BScBA
UB/SIM
BAC, BAP & BScBA
ESL408 Fall 07’ Class D
Instructor: Mrs. Shirley James
Essay #3: Final Draft
BAC, BAP & BScBA
ESL408 Fall 07’ Class D
Instructor: Mrs. Shirley James
Essay #3: Final Draft
Recidivism
The child who always cries for his toy is a recidivist, criminals who are regulars at the jail are recidivists and the people who vote the same people back into the constituency every five years are recidivists as well! A recidivist can be anyone who has a behavior pattern, but it is more common to spot them only when the behavior in not widely accepted in the society. Recidivism is the repetition of past behavior, more often utilized in the context of criminal acts by law enforcers rather than in the general context concerning habitual patterns that has little recognition especially when the self is involved in recidivism.
Recidivism is the tendency to lapse into previous patterns of behavior. Recidivism occurs almost everywhere in the world; the smoker who has quit smoking but picks up the cigarette once again to ‘de-stress’, the child who wet his bed weeks again after being successfully toilet-trained, the plump lady who cannot keep to her slimming diet and even the alcoholic who just drank 6 pints after he avoided alcohol for the whole of yesterday. Recidivism is like gravity, a force opposing against our upward motion towards our aim of changing undesired behavior. Changing habits, resembles jumping, it requires efforts to occur; but more, if not most, often we revert back to the old habits and are pulled back to our old ways, back into our comfort zones like fishes in water.
Going against recidivism require great effort. It is like going against the current of waves, whereas going along with recidivism is akin to having the winds in the sails- that is the reason countless people are recidivists. When all others are being recidivist in a way or the other, we find it a social norm to be a recidivist with our little habits that do not pose danger or any significant effect to the people around. However, recidivism has a flipside. Recidivism can refer to the repetition of negative behaviors that are socially unacceptable or morally questionable despite training or punishment to discourage the behavior. One example of such negative recidivism can be identified with the criminals and in a sense; they are analogous to polluted water, being contaminated with their crime ways and pose great risk to the others whom they have contact with.
The use of the word ‘recidivism’, especially in the United States, sometimes refers to the criminals who seem to be unable to break away from the life of crime and prison. A measure used by law enforcers called recidivism rates, measures and shows how the number of criminals who repeatedly commit crimes after being released from jail and being imprisoned thereafter. In this manner, the government can observe and evaluate the penal system to improve on the recidivism rates. If the recidivism rate is high, it can mean that the punishment is too light for the crimes and therefore, relevant changes should be made to reduce the recidivism rate. However, the measure does not reveal the willingness of the criminal recidivist to recidivate. Shelving aside those criminals who get a kick from committing crimes and those who prefer to live in the jail as free lodging, criminals generally find it hard to not recidivate. There are several reasons for that. One reason is that the criminals do not posses any skills apart from committing crimes for a living seen more commonly in juvenile cases. Another reason would be that they have are not able to fit back into the society because of their criminal background and sometimes they commit crime for money, for attention or to go back to their comfort zone. These criminals will need education on the life after jail, educating them not to recidivate and landing themselves back in jail. The forces pulling them to revert back into criminal life are too overwhelming for the average criminal to fight single-handedly; what these criminal recidivists need is education, support and reminders for them to break away from the life of a criminal.
There is another branch of society that recidivism has deep impact upon the people in it; the family. Within a family, there are generally two parties; the educators and the learners. The latter, normally the children, are more prone to show acts of recidivism in the family due to their learning stages and to err is the first step to learn under the attention of the parents. On the other hand, parents, who administer punishment or training to their children, are also recidivist at times. Well, it is much debated that physical punishment is not a good way to punish children as the consequences are that the children may grow up to be more aggressive and violent. In the Asian context, parents are encouraged not to spank their children but administer punishment in the non-violent way. Some parents try to use the non-violent method but when the children goes on a tantrum, fight among themselves or just refuse to understand the beckon of the parents, the cane is drawn out and recidivism occurs. Being brought up in the ‘violent’ parenting style, parents are deeply rooted in this style and like plants, shifting by self will is not possible. Unless an external party slowly conditions the parents, uprooting them with much patience and hard work, like digging the soil around the roots of the plant, to ensure that the change of environment does not kill the plant but allow it to be able to grow better then the current situation.
Recidivism is a widely seen behavior and going against it require immerse efforts as it means stepping out of one’s comfort zone of past behavior into a new unfamiliar environment with new practices and slipping back to the previous environment is effortless. People hardly acknowledge themselves as recidivists and hence do not make the extra efforts to break away from the negative and unwanted behavior. People revolve around recidivism and identifying the forces of recidivism helps in improving, modeling a better person.
Recidivism is the tendency to lapse into previous patterns of behavior. Recidivism occurs almost everywhere in the world; the smoker who has quit smoking but picks up the cigarette once again to ‘de-stress’, the child who wet his bed weeks again after being successfully toilet-trained, the plump lady who cannot keep to her slimming diet and even the alcoholic who just drank 6 pints after he avoided alcohol for the whole of yesterday. Recidivism is like gravity, a force opposing against our upward motion towards our aim of changing undesired behavior. Changing habits, resembles jumping, it requires efforts to occur; but more, if not most, often we revert back to the old habits and are pulled back to our old ways, back into our comfort zones like fishes in water.
Going against recidivism require great effort. It is like going against the current of waves, whereas going along with recidivism is akin to having the winds in the sails- that is the reason countless people are recidivists. When all others are being recidivist in a way or the other, we find it a social norm to be a recidivist with our little habits that do not pose danger or any significant effect to the people around. However, recidivism has a flipside. Recidivism can refer to the repetition of negative behaviors that are socially unacceptable or morally questionable despite training or punishment to discourage the behavior. One example of such negative recidivism can be identified with the criminals and in a sense; they are analogous to polluted water, being contaminated with their crime ways and pose great risk to the others whom they have contact with.
The use of the word ‘recidivism’, especially in the United States, sometimes refers to the criminals who seem to be unable to break away from the life of crime and prison. A measure used by law enforcers called recidivism rates, measures and shows how the number of criminals who repeatedly commit crimes after being released from jail and being imprisoned thereafter. In this manner, the government can observe and evaluate the penal system to improve on the recidivism rates. If the recidivism rate is high, it can mean that the punishment is too light for the crimes and therefore, relevant changes should be made to reduce the recidivism rate. However, the measure does not reveal the willingness of the criminal recidivist to recidivate. Shelving aside those criminals who get a kick from committing crimes and those who prefer to live in the jail as free lodging, criminals generally find it hard to not recidivate. There are several reasons for that. One reason is that the criminals do not posses any skills apart from committing crimes for a living seen more commonly in juvenile cases. Another reason would be that they have are not able to fit back into the society because of their criminal background and sometimes they commit crime for money, for attention or to go back to their comfort zone. These criminals will need education on the life after jail, educating them not to recidivate and landing themselves back in jail. The forces pulling them to revert back into criminal life are too overwhelming for the average criminal to fight single-handedly; what these criminal recidivists need is education, support and reminders for them to break away from the life of a criminal.
There is another branch of society that recidivism has deep impact upon the people in it; the family. Within a family, there are generally two parties; the educators and the learners. The latter, normally the children, are more prone to show acts of recidivism in the family due to their learning stages and to err is the first step to learn under the attention of the parents. On the other hand, parents, who administer punishment or training to their children, are also recidivist at times. Well, it is much debated that physical punishment is not a good way to punish children as the consequences are that the children may grow up to be more aggressive and violent. In the Asian context, parents are encouraged not to spank their children but administer punishment in the non-violent way. Some parents try to use the non-violent method but when the children goes on a tantrum, fight among themselves or just refuse to understand the beckon of the parents, the cane is drawn out and recidivism occurs. Being brought up in the ‘violent’ parenting style, parents are deeply rooted in this style and like plants, shifting by self will is not possible. Unless an external party slowly conditions the parents, uprooting them with much patience and hard work, like digging the soil around the roots of the plant, to ensure that the change of environment does not kill the plant but allow it to be able to grow better then the current situation.
Recidivism is a widely seen behavior and going against it require immerse efforts as it means stepping out of one’s comfort zone of past behavior into a new unfamiliar environment with new practices and slipping back to the previous environment is effortless. People hardly acknowledge themselves as recidivists and hence do not make the extra efforts to break away from the negative and unwanted behavior. People revolve around recidivism and identifying the forces of recidivism helps in improving, modeling a better person.
***
A-minus standards.
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