Essay on Disaster Management Reflections

Essay on Disaster Management Reflections Essay on Disaster Management Reflections Example Essay on Disaster Management Reflections: The earth has been affected by the natural hazards over a long time as man emerged into picture the picture that the natural occurrences were becoming disaster, together with being documented in various ways providing a warning for the future generation. However in 1920, there was a published study referred to as the catastrophe and social change by Henry Samuel Prince. This was the Halifax Disaster documented account and the occurrence of the social change. The first person to deliver evidence based study was Prince, by use of theory founding a paradigm which paved way for the management of disaster to be studied (Sperling, 2004). A change in social can be caused by disasters. Social change always is not for better depending on affected population resources (Oliver, 2002). Change in disaster study started changing with theories like as Carr discussing a cultural protection collapse. Carr made a discussion on how we got the tools in place encountering the act of disasters though if there was lack of these tools there was no more protection. Disaster is any occurrence that causes ecological disruption, damage, human life loss, health services and health deterioration on sufficient scale to warrant response extraordinary from the outside area or community affected (De Boer, 2000). In addition, it can be also defined as the series or event which disrupts the normal activities seriously. Disaster means a sudden or great misfortune. This may include tsunami; fires; floods; droughts; flood and many others. The major disasters naturally may include earthquake, cyclone, flood, and drought. Minor disasters naturally include storm, heat waves, cold wave, mud slides, and thunderstorm. The major disasters that may occur in man made activities include deforestation, fires, setting of fires, and pollution due to their prawn activities. Minor man made occurrence of disasters may include accidents on the roads or trains, riots, industrial riots, food poisoning, and environmental pollution. In history throughout disasters had some impacts significantly on the number, life style and health status of the population such as death, shortage of food, movements of the population, damage of water systems and the health facilities, and severe injuries which requires treatment extensive. Health problem that is common to every disaster include mental health, social reactions, nutrition and food, climatic exposure, health infrastructure damage, and population displacement. Whether a disaster is man- made or natural, it can occur at anytime and anywhere. General response to any disaster is thereby in terms of rescue and relief operations which are after the event. If we are well and adequately prepared, it is very easy to reduce the impact of that disaster. There can be reduction of the impact through being aware by understanding well the preventive actions, together with having knowledge of particular tools and techniques; at the time of disaster event these tools and techniques can be used to control total damage to belongings and life. The biggest problem and very sad thing is the way a disaster occur; they occur with swiftness and suddenness hence, for a disaster serenity to be reduced, the response has to be swift equally(De Boer, 2000). It is hard for a day to pass without news about complex or major emergency happening in different parts of the world, as disasters continue to strike causing destruction to both developed and undeveloped countries (Dyregrov, 1999). This raises vulnerability concern to occurrences that may affect gravely our daily lives and the future. In vulnerable populations, some emergency in particular those occurring in nature become catastrophic events only when they are in combination with the vulnerability factors like populations density and the human settlements. An occurrence of earthquake in deserted area is might be considered as a natural hazard, rather than if it occurred in mega city where it is recognized as major disaster (Stewart, 2005). Any type of emergency that has anything to do with vulnerability population together with man made included, concerns some technological disasters like the ones of chemicals or nuclear; these demonstrates complex and major emergencies are linked closely to an anarchic growth population that leads to poverty, unplanned population settlements, and environmental degradation. Disasters themselves have no limitation to specific parts of world. There are no countries that are disaster immune, but there is variance in disaster vulnerability (Sperling, 2005). However, some countries might be more prone to a particular type of disaster. The more advanced a country is, the level of their preparedness is slightly higher. High level of preparedness enhances them have good control over loss. Some disasters where loss during actual event is not required as high, hence losses become a bit high due to the inability in managing the situation in a timed manner. Another thing that might lead to a big loss during certain disasters is the secure utilities and properly manages inability (Pearce, 2003). In one way these utilities tend to be very important, and on the other hand, due to ruptures or leakage, some of them might be in contact with each other, where they are not supposed to therefore leading to further damage. The most important thing and the most motivation of disaster management are minimizing losses at disaster time together with ensuring that resources are utilized effectively; as they are scarce already. The major disasters naturally may include earthquake, cyclone, flood, and drought. Minor disasters naturally include storm, heat waves, cold wave, mud slides, and thunderstorm. The major disasters that may occur in man made activities include deforestation, fires, setting of fires, and pollution due to their prawn activities. Minor man made occurrence of disasters may include accidents on the roads or trains, riots, industrial riots, food poisoning, and environmental pollution. There are four types of disaster mainly. These include environmental emergencies, natural disasters, pandemic disasters, and complex disasters. Disaster prevention is activities that are designed for provision of permanent disasters protection. Not every disaster can be prevented and particularly natural disasters; the loss risk of injury and life can be only mitigated with plans of good evacuation, design standards and environmental planning. Disaster preparedness is activities for life loss and damage minimization (Pearce, 2003). Preparedness is the best way of reducing disasters impact. Disaster relief is a multi-agency coordinated response of reducing disaster impact and its results of long-term. These activities may include relocation, rescue, water and food provision, preventing disability and disease, repair of vital services like transport, provision of temporary shelter and health care emergency. Once the needs of emergency has been accomplished and the crisis is initially over, those affected together with the community supporting them remain vulnerable. Management of disaster is linked with the development sustainably, in particular with vulnerable people relation like the ones with disability, children, elderly people and groups marginalized. ______________ is a professional essay writing service which can provide high school, college and university students with 100% original custom written essays, research papers, dissertations, courseworks, book reviews, lab reports, presentations and other assignments of top quality. More than 700 professional Ph.D. and Master’s academic writers. Feel free to buy online essay on Disaster Management from our professional essay writing service.

How to Use Sociology to Counter Claims of Reverse Racism

How to Use Sociology to Counter Claims of Reverse Racism A former student recently asked me how one can use sociology to counter claims of â€Å"reverse racism.† The term refers to the idea that whites experience racism due to programs or initiatives that are designed to benefit people of color. Some claim that organizations or spaces that are exclusive to say, black people or Asian Americans, constitute â€Å"reverse racism,† or that scholarships open only to racial minorities discriminate against whites. The big point of contention for those concerned with â€Å"reverse racism† is Affirmative Action, which refers to measures in applications processes for employment or college admission that take race and the experience of racism into account in the evaluation process. To counter claims of â€Å"reverse discrimination,† let’s first revisit what racism actually is. Per our own glossary definition, racism serves to limit access to rights, resources, and privileges on the basis of essentialist notions of race (stereotypes). Racism can take a variety of forms in achieving these ends. It can be representational, manifesting in how we imagine and represent racial categories, like in costume at â€Å"Ghetto† or â€Å"Cinco de Mayo† parties, or in what kinds of characters people of color play in film and television. Racism can be ideological, existing in our world views and ideas premised on white superiority and the presumed cultural or biological inferiority of others. There are other forms of racism too, but most important to this discussion of whether or not affirmative action constitutes â€Å"reverse racism† are the ways that racism operates institutionally and structurally. Institutional racism manifests in education in the tracking of students of color into remedial or special ed courses, while white students are more likely to be tracked into college prep courses. It also exists in the educational context in the rates at which students of color are punished and reprimanded, versus white students, for the same offenses. Institutional racism is also expressed in biases teachers reveal in doling out praise more so to white students than to students of color. Institutional racism in the educational context is a key force in reproducing long-term, historically rooted structural racism. This includes racial segregation into poor communities with underfunded and understaffed schools, and economic stratification, which overwhelmingly burdens people of color with poverty and limited access to wealth. Access to economic resources is a significant factor that shapes one’s educational experience, and the extent to which one is prepared for admission to college. Affirmative Action policies in higher education are designed to counteract the near 600-year history of systemic racism in this country. A cornerstone of this system is undeserved enrichment of whites based on historical theft of land and resources from Native Americans, theft of labor and denial of rights of Africans and African Americans under slavery and its Jim Crow aftermath, and denial of rights and resources to other racial minorities throughout history. The undeserved enrichment of whites fueled the undeserved impoverishment of people of color- a legacy that is painfully alive today in racialized income and wealth disparities. Affirmative Action seeks to redress some of the costs and burdens born by people of color under systemic racism. Where people have been excluded, it seeks to include them. At their core, Affirmative Action policies are based on inclusion, not exclusion. This fact becomes clear when one considers the history of legislation that laid the groundwork for Affirmative Action, a term first used by former President John F. Kennedy in 1961 in Executive Order 10925, which referenced the need to end discrimination based on race, and was followed three years later by the Civil Rights Act. When we recognize that Affirmative Action is premised on inclusion, we see clearly that it is not consistent with racism, which uses racial stereotypes to limit access to rights, resources, and privileges. Affirmative Action is the opposite of racism; it is anti-racism. It is not â€Å"reverse† racism. Now, some might claim that Affirmative Action limits access to rights, resources, and privileges for whites who are thought to be displaced by people of color who are granted admission instead of them. But the fact is, that claim simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny when one examines historical and contemporary rates of college admission by race. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 1980 and 2009, the number of African American students enrolled in college annually more than doubled, from about 1.1 million to just under 2.9 million. During that same period, Hispanic and Latino enjoyed a huge jump in enrollment, multiplying by more than five, from 443,000 to 2.4 million. The rate of increase for white students was much lower, at just 51 percent, from 9.9 million to about 15 million. What these jumps in enrollment for African Americans and Hispanic and Latinos show is the intended outcome of Affirmative Action policies: increased inclusion. Importantly, the inclusion of these racial groups did not harm white enrollment. In fact, data released by the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2012 show that white students are still slightly over-represented in terms of their presence in that year’s freshmen class at 4-year schools, while black and Latino students are still underrepresented.* Further, if we look beyond the Bachelor’s degree to advanced degrees, we see percentages of white degree earners rise as does level of degree, culminating in a stark underrepresentation of black and Latino recipients of degrees at the level of Doctor. Other research has shown clearly that university professors demonstrate a strong bias toward white male students who express interest in their graduate programs, much to the expense of women and students of color. Looking at the big picture of longitudinal data, it is clear that while Affirmative Action policies have successfully opened access to higher education across racial lines, they have not limited the ability of whites to access this resource. Rulings from the mid-1990s that have outlawed Affirmation Action at public educational institutions lead to a fast and sharp drop in enrollment rates of black and Latino students at those institutions, quite notably in the University of California system. Now, let’s consider the bigger picture beyond education. For â€Å"reverse racism,† or racism against whites, to exist in the U.S., we would first have to reach racial equality in systemic and structural ways. We would have to pay reparations to make up for centuries upon centuries of unjust impoverishment. We would have to equalize wealth distribution and achieve equal political representation. We would have to see equal representation across all job sectors and educational institutions. We would have to abolish racist policing, judicial, and incarceration systems. And, we would have to eradicate ideological, interactional, and representational racism. Then, and only then, might people of color be in a position to limit access to resources, rights, and privileges on the basis of whiteness. Which is to say, â€Å"reverse racism† does not exist in the United States.   *I base these statements on 2012 U.S. Census population data, and compare the category â€Å"White alone, not Hispanic or Latino† to the White/Caucasian category used by the Chronicle of Higher Education. I collapsed the Chronicle’s data for Mexican-American/Chicano, Puerto Rican, and Other Latino into a total percentage, which I compared to the Census category â€Å"Hispanic or Latino.†

Linking Research Design, Research Problem, and Research Questions Essay

Linking Research Design, Research Problem, and Research Questions - Essay Example ’. Qualitative research questions deal with individual cases and provide greater depths and understanding of each case while looking only at the practical and pertinent information. There are five most common approaches used in qualitative research. These are ethnography, grounded theory, case study, discourse analysis, or phenomenology. The method that is to be used in this qualitative study is ethnography. Ethnography helps to get an in-depth understanding on the aspects of culture which influence the phenomenon under study. It is often used to gather data that is derived from experiments and observation rather than from theory. Ethnography is particularly done with the end purpose of enabling the researcher to describe the people targeted by the study. The research topic proposed in this paper concerns finding the reasons for the increasing rate of dropouts from institutions of higher education. The research topic can be better phrased as â€Å"Curbing the increasing rate of school dropouts from institutions of higher education†. The purpose of this research is to find out the reasons that lead to students dropping out of school. By being able to get a clear understanding of why students drop out from school, this data can be used by the government ministry in charge of education, school boards and other key players in the sector to devise policies and strategies which will gradually bring down this drop out rate. Problem statement The rate at which students are dropping out is increasing at an alarming rate. All over the world, there are headlines that detail the numbers of students that drop out of school, especially higher education. According to a report by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Educ ation Statistics (NCES), there are two principal classifications of factors which contribute to students dropping out of school. These are financial and social. The NCES also reports that the rates of dropouts have been increasing over the last decade. For example, between 1992 and 2002, the status rate which is the rate of students dropping out without completing school increased from 14.6 to 22.5 per cent. In South Africa, the high rate of university dropouts, which was at 11.2 per cent in 2008, is deemed to be a monumental threat to the future of the country. This is the situation in many countries. Much has been done to try and curb the rate of dropouts but these numbers are astonishing. Something needs to be done urgently to help this pathetic situation. How ethnography is used There are two main types of data that will be collected for this research. These are primary and secondary data. The former will be collected through structured interviews with key respondents such as sc hool principals, district education officers, lecturers, tutors, mentors, students and other key people in the ministry involved with education, interviewer observation and field notes. Focus discussion groups (FDGs) may also be held to get insight on what are the reasons for this phenomenon. FDGs involve having the researcher as the facilitator or moderator as the group discusses the factors that lead to dropouts and initiatives that can be implemented to help curb this. The FDGs will mostly comprise of students in higher education institutions and recent graduates. The ideal age would be between 18-26 years. Secondary data will be collected from reflexive journals, analysis of published and unpublished documents and reports and also other data that will be relevant to this study. Research Questions A research question can be defined as the question or questions posed that the research answers. It is usually a

Hip Hop's effects on violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Hip Hop's effects on violence - Essay Example The resulting new genre of music was raucous and disrespectful, using its own dialect to shout out an alternative lifestyle to the one that they saw in mainstream society. Since then interest in the movement has grown, and hip hop attracts unwavering support from millions of people across the whole world, but at the same time also it is heavily criticized for its focus on drugs, crime, and especially violence. It cannot be denied that violence lies at the heart of many hip hop lyrics, but the question that must be answered is what relationship hip-hop has to the real violence that occurs in the world’s cities today. Does hip-hop encourage that violence, or even cause it? Or can we see hip-hop as something that resists a greater violence that has been meted out to African Americans and other minorities for several centuries? This paper argues that the latter argument is more convincing, and that furthermore hip-hop has a potential to bring understanding between racial groups wh ich no other movement is likely to bring forward at the present time. The first matter to clarify is the nature of what we call â€Å"Hip-hop.† It is a type of music, involving spoken and sung texts and strong steady rhythms. Hip hop is not just music, however, it is a whole culture, embracing graffiti art, dancing styles, and even fashion. The typical hip-hop look consists of baggy pants, sneakers, and Malcolm X caps which are worn backwards (Smitherman, 1997, p. 3) There is also a tendency for women to sport elaborate hairstyles, expensive designer outfits, well-manicured nails and striking makeup. For men there is a preference for ostentatious jewelry and if possible also fast cars. These artefacts are symbols of power, and the stars of hip hop culture sport these trophies to indicate how successful they are and how far they have come from poverty. Some critics see these expensive trinkets as genuine indicators of status while others regard them as ironic quotations from m ainstream society, underlining rebellion and activism rather than consumerism and complacency: â€Å"Hip-hop’s triad of graffiti, dance, and rap are post-apocalyptic arts, scratches on the decaying surfaces of post-industrital urban America; they are not monuments to some romanticized ‘human spirit’, but fundamentally anti-monumental arts.† (Potter: 1995, p. 8) There is indeed something rebellious about hip hop. The body language of fans is often very insolent, with direct staring and head jerking, and many of the moves in the dance routines are quirky and acrobatic, drawing attention to the dancer and singling him out as a person to be admired. There is great loyalty amongst fans, and much is made of terms like â€Å"bro† which signifies brother and can be used both within racial groups and transcending these boundaries. When people think of hip-hop they think of instances where songs, or singers have been banned from radio stations because of offe nsive language, violent references and in particular criticism of the American state and its institutions. This is, however, nothing new, and from the hippies and the Beatles in the 1960s to the Sex Pistols in the punk era, posturing against authority is absolutely typical of youth culture. One aspect of hip-hop which is of great concern is the fact that it is often associated with gun culture and drug

Serving Customers in Global Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Serving Customers in Global Markets - Essay Example Why: Apple Inc took home repeat Brand of the Year distinctions in three categories—Tablet, Computer and Mobile Phone in 2013. Apple scored strong points for all elements of Brand Equity namely Quality, Familiarity and Purchase Consideration. In the world of tablets, Apple’s iPad series which expanded its offerings in 2012 with the iPad mini and it received the Tablet Brand of the Year award for second consecutive year. The Apple has a more than 100 products under its brand. Purpose: The reason for going into 1 Crossgates Mall Road Albany, NY 12203 is to evaluate the service levels which are offered by the staff present in the store. This is important since it affects the customer satisfaction with respect to product and pricing offered to them. Location: The location was chosen since it was reputed of being the best place to test-drive and explore Apple products. Under one place one can easily find every product of Apple including one of the most knowledgeable Apple people. Choice of Provider: The main reason for choosing Apple Inc. is that the company is world renowned for its top quality products meeting the customer expectation. Apple came out with innovative products like Tablet, iPad, iPhone etc. which revolutionized the mobile industry. Again it is known for good customer service. Expectation: My expectation is that the shop should have all the recent products released by Apple available along with good customer service support staff that should be knowledgeable at resolving my issue and a pleasant atmosphere. Segmentation- Segmentation of the market is very important as it is the key process of capturing the market share and launching the product. When a particular product is been developed by any company it need to find out which segment of customers can utilize that particular product. Apple came up with the i-phone with all the latest technologies in build in, it had kept the price of the product high and segmented it in the

Critical Thinking Essay Example for Free

Critical Thinking Essay There are number of situations that come to mind where critical and creative thought could have been used for a better outcome. And major disaster could have been prevented from happening just by using the critical thinking process in decision making. According to Critical Thinking Community (2012), Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. † (Critical thinkingthe awakening of the intellect to the study of itself.). The best ( or the worst) example of the absence of critical thinking is the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez. It is very obvious that the personals involve in decision making process in this situation were not bothered using the critical thinking skills while making the business decisions. It can easily be proved by looking at the certain facts such as †¢ Necessary inspections of the ships, that could have indicated any existing problem in the ship, were not performed. †¢ Number of crew that was operating the ship was way below the number of crew required to perform those operations. The reason for that was probably to save money. †¢ Due to the small number of crew the work load was way too much for the people operating the ship That is probably the reason why the Captain was sleeping deck below and a untrained crew member was at the wheel asleep controlling the ship. †¢ Collision avoidance system which could have prevent the accident was not available on the ship. This horrible situation could have easily been prevented from happening if the authorized personals had used the critical thinking skills while making the decisions. If the crew members of the Exxon Valdez had adopted critical thinking, they could have prevented the accident from taking place. Similarly, if the procedures were followed and the equipments were issued and properly maintained with the appropriate crew size on board, the accident would never have taken place. According to Dnate.com The Nexus Of Politics, Culture And Genetics (2013), â€Å"Free Will is the ability to do what you want, and pursue your interests. In other words, Free Will is the ability to pursue the object of your passions, motivations, wants, interests, and desires.†(para.1.). In simple words free will is the ability to do what we want to do. For example if a person wants to go to a football game and he made a decision to go to the game. However many philosophers say this instinct is wrong. According to their view, free will is a figment of our imagination. No one has it or ever will. There is still a big argument about the existence of free will of it’s being an illusion. The thinkers are trying to get the answers of the following questions: are the choices we make predetermined?, or do we necessarily choose what we choose?, or was it really possible for us to have chosen otherwise?. (Do We Have Free Will, 2012). According to Plato’s Theory Of Knowledge (2013), â€Å"Knowledge is justified, true belief.† (Para. 1). Knowledge is a collective set of information and facts acquired through both education and experience. There is, however, not a single definition of knowledge that all agree upon totally. Whatever the case maybe, knowledge is the that helps us in building our thoughts. Knowledge helps in making rational decisions in critical thinking based upon our experience and what we take as truth Opinion is based on a belief or view. It is basically a personal belief that can be turned into facts if supported by proof. There are three major hindrances (obstacles) in Thinking Critically Stereotyping According to Simply Psychology (2012), A stereotype is a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.† (para. 1). Stereotyping is categorizing the people, ideas or places based on some common elements or fixed notion. Resistance to Change Some people tend to reject new ways of doing/seeing things or new ideas. They are happy with the old routine life. This is called â€Å"Resistance to change.† Face Saving Face saving is something that prevents oneself from loss of dignity, self-esteem or prestige. It can occur when somebody has believed in a lie or an opinion and their ego prevent themselves from admitting it. There are few techniques to overcome the hindrances in critical thinking. Such as being objective in any situation, keep personal feelings and opinions separate, and gain all the information necessary to make a decision. In a world of advertising there is a message in everything hidden or obvious and sometimes even both. Perception is very important in advertising and marketing. How customers feels about a product and what kind of perception people have about it plays an important role in the success of that product. Marketers spent huge funds to create a good consumer’s perception of the product that is being advertised. Critical thinking plays an important role in decision making process. It can help to understand the pros and cons of any decision and can prevent from any misfortunate incidents. However in order to use the critical thinking effectively, it is important to overcome the three hindrances to the critical thinking process. References Critical Thinking Community. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 dNATE.com The nexus of politics, culture and genetics. (2013). Retrieved from http://freewill.typepad.com/genetics/2009/12/what-is-free-will.html Do We Have Free Will. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.godcontention.org/index.php?qid=164 Platos theory of knowledge. (2013). Retrieved from http://laumasblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/platos-theory-of-knowledge.html Simply Psychology. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Review

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Review Beacon Lights Book Review Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Every once in a while a book comes along that makes you think and even changes the way you have previously looked upon a subject. Just Mercy is such a book. This is the true story of a young lawyers fight for justice on the part of many on death row. The author, Bryan Stevenson battles racial injustice and represents many poor, non-white, mentally ill and young offenders. Their stories are interspersed throughout the book as he recounts his defense of Walter McMillian, a black man on death row. The memoir reads like a legal thriller, juxtaposing his many triumphs and failures. Bryan Stevenson grew up poor in Delaware. His great-grandparents had been slaves in Virginia and this legacy of slavery influenced the way his grandparents raised their children and grandchildren. They particularly emphasized the importance of faith and education. Stevensons faith was cultivated in the African Methodist Episcopal Church where he played the piano and sang in the choir. Stevenson attended Eastern College, a Christian institution outside Philadelphia, and then Harvard Law School. His focus to defend the poor began during college when he took an intensive class on race and poverty litigation. He was required to spend a month with an organization doing social justice work. They sent him to Georgia to work with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee where his first case required him to meet with a condemned man on death row. In the late 1980s, Stevensons legal firm first took up the cause of Walter McMillian, who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman. The states case had many inconsistencies. They manufactured stories from witnesses who said they were with Walter when he committed the crime and disregarded accounts from many eyewitnesses who said they were with Walter at a church fundraiser. The legal system was determined to find someone to convict for this murder and decided Walter would be prosecuted because of his affair with a prominent white woman (a crime during this time period). The exposition of this case opened my eyes to the unfortunate fact that since prosecutors and police have legal immunity they can do considerable harm to innocent citizens when they are on the hunt for justice. A large portion of this book deals with the cases of poor black children sentenced to adult prisons and serving life sentences. Stevenson tells these stories very convincingly and sympathetically. He challenges their sentences because he says they are juveniles and his firm recognized the incongruity of not allowing children to smoke, drink, drive à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ because of their lack of maturity and judgement while simultaneously treating some of the most at-risk, neglected, and impaired children exactly the same as full-grown adults in the criminal justice system. Circumstances that would bring a youth to be put in a situation where he felt his only option was to kill someone because he is not aware of his other options, should be recognized upon sentencing. One example is a young boy who shoots his mothers abuser. Yes, punishment needs to occur, but placing a young child in an adult prison is not always appropriate justice. Stevenson also defends many poor white women who have been convicted of the murder of their spouse or stillborn child. He tells the stories of pregnant women who are too poor to see a doctor or go to the hospital, and then unfortunately during labor deliver a stillborn child. These women are then arrested and charged with capital murder which is punishable by the death penalty. Not all of the characters in Stevensons book are sympathetic and his defense of them does not always seem to be justified. As a defense lawyer his heart may sometimes get in the way of seeing their crimes objectively. In particular, he unsuccessfully defends a prisoner who commits the heinous act of killing a child with a bomb meant for a neighbor. While justice has been denied for a large portion those in the prison system, the authors faith in both the power of redemption and justice, underlines his continued hope in the possibility of change. The true measure of our character, Stevenson writes, is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ we all need mercy, we all need justice, and perhaps we all need some measure of unmerited grace.