Cigarette Smoke:
Research has shown that another factor affecting child health in low-income families is cigarette smoke. Factors such as low income, renting a home, a blue-collar job, and less than a high school education lead to stresses that contribute to the higher percentage of African American smokers (Siegal & Faigeles, 1996). Individuals living below the poverty level are more likely to smoke (32%) and less likely to quite smoking that those that live above the poverty level (23.8%) (Flint & Novotny, 1997). The need to work two or more jobs with several children and a parent in prison increases the stresses on a family to provide food and shelter. Children who are raised in a home in which the family members smokes, the chances the child will smoke increases. This can affect the development of a child as well as the choices the individual makes as he grows up. Smoking also leads to low birth weight and increased infant mortality which again affects the health of the child (Aber et al., 1997). Financial stresses such as low income, long-term unemployment, and poor housing conditions were factors that lead to smoking. Even though smoking is a means of stress relief, the cost of cigarettes leads to psychological and financial stress (Siahpush, 2003). Socioeconomics stress is correlated with health problems such as higher mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer, low birth weight, hypertension, and diabetes (Adler & Newman, 2002). Due to stresses in the home, the health of the child may not be a priority and smoking cessations are not frequent.
Environment:
The environment of a child has a major role on their health. Fifty-six percent of people that live in communities surrounded by toxic industries are colored people and th...
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According to Alexander (2010), states the United States, has switched to a new form of racism know as color blind racism. Color blind racism refers to contemporary racial inequality as the outcome of nonracial dynamics. The types of practices that take place under color blind racism are subtle, institutional and apparently nonracial. These practices are not racially overt in nature, such as racism under slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws. Instead, color blind racism flourishes on the idea that a potential cause of such disproportionately high incarceration rates for African Americans is that they are disproportionately poor. When black people were emancipated many things were in a shamble for all people. Whites didn’t know what type of control they were going to have over the people of color. At least when blacks were in slavery the racial order was most effectively maintained, by contact between slave owners and their slaves, they had the control for supervision and discipline, and there was less resistance or rebellion behavior when they had control. This threatens slave owner’s interest and created a social distance or an inferior behavior from slaves. It would seem that white control was unclear since slavery was gone (Alexander 2010). There is nothing new about the lack of correlation between earlier system, crime and punishment. Punishment is primarily a tool of social control, the extent or severity in which a person receives is based on the crime. The reality is that the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control
Kansal, T. (2005). In M. Mauer (Ed.), Racial disparity in sentencing: A review of the literature. Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project. Retrieved April 12, 2005, from The Sentenceing Project Web site: http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/disparity.pdf
In the wake of President Obama’s election, the United States seems to be progressing towards a post-racial society. However, the rates of mass incarceration of black males in America deem this to be otherwise. Understanding mass incarceration as a modern racial caste system will reveal the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy America. The history of social control in the United States dates back to the first racial caste systems: slavery and the Jim Crow Laws. Although these caste systems were outlawed by the 13th amendment and Civil Rights Act respectively, they are given new life and tailored to the needs of the time.In other words, racial caste in America has not ended but has merely been redesigned in the shape of mass incarceration. Once again, the fact that more than half of the young black men in many large American cities are under the control of the criminal justice system show evidence of a new racial caste system at work. The structure of the criminal justice system brings a disproportionate number of young black males into prisons, relegating them to a permanent second-class status, and ensuring there chances of freedom are slim. Even when minorities are released from prisons, they are discriminated against and most usually end up back in prisons . The role of race in criminal justice system is set up to discriminate, arrest, and imprison a mass number of minority men. From stopping, searching, and arresting, to plea bargaining and sentencing it is apparent that in every phases of the criminal justice system race plays a huge factor. Race and structure of Criminal Justice System, also, inhibit the integration of ex offenders into society and instead of freedom, relea...
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2013, September ). Household food security in the united states in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err155/report-summary.aspx
When we consider the education of our children in the United States, we must consider their health as a significant issue as it can positively or negatively impact a student’s education. It has generally been acknowledged that there is a great disparity in our country in the area of health care. Healthy People2010, a published report put out by the Health and Human Services Division of the Unites States Government (2000) has included as part of its Goals for 2010, to eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population. According to this report, health differences occur depending on a persons gender, race or ethnicity, education or income, disability, rural locality, or sexual orientation. In this paper, I will mostly concentrate on racial and ethnic differences as well as socioeconomic differences. According to the Healthy People 2010 report, biological and genetic differences do not explain the health disparities experienced by non-White populations in the United States. Besides "complex interaction among genetic variations, environmental factors, and specific health behaviors," Health and Human Services says, "inequalities in income and education underlie many health disparities in the United States." Also, "population groups that suffer the worst health status are also those that have the highest poverty rates and least education." Health, United States (1998) reported that each increase of income or education increased the likelihood of being in good health. According to this report, those with less education tend to die younger than those with more education for all major causes of death including chronic diseases, communicable diseases and injuries. There are several factors that account for differences between socioeconomic and racial and ethnic groups. These factors include a lower sedentary life style, cigarette smoking and less likely to have health insurance coverage or receive preventive care among these groups.
Chapter one focuses mainly on the patterns of punishment expressed on Black and Hispanic boys. He begins the chapter by describing a young Hispanic boy’s negative experiences on the streets of his neighborhood with the police as something that occurs
Alexander does an incredible job of covering the issue of race in today’s criminal justice system. We discussed in class that it is a relatively difficult issue to discuss and a sore point of our country, but she recognized the need for it to be addressed from start to finish and really paints a picture of how racially biased the laws are and have been since the days of slavery. I think an important framework to discuss race and the causes and responses to crime is something that Alexander deems the new caste system. She argues that our new system is the rebirth of a redesigned caste system. In her introduction, she notes that “to put the matter starkly: the current system of control permanently locks a huge percentage of the African American community out of the mainstream society and economy. The system operates through our criminal justice institutions, but it functions more like a caste system than a system of crime control” (Alexander, 2012, p. 13)
Sampson, Robert J. and Janet L. Lauritsen. 1997. "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States." Crime and Justice 21:311-74. doi: 10.2307/1147634.
...King, R., and Mauer, M., (2007). The Sentencing Project. Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf
Within this community the most significant social determinant of health is healthy childhood development. Healthy childhood development is key for this community because 16% of the neighbourhoods population is considered to be a child between the ages of 0-14 years (City of Toronto, 2011a). Healthy childhood development is influenced by other social determinants of health like housing, proper nutrition, and an adequate guardian income. Further, regulated childcare and education have a strong impact on childhood development (Bryant, Raphael, Schrecker, & Labonte, 2011). These conditions not only impact their immediate childhood health and development but the above determinants are the foundation for the childs future health as adult (Raphael, 2012). If the child is provided with adequate and safe housing, a nutritious food supply, and a pro...
In his novel Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys, Dr. Victor M. Rios aims to demonstrate the catastrophe of criminalization, the flops of using cruel and humiliating punishments that attempt to “‘correct’ and ‘manage’ marginalized youths” (p. 23), and to display the consequences that these practices will have on the paths that teenagers take. He does this by documenting parts of his experience in observing forty boys of Black and/or Latino who are “heavily affected by criminal justice policies and practice” (p. 8). Then, he clarifies how these flaws impacted the boys in these situations. The aim of this essay is to summarize Dr. Rios’ observations and analyze and critique the primary arguments made in the book.
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
When analyzing children growing up in poverty a lot of factors come into play such as their physical, psychological and emotional development. To grow up in poverty can have long term effect on a child. What should be emphasized in analyzing the effects of poverty on children is how it has caused many children around the world to suffer from physical disorders, malnutrition, and even diminishes their capacities to function in society. Poverty has played a major role in the functioning of families and the level of social and emotional competency that children are able to reach. Children in poverty stricken families are exposed to greater and emotional risks and stress level factors. They are even capable of understanding and dealing with their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. Some of the implications of poverty include educational setbacks, issues with social behaviors and hindrances in psychological and physical development. Poverty deprives children of the capabilities needed to survive, develop and prosper in society. Studies have shown that the income status of a household and even the neighborhoods in which they reside can affect the amount of readily available resources needed to sustain a healthy child. This essay will examine the psychological and physical effects of poverty on children. The psychological aspect will include a look at behavioral problems in children, depression, chronic stress, and conduct disorders such as ADHD. Poverty is known to decrease the amount of psychological and physical capabilities in children which can have long term adverse effects on their wellbeing.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Community Health Resources. Retrieved March 4, 2011, from http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/DACH_CHAPS/Default/LinksHealthTopic.aspx?topic=4#7