The “Mosaics: Reading and Writing Essays” textbook includes two essays with differing views on the effectiveness of anti-loitering laws. Richard Willard shares his opinion that anti-loitering laws are effective tools that discourage gang activity in his essay, “Anti-Loitering Laws Can Reduce Gang Violence.” He asserts that alternative methods of punishing gang members only cause them to develop animosity for police that leads to more trouble. Alternatively, “Anti-Loitering Laws Are Ineffective and Biased,” an essay written by David Cole, presents the view that these laws are a form of discrimination. Both authors support their opinions with statistics and previous examples of anti-loitering law enforcement.
Willard begins his essay by making broad generalizations about support of anti-loitering laws. He claims that “[communities] from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.-have reacted [to gang violence] by passing a variety of innovative laws, which range from curfew measures to anti-loitering statutes…;” however, he does not support this claim with actual statistics. He expects the reader to accept these assertions as fact. This is a weakness because the reader is expected to trust the author’s information without any real evidence these progressive laws.
The author finally gives some statistics to support his generalizations in the fourth paragraph of his essay. By supporting his previous arguments with the facts that, “From 1993 to 1996, the murder rate dropped by 40 percent, robberies dropped by 30 percent, and burglary dropped by more than 25 percent…,” he shows the reader that his comments are not unfounded. Willard discusses the fact that during the time of these statistics the city of New York did not increase funding for la...
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...ective than Cole’s rant in “Anti-Loitering Laws Are Ineffective and Biased.” The reader is much less likely to get offended and stop reading an essay if its content is presented in a respectful manner.
These essays taught me the importance of tone to an essay. A disrespectful tone is likely to cause a reader to become upset and disinterested with an author’s work. It is extremely important that an author not only keep his essay focused and well supported, he must also pay special attention to his tone.
Works Cited
Cole, David. “Anti-Loitering Laws Are Ineffective and Biased.” Mosaics: Reading and Writing Essays. 5th ed. Ed. Kim Flachmann. Pearson Education, Inc., 2011. 426-428. Print.
Willard, Richard. “Anti-Loitering Laws Can Reduce Gang Violence.” Mosaics: Reading and Writing Essays. 5th ed. Ed. Kim Flachmann. Pearson Education, Inc., 2011. 423-425. Print.
In The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison by Jeffery Reiman and Paul Leighton, four multifaceted issues are focused on and examined. These issues are the Unites States high crime rates, efforts in explaining the high crime rates, where the high crime rates originally came from, and the success attained at a high price. The initial key issue that Reiman and Leighton discuss is America’s high rising crime rates with the understanding of the people that believe policy and regulations are the causes of the decrease in crime. The many graphs throughout the chapter represent information that undoubtedly illustrates that specific policy and regulation may cause rates to become stagnate or strike a plateau. While the rule makers make it appear as though their organization is functioning. Later guns and gun control policy are discussed. With the stern enforcement of the gun policy, at the time, crime appeared to decline, or become stagnate resulting in a plateau effect that is illustrated in the graphs. Countless arrests were made with large quantities of people being imprisoned. Du...
In chapter 4 of Freakonomics, “Where Have All the Criminals Gone?” Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner discuss and argue the possible reasons for the crime drop in the 1990’s, asking and focusing on the question “just where did all those criminals go” (108)? The authors open with a story about the abortion laws in Romania, transitioning into the many factors that could have affected the 1990’s crime drop in America. Some of these factors include the following; Strong economy, increase in police, gun-control laws, the aging of the population, and then their main argument, abortion. While reading this essay, I had difficulty with many things, first off, my emotions, followed by the overall organization.
The draft version of the essay is quite offensive, but published version of the essay is entirely defensive. As the reader’s view, these differences are quite clear to
The tone in a document changes how we feel about it and generates a reaction in a certain way. I feel the author uses different tones to try to change people’s feelings and reaction to the problem they are facing. First, the author attitude is passionate and full of confidence; therefore, the reader is convinced and agrees with the arguments presented. He also wrote the document to command
The strength of this theory is that it clearly explains the cause of highest crime rates in inner slum areas. It points out factors that produce crime and provides solid explanation for high crime rates in poor neighborhoods. Shaw and McKay’s theory, however, fails to answer the questions of why the middle class commits crime, as well as why most of the lower class remains law-abiding.
The author begins his ethnography by giving us insight of the crime rate in the 1990s. He described this subject as the “age of drive-by shootings, drug deals gone bad, crack cocaine, and gangsta rap” ( ) that dominated the talk of the time. This type of ideology led our society to believe that we should put massive
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9. Sherman L., Gottfredson D., MacKenzie D., Eck J., Reuter P., Bushway S. Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising. A Report to the United States Congress. College Park, MD: University of Maryland, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1997.
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Spergel, I., Chance, R., Ehrensaft, K., Regulus, T., Cane, K., Laseter, R., . . . Alexander, A. (1994, October). Gang Suppression and Intervention: Community Models Research Summary. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/gangcorr.pdf
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