Description

Instructions:

After going through each and every reading in detail these are readings which are below I have provided pdf

• write an original initial discussion post of 250-300 words that conveys your thoughts about the following question:

The Unit 05 Discussion is based on the following required readings:

• Homicide is declining around the world – but why?

At various points so far in this course, it was noted that declines in homicide have been documented for various countries around the world, including Canada. Various mechanisms and contributors have been discussed in your readings in the first several units of this course, including this unit. Some of these are highlighted again in The Conversation article above as well as other potential contributors.

However, our world has changed significantly since the time period (1990-2015) focused upon in this article in the United States, Canada and globally, not the least of which was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discussion Question: With the new knowledge you have gained in the previous weeks, discuss among your group the ways in which you feel these trends may or may not be different because of these changes? What are the key changes that you believe would have impacted homicide trends in Canada or globally?

Are there other factors that you can think of that have not been covered which may also be relevant to declining homicides?

• • In this course, our discussions are what we describe as ‘asynchronous’; that is, students discuss an assigned question, exchanging ideas related to this question at varying points each week. A key benefit of asynchronous online discussions is that students can participate whenever it is most convenient (although see grading rubric about timing of posts below) and can think about the weekly discussion questions before participating. In this way, students often feel better prepared as they have read and engaged with the course materials before participating (which is also one of the important aspects discussed in the grading rubric below).

The purpose of the discussion forums is to have students engage with course material and then demonstrate their understanding of course materials by expressing/explaining an idea, responding to other group members’ ideas, and/or developing a thread of ideas together as a group. In this way, students learn from the instructor, the course materials, and each other. It further provides students with ongoing opportunities to review, reflect upon, and apply new knowledge such as concepts, theories, or research findings. This will help when students are working on their two major writing assignments for this course which also requires knowledge of and engagement with course materials.

There will be diverse perspectives and that is o.k. However, all students must strive to be constructive and considerate if they disagree with any of their group members. It is okay to challenge and disagree with each other but only if it is done in a respectful manner.

Note: There is no single ‘right answer’ and the approach you describe need not reflect all of the tactics! The goal here is to generate discussion and share ideas about how best to engage in challenging conversations about climate change.

After you have made your original post, read some of the posts from your classmates and construct one reply post of 100-150 words that responds to one of your group-mate’s original posts. Your reply post should be written such that it does one or more of: identifies something that you find especially interesting or insightful about your classmate’s original post; poses an engaging and relevant question and/or builds on the ideas from your classmate’s original post; raises a real-life experience or observation that you feel would be relevant to illustrate or help further develop an idea or point in your classmate’s original post.

Please note that you will need to make an original post before you can read and respond to your peers’ posts

¨write in 260 words. follow proper guidelines as given in beginning. Use AP7 STYLE OWL PURDE. Provide reference.
Write in on own words.

¨Some points to keep in mind:

• Be clear and to the point in your postings.
• Edit your work. Your posts should be coherent and use proper grammar and spelling.
• Keep postings to 250-300 words. Quality is better than quantity.
• Contribute your own thoughts about the material you have read.
• Support your thoughts by referencing the video and docx provided and other outside literature.
• Raise additional questions or points of discussion to stimulate further discussion
• If you have questions, show that you have already tried to find a solution.
• Respect the viewpoints of your peers. Ask for clarification if you don’t understand a point. Assume good intentions.
• Use the proper terminology introduced in the course readings.
• When using literature in your postings, make sure to provide references in proper APA Style.
• Show respect and sensitivity to peers’ gender, cultural and linguistic background, political, and religious beliefs.

• You are strongly encouraged to take the time to review the following documents on writing quality discussion posting and on taking roles in discussions.
• PREPARING TO WRITE1. Read assigned material—critically—and take notes as you read: Who wrote this material (a respected expert? an activist with a specific aim or belief?) Do they have any possible biases? Are studies reliable and valid? (What kind of research was performed?) When was this material written? Are the definitions/conditions/opinions described still accur vant? ate/rele Is an opinion expressed? How might someone disagree? How does this material relate to other concepts and theories you are studying? (Remember, instructors choose readings with a plan in mind—try to imagine why they have assigned this reading) Does the article complement other things you have learned? Is it in opposition? 2. Read and understand the discussion question or topic provided by your instructor • What are you asked to do? (Formulate an opinion? Respond to a question? Explain a concept or theory?) • How are you asked to do this? What kind of information are you expected to include (e.g., supporting quotations or references, examples, etc.) Do you need to bring in outside research? 3. Sort out the finer details • Is there a word maximum? Minimum? (Most posts will be 1‐2 paragraphs maximum). • How many times are you expected to post? (Find out if you are required to post a certain number of times per question, per week, etc.) • How much of your grade is this component worth? Each post? Budget your time accordinglyAre you expected to respond to other students’ posts? What proportion of original posts versus responses are you asked to provide?INITIAL POSTS – An initial post is a response to the original question presented by the course instructor, or the opening post on a particular topic (i.e., not responding to other students’ posts). Consider each post a “mini‐thesis,” in which you state a position and provide support for it. If you are responding to a question, be sure to 1. Take a position: Provide a clear answer to the question (incorporate some of the wording of the question in your answer if possible). 2. Offer a reasoned argument: Provide an explanation for your point of view, and use evidence from your text, notes, or outside research (where appropriate) to support your point. 3. Stay focused: End with a summary comment to explain the connection between your evidence and the question (how your evidence proves your point). Your post might also introduce a question or idea that others can follow up on. But make sure you have answered the question first!
• Discussion Grading Rubric:
• Discusssion Marking rubric.
• A+ Discussion Post A+

Criteria	Excellent16 – 20 points
	Posted early and continued toTimeliness make contributions throughout each week.
Posts	Quantity of Posted more than three times each week.
Posts Overall Score Level 5	All original posts were directly related to the question, were thoughtful, and includedQuality of references to the course readings.All response posts engaged classmates in further dialogue on the topic. 48 and above

• Original Initial Post(8-10 points) Length guidelines met.
• writing is clear and engaging; approach clearly described, including tactics it would reflect. Approach connected to/rationalized in terms of QUESTION In the Unit 05 Discussion area , after reading

Discussion Question: With the new knowledge you have gained in the previous weeks, discuss among your group the ways in which you feel these trends may or may not be different because of these changes? What are the key changes that you believe would have impacted homicide trends in Canada or globally?

Are there other factors that you can think of that have not been covered which may also be relevant to declining homicides?

• No any other outside source has to be used.I have also attached the grading rubric photo.
• very very important instructions.
• please start reading instructions mam

and guidelines and you have to answer to this i am proving the grading rubrics everythong write in own words no AI AND CHATGPT AS MAM HAS THE SOFTAWARE TO DETECT.EACH AND EVERY LINE and each and every word.

• I Have also attached the grading rubric photo which is in form of image grading rubric is very much important you have to follow each and every instruction very carefully.
• only these sources which i have provided you have to use.I have also attached the grading rubric photo.
  • Original Initial Post(8-10 points) Length guidelines met.
  • writing is clear and engaging; approach clearly described, including tactics it would reflect.approach connected to/rationalized in terms of QUESTION: In the Unit 04 Discussion area , after reading For this activity, ask two of your friends or family members how they would explain what leads an individual to kill another individual. What theories or explanations appear to underscore their views? How might their view relate to their age, gender, and where they live?
  • It should contain no spelling errors and typos
  • READINGS which have to be used
  • Resources and link which has to be used are five pdf which have to be analsyed and use proeprly.
  • NO OTHER SOURCE HAS TO BE USED ONLY these readings has to be used .
  • No outsource has to be used.
  • First you have go through these readings and
  • First you have go through these readings and
  • Readings are as follows:
  • I have attached the pdf in order
  • READING:1
  • Understanding homicide. Chapter 5: Sociological explanations of homicide

Brookman, Fiona.

• READING:2

Unit 05 Introduction and Learning Outcomes

• Introduction
• For many, the idea of committing a homicide is so ‘out there’ that we cannot comprehend what drives those who do kill. However, it is often stated that we all have the capacity to kill when faced with a specific set of circumstances. Regardless of whether we believe this or not, it is easy to imagine that our relative capacity or likelihood to take someone’s life would, in part, be shaped by our past and current social relationships, interactions, and sometimes rapidly changing environments (for example, during a global pandemic such as COVID-19).
• You now have a broad understanding of the various biological and psychological explanations that have been used to explain or understand homicide. This week, we turn our attention to explanations for homicide whose origins are in sociology or sociological criminology. Recall that Barkan (2015) argues that “people are social beings more than mere individuals” (p. 3). What he means by this is that the society in which we are born, raised, and live significantly shapes our behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and future life outcomes. In the same way, our potential for criminal behaviour, or more pertinent for this course, our likelihood of homicidal behaviour, is also shaped by society and the social institutions or social structures that determine, to some extent, who we had or have relationships with and how we interact with those around us. Therefore, sociological explanations often look to factors outside of the individual to explain homicide – facts located in the society in which we live.
• Topics covered in this unit include:
• Sociological Explanations of Homicide
• Homicide Mechanisms & Contributors

Sociological Explanations of Homicide

• As in the previous unit, the first required reading is by Brookman who provides a detailed overview of the various theories— both historical and contemporary— that fall under the umbrella of sociological explanations of homicide, including structural, cultural and interactional perspectives.
• Brookman’s chapter refers to multiple names and theories, all of which are important, but some key ones that you should take note of are as follows:
• Chicago School of Criminology and the concept of social disorganization
• Robert Merton and strain theory
• Edwin Sutherland and differential association theory
• Wolfgang and Ferracuti’s subculture of violence theory
• Elliot Leyton’s emphasis on the role of culture (which we will return to below)
• Matza and ‘drift’ theory

Study TipIt is often helpful to make a chart of theories, their key concepts, as well as contributions and critiques for easy reference.

• As you read, think about the factors or variables being emphasized by the theorists and how they are distinct from, or similar to, those identified by the biological and psychological explanations discussed in the previous unit. You should also pay attention to the criticisms of these theories because they are not without their limitations and part of being able to critically assess the utility of a theory is to understand both its strengths and weaknesses in explaining phenomenon in the real world.
• Explaining homicide is not only about understanding the perpetrator, which is the focus of many theories, including biological, psychological and sociological explanations. It is also about understanding the victim. Therefore, the rise of a new branch of criminology— referred to as victimology— is a significant development in the study of homicide and this is also discussed in the chapter assigned this week.
• In previous units, we have already discussed the importance of the victim-perpetrator relationship in the study of homicide and this includes the interactions between victims and perpetrators that may take place prior to, and just before, a homicide. Brookman discusses the work of various individuals in victimology, but research by Marvin Wolfgang and his concept of victim precipitation was a key development (but also with critiques). Building on groundwork laid by Wolfgang, increasing emphasis has been placed on the situational aspects of homicide – which would be the focus of micro-level analyses we discussed in a previous unit – in work by Luckinbill and Goffman, for example, as described near the end of the chapter.
• Integral to the situational dynamics discussed in the work above, including whether or not they lead to homicide, are what the Global Study on Homicide 2019 refers to as homicide ‘mechanisms’ such as the availability or accessibility of firearms or ‘contributors’ such as the role of drugs and/or alcohol, which we will turn to next. These factors may be situational and are often determined by the individuals involved, but their potential role or the likelihood that they will be a factor is often impacted by macro-level factors. For example, gun control policies – a macro-level condition – will determine, to some extent, the availability or accessibility of firearms in various jurisdictions and, in turn, impacts on communities as well as at the individual micro level during interactions.

Homicide Mechanisms and Enablers

Inherent in our quest to understand why people commit homicide is the identification of precursors or motives that lead to homicides. At times, these pre-cursors or motives perplex us as we try to figure out how a simple matter could lead to the killing of one person by another person.

People have killed over cereal, a $5 debt, tickets to a concert, a dispute over chopsticks, a knock-off Rolex, hair extensions, and the list goes on. Two comments about the pre-cursors or motives for the killings portrayed here:

First, these identified motives should be considered the ‘surface’ motives for the homicide; in fact, the circumstances and events leading up to the killings as well as the background of the victim, the perpetrator and their previous relationship and interactions (if any) may all be relevant to understanding what on the surface appears to be inexplicable.

Second, while the above examples may seem ‘lame’ to you, they were not to those involved. It is often the case that killings arise out of seemingly innocuous interactions. Why is that? Why do some interactions that would never give rise to violence in most cases, suddenly turn lethal in specific instances?

In the previous and current units, we learned that there may be a variety of biological (e.g., hormones, brain abnormalities) and/or psychological factors (e.g., mental illness) that may interact with social structural factors (e.g., poverty, inequality, strain, socialization, cultural norms), but it is often the case that the presence or absence of particular ‘homicide mechanisms’ or ‘contributors’ will, in part, determine whether an interaction ends in a homicide.

One of the most common homicide mechanisms used to perpetrate a homicide is a firearm which accounted for more than half (54%) of the homicides worldwide in 2017, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in their most recent Global Study on Homicide. One of the most common contributors, according to the same study, are drugs and alcohol. The role of these two factors – firearms and drugs/alcohol – in violence and homicide also represent two key debates in sociological criminology, and society more generally, about what exactly their role is in the occurrence or production of homicide.

Regardless of whether one believes that guns cause violence or homicide or that drugs/alcohol cause violence or homicide, it is difficult to provide evidence of a direct causal link. However, homicide researchers have demonstrated that there is at least a correlation between these factors and the incidence and prevalence of violence in society. You likely learned in first year that a correlation is a relationship by which two (or more) variables change together. For example, in this case, availability of firearms – referred to as the independent variable – may increase in a community and the number of homicides – referred to as a dependent variable – also increases. This may mean these two variables are correlated, but not necessarily that the increase in firearms’ availability caused the increase in the number of homicides. This distinction is very important both for understanding the relationship between homicide mechanisms and contributors as well as for the development of homicide prevention initiatives. That is, of course, because not all people who have guns commit homicide and not all people who drink or use drugs kill.

Reading:3

• Homicide is declining around the world – but why?

Homicide is declining around the world – but why?

Published: November 4, 2019 7.13am EST

Americans are currently living in one of the lowest crime periods ever – and so are many people in the rest of the world.

Following decades of increasing crime during the 1960s, ‘70s and ’80s, U.S. homicide rates declined by almost 40% throughout the 1990s, and have remained low since.

Most explanations of this extraordinary decline in violence put forth by politicians and early academic research focus on events and domestic policies exclusive to the United States. However, emerging studies are providing evidence that this crime decline is not unique to the U.S., but rather occurring across most of the world.

A global decline in violence suggests that criminal justice policies of individual countries may have less impact on the decline in homicide than worldwide events or trends.

In our new study, published on Oct. 9, we make the case for another possible explanation: The population of countries around the world is getting older.

A global homicide decline

Most of the world has experienced a parallel reduction in homicide over the previous three decades.

In fact, the homicide patterns observed across countries spread throughout the world are strikingly similar over time. Despite having unique cultures, criminal justice policies and systems of governance, countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania have seen homicide reduce by similar magnitudes over similar time periods.

Between 1990 and 2015, in both North America and Western Europe, the number of homicide victims per 100,000 people declined by 46%, while Asia saw a reduction of 38% and Oceania of 22%.

The steepest reductions typically occurred in the safest regions of the world. For example, homicide rates fell further in Asia and Western Europe, which already had the lowest levels of homicide.

There are two major exceptions to the trend: Africa, where quality data are lacking, and Latin America, a region marked by historically higher levels. In fact, since 1990, Latin America has experienced a 9% increase in homicide rates.

Possible causes

Social scientists are not certain of the causes of this overall decline.

Policymakers, scientists and law enforcement officials have proposed several explanations for the dramatic reductions in crime during this period, including increased incarceration, receding drug markets, innovations in policing, improvements in the economy, increased immigration and the legalization of abortion.

Most of these explanations link the violence reduction to domestic policies of individual countries.

Of course, this type of research is challenging, as many countries do not collect reliable data on key variables. For example, long-term data on gun ownership, drug use, the influence of organized crime and the efficacy of courts and policing institutions are not available for most countries.

Age and the homicide decline

We have a global explanation.

Between 1950 and 2019, the world median age has increased from 24 to 31 years. This graying population will pose many new challenges and possibly drag down economic growth.

Could an aging population be the driving force behind decreasing crime? This has been one of the hypothesized causes since the very early research about the homicide decline.

Research shows that crime participation peaks during adolescence and early adulthood, then declines as individuals progress through adulthood. It follows then that countries should have more violent crime when a greater proportion of their population are teenagers and young adults. Research also shows that older societies tend to be more orderly and more peaceful.

Our study

We looked at homicide data from the World Health Organization and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as well as the United Nations data on the age composition of countries.

Accounting for features of countries such as percentage of males, economic inequality, economic development and how urban or rural a country is, we found that the percentage of a country’s population that is young – between 15 and 29 years old – has been a key predictor of homicide trends since 1960.

For the safest countries, a one percentage point increase in the percent of people aged 15 to 29 corresponds to an increase of 4.6% in the homicide rate.

In the United States, rising homicide rates during the 1960s and 1970s paralleled a spike in the young population following the baby boom. An early homicide decline occurred in the 1980s, which follows a trend of a decreasing youth population as baby boomers aged into late adulthood. This early crime decline was interrupted in 1985 by the crack epidemic, and the corresponding escalation of violence. However, in 1992, as the crack epidemic waned, homicide trends resumed their decline alongside an aging population.

Aside from the United States, several other countries around the world also experienced steep homicide declines since the 1990s in parallel with an aging of their populations, such as Canada, Austria, Japan and Italy.

These countries share few commonalities in terms of their national cultures, domestic policies and approach to criminal justice. Japan, for example, has seen a steep aging of their population and a homicide decline, but with far less forceful criminal justice policies than those in the U.S.

Our models suggest to us that age plays a large role in this pattern. Age was the only factor we looked at that consistently predicted homicide increases and declines over an extended period of time.

No any other outside source has to be used. I have also attached the grading rubric photo.

very very important instructions.

please start reading instructions mam

and guidelines and you have to answer to this i am proving the grading rubrics everything write in own words DON NOT USE AI AND CHATGPT AS MAM HAS THE SOFTAWARE TO DETECT.EACH AND EVERY LINE and each and every word.

I Have also attached the grading rubric photo which is in form of image grading rubric is very much important you have to follow each and every instruction very carefully.

only these sources which i have provided you have to use. I have also attached the grading rubric photo.