"Guilty," freedom, strength, relief.

Joanne Alldritt "Guilty," freedom, strength, relief. As soon as the judge said this single, amazingly powerful word, these forgotten feelings rushed through me. I had finally got my revenge. The confusion lead me to let out tearful sighs of joy and sudden outcries of relief. The man who had made my adult life a misery and ruined my teenage memories didn't have any domination over my thoughts or feelings anymore. From going ahead with the prosecution I felt satisfied that no other innocent teenager or harmless child would have to worry about this particular evil, pathetic man ever going near him or her again. It had taken twenty years for me to work up the courage to prosecute but it was worth it. My personality is now like it was, I'm outgoing, less sensitive and I've learnt to trust people. I just hope no one has to go through what I did. When my mother sent me to Lowood boarding school after "average results" in my first year at a state school, I found it difficult to make new friends because firstly the clothes that my mother insisted I wore at weekends were not the most fashionable and the fact that I was the weakest academically in my class resulted in low self esteem. So I was thirteen and had few friends so to speak of. I could only assume that it was because of the "introvert personality," my mother always said I had. She implied that my shortage of friends

  • Word count: 1276
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Is religion a conservative force or a force for social change?

Is religion a conservative force or a force for social change? Functionalists, Marxists and Feminists have generally dismissed the idea that religion can cause social change in society. They believe that religion acts as a conservative force, i.e. that it prevents social change. However, if any change is going to happen, it will be changes in society that shape religion. Religion as a conservative force can be defined in two ways; the first way of defining religion as a conservative force is to refer to religion as preventing change and maintaining the status quo. The functionalist perspective and Marxists perspective both provide arguments to support this definition of religion as a conservative force. Functionalist Emile Durkheim supports the idea of religion as a conservative force with the idea of a collective conscience, which is the shared morals and beliefs which unite society. Durkheim believed "religion promotes social solidarity... which unites into one single moral community." This example of religion acting as a conservative force can be seen in Italy, where the Catholic religion binds the population into one moral community, preventing social change and maintaining the status quo. Another key idea by functionalists to support the argument that religion acts as a conservative force is how religion supports society through times of life crisis. This idea was

  • Word count: 1313
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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"Compare and contrast modernisation theory and dependency theory as explanations of development and under-development"

"Compare and contrast modernisation theory and dependency theory as explanations of development and under-development" The two theories, modernisation and dependency both give valid and just explanations for development and underdevelopment. There is a notable likeness in them both but there are also many differences and neither escape criticisms. Modernisation theory was before dependency theory and was developed in the 1950/60s; the theory is based on 4 main assumptions. Western societies are the most advanced in terms of technological, social and political terms, countries go through a series of stages on their route to becoming advanced, this path is a 'natural' form of development and there must be something preventing them from doing this and finally, these underdeveloped nations can advance without an changes taking place in the finance and trading patterns of the capitalist world. The modernisation theory is politically conservative as it sees nations being undeveloped because they lack the qualities that developed nations have, this is compared with the dependency theory who see this underdevelopment due to the exploitation of advanced nations. W.W. Rostow is one of the most notable modernisation theorists; he argued that there are a number of stages that a traditional society has to pass through to become a modern society. His work is combined with the four key

  • Word count: 1047
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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A Critical Analysis of "Do Husbands contribute more to domestic tasks when their wives are working?"

Contents Introduction 2 Theoretical Context of the Study 2 Methodological Approach and Methods Used 2 Critical Analysis of Theoretical Context 3 Critical Analysis of Methodological Approach and Methods Used 3 Main Findings of the Study 5 Critical Annalysis of the Overall Findings 6 Conclusion 7 Bibliography 8 Introduction The study I am reviewing is "Do Husbands contribute more to domestic tasks when their wives are working?" This study has been researched and concluded by S. Bond. As the title suggests, this study tries to quantify the correlation between families where both partners work, compared to stay at home wives with working husbands. There have been numerous studies carried out in the area of conjugal roles in the home by sociologists such as Young & Wilmot, Oakley and Martin & Roberts. The writer uses information collected in the 'Social Trends Survey 1991' to ascertain if the new man role is still evident. Theoretical Context of the Study In this study the writer does not indicate which theoretical context he has used. I believe this study to be based upon the feminist approach, as he frequently makes reference to the roles of men and women. Specific references to the new man in the 1980's and how it did not last, displaying the stereotypical roles of male's and female's to be true.

  • Word count: 2162
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Identify & Discuss The Factors Which Will Influence A Researchers Choice Of Methods

Identify & Discuss The Factors Which Will Influence A Researchers Choice Of Methods When researchers decide to carry out investigations and studies, they must first decide how they are going obtain the accurate data, which they need to support their initial hypothesis and aim. Once the researcher has selected the topic, which they want to investigate, they need to choose the correct methods to collect their data. The choice of the methods they use depends on a number of factors. For example, there are practical considerations, in some cases participant observation or researcher participation may be a better way of investigating behaviour in gangs, than asking the members to fill out questionnaires and participate in interviews. On the other hand, interviews, questionnaires may be better used in other research topic circumstances, in which they provide important statistical data, from which general conclusions can be generalised from. Halfpenny (1984)1, suggests that there are, 'Two main research traditions or approaches to research with sociology". Firstly, there are Positivist researchers. These researchers, when deciding methods to use in their research use hard quantitative data, such as questionnaires and surveys, mainly using first hand primary data. They gather numerical data, for example questionnaires, which have several advantages. For example, questionnaires can

  • Word count: 1424
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Poverty and the welfare state

Poverty and the Welfare State Kerry McGillion Humanities A Defining poverty is an area of considerable controversy and on which there is a large academic debate. Debates tend to be informed by value judgements and the way we define poverty, to a large extent, depends on what we intend to do about it. Poverty has no common definition but numerous ones. It is said to be a state of want or of deprivation that gravely affects someone's life like those who want to work but cant, those who want to feed their families but can't, those whose lives are made similar by a lack of money. The UK government define poverty as "living on less than half the national average income after housing costs". Poverty can be measured in terms of absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty, which is sometimes used as a synonym for extreme poverty, refers to a set standard which is the same over time and between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to be healthy, which is roughly 2000-2500 calories per day for a male adult. An absolute standard of means is defined by reference to the actual needs of the poor and not by reference to the expenditure of those who are not poor. A measure of absolute poverty quantifies the number of people below a poverty threshold, and this poverty threshold is independent of time

  • Word count: 1531
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Examine the patterns of, and reasons for, domestic violence in society.

Examine the patterns of, and reasons for, domestic violence in society. Domestic violence is any intimidating and/or controlling behaviour, violence or abuse between adults who are, or have been, in a relationship, be it family or an intimate partner. It can affect anybody, regardless of their gender or sexuality. Domestic violence can be psychological, physical, sexual or financial. This is often described as the act of a few disturbed 'sick' individuals. However sociologists have questioned this, saying that it is too widespread to be the offence of just a few. Almost a sixth of all violent crimes and it is estimated that 6.6 million domestic assaults occur every year, half of which result in physical injury. Domestic violence follows certain social patterns and these patterns have social causes. Most shocking of which is that violent abuse is mainly commented by men against women. Catriona Mirrlees-Blacks survey in 1999 found that 99% of violent domestic crimes were against women, with roughly 1/4 women having been assaulted by a partner at one point in her life and 1/8 continually assaulted compared to 1/7 men that are assaulted by women, 1/20 repeatedly. This is supported by the Dobash and Dobash (1979) research based on official records and interviews with women's refuge residents. They recounted incidents where husbands abused their wives. A pattern arose showing

  • Word count: 580
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Examine the reasons for differences in educational achievement between different ethnic groups

Examine the reasons for differences in educational achievement between different ethnic groups I believe that this is an important issue to consider as research has shown that whilst Afro-Caribbean males are at the very bottom in terms of achievement, West Indian females tend to do even better than white females at GCSE. Sociologists such as Cecil Wright link educational achievement with teacher racism and labelling whilst other sociologists such as Charlotte Brookes link it with cultural deprivation: issues concerned with ethnicity. Ethnic groups contain people who share a common history, custom, identity and in most cases language and religion. The issue of 'differences in educational achievement' is regarded as 'differential educational attainment' which refers to the tendency for some groups to do better than others in terms of educational success. In this essay I aim to examine reasons that cause the differences in educational achievement and how this links to the different ethnic groups. Evidently there is a wide variety of ethnic groups for example; Chinese, Bangladeshi, Indian, Asian and Afro-Caribbean and I wish to centre my focus on the educational achievement of Afro-Caribbean and Asian students. It is evident that Afro-Caribbean pupils do not achieve as well as other ethnic groups as in comparison at degree level, they are at the very bottom, with Chinese at the

  • Word count: 932
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Assess whether those from ethnic minorities achieve less in education than those from other ethnic groups

* Assess the view from a sociological perspective that ethnic minorities tend to perform less well in education than other ethnic groups Broadly speaking, research has shown that ethnic minorities tend to do less well than other members of the population. However there are some important variations between and within ethnic groups. Some research has shown that some ethnic minorities are particularly successful. In a study by Mahood 1997, evidence showed that in 1994, the educational qualifications of ethnic minorities had improved considerably. In a study of 5,196 Caribbean and Asians and 2,867 whites, Chinese, African Asians and Indians were better qualified than whites. This supports the Swann report 1985, which found in a survey of five LEA's that Asians did almost as well as whites. Based on data from the government sponsored Youth Cohort Study of 16-19 year olds from 1989 to 1999, it was found that the proportion gaining five or more GCSE's at grade C or above has risen form 32.8% to 47.9% and has risen for each ethnic group. In the 18 year old Youth Cohort Study, the evidence showed that the gap was narrowing in terms of achievement between whites and ethnic minorities. Further findings included that in 2002, Black and Indian ethnic groups were more likely to achieve A/AS levels than whites, and in general, all ethnic minorities were more likely to be in full time

  • Word count: 1707
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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I have decided to base my topic upon police and stereo typing, and whether they treat ethnic minorities differently to white people.

RATIONALE I have decided to base my topic upon police and stereo typing, and whether they treat ethnic minorities differently to white people. The police force's relationship with ethnic minorities are said to be very shaky, and at times reach boiling point. The metropolitan police force has had accusations of institutionalised racism, especially with cases such as Stephen Lawrence. I, however, live in a southern city were such accusations are not as widespread, this could partly be due to rumours that the media covers them up. My aim is to investigate whether specific groups of ethnic minorities feel as if they are being treated differently by the police than white people, and if so to what degree. I will be talking to 16 - 26 year olds as my target audience. I intend to use questionnaires to conduct my research. I am hoping that patterns will emerge so that results can be compared and distinguished. My goal will have been met once I have discovered if different ethnic groups perceive that the police treat them differently. CONTEXT There is a lot of work and evidence, both written and oral, linked to my topic of ethnic groups and their perception of police behaviour. For many critics this is linked to the concept of institutional racism. Carmichael and Hamilton in 1968 described institutional racism as covert, Robert Blauner agreed and saw it as dwelling in 'the

  • Word count: 4856
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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