Work samples
Social problems
What is your opinion on prostitution and pornography?
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Societies of the world and even certain areas of the United States view prostitution differently. In the United States, there are certain areas such as Mound House, Nevada where prostitution is legal. There are even several documentaries about the Moonlite Bunny Ranch which is a licensed and legal brothel. In other countries across the world such as Mexico and Germany, prostitution is permitted, but the government also taxes it. Canada and Japan also have limited prostitution that is regulated. This also shows that depending on the culture of the area, prostitution is looked at differently. The acceptance or lack thereof of prostitution doesn't specifically dictate social problems, rather you can see a trend of acceptance based on the ethics, morality, and religions of the area.
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Structural functionalism to me is the best way to view prostitution. This allows such a sensitive subject in the United States to be looked at based on pros and cons rather than religious or bias preferences. Based on the functionalism perspective, the most common pro of prostitution is that legalizing the profession would reduce the need for sex trafficking. Despite prostitution being illegal in most of the United States, it is still occurring through sex trafficking where instead of the women having protections and regulations, they are subjected to threats and violence. Many believe the legalization of prostitution would also allow for sex workers to better protect themselves from STDs and unwanted pregnancies due to no longer feeling the shame and stigmata of working in the sex industry. One weakness to the functionalism outlook on prostitution is that legalizing prostitution may remove back street sex traffickers from out of the picture, but many women believe that the sex workers and prostitutes would still be exploited but this time from members of the government and rich members of society. It would simply be shifting the hand of the exploiter from the left hand to the right hand.
Weitzer, R. (2009). Sociology of sex work. Annual Review of Sociology, 35(0360-0572, 0360-0572), 213–234.
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Society has drastically changed with the innovations of technology. Many of the rules of morality and ethics that define things today are based on an archaic thought process. When most of the rules for what was culturally acceptable in reference to pornography were made, the women of the United States also did not enjoy the current freedoms that they do. At that point in time, a picture in a swimsuit would have been considered pornography. The innovation of cameras in almost everyone's hand as well as the liberation of women in reference to their bodies changed that. As of today, if I had to make a definition of pornography, it would be an image or video which reveals sexual organs with the intent to sexually stimulate another person. Depending on the country and religion they would consider almost every music video and Instagram post pornography, so there are still many differences in how pornography is defined.
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Social Structures
According to the book, social structure is defined as “the relatively stable formal and informal arrangements that characterize society, including economic agreements, social institutions, and values and norms. (Bartollas & Schmalleger,2017) Many factors contribute to juvenile delinquency as determined by the social process theories. Some of those factors include whether the parents are employed and how organized the community is that the juvenile lives. Other factors that contribute to delinquency are the disparity over race which the juvenile may experience directly or indirectly, and the poverty status of the juvenile.
In my opinion, the social process theory factor that has the most significant impact on juvenile delinquency is the poverty status of the juvenile. This is common in impoverished areas. The juvenile will more than likely be in an underperforming educational system, and having the things needed to survive is an everyday struggle. With the lack of good role models and the juvenile was wanting more as far as money, clothes, shoes, etc., they tend to turn to those they see that have what they want. In these communities, the people are often criminals. The underdeveloped processing factor of the juvenile brain often considers the benefits of the behavior but rarely the consequences. Even if they do see the consequences, they have been desensitized to them. They are seen as an acceptable risk to have what they want.
Cloward and Ohlin’s Opportunity Theory directly relates to this point. In the Opportunity Theory, the juvenile delinquent is attempting to change his economic status (i.e., poor to middle class) without trying to change the position of their class. However, as it relates to the juvenile delinquency, this can be a revolving door as their delinquency becomes the desire of the next juvenile coming from a similar background.
References
Bartollas, C., & Schmalleger, F. (2017). Juvenile delinquency (3rd ed., Ser. Justice Series). Pearson.
