Felons and Voting Should Convicted Felons have the Right to Vote

Introduction Felon disenfranchisement cases have characterized the history of the United States since 1965. By noting that America advocates for universal human rights including voting rights, several states have been concerned about the continued growth of the number of felon convicts and ex-convicts.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Felons and Voting: Should Convicted Felons have the Right to Vote? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to the US Department of Justice, by 2003, there were about 4.7 million felon ex-convicts in the United States who had been disenfranchised (2003, p.10). In the societies whose democracies are rights-based, punishment for crimes committed by convicts is enhanced through curtailing some fundamental rights of people including rights of association and travelling. When felony convicts’ rights including voting rights are eroded, their rehabilitation process is impaired s ince they may perceive themselves as having lesser equal rights in comparison with other people who have not committed felony crimes. This position is held by Siegel (2011) who argues that, after the passing of 1965(PL.89-110) voting rights act, the denial of voting rights â€Å"undermines the democratic process and impedes rehabilitation thus debilitating both communities and individuals† (p.89). In this context, felony convicts may develop psychological challenges that may impede their capacity to fit well in the society by the mere perception of denial of voting rights. It is hypothesized in the proposal that guaranteeing suffrage rights to felon convicts may help in improving their psychological health. The research focuses on evaluation of this hypothesis to establish the link between the perceptions of felony on their human rights and their rehabilitation process. Literature Review Through the provisions of 14th amendment of the US constitution, states are mandated to m ake laws that deny both inmates and felons their voting rights. In California, disenfranchisement laws stipulate that all adults who are convicted for felony crimes and or held in both paroles and prisons lose suffrage rights until their jail terms lapses (Siegel, 2011). Such persons consist of more than 4.7 million people who do not enjoy their voting rights in the US (U.S Department of Justice, 2003). This case is not simplistic since it does not just amount to saying that robbers, murderers, and rapists do not have suffrage rights. Acts of felony extend beyond these crimes to include other crimes whose penalties are serving a jail term of more than one year (US Department of Justice, 2003). This issue raises the question of the impacts of felony convictions on people and or how the convictions make people alter the manner they perceive their citizenship rights. When America was founded, legal frameworks only gave people who owned land a privilege of participating in political pro cesses through voting (Siegel, 2011). Since then, the electorate has been expanded to encompass people who do not own property, women, blacks, and even Hispanics among other people who constitute the American diversity. Only felons and persons under the age of 18 years are not permitted to vote (Grady, 2012, p. 445).Advertising Looking for proposal on criminal law? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Does it then imply that voting is a privilege as opposed to being a right? Are felons lesser human beings not worth the citizenship fundamental privileges? Gabbling with these questions has resorted to several scholarly studies being completed on the impacts of denial of fundamental citizenship rights once people are convicted for felony. Some states have been altering their law to allow ex-felons to be permitted to vote. McMiller (2008) argues that, in Connecticut, this alteration was led by several campaigns, which lasted for 7 year s. The campaigns sort to alter voting right laws. In fact, â€Å"the measure, signed into law by then governor John G. Rowland, a Republican, made Connecticut one of the first states to successfully and significantly alter its voter eligibility law in the aftermath of the controversial 2000 presidential election† (McMiller , 2008, p.645). Since 2001, several states have also been restoring voting rights to felony convicts. By noting that some states have been reviewing their laws to permit ex-felons to vote subject to no subsequent charge with felony crimes, Haselswerd (2009) sought to empirically study the differences in turnout of ex-felons who had their suffrage rights restored. The research formed an attempt to make approximations of turnout of ex-felons to participate in voting using statistical models as opposed to through deployment of government records. Statistically, Haselswerdt (2009) approximated that about 25 to 35 percent of ex-felons would participate in voting during federal elections. In the study, â€Å"Six-hundred-sixty recently released ex-felons in Erie County in New York who would have been legally eligible to register and vote in 2004 or 2005 were compared with data from the Erie County Board of Elections to determine whether they registered and voted in either 2004 or 2005† (p.262). The results of the study indicated that about 5 percent of ex-felons participated in either 2005 or 2004 elections. This result raises queries on the impacts of conviction with felony on perception of people’s fundamental rights including voting rights. Do felons perceive themselves as not appropriate to participate in political process by the mere fact that they committed crimes? Do felony charges mean that people end up making people perceiving themselves as being in appropriate in the society? Inspired by Haselswerd’s (2009) findings, it sounds imperative to study how felons think the society looks at them and or how this perce ption helps to construct their decisions to engage in social and political affairs of the societies in which they live in including engaging in voting processes.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Felons and Voting: Should Convicted Felons have the Right to Vote? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In a different empirical research on ex-felon turnout to participate in voting, Burch (2011) estimated party registration and turnout rates of 2008 general election in Michigan, Missouri, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia. The findings of the study indicated much low turnout rates of ex-felons in comparison to approximations made by government records. In particular, Burch (2011) found out that, although the variation of turn out rates varied with respect to states, it averaged at about 22.2 percent in 2008 across all the states studied. The author recorded low turnout rates for first time convicts. Randle (2007) may provide possible explanations of the low voting turnout among ex-felons empirically found by Haselswerd (2009) and Burch (2011). She argues that felon disenfranchisement (FD) policies makes ex-felons to perceive themselves as having the inability to make sound political decisions through over emphasis on the incapacity of felons to make sound decision that are good for the general society in the fear that felons may vote for policies advocating for excessive lenient penal. However, Randle (2007) maintains that this fear is inappropriate since high probabilities exist that ex-felons are drawn from societies, which have low voting turnout. The author further argues that criminals are not interested in participating in political processes since they have low interests in politics (Randle, 2007, p.501). This position is significant in the context of the current research since it is crucial to establish how conviction with felony crimes influences people’s views about the roles of politics in the society. Although the impact of denial of voting rights is purposely meant to affect the felons by blocking them from participating in the political process, with regard to Bowers and Preuhs (2009), the impacts of denial of suffrage rights extend further to include other people who are not targeted by felon disfranchisement policies (p.722). Due to disproportionate number of groups of people who are impacted by the FD laws, as may be evidenced by more people of a particular ethnic or racial community being held behind bars in the United States than others, engagement of such communities in the political process is impaired negatively. Bowers and Preuhs (2009) conducted a research to verify the above claim. The researchers sought to make verification for various hypotheses related to the roles that are played by socialization process in influencing people at individual level in engagement in politics.Advertising Looking for proposal on criminal law? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Unlike the approach deployed by Haselswerdt (2009), Bowers and Preuhs (2009) used â€Å"multilevel modeling and two separate individual-level data sets of those registered to vote to examine the effect of FD laws on the probability of voting† (p.722). Their results indicated that FD laws had negative impacts on participation in voting exercise among blacks in comparison to whites. Burch (2011) reports a similar finding by indicating, â€Å"In North Carolina and Florida, two states for which the data are available, party registration varies by race† (p.699). Consequently, it is arguable that people register in political parties based on the extents to which they think the issues that affect them more will be addressed. One of such intriguing issues is the denial of suffrage rights on accounts of having being convicted for felony. Siegel (2011) informs that, by the size of population of the races in the US, the percentage population of blacks in prison is more than the p ercentage of whites. Hence, black non-felons seem likely more impacted by FD laws by virtue of the fact that more of their people are facing the consequences of FD laws. In this extent, the results of Burch (2011) are significant in the current research since they indicated that, in case ex-felons and felons are eliminated from the voting populations, it is likely that political socialization process will be impacted. Methodology Participants This study targets the population of people implicated with felony crimes and people in the society considered as being offended in California. A part from helping to form the study control group, the public (the offended), is the one whom their perception about convicts results in making convicts develop psychological problems due to the manner in which they embrace both convicts and ex-convicts in the society. The justification of denial of voting rights is considered in the research as being based on these perceptions. Thus, the public throu gh their opinions is an essential participant of the research. The sample of the study will comprise 120 convicts of felony crimes and 300 people derived from the society within where the convicts live. Convenience sampling technique will be deployed to arrive at the sample of the study. To make sure that the sample will be balanced, the felony convicts recruited for the study will be drawn from across the gender divide and social economic status. In the establishment of the sample size, it is critical to minimize the individual differences effects. In this extent, individual participants of the study will have a random assignment of an equally sized treatment group arrived at by deployment of a random sample assignment table. Material In the collection of the data on the perceptions of people on the impacts of denial of voting rights on how convicts of felony crimes perceive themselves as different from the rest of the people in the community they live in, and to ease the analysis of the data, two options for data collection will be used. For this purpose, questionnaires are provided for No or Yes responses. Consequently, a questionnaire is provided asking the participants to provide response on whether denial of voting rights influences the way they perceive themselves in the society. To ensure that the participants do not have prior information on the questionnaires, the questionnaires are not meant for take home. However, they are based on the facts and statistics reflecting the magnitude of the problems of denial of suffrage rights for felony convicts across the United States. This strategy allows the participants to give responses not only based on the perceptions but also on behalf of the other people who have their voting rights eroded upon finding themselves engaged in felony acts. The dependent variable is the perceptions of people on how their roles on the society are impacted by erosion of their suffrage rights once they are charged with felony cri mes. The independent variable is the felony crimes. The questionnaire is designed to be objective. The participants are required to provide information on how they consider denial of voting rights to have influenced their fits with the society in which they belong. Pilot study will also be conducted to determine the validity and reliability of the experimental study conducted. For pilot testing, Cranach’s alpha, coefficients of test-retest reliability would have to be calculated once pilot testing is conducted. Procedure Participants are drawn from the areas where felony convicts are serving their sentences across the state of California. Since the aim of the research is to determine the psychological impacts of denial of voting rights amongst the participants in an attempt to how they affect their rehabilitations process, no information is provided about the purpose of the study to the participants. Since the convicts are not expected to have writing materials, the researche r starts by handing over the material including questionnaires. The questionnaires are meant to provide response to whether the participants feel that they will be the same people they were before once they complete their sentences. If the answer is yes, they will be required to provide information on whether erosion of their voting rights would influence the way they value themselves in the societies where they live. Additional space is provided for the participants to provide more information on how denial of some of their rights including voting rights impacts the way they relate with the people they have been very close to in the society. During the pilot test, the following questions are administered On Justice To the convicts: Which of the following do you consider as the main purpose of prison? 1= rehabilitation to avoid future related crimes; 0= provide the rest of the community with learning examples of the impacts of committing felony. To the public: When do you think fel ony convicts should have their rights including voting rights taken away? 1=after and before rehabilitations; 0= before rehabilitations. On Sex crimes To the convict: Do you feel that people in the society will trust you when you are around people who made you convicted to having violated their sexual rights? Yes= 1; No=0. To the public: Do you think that people implicated with sex crimes should be allowed to vote or not. Yes=1; No=0. On the Impacts of engagement in the felony crime To the convicts: Do you consider yourself equal to other people in the society who have never been convicted of felony crime? 1=yes; No=0 To the public: Do you think that taking away voting rights from felony convicts amounts to discrimination? 1=Yes; No=0. Data Analysis Plan Since the data collected is essentially qualitative, the researchers plan to classify data in terms of the percentages. For instance, the percentages of those who believe that the denial of suffrage rights is discriminating the felony convicts and hence amounting to perceptions of necessity to maintain low social profiles in the society after completion of one’s sentence is calculated. Depending on the percentages, discrimination will be analyzed based on the results of how convicts perceive themselves as being equal or not with the rest of the members of the society. The size of the effect of denial of voting rights among felony convicts is calculated based on percentages of variance, standard deviations, and mean of the data collected. Discussion If the results of the study depict significant psychological effects of denial of human rights including participation in political processes such as voting rights, the results show the necessity for changing laws to accord the felons voting rights in the effort to ensure they rehabilitate fast and fit well within the society once they have finished their sentences. In the interpretation of results, the limitations of the study will be put into perspecti ve. The study will be conducted within California. Therefore, the results are valid for only this state. Consequently, extending the result to other states involves generalization hence introducing generalization errors. The results will further be interpreted in the context of the existing research on the topic especially on how people perceive felony ex-convicts in the society. This research will help to reduce incidences of prejudice and discrimination of the felony convicts-something that may influence the convicts psychologically. Reference List Bowers, M., Preuhs, R. (2009). Collateral consequences of a collateral penalty: The negative effect of felon disenfranchisement laws on the political participation of non-felons. Social Sciences Quarterly, 90(3), 722-743. Burch, T. (2011). Turnout and party registration among criminal offenders in the 2008 general election. Law and Society Review, 45(3), 699-730. Grady, S. (2012). Civil Death is Different: An Examination of A post-Grah am Challenge to Felon Disenfranchisement under the Eighth Amendment. The Journal of Criminal Law Criminology, 102(2), 441-470. Haselswerdt, M. (2009). Con job: An estimate of ex-felon voter turnout using document-based data. Social sciences quarterly, 90(2), 262-273. McMiller, D. (2008). The campaign to restore the voting rights of people convicted of a felony and sentenced to probation in Connecticut. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(5), 645-658. Randle, J. (2007). Review of Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. Law and Society, 41(2), 500-503. Siegel, J. (2011). Felon disenfranchisement and the right for universal suffrage. Social Work, 56 (1), 89-91. U.S Department of Justice. (2003). Press release: one in every 32 adults now on probation, Parole, or incarcerated. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. This proposal on Felons and Voting: Should Convicted Felons have the Right to Vote? was written and submitted by user Tombstone to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. 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Alpha Tyre Essay Example

Alpha Tyre Essay Example Alpha Tyre Essay Alpha Tyre Essay Alpha Tyre Company Case is intended to be a part of instruction material developed for teaching at a Marketing class in Business Schools. Alpha is not a real company – any resemblance to a real corporation is co-incidental. Case facts are for discussion only and are not intended to be a demonstrator of correct or incorrect handling of management situation. Alpha Tyre Company (ALPHA) is engaged in the manufacture and sale of car tyres. Most of ALPHA’s business is conducted primarily through the OE (Original Equipment) route, selling to automobile manufacturers such as Maruti, Hyundai, Tata, Honda, Toyota and Hindustan Motors. The company has a strong presence in the OE market and it wants to protect its dominance in this space. However, ALPHA is lagging behind in the replacement market with minimal brand recall in the market place. In the overall tyre market, ALPHA has a small share since it specializes in car tyres only. The big Indian players in the market like MRF, CEAT and JK wield a wide range of tyres – for two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, utility vehicles, and commercial vehicles i. e. trucks and buses. The company’s new CEO, who has recently been brought in from a Consumer Durables company, fears that a low brand recall in the replacement market would adversely affect their OE market share and therefore wants to develop a growth strategy to expand the company’s replacement market share. The Marketing department at ALPHA did not have a consistent and researched understanding of what drove tyre sales and how customers went about buying car tyres. Past research findings by ALPHA on consumer preferences have been sketchy and market information has been collected on ad-hoc basis. There is no evidence of any extensive study conducted on consumers and most of the theories going around in the company are based on hunches and ‘gut-feel’. Various strategies were used in the past to reach the customer target groups. The tyre-dealers were targeted through a rigourous sales process along with target-based schemes. Mechanics and Car Service Stations were reached through direct schemes. Mass Media and PR were used to communicate with end users. The Sales department has a different approach on what needs to be done in the replacement market – they believe that pushing the product with better dealer margins is the way to go and that the Marketing department is wasting time with Positioning and Brand Building. The quality of tyres is judged, among other factors, on the wear rate of the tyre, which was measured with a calibration device after certain specified usage intervals. ALPHA has a modern tyre testing lab and most of their tyres compare well vis-a-vis their competition in lab tests and road tests conducted by the company. To formulate a marketing strategy, Alpha needs to understand – a) What drives each type of customer to buy a particular brand of tyres. b) Each type of influencer that impacts a brand. c) The relative impact of customers and influencers on sales. d) What cues a good tyre and a good tyre company e) The gaps in the Strength and Weaknesses of its brand vis-a-vis the competition in the OE business and in the replacement market. You are doing your internship at Alpha tyres and the Senior VP of Marketing and Sales has asked you to build a marketing and sales plan†¦

The nyc history from 1980 to the present in terms Essay

The nyc history from 1980 to the present in terms - Essay Example l strains flooded the city as organized crime became prevalent with the highly-exposed killings of three African Americans in the white residences in New York. Rape, gang bags, and shooting cases soared from the 1980s to the end of the 20th century (Langan and Durose, 17). Also, during the time of Mayor Edward Koch, the â€Å"crack epidemic† – the outpouring of crack cocaine in large US cities – inspired a rapid increase on the crime rates in the city. But, perhaps, the most major crime that took place in New York was the 9/11 attack that killed thousands of lives and called for the revamp of the city’s security force. Many police officers had been laid off by 1980. Hiring freeze was also implemented for the next five years (Citizens Crime Commission, â€Å"History of the Crime Commission†). The concentration of the NYPD dropped from 31,000 officers to 22,000. By the end of 1980s, crimes escalated to the extent that it was almost impossible for the NYPD to control it. By 1990, following the implementation of the â€Å"Broken Windows† and the â€Å"Safe Streets† program that calls for the hiring of more police officers, crimes had dropped tremendously up to the present with its new approach against terrorism, improved juvenile crime and illegal gun crime. New York City has been historically regarded as a main entry point of immigrants to the US. Since the 1980s, following the revitalization of its immigration system, the city experienced a transformed degrees of high immigration. Population has risen up remarkably. By the start of the 1980s, the population of New York City was 7,071,639 (Campbell, â€Å"Population of the 100 largest†; the city’s population as of 2010 is 8,175, 133 (US Census Bureau, â€Å"Annual Estimates†). The reinvigoration of the city’s immigration system has inspired cultural diversity, which contributed a lot to its political and economic success. The city has seen a resurgence of the Wall Street and the city has regained its position