstances in the pursuit of combating not only physical violence but also intimidation and harassment from the perpetrator. A breach of such order is a criminal offence under the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2000, and, if found guilty, the perpetrator can expect to receive a five year prison sentence on indictment, the aim of it being to reinforce and strengthen existing civil injunctions. Another form of injunction made available under s.33 and s.35-38 of the FLA 1996 for victims of domestic violence is that of an occupation order. An occupation order maintains and controls which party is to occupy either their present, former or intended home. To apply for this order the applicant must satisfy the requirement of entitlement under s.33(1) FLA 1996, that is, an ‘entitled’ person is one that has a legal right to occupy the property, for example, it is a matrimonial home, they have a tenancy agreement or some form of beneficial interest etc. Thus, it would be much harder for a cohabiting couple to show an interest in the property in comparison to those who are married or in a civil partnership as it is of the assumption that virtually all spouses will have at least some interest. Occupation orders can be considered to be extremely useful for victims of domestic violence, particularly if there are children involved, as the FLA 1996 introduced a test based on the ‘balance of harm’ and, in some instances, the test obliges the court to use the test to make an order. The purpose of it being to protect the applicant and more importantly any relevant child that is ‘likely to suffer significant harm attributable to conduct of the respondent’ (Family Law Act 1996, s.33(7)) Chapter 5: Rates of reporting and non-reporting The term ‘attrition’ is used to describe a process by which the total volume of crime that has been committed gradually gets eliminated leaving only a small proportion attaining conviction. This has come to be very evident in cases of domestic violence, with many police officers deciding to ‘no-crime’ the incident. As a result, it illuminates the issue of domestic violence as not being taken seriously by the criminal justice agencies and further highlights the problems many women face when exploring resolution via the criminal justice system and is supportive of what Hester and Westmarland (2006) found, that as little as five percent of domestic violence result in conviction. In 1992, a study by Grace et al. found that there were three main attrition points that hindered the criminal justice process of convicting perpetrators of domestic violence. As mentioned previously, some officers discretionally chose to ‘no-crime’ the incidents and as a result, disregarding it instantly. A second point was that the police and the crown prosecution service made decisions about whether or not they would proceed to prosecute, again leaving the victim in a predicament that was totally our of their hands. Finally, a third attrition point lay with the jury on whether they would choose to convict the defendant and according to Grace et al. cases which resulted in a conviction ‘were most likely to involve a young, single woman who had never seen their attacker before and were physically injured during their attack’, they also pointed out that ‘a â€Å"classic† rape, was still the most likely to result in a conviction’ compared t o a domestic violence incident between intimates. Throughout the years this has led to a culmination of reasons why many women may not have reported incidents of domestic violence and amongst these reasons there is one common denominator; the police response. Many women fear that because the abuse they face can take on many different forms, aside from just physical violence, that they would be wasting police time in a matter that the police may not classify as being ‘criminal’ similar to that of what Buzawa (1990) found that man police officers were keen to get involved with ‘real police work’ and, ironically, along with this they also fear that because it is a family matter then the police won’t really want to intrude and essentially get involved; something which many researchers such as Cheal (1991) have found before regarding police attitudes towards domestic disputes. A second concern for many women is that if they do call the police, they fear that they may not be taken seriously by the attending officers and become subjected to their so-called ‘dismissive and derogatory’ ways in which some officers are alleged to respond to such incidents. Horley (1988) found that victims perceived the police to be unsympathetic of their circumstances and according to the Women’s National Commission (2003) victims were sometimes asked ‘if you put up with it for so long, why are you now reporting it?’ This in turn can also have a damaging effect on the victims as if they do call the police and not a great deal gets done many women fear that as a repercussion for their actions they may provoke further violence by their partners and so it appears to be instilled in them that it’s easier to adopt a ‘put up and shut up’ attitude. Another problem which affects the report rate of domestic violence incidents is that many victims are either too reluctant to make statements or completely withdraw them quite soon after making them as Hoyle found in 1988, and, as a result, this has created what some researchers have described as ‘inadequate recording practices’ (Smith, 1989) and thus disguising the true figure of the crime itself despite the fact that sexual offences was the only crime to have a five percent increase compared to other types of crime, such as criminal damage, fraud and forgery, in 2009 (Home Office, 2009). Chapter 6: Methodology This dissertation is concerned with the legal response to incidents of domestic violence, starting from a historical perspective and moving through to a present day view of how effective the legal response is in dealing with such incidents. It has become to be an area of particular interest to myself as it incorporates an extremely important issue of domestic violence from the discipline of Criminology along with the application of relevant legislation from the discipline of Law. Given the sensitive nature of the topic area being researched, it was felt that the use of secondary sources to conduct this dissertation would be the most appropriate type of source to use and would automatically eradicate any ethical issues that would inevitably arise if primary research were to be conducted. Conducting secondary research also has many practical advantages; the main being that it has already been collected and, as aforesaid, diverts past any ethical implications that may arise from primary research, especially in a topic area as sensitive as domestic violence. The use of secondary sources also enables comparisons to be made between historical findings along with present day findings therefore providing a comparative and an overall picture of any trends that there may be. Finally the collection of data being used has been uninfluenced by the research process in comparison to findings that you would get from primary research, which tends to be more biased towards the researchers’ views. More specifically, secondary data analysis as a research method enables the combining of not only quantitative data but also qualitative data and overall will provide a detailed look at the changing response to incidents of domestic violence from a wealth of literature already surrounding the area, both historical and recent, along with government papers detailing rates of reporting to the police reflecting victims perspectives of them as an agency. This multi-dimensional approach was first coined as ‘triangulation’ in social research conducted by Campbell and Fiske (1959) but became more predominant following the work by Webb et al. (1966) which was based on unobtrusive measures and social research. Triangulation can be particularly useful as a process of ‘cross-checking findings from both quantitative and qualitative research’ (Deacon et al. 1998) and whilst Webb et al. noted that individual research methods aren’t ‘scientifically useless’ they stated that ‘the most fertile search for validity comes from a combined set of measures’ and Denzin (1970) further stated that triangulation ‘is the key to overcoming intrinsic bias that stems from single method, single observer and single theory studies’. Maguire (2000) also argues for ‘utilising as many diverse sources of evidence as feasible to answer a research question’ and that combining two methods overall increases the validity of the research. That is, by bringing together two approaches that equally have their own strengths and weaknesses can overall counter each other with their strengths and it is argued that if different methods draw to the same conclusions then this in itself makes for a stronger argument in that they are more plausible and credible (Noaks and Wincup, 2004). Due to the nature and area being explored in this dissertation it was felt that adopting the use of secondary sources would be more compliant with the ethical considerations that underpin conducting research. According to Diener and Crandall (1978), ethical considerations can be divided into four main areas. That is; whether there is harm to participants, whether this is a lack of informed consent, if there is an invasion of the participants’ privacy and finally, whether deception needs to be used in order to conduct the research. If primary research were to be conducted the two main areas for concern, according to the categories as set out by Diener and Crandall, would be the potential harm that could be caused to the participant in re-living psychologically painful and damaging events they may have been through for the purpose of this dissertation along with the inevitable invasion of their own personally privacy. The initial literature search was conducted by using key words or phrases related to the specified topic area of ‘domestic violence and the legal response’ which in turn provided a wealth of literature. However, this method of finding literature makes for the obtaining of unreliable sources more vulnerable and so for that reason only academic texts and journals were selected which covered area of domestic violence and the legal response and so provides a high quality of authority which is much more reliable. Naturally, only the most up to date texts were preferable but inevitably, with a topic area that requires comparatives to be made between historic views and contemporary views, many of the sources date back to the early eighties but is done so as to enable a critical analysis of area being researched. As a result of the literature search, the literature that was subsequently gained was done so by a snowball effect; identical to that of snowball sampling where one source leads to another and so forth. This, combined with the use of both governmental and non-governmental papers, again standing with high authority, enabled for a greater critical analysis between the issue of domestic violence and the legal response. Chapter 7: Discussion The overriding purpose of this dissertation was to critically examine the legal response to incidents of domestic violence; that is, examine the full spectrum of responses ranging from the police, the legislation in place designed to aid the police and also initiatives put forward by the Government. As stated previously in chapter two, domestic violence has long been a problem amongst society and throughout history it appears to have fought against the odds to be recognised as being truly criminal, as it is clear that the physical elements alone mirror those that can be found in Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA) 1861 yet shockingly the issue appears to have been covertly tolerated by the agencies (Berk et al., 1980). In the early 1990’s there was a dramatic shift towards the fight against domestic violence and as many as fifty percent of police forces had opened up specialist domestic violence units (Grace, 1995) presenting recognition for the issue and opposing Edwards (1989) earlier argument that the ‘police did not take seriously their response to crimes between intimates’. Despite this apparent dramatic shift towards the fight against domestic violence, the initiatives introduced and the policies and procedures in place, up until the mid-1990’s these policies and procedures needed to ‘translate directly into practice’ (Grace, 1995) in order for what Bourlet (1990) would consider to be effective policing. Yet quite shockingly, at this time when policy and procedures were in place, and even more recently where the issue of domestic violence is even more so   abundant in society in Harriet Harman’s (2008) â€Å"Tackling violence against women: A cross-government narrative† it was highlighted that there was still only some help for victims in certain areas, of which the help was not regarded as being ‘comprehensive, consistent or easy to access’; quite alarming for something described as being a ‘serious problem, with serious consequences’. In terms of reducing domestic violence from a policing angle, it has been found that a clear definition of domestic violence is needed between the police and also the other agencies as to eradicate its lack of coherence that has been evident in previous times. Along with this, consistency in their response needs to be clearly visible, despite some Feminists arguing that approaches such as restorative justice make male violence against women somewhat lawful. On the other hand, utilising powers of arrest and pursuing a case despite the victim withdrawing their statement, therefore enabling them to break the so-called cycle of the police ‘leaving the ball in the victims court’, whilst this approach apparently ‘legitimises’ male violence (Stubbs, 1997 in Cook and Bessant, 1997), in terms of effectiveness from a reducing domestic violence point of view; pro-arrest strategies can be seen as favourable. Training of domestic violence awareness, policy and practise also needs to be exercised along with an adoption of a more sympathetic style in order to successfully put an end to ‘inadequate recording practices’ (Smith, 1989) and remove the victims instilled feeling that it’s easier to ‘put up and shut up’. As an agency dealing with such incidents as sensitive as these, it is paramount that their response is one which is equally sensitive in reciprocation, and, whereas before victims have been left feeling helpless, their response should be one that leaves the victim feeling comforted, informed and in the knowledge that there are services designed specifically to aid them with such incidents as opposed to feeling isolated and subjected to ‘secondary victimisation’ (Stanko, 1985) where their ‘character and morality is questioned in such a way as to imply some responsibility for their victimisation’ (Katz and Mazur 1979, Chamber s and Miller, 1983). Chapter 8: Conclusion Drawing back to the beginning of this independent study, the overriding aim was to examine the legal response to incidents of domestic abuse by looking at the police response, the legislation available and finally the Governments standing on the issue itself. This was done by using an approach known as ‘triangulation’ originally developed by Campbell and Fiske (1959) whereby a mixture of findings from both qualitative and quantitative measures, founded by high standing scholars in the field, were cross-examined to overall increase the validity of the research and provide a more well-rounded stronger argument. From the research it is clear that domestic abuse, for many years, has somewhat been a ‘taboo’ subject and it can be appreciated from the wealth of literature surrounding the area that many merely ‘covertly tolerated’ the issue due to a variety of reasons; namely down to the relationship between the culture, law and society working against each other and having their own preconceptions. However, it’s not without notice that the days of Pizzey’s (1974) ‘wife battering’ are long gone and much in the way of change has happened. One aspect that has come to be particularly clear from the research is that in modern society today there are in fact Government initiatives in place alongside reams of legislation that can be utilised and used in conjunction with one another to aid the police in their own response and, overall, provide an effective legal response as a whole. However, this doesn’t detract from the feeling that still, despite the recognition and improvements made; no one really knows how to deal with it, despite not being as ‘taboo’ as it were previously. What is needed is a multi-dimensional approach, that is, for each of the agencies, both voluntary and involuntary to work alongside each other and utilise the resources between them lawfully in order to pin-point particular areas for concern, much like that of triangulation used in the methodology of this independent study. For Webb et al. (1966) stated that ‘the most fertile search for validity comes from a combined set of measures’, and, if the same principles are applied to the way in which the agencies work, by combining themselves and working as one, they provide themselves with a more successful chance of reducing domestic violence. References Adler, Z. (1987) Rape on trial, London:Routeledge. Barron, J. (1990) Not Worth the Paper? The Effectiveness of Legal Protection for Women and Children Experiencing Domestic Violence. Bristol: Women’s Aid Federation England. Benn, C. and Warpole, K. (1986) Death in the City, London: Canary. Berk, R. (1980). Bringing the cops back in: A study of efforts to make the criminal justice system more responsive to incidents of family violence. Social Science Research, 9, 195-215. Berk, R., Fenstermaker, S., Newton, P. (1984). Cops on call: Summoning the police to the scene of spousal violence. Law and Society Review, 18(3), 479-498. Booth, C.. (2003).  Beating the Batterers. Available: guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/09/law.ukcrime1. Last accessed 13th Jan 2011. Borkowski, M. (1983) Marital Violence: The Community Response. London: Tavistock Publications. Bourlet, A. (1990) Police intervention in martial violence. London: Open University Press. Brown, S. (1984) Police response to wife beating: Neglect of a crime of violence. Journal of Criminal Justice, 12, 277-288. Buzawa, E., and Buzawa, C. (1990). Domestic violence: The criminal justice response. London: Sage Publications. Campbell, D. and Fiske, D. (1959) ‘Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix’, Psychological Bulletin, 56: 81-105.    Chambers, G. and Miller, A. (1983) Investigating Sexual Assault, Scottish Office Research Study, Edinburgh: HMSO. Chambers, G. and Miller, A. (1987) ‘Proving sexual assault: Prosecuting the offender or persecuting the victim?’, in Carlen, P. and Worrall, A. (eds) Gender, Crime and Justice, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Cheal, D. (1991) Family and the State of Theory, Harvester. De Beauvoir, S. (1949) Le Deuxieme Sexe (The Second Sex). Vintage Books. New York. Deacon, D., Bryman, A. and Fenton, N. (1998) ‘Collision or Collusion? A Discussion of the unplanned Triangulation of Quantitive and Qualitative Research Methods’, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 1: 47-63. Denzin, N.K. (1970) The Research Act in Sociology. Chicago: Aldine. Diener, E. and Crandall, R. (1978) Ethics in Social and Behavioural Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Dobash, R.E. and Dobash, R.P. (1980) Violence against wives. London: Open Books. Dobash, R.E. and Dobash, R.P. (1992) Women, Violence and Social Change. London: Routledge. Dodd, T., Nicholas, S., Povey, D and Walker, A. (2004) Crime in England and Wales 2003/2004. Home Office Statistical Bulletin. London: Home Office. [online] Available at: http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs04/hosb1004.pdf [Accessed on 9th February 2011] Dutton, D (1995) The domestic assault of women: Psychological and criminal justice perspectives. Vancouver: UBC Press. Edwards, S. (1989) Policing domestic violence. London: Sage. Flatley, J., Kershaw, C., Smith, K., Chaplin, R. and Moon, D. (2010) Crime in England and Wales 2009/10. Home Office Statistical Bulletin. London: Home Office. [online] Available at: http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb1210.pdf. [Accessed on 20th October 2010] Grace, S. (1995) Policing Domestic Violence in the 1990’s. Home Office Research Study No 139. London: HMSO. Grace, S., Lloyd, C. and Smith, L. (1992) Rape: From recording to conviction, London: Home Office. Hague, G. and Malos, E. Inter-agency approaches to Domestic Violence and the Role of Social Services. Br. J. Social Wk. (1998) 28, 369-386. Hague, G. and Malos, E.. (2005). Legal remedies and the court system. In: Hague, G. and Malos, E.  Domestic Violence: Action for change.. England: New Clarion Press. p.86. Hanmer, J. and Saunders, S. (1984) Well founded fear: A community study of violence to women. London: Hutchinson. Harman, H. (2008).  Tackling Violence Against Women: A cross-government narrative.  Available: equalities.gov.uk/pdf/Tackling%20Violence%20against%20Women%20April%202008.pdf. Last accessed on 10th January 2011 Hester, M. and Westmarland, N. (2006) Service Provision for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence, Bristol: University of Bristol. Home Office (1983) Circular to Police 25/1983. London: HMSO. Home Office (1986) Violence Against Women. Circular to Police 69/1986. London: HMSO. Home Office (1990) Domestic Violence. Circular to Police 60/1990. London: HMSO. Home Office (1995) Inter-agency Co-ordination to Tackle Domestic Violence. London: HMSO. Home Office (1999) Living Without Fear: An Integrated Approach to Tackling Violence Against Women. London: HMSO. Home Office (2000a) Domestic Violence. Circular to Police 19/2000. London: HMSO. Home Office (2000b) Domestic Violence: Breaking the Chain, Multi-Agency Guidance for Addressing Domestic Violence. London: HMSO. Home Office (2002) Crime in England and Wales 2001/2002 (London: Home Office) Home Office (2009) Crime in England and Wales 2009/10: Quarterly Update to September 2009.   Home Office Statistical Bulletin. London: Home Office. [online] Available at : http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb0210.pdf. [Accessed on 20th October 2010] Home Office. (2010) Domestic Violence: Available: http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/violencewomen.html. Last Accessed on 19th October 2010. Horley, S. (1988) Homing in on Violence. Police Review, January. Hoyle, C. (1998) Negotiating Domestic Violence: Police Criminal Justice and Victims. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jaffe, P., Wolfe, D.A., Telford, A. and Austin, G. (1986) The Impact of Police Charges in Incidents of Wife Abuse. Journal of Family Violence. 1(1) p.37-49. Kashani, J. And Allen, W. (1998) The Impact of Family Violence on Children and Adolescents. London: Sage. Katz, S. and Mazur, M. (1979) Understanding the rape victim, New York: Wiley. Lewis, J. (2005).  Nottingham Domestic Violence Strategy.  Available: ndvf.org.uk/nottingham_city_council_policies_practice_strategy_on_domestic_violence. Last accessed 12th January 2011 Melton, H. Police Response to Domestic Violence. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Volume 29, Numbers 1-2 (September 1999) pp. 1-21. Mullender, A. (1996) Rethinking Domestic Violence. London: Routledge. Noaks, L. and Wincup, E. (2004) Criminological research: understanding qualitative methods. London: Sage Publications. Pahl, J. (1985) Private Violence and Public Policy. London: Routeledge. Pizzey, E. (1974) Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear, London: Penguin. Sachs, A. (1978) ‘The Myth of Male Protectiveness and the Legal Subordination of Women’, in C. Smart and B. Smart (eds) Women, Sexuality and Social Control. London: Routledge. Smith, L.J.F. (1989) Domestic Violence. Home Office Research Study 107. London. HMSO. Stanko, E. (1985) Intimate Intrusions: Women’s experiences of male violence, London: Virago. Stanko, E. (2000) â€Å"The Day to Count: A Snapshot of the Impact of Domestic Violence in the UK† Criminal Justice 1:2. Stubbs, J. (1997), ‘Shame, Defiance and Violence against women: A Critical Analysis of â€Å"Communitarian† Conferencing’, in S. Cook and J. Bessant, eds., Womens Encouters With Violence: Australian Experiences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Walby, S. and Allen, J. (2004) Domestic Violence, sexual assault and stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey. Home Office Research Study 276. London: Home Office. Walker, L. (1979) The Battered Woman, New York: Harper and Colophon. Walklate, S. (2004) Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice, 2nd edn, Cullompton: Willan. Wallis, M. (1996) Outlawing Stalkers. Policing Today. Vol.2, 4 (pp. 25-29) Webb, E., Campbell, D., Schwartz, R. and Sechrest, L. (1966) Unobtrusive Measures: Nonreactive Research in the Social Sciences. Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing Company. Women’s National Commission (2003) Unlocking the secret: Women open the door on domestic violence. Findings from consultations with survivors. (Women’s National Commission)

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Five Ways to Ace Your Video Interview

Five Ways to Ace Your Video Interview An increase in job candidates willing to relocate for jobs, the high cost of shuttling them back and forth for interviews, and advancements in digital technology have resulted in a perfect storm of opportunity in the job hunting world: the video interview. While video interviews share the same ultimate goal as face-to-face interviews, there are some extra things to think about before getting ready for your close-up. Read on to learn five ways to make the very best impression during your video interview. 1. Set the SceneWhile you may be conducting the interview from your living room sofa, it’s essential to present yourself and your surroundings in the most professional way. Choose a bright, clean location, and be careful in rooms with lots of windows as these can cause backlighting and shadows.Eliminate clutter and annoying background noises, silence your phone, and close all irrelevant windows on your computer. Distractions not only disrupt your attention, but also the attenti on of your interviewer.Also, make sure you have access to a power source and charger: video is quick to drain computer batteries, and running out during an interview shows poor planning.2. Dress All Parts For the PartMany people assume that because interviewers only see them from the waist up, it’s acceptable to wear comfy clothing on the bottom along with your professional top. However, skip the inclination to dress down, and instead dress to impress with a top-to-bottom look. Not only will you feel more professional, but on the off chance you have to get up to retrieve a file or document, you won’t risk exposing your ratty old sweatpants.3. Do a â€Å"Test Run†Take time in advance to do a â€Å"test run† at the same location and time of day as your impending interview. Before the call, test your connection and voice/microphone. If possible, invest in a good pair of headphones: they can prevent connection problems as well as trim down on sound disruption .For best results, record a test call to see how you present on camera, and to determine any necessary adjustments or improvements.And don’t forget: you can even experiment with your camera positioning to present yourself in the most flattering way. Most people find that keeping the camera at eye level is the most attractive angle.4. Eye Contact is KeyWhile eye contact is important in any social or professional situation, it’s a particular challenge during the video interview. Why? Because the temptation is strong to watch yourself on the screen, instead of looking directly at the camera. This not only makes you look unfocused, but can be unsettling to the interviewer. Keep in mind that you’re not directly addressing the screen, but the camera above your screen. Practice this during your test run.5. Smile Early and OftenMeeting with a person face-to-face has a different â€Å"feel,† than conducting a video interview. While the connection can seem distant and disconnected, it is still extremely important to present yourself as a friendly, likable person. After all, most employers today are looking for soft skills, and failure to show off your personable side during a video interview can quickly remove you from the running.While participating in video interviews can feel strange or stressful, they’re increasingly part of the job hunt experience. Taking time to prepare yourself and become accustomed to the process can set you up for success. And remember: the ultimate goal is to enhance the hiring process and help you find the job of your dreams, so look at each video opportunity not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Discussion Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Discussion Questions - Essay Example (word count 105) Personality measurements can be used when an applicant is interested in employment. Tests have been developed that can determine certain factors of personality that are common for certain behaviors. As well, the ability to lead and make effective decisions can be made by the use of such tests. In the hiring practices in companies I have worked for these tests have been used. However, I have never seen an instance where the test actually excluded anyone from an interview or from being hired. It appears that these tests are given at the insistence of corporate, however there is no real substitute for human evaluation. (word count 104) Psychoanalytical theory uses the experiences of an individual to explain the development of abnormal behaviors. The way in which this has value is in understanding that not all behavior is derived from a physiological source, but can be developed from adverse experiences. When developing a clinical study about behavior, theories of origin can provide insight and dimension. However, psychoanalytical theory does not allow for the chemical imbalances that can influence psychological development. Using just this theory to analyze behavior is limiting and without the depth that influential physiological elements can provide within the context of developing a case study on an individual. (word count 102) Freud divided the personality into the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id is the unconscious drive for basic needs in which pleasure is the driving motivation. The Ego is the conscious force that can temper the drives of the Id with reason and acknowledgement of consequences. The Superego creates a balance between the conscious and the unconscious, inhibiting drives that could be counterproductive. An understanding of this could allow for an employer to develop motivational strategies that

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The current State of Security in Smartphone Term Paper

The current State of Security in Smartphone - Term Paper Example Mobile technology is the latest domain that has been exploited by malicious intent users, like hackers, intruders etc, to achieve personal gains from jeopardizing the security of the legitimate users. This paper shall address the prevailing security threats that are witnessed in Smartphone technology alongside the technologies that are used to protect the devices from such threats. 2. Security in Smartphone The security threats that revolved around computers have migrated into the Smartphone domain and causing heavy losses to the users. To highlight the relevance of security measures on smartphones, Cheng (2011) provided results from a survey that was conducted by McAfee in the current year. The survey revealed that malware instances for Android (one of the most common smartphones in the current times) have increased by a significant figure of 76% in the last four months. Malware is defined as any program or application that is developed for the purpose of performing illicit activiti es, such as Trojans, viruses and worms. Some of the examples of security threats in smartphones are given below: 2.1 Smishing Phishing attacks had been known to cause harm to personal computers but a similar security threat is prevailing in the current times that is directed to harm smartphone- smishing and vishing. Ruggiero and Foote (2011) stated that hackers use the conventional approach of sending fake messages or voicemails to the recipients and urge them to call a financial institution with the aim to update their security settings etc. Voicemail systems are activated on the respective fake hosts that record sensitive information of the recipient. 2.2 Baseband Hacking Hackers have invented ways to intercept cellular phone calls by making the chips and firmware compromised in the Smartphone. Cheng (2011) stated that the baseband processor of the phone is turned into a listening device and enables the hackers to record conversation taking place between the participants. This can serve to record sensitive information and thus be used for malicious intent. 2.3 Infected Applications Applications are the most attractive feature of smartphones since they allow an individual to perform a diverse range of operations, for example play games, browse the web etc. Applications have also become one of the most common modes of infecting smartphones with compromised programs, such as Trojans. Apple and Blackberry follow a procedure of screening the applications (that might be contributed by developers) before publishing them on their App stores; this approach makes them avoid many Trojan attacks that might be hidden in the programs. Android follows a different approach and does not perform any screening process on the applications. Chang (2011) stated that an Android application with the name of â€Å"Steamy Window† has the power to convert a Smartphone into a botnet zombie. Upon successful acquisition of control over the phone, the hacker can perform any desired operation, such as: Send messages to any contact Make the browser point to compromised sites that may facilitate the transmission of sensitive information. Block the receiving of messages. 2.4 Jailbreaking and Rooting Apple IPhone School (2010) explains jail breaking as the hacking activity of the iPhone, iPad and iPod that allows the individual to have access to the Unix file system. Jailbreaking an iPhone is analogous to rooting an Android phone. Ngo (2009) stated that

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Chang Koh Metal Ptd Ltd Essay Example for Free

Chang Koh Metal Ptd Ltd Essay Comment on the fixed salary system that Andrew adopted from his former employer. Why was this system not effective for motivating the plant workers? Do you think that scrapping the fixed salary system and replacing it with the piece rate system was a good idea? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the piece rate system? Why was Andrew unsuccessful in his efforts to improve product quality? Do you think that a system of demerit points and wage deductions of the quality control workers would have been effective? Will more supervisors in the quality control department and shipping products to Singapore for final inspection solve the problem? What do you think would be an effective way to improve product quality? Were cross-cultural differences a factor on the effectiveness of the salary system? How effective do you think each system would have been if the plant was located in North America? Discuss the potential effects of implementing an MBO program in the plant. Do you think it would improve productivity and solve some of the problems? Are there any conditions under which the piece-rate system might have been more effective? What are some alternative ways to use pay to motivate the workers at the plant? Are there alternatives to the piece-rate system and how effective are they likely to be? What does this case say about using money as a motivator? What should Andrew do now? What would you do? ANSWERS QUESTION 1: The system was not effective for a number of reasons. It did not link pay to performance. Workers were paid a fixed salary based on the number of hours worked. This system does not take productivity into account as workers are paid the same amount per day regardless of the quantity produced. There is no incentive to reward workers for higher productivity and quality under this payment system. Another reason why the fixed salary system did not work was that it did not take cultural differences into account. Andrew imported an American business model that suited American employees who tend to have a highly individualistic culture. This is where workers perform their job based on what is required of them and do not care so much about other worker salaries but place more precedence over their own. The Chinese tend to have a culture of collectivism where each worker looks out for the best interests of their co-workers. Employees tend to place their collective goals ahead of those of the company and if both do not agree, a situation of lack of goal congruence results. QUESTION 2: Andrew adopted the same salary system as he seen used by his former employer and paid his workers a fixed salary based on the number of hours worked. The results of his actions were low productivity rates, and the workers demonstrated very little commitment to meeting the companys goals. Providing salaries for everyone changes labour cost from variable to fixed with serious employment security implications. The success of a fixed salary system requires stable, mature, responsible employees, a cooperative union, willing supervisors, and a workload that allows continuous employment. Based on the case it is evident that the fixed salary system adopted by Andrew was not successful hence we think that scrapping the fixed salary system and replacing it with the piece-rate system was a good idea but it  must be implemented with strict quality control programs. Piece-rate system usually works like this: An employee is guaranteed an hourly rate (probably the minimum wage) for performing an expected minimum output (the standard). For production over the standard, the employer pays so much per piece produced. Some of the strengths and weaknesses of the piece-rate system are as follows. Compared with a fixed salary system, the introduction of a piece-rate system usually leads to substantial increase in productivity. This system is a form of extrinsic motivation to employees. This means that the piece-rate pay, which stems from the work environment external to the task, motivates employees. According to the case, if workers produced at or below the minimum production standard for the day, they received additional money for each extra piece produced; hence they are motivated to produce above the rate in other to receive additional money. The piece-rate system may be designed to affect output other than performance. For example, employers may use the system to lower absenteeism and turnover. The system also allows employees to monitor the performance of individual employees, compare them and take the necessary actions based on the results and reduces non-value added activities which in turn lower cost. Along with the many strengths of the piece-rate system there are also some weaknesses. The use of the piece-rate system does increase output. Although production increases, other performance criteria may suffer for example quality. As mentioned in the case, after a short period of introducing the piece-rate system customer complained about low quality of the goods they were receiving from the company. Some employees are more inclined to perform better than other, since people have varying motivation to work. Employees may be dissatisfied if they have to work harder or if they feel manipulated by the system. And finally a piece-rate system that rewards individual productivity might decrease cooperation among workers. QUESTION 3: Andrews efforts were unsuccessful mainly because of the culture of the workers. The Chinese culture is one of collectivism which explains why the quality control inspectors chose to ignore products of poor quality. An implementation of a demerit system and wage deductions of quality workers may have worked but may have also had an adverse effect on the workforces motivation and their morale. The employment of additional supervisors and the shipping of final products may have also eased the situation but the question of whether the benefits outweigh the costs should be of major importance to Andrew as the chance of the company facing losses increases. Again, considering the culture of the workforce, there is a great possibility the most of the new supervisors can adopt the same attitude as the current ones. Presently, the method used by Andrew is a reactive one; an effective way to improve quality may be to have a more proactive system. Along with training the quality staff, Andrew should also train the production workers. The use of this preventative method will save a lot of resources that would otherwise go to waste. Andrew should also explain to all workers the true and long term cost of allowing product of poor quality to reach the market, which would be the loss of customers, the closing of the plant and their dismissal. QUESTION 4: Cross-cultural differences were a factor in the effectiveness of the salary systems. According to Hofstedes study, work-related values differ across culture. The North American culture is more individualistic whereas the culture in Asian countries such as China and Singapore is more collectivist. As a result, salary systems that emphasize individual initiative may not be successfully implemented in China as it would be in America. The collectivist culture in China emphasizes interdependence and loyalty to ones work group. If the plant was located in North America, the fixed salary system may not have been successful in increasing productivity because there in no incentive for employees to exert extra effort. In other words, the fixed salary system can be seen as unsuitable to the manufacturing industry, where improved productivity is important to the success of the firm. On the other hand, the piece-rate system can be effective if the plant was located in North America because given the countrys individualistic culture, employees would be more willing to exert individual effort to earn extra money. The company would benefit from increased productivity and highly motivated employees. In addition, the problem experienced with the quality control workers may not have been present if the company was located in North America. Given their individualistic nature, quality control employees in North America would not have accepted poor quality output from the production employees because it would not matter to them whether or not the production workers received a reduction in compensation. QUESTION 5: Management by Objectives (MBO) is a systematic, continuous management program designed to facilitate the establishment and accomplishment of goals as well as promote employee development. With an MBO program, objectives and goals for the organization are developed by top management and filtered down to the lower hierarchal levels. Chang Koh Metal Ptd Ltd is located in China, a country that values a high power distance between top management and other organizational members. As a result of this culture, employees value the goals of top management as it diffuses down the hierarchy. This would empower and motivate employees as they would feel as though they are part of the organization and therefore be more committed to serving it. When the goals are passed down to employees, they feel that they are pursuing a common objective, one that is shared by their coworkers. As a society that values collectivism among employees, the workers would feel that, by working towards common objectives, they are working towards the betterment of the  company. Workers at Chang Koh Metal Ptd Ltd are however not committed to the objectives and goals of the organization but hopefully through the MBO program they would realize the impact of their actions on others and on the organization as a whole. MBO programs aim to develop employees skills through training and employee interaction. At present, Jian Weis hiring practices allow people who do not have the skills necessary to perform a job to be hired for the job. By training the workers, Chang Koh Metal will benefit from increased productivity as skilled workers can be more efficient and effective in the workplace. Training will also solve the problem of poor quality as, through an MBO program, quality goals for both production and quality control employees can be set and adhered to. Employees can be trained to reduce internal and external failure of products while increasing prevention and appraisal procedures. This will result in financial savings to the organization. Periodic meeting can be held between workers and managers to monitor employees progress in achieving goals and review problems. An MBO program if implemented at Chang Koh Metal Ptd Ltd will solve the problems of lowered employee motivation, lack of skilled workers and lack of commitment towards the organization. Andrew Teo will be supportive of such a program because of his previous experience with American organizations but Jian Weis attitude will need to be changed. Jian Weis attitude is pro-collectivism as he seeks the best interest of the workers. However this attitude does not support the objectives of the organization as it hinders the effective quality control of products as well as aids in the violation of company rules and regulations against moonlighting and the use of company equipment to do so. The culture of the Chinese which includes high power distance and collectivism make it easy for the MBO programs to be implemented but attitude changes need to be made by the management before the program can be successful in Chang Koh Metal Ptd Ltd. QUESTION 6: The implementation of the piece rate system at the company did increase the  productivity of the workforce but at the expense of quality, so therefore, the conditions that may have made this pay system more effective should be focused on the maintenance of high quality with regards to the products. Firstly, the piece rate system may have worked better if the production workforce were properly trained to detect poor quality during the production process as this would minimize the proportion of the factory output that is below quality standards. Secondly, employees should be made aware of their task significance; this is impact of their job on others. By seeing the importance of what they do the workers may feel more needed which could increase their commitment to producing high quality products. A next and very important condition to be considered is the development of a quality circle within the organization. Involvement in this group can give employees a sense of empowerment. The quality circle would develop ways to improve quality; this may prove effective as it would be in compliance with the collectivist nature of the workers, Lastly, the use of total quality management in the factory can greatly improve the piece rate system. TQM is a systematic attempt to achieve continuous improvement in the quality of an organizations products and/ or services. This type of management encompasses aspects such as an obsession with customer satisfaction, a search for continuous improvement of processes, the prevention of quality error and high employee involvement and teamwork just to name a few. Top management must develop an atmosphere that is conducive to quality improvements. Workers must also be encouraged to provide feedback and to make suggestions. This, along with the aforementioned conditions should have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the piece rate system. QUESTION 7: Alternative wage incentive plans to link pay to performance at the production  plant include Profit sharing, Employee stock ownership programs, Gain sharing and Skilled based pay. Profit sharing is a group-oriented incentive system whereby when the firm makes a profit, some of the profit is returned to employees in the form of a bonus. This bonus can be paid in cash or in a deferred retirement fund. For Profit sharing to be considered, the firm must be profitable in the first place. Chang Koh Metal Ptd. Ltd. is not profitable currently. The general manager Andrew Teo could propose the profit sharing plan to the workers to motivate them to become more committed to the companys goals. Profits are only shared when the company makes a profit; however, profit sharing has some disadvantages associated with it that may cause Andrew to overlook this alternative completely. The problem with profit sharing is that there are too many factors beyond the control of the workforce that can affect profits no matter how productively workers perform their jobs. Such factors include the cost of raw materials, the state of the general economy such as a depression or slump, competition and other environmental factors the firm has no control over. Another disadvantage is that in a large firm, it is difficult to see the impact of ones work on profits, especially where the labour force is large. A second alternative to a piece rate system is Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). This is an incentive plan that allows employees to own a predetermined portion of the companys shares and provide employees with a stake in the companys future success. By increasing employees stake in the company, employee stock options may increase employee loyalty and motivation due to workers becoming more aligned with the companys goals and interests. However just as with profit sharing, ESOPs have the problem of external factors affecting it. In Chang Koh Metal Ptd. Ltd., it may be difficult for employees to see the connection between their efforts and company profits. Also various factors can influence the value of a companys stock beside employee effort and performance. Unlike the previous alternatives, Gain sharing rewards workers performance based on factors the worker can control to improve productivity. External factors that the worker has no control tend to be overlooked. An example of a common gain sharing plan is the Scanlon Plan whereby managers and employees work together to solve problems  and pay is used to reward employees for cooperative behavior. At Chang Koh Metal Ptd. Ltd., gain sharing can be considered a good alternative to the piece rate system. Gain sharing builds trust, commitment and loyalty through extensive workforce participation. It can align employee goals with those of the company due to increased participation and teamwork by employees, who in turn learn more about the organization and focus on organizational objectives. One disadvantage of this incentive plan is that it focuses only on productivity and may neglect other important objectives such as quality. Andrew can overcome this by perhaps combining gain sharing with other programs such as Total Quality Management (TQM) to make it more effective. QUESTION 8: There are many adjustments in which Andrew can adopt. Firstly, Andrew and Jian Wei should have a meeting and discuss their differences, in order to solve or work out their problems. This is an important issue, because in order to manage a company effectively managers need to be able to work together. Secondly, it is clearly stated that the companys recruitment and selection process was inefficient. The employees were hired, based on an informal basis. Andrew has a fairly good idea on how to adopt this strategy that is, selecting the right people with the right qualifications in the right position. Most of the employees in the company were unqualified and did not have the appropriate skills to perform the tasks. By implementing an effective recruitment and selection program the problems of low productivity and morale will be solved. Furthermore, instead of training the quality control supervisors, Andrew also needs to train the production workers. He should emphasize the long term problems of not producing quality goods through quality control programs. In order to alleviate the problem of the technicians using the in maintenance machine to do moonlighting work, Andrew should have regular meetings with the employees. This would ensure that employees know about the rules and regulations of the company. These are some of the steps in which Andrew can put into place in order to improve the level of productivity and quality of the employees. As a manager, I would try to work out the differences with Jian Wei, in order to ensure a smooth flow in operations, throughout the company. The culture of the organization and employees would also be important. Analyzing the culture of the employees would help in establishing an effective and efficient workforce within the organization. Implementing this strategy would aid the other managers in preparing and analyzing strategies that will best suit the culture of the workforce. Furthermore, understanding the culture and attitudes of the employees would also help the human resource managers of the organization design specific motivational strategies to increase the morale of the employees. They would be able to distinguish whether the workers are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated within the plant. Another strategy that I would consider is to encourage cohesive teamwork amongst the workers throughout the plant. This action would increase the benefits of the piece-rate salary system. Also, since the employees would be working in groups, more collaboration will be taking place, as well as the workers will feel more committed within the organization. One of the main reasons why Chang Koh Metal Ptd. Ltd. is experiencing a number of quality problems is because of the recruitment of unqualified workers. As a manager I would recommend, that despite the lower operating costs of employing cheap labour qualified and skilled workers should be selected. One has to remember that in order for an organization to be successful it relies on the output from the employees. These are some of the things that I would implement as a manager in Chang Koh Limited.

Friday, November 15, 2019

The Genius of Hamlet, the Very Sane Prince of Denmark Essay -- Hamlet

The Genius of Hamlet, the Very Sane Prince of Denmark Hamlet in Shakepeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is often seen as a lunatic. Lucid and ingenious, Prince Hamlet falls into a state of emotional turmoil, but he is never insane. Hamlet feigns madness to reveal his anguish concerning the two women he used to love - his mother Gertrude and his lover Ophelia. To escape estrangement from his countrymen, Hamlet appears to waver between madness and sanity. And, to avoid moral estrangement, the Prince plans on revenging his father's death under the guise of madness. There is no question that Hamlet feigns insanity, and he does so to voice his emotions to the two closest women in his life, to influence the opinions of his peers, and to plan the revenge of his father's death. With his famous line "frailty, thy name is woman" (I, ii. 146), Hamlet descends into an abyss of emotional turmoil. He loses faith in his mother Queen Gertrude and in his lover Ophelia. Feigning madness, Hamlet is able to make his innermost anguish known to these two important women in his life. Still grieving at his father's death, Hamlet is shocked when his mother Queen Gertrude marries Claudius two months after the King's death. At this point in the play, Hamlet does not feign madness but is genuinely and openly melancholy. As Hamlet explains to his mother, his "inky cloak" shows his grief, but the pain is much deeper. Grief is not a sign of madness. Gertrude feels that her son has greatly changed, for he no longer views her as his mother . Instead, he calls her his â€Å"good-mother† - his step mother. Gertrude marrying her husband's brother is incestuous, and this bestirs feelings of bitterness in Hamlet. However, sinc... ...mark. Unable to speak freely before Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, Hamlet exaggerates his emotional turmoil so that these two women will soften their attitudes towards him and listen to him. Not only does Hamlet wish to win back the hearts of Gertrude and Ophelia, these two women also serve to verify Hamlet's supposed madness to the other characters. Furthermore, Hamlet must hide his rationality and cunning from his peers and from King Claudius so that he may proceed with his revenge plan. Freed from the suspicions of his mother, his lover, his peers, and King Claudius, Hamlet succeeds in avenging his father's death and in remaining sane throughout the play. WORK CITED Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In The Norton Shakespeare: based on the Oxford Edition. Edited by Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Inner Journeys Essay

What extent has studying the concept of inner journeys expanded your understanding of yourself individuals and of the world? Inner journeys are about the process in which we move from naivity to maturity. In this proccess we learn new things about ourself that help us grow and become wiser and better people. The texts cosi by louis Nowra, the film groudhog day and the poem the road not taken all depict journeys of the mind and spirit which open up a greater understanding of the sense of self. In cosi louis nowra presents the inner journey of lewis, a young first time director who is hired to direct a play to bring the inmates of an asylum ‘out of their shells ‘. At the begining of the play lewis is indecisive in his understanding of others, uncertain of his opinions and unconfident of his own abilies. Diresting cosi fan tutti with emotionally and mentally handicapped people is the catalysts for lewis’ own emotional and mental maturity. As a metaphor for the world the charred theatre represents the challenges that will confront lewis. The characterization of lewis is established by the realism that of his language when he initially states † i need the money. However this realism is threatened when both nick and lucy leave him alone to deal with the inmates. lewis’s growing fear and uncertainty is emphasized through Nowra’s stage directions. Gradually as lewis spends more time with the patients like when he like when he lies about cherry â€Å"thats why she spends so much time in the toilets in order to keep the production going he starts to see the value it has for them. Lewis also changes his attitude toward love and fidelity. This evident in the contrast when he says † loves not so important nowadays† to now saying â€Å"without love the world wouldn’t mean much†. Nowra uses the play within play within play structure to emphasize the importance of love and fidelity. The opera cosi fan tutti functions somewhat as a mimetic device as it becomes a reflection of lewis’ relationship with lucy and his realisation that fidelity is an essential part of love. The inner journey that allowed lewis to gain this insight has been a product of his relationship with the mental patients. Finally lewis develops personally as a a director. Initially conveyed as a timid character, evident as roy talks over him, he learns to control and direct as he gains the respect of the mental patients. The film groundhog day starring bill Murray show’s the Inner journey of Phill as he is trapped in a recurring day. Through the brilliance of the plot we can observe as he deals with his unique predicament. We see how he struggles to find meaning and purpose in life. Each day he experiments with new thoughts and behaviors and he learns what works and what doesn’t. Any change that occurs must be inside him because only he can change. All the other characters repaet eaxcly what they did the day before. This shines an intense light on Phils abilty to change himself. Over countless days he learns that what pleasure he thought would make him happy have failed to, and he has to accept his old self has completely run out of steam. From this he is forced to place all his attention on changing the way he interprets the world, on his personal reality by changing his attitudes, values thoughts and feelings. like lewis he literally recreates himself becoming a mature. loving and giving person. His journey proves that inner change is the key to personal growth and happiness. The road not taken by Robert frost uses a metaphor of traveling to explore our chooses in life. It depicts the difficulty of making choices available and presented to people. Frost traces the way we make decisions, enjoying the options life has to offer us yet he also acknowledges that we cannot realistically do everything that is presented to us. The first person perspective instantly brings the audience close to the experience being recounted. The use of ‘i’ establishes the personas personal dilemmas as his journey brings him to â€Å"two roads diverge in a yellow wood†. â€Å"Two roads† and yellow woods are metaphors for the choices he confronts. Rhyming creates a flow to the piece while the rhythm forces us to pause effective for thinking what the persona is contemplating. Stanza 1 shows that persona is ‘sorry i could not travel both’ roads and show that life’s journey requires chooses that exclude alternatives. The second stanza shows that the choice has been made. The use of the language â€Å"As just as Fair and † Perhaps suggests both roads are equal. However there is slight confusion of the personas choice, conveyed in ‘perhaps the better claim, really about the same’. At the time of his choice he believes it was a better claim than the other. Later he thinks there much the same. In the third stanza, the exclamation ‘ oh I kept the first for another day†! suggests the optimism of being able to retread ones steps and take life’s journey by a different route. But the use of the conjunction ‘yet’ he later says ‘ I doubted if i should ever come back’ which suggests that after taking one route, That’s the route he has to live by, it is a choice he has made in life. Finally in the last stanza the pause suggests regret. The persona is now not sure if he took the better route but this decision is one we have to make in life and we have to life with the consequences and hopefully learn from our past experiences. The poem suggests that inner journeys are irreversible and the choice we make define the person who we become and our understanding of life and the world. This idea is similar to lewis experience where his decision to direct Cosi fan tutti moulds him. Through a close analysis of the three texts Cosi, The film Ground hog day And the poem the road not taken by robert frost that convey the ideas that an inner journey forms as a response to life’s changes and particularly the climatic moments which force a spiritual, mental and emotional re-evaluation of values of priorities.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Kingston’s Women Warrior Gives Voices and Identities to Chinese and Chinese American Women Essay

Growing up with a family of five sisters and myself as first generation Korean Americans, The Women Warrior focuses on the author’s life were she struggles to find her voice. Maxine Hong Kingston’s writing of this book is an example of how ancient talk stories, myths, and beliefs help one find her voice in America. The Women Warrior takes us on an adventure through five main female characters and five chapters that helps us understand how she finds her voice in America. The five chapters integrate Kingston’s experiences through the five women brought to life throughout the book. The references in the book refer to Kingston’s emotional struggle while showing the reader the benefit of finding ones personal voice in America. The book shows how the five women in this book along with the talk stories help in the search for individual identities. Through Kingston’s writing of this book the chapters help show how she manages to give her aunt an identity, Chinese women an identity, her mother a voice, and finds her own identity and voice in America. If women do not have voices in traditional Chinese culture, then the talk stories that mothers pass on to there daughters may be considered subversive tales and instructions for their daughters. In the first chapter of The Women Warrior, Kingston’s mother Brave Orchid tells the story of her sister and the relevance of the no name women. This talk story was told by Kingston’s mother in order to teach her daughter of proper women behavior. The fact that the story starts with her mother saying not to repeat the story makes this book a way of bringing Kinston’s aunt to life. The story was based back in the village in China where it is believed that she brought disgrace to her whole family by having an illegitimate child. â€Å"You must not tell anyone, my mother said, what I am about to tell you† (Kingston 3). This is how the book starts and the story of Kingston’s mother’s sister who killed herself with her newborn daughter. The no name women had become pregnant while her husband was off to war. The thought of what China was like painted a confusing picture for Kingston. She knew that the village that her aunt had killed herself by throwing her and her daughter in the village water well shows very little error for family values. It is here were the reader can come to know that the struggle of her aunt is the struggle she herself is going through while trying to make sense of all the tradition of China while living in America. The point of Brave Orchid to tell Kingston the story of her husband’s sister is to warn her to be careful and cautious. â€Å"Now that you started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Do not humiliate us. You wouldn’t like to be forgotten as if you had never been born† (Kingston 5). The story truly begins through this talk tale. Kingston is not allowed to mention the story of her aunt she has to create her own fantasies to complete the story. Kingston feels that the story makes more sense to her as if her aunt was rapped by a villager that ordered her to be with him. She also feels that her aunt may have stepped out of the normal social order and her sexual passion could have been incest and the whole town turned there backs and even her own family turned there backs. The birth took place in a pigsty and since the aunt already knew her fate she walked her daughter to the well and they drowned themselves. The whole idea that it was a daughter or a girl makes the story more interesting because the customs in China may have already named the girl useless and immoral. This chapter is often one of the more frequent anthologized sections of the book. The talk story of her aunt opens the door for more stories to follow. The place of women in Chinese society comes to question while the thought of Kingston’s place in America comes to question as well. Her reference to the village society of her aunt was vital to eliminate sexual attraction. This came true to Kingston herself who would try not to make herself to attractive to boys. The chapter is mainly a talk story told by her mother and the rest is the writing of Kingston. The first chapter makes the reader wonder if the stories are fiction or nonfiction. The tales from Brave Orchid seem to trouble Kingston from what is real and what is fantasy. You can see the struggle of where Kingston and her aunt seem to be voiceless throughout their lives. The fact that the no name women never told anyone who the husband was shows that she was protecting him with silence. By writing about her aunt Kingston gives her a voice. â€Å"The real punishment was not the raid swiftly inflicted by the villagers, but the family deliberately forgetting her† (Kingston 16). Although Kingston never finds out her aunts name, the symbolic act of naming her the No Name Women honors her memory. The second chapter White Tigers is based on another talk story about a female warrior Fa Mu Lan. The fact that the story is told in the first person gives Kingston her ability to become a warrior. This chapter develops some background for Kingston and her voice is heard through the story of the Fa Mu Lan. The warrior in the story starts her training at the age of seven and since it is written in the first person we can picture the warrior to be Kingston herself. In the fantasy Kingston follows a bird up into the mountains until she comes to the hut of an old couple who want to train her to become a great warrior. As part of her training she spends years on the mountain, fasting for days and eating only roots and vegetables while drinking snow water. At her hungriest moment she was sitting by the fire and a rabbit sacrifices itself for her to eat. â€Å"The rabbit seemed alert enough, however, looking at me so acutely, bounding up to the fire. But it did not stop when it got to the edge. It turned its face towards me, then jumped in the fire† (Kingston 26). Her starvation in the mountains causes her to hallucinate. â€Å"I saw two people made of gold dancing the earth’s dances† (Kingston 27). She eventually returns at the age of fourteen and her mentors teach her to fight. She is able to see images of her family in a gourd of water and she can see her family preparing her wedding to a childhood friend. She saw her husband and brother taken away and she wanted to help so badly but the training was not over. She was to wait until she became twenty two. When she is ready to leave the mountain she has learned how to us her magical sky sword and is given powerful beads by the old couple. Kingston returns home and her parents in preparation for battle tattoo a list of grievances all over her back to symbolize revenge. In men’s armor she rides her white horse and prepares to lead an army. This is probably the most exciting chapter in the book. We can see that Kingston is retelling the story as if she was the great Fa Mu Lan. This chapter follows a Chinese myth that the women would fight in place of their father. â€Å"We are going to carve revenge on your back, my father said. We will write out oaths and names† (Kingston 34). The tattoo that was actually carved in a man’s back is carved into Kingston’s back. She is pretending to be a man and becomes a great warrior at the head of a huge army. She defeats and wins over the army of a giant. Her husband then joins her and soon she is carrying a newborn baby under her armor. She eventually leads the entire population of China to overthrow the corrupt emperor and put a peasant in his place. In the fantasy Kinston takes on the role of a powerful man warrior and yet is also a female avenger. She has the ability to create life and to take life. These dual powers let her maintain both her sense of womanhood and duties of a wife. When she is a warrior she would wear her hair up and reveal the tattoos and when it was time to be a wife she lets down her hair to cover the tattoos. He wept when he took of my shirt and saw the scar words on my back. He loosened my hair and covered the words with it† (Kingston 39). When in battle her husband joins her and after birth to the newborn the husband leaves to care for the child. This sign of role reversal gives more meaning to Kinston’s life. She is able to transcend the rigid customs and traditions in this chapter. At the end of the chapter the reader can see that the customs of women constrict her in America as well. â€Å"Did you know the restaurant you chose for the banquet is being picketed by CORE and the NAACP? Of course I knew that is why I chose it. I refuse to type these invitations, I whispered, voice unreliable. He leaned back in his chair, his bossy stomach opulent. He picked up a calendar and slowly circled a date. You will be paid till here and we will mail you a check† (Kingston 49). We can see her trying to stand up to her boss in America and he simply fires her. In reality the only powers Kingston has is through her writing. It is in her writing that her aunt and her voice are heard. The end of the chapter states the real powers of Fa Mu Lan. The sky sword created by Kingston is as powerful as she wants just like her words. They can only have as much power as she can give them. The fact that the women with bound feet created an army in her writing gives them much deserved credit for all that they have endured The point of this chapter is through writing Kingston found a way to give voice to all Chinese women. She has found a way to poke holes through old stereotypes and thus through her writing she can change customs and give women a more important role in society. Although chapter two was the most adventurous it is in the third chapter that the reader can actually see that Kingston gives her other a voice and even finds out more about her own self. Shaman focuses on Kingston’s mother, Brave orchid and her childhood in China. The chapter traces her life in China after her husband was in America. Kingston is able to bring the talk stories of her mother and along with other storytellers Kingston writes of her mothers accomplishments becoming a doctor. The chapter brings her mother to life. In America she has no voice and in China she was a remarkable doctor. It was at the To Keung School of Midwifery were Brave Orchid truly excelled as one of the top students. â€Å"It rolled over her and landed bodily on her chest. There it sat. It breathed airlessly pressing her, sapping her. Oh no a sitting ghost, she thought† (Kinston 69). It was here when she defeated the ghost at her school and impressed the other students. It was as if she could perform magic. When Brave Orchid returns back to her village she had the ability to heal the sick and defeat the ghosts. Kingston feels that her mother’s power comes from her being able to eat any beast. She remembers one talk story that Chinese people ate the brains out of the head of a monkey. One day Kingston and her mother went to purchase a slave. I am a doctor, she told her new slave, when they were out of the dealer’s hearing† (Kingston 81). It is here that Kingston feels some uncertainty towards her mothers talk stories. Her mother recalls spending two hundred dollars for Kingston when she was born. Kingston remembers her mother commenting on the fact that they gave away girls that were infants. Here Kingston is torn with the fact that she cost her mother money and that being a girl was almost a burden on her family. The struggle with honoring her mother’s powers and with identifying herself is clear in this chapter. The fact that Kingston comments on her being a girl and being useless is what she truly struggles with. Many families in China look down at baby girls and it isn’t until Kingston writes about her mother and herself to give them an identity. The second part of the chapter takes place in America where Brave Orchid a once powerful doctor has no voice in America. She couldn’t speak English so the simple language barrier silenced her. The way to get Kingston to understand her mother was through the talk stories and ghosts Brave Orchid made up. But America has been full of machines and ghosts, Taxi ghosts, Bus ghosts, Police ghosts, Fire ghosts, Meter reader ghosts, Tree trimming ghosts, Five and dime ghosts† (Kingston 97). The surroundings of America contained many ghosts but the reader can sense that Kingston is happier that she is in America. The chapter ends on the present day during a visit by Kingston. Brave Orchid complains about how hard they work in the laundry and tomato field businesses. Her mother claims that even the time goes faster in America. Brave Orchid never stopped calling China home. She seems to understand little of the political situation in China. She has finally told Kingston that they would never return to China. The chapter is best summed up as the ghost chapter. The new ghosts in America along with the ghosts from China can be terrifying. The deformed baby that was kicked out to die in the outhouse would haunt Kingston. The chapter of Shaman is the chapter that depicts the conflicts of Brave Orchid’s life and the mother daughter relationship she has with Kingston. The reader can see how frustrating Kingston is as she tries to find her identity in America. If there were no talk stories of her mother’s life in China then Brave Orchid could have never had her own identity. Brave Orchids life in America is completely opposite and in America she struggles with her own identity because she only speaks Chinese. The next chapter At the Western Palace is where Brave Orchids sister Moon Orchid comes to America. It is through these women that Kingston can identify with herself. Brave Orchid sends for her sister and she makes the trip to America from Hong Kong. â€Å"Brave Orchid momentarily saw, like a larger, younger outline around this old woman, the sister she had been waiting for† (Kingston 117). The two women kept describing how old each one looked. The fact that Brave Orchid sent for her sister to come to America raised question as to why her husband, who lived in America, never sent for her. It is here that I noticed that Moon Orchid was a lady with no identity in America. Brave Orchid insisted that Moon Orchid should go demand her life as a wife to her husband. â€Å"Moon Orchids eyes got big like a child’s. I shouldn’t be here, she said† (Kingston 124). This was Moon Orchids reaction to her sister’s rambling about her reclaiming her husband. Moon Orchid got money from her husband. He sent her money and she never worked a day in her life. She tries to tell Brave Orchid she was not abandoned and that he sent money for all the food and servants one could need. He even sent their daughter to college. Brave Orchid pressured her sister till finally one day they went to Los Angeles to confront her husband. Brave Orchid tells her sister to demand her place as the first wife but Moon Orchid wants no part in it. They came up with a plan after Brave Orchid saw his doctor office. They would send Brave Orchid’s son to the office and make the doctor come out thinking their was an accident. The plan did bring him out but it failed in Brave Orchids mind. He mentioned his new wife did not know of the first marriage and that he wanted no part in her life, but he would continue to send money to his daughter in care for Moon Orchid. The doctor embarrassed Moon by calling them grandmothers. This made Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid ghosts and the comic and tragic story of Moon Orchid takes form. The daughter takes Moon Orchid in after brave Orchid realized she was useless in helping her. She could barely fold towels and she got to hot to work. Her inabilities to perform the easiest tasks became annoying. Like many women in China they would marry the men just before they left for â€Å"the Golden Mountain† America. The fact that Moon Orchid comes to America and is useless to Brave Orchid and her husband wants nothing to do with her raises more speculation to her identity. The women in this story seem to have to find their own place and are voiceless. Like in previous chapters Moon Orchid comes to life through Kinston’s writing. In this chapter Kingston is hardly present. This is the first appearance in the book of her siblings and her father. Brave Orchid is embarrassed that her children are unaware of respecting or understanding Chinese culture. The fact that Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid become ghosts while confronting her husband takes a lot out of Moon Orchid. She slowly begins to deteriorate and Brave Orchid tries to comfort her but she ends up sending her to away to a home. The stories in this chapter are an important reminder to Kingston and her feelings for her mother. The fact that these women both had great lives in China can show the reader that in America the women were of no use and in America they struggled to find their identity. It s in the final chapter A song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe, Kingston finally begins to focus on her own life. We can see Kingston in some of her most important turning points in her life. She is insecure, quiet and an alienated young girl. Kinston has begun to see the world logically and as a more mature person. She embraces her roots and her past and finds strength in her writing. Kingston and other Chinese Americans are constantly told not to tell anyone outside the community about their lives. This makes finding ones identity harder. It is very important that Kingston does not spare herself in the final chapter. Here the quiet girl even has two long rants showing her words were often bottled up. Her ability to write made her more mature and gave her a clear perspective of her place in society. In America silence is a trait of Americans and Kinston finds herself as quiet and American-feminine. â€Å"So I had to stop, relieved in some ways. I shut my mouth, but I felt something alive tearing at my throat, bite by bite, from the inside† (Kingston 200). This is when you can see that Kinston remaining quite only kept things bottled up inside. The story ends with another talk story about the Ts’ai Yen who had to translate the songs of the Barbarians back to the people. It is here that the reader can sense that Kinston has found a way to communicate from her writing to her readers. Kinston’s identity seems to be in between American and Chinese American culture. The culture of both worlds has come to life throughout this book and it is in this chapter that Kingston realizes that she can give anything identity through her writing. Kingston’s ability to find herself in both cultures reveals her true identity. It is through her mother’s talk stories and through the other women in this book that helps her find her own identity. Kinston also gives identity to her No Name Aunt as well as Moon Orchid, and her mother. This novel focuses on the stories of these women and there struggles to find their voices. After realizing her place in society Kinston gave herself and all the other women in this book a voice and an identity. The women who have no identity and the struggle of a Chinese American women makes this book reveal everyone’s place and identity. Through her writing, talking about her past becomes the cure for silence and the cure to achieve an individual voice as a Chinese American Women.