Mandatory Sentencing

Many changes have occurred over the past three decades with regards to the sentencing systems from both the state and federal levels.   In 1975, all states and also the federal system principally relied on an indeterminate sentencing system that accorded judges wide discretion with respect to sentencing and gave parole boards practically unchecked discretion regarding the release of prisoners (Tonry & Hatlesad, 1997). All jurisdictions placed great emphasis on the philosophy of tailoring sentences to reflect offenders’ characteristics. This strategy represented an attempt to achieve the rehabilitation of the offender. That uniform response to sentencing has disappeared; in the year 2000, there is no common philosophy or common sentencing practices across jurisdictions in America (Tonry, 1999). All states, however, have adopted statutes requiring mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain violent, drug, and property offenders. The result has been increased sentence lengths (and numbers of admissions to custody) for a wide range of offenses. This, in turn, has led to overcrowded prisons across the country. Mandatory Sentencing Despite many legislative changes regarding specific crimes, 30 states still rely primarily on an indeterminate sentencing system which incorporates parole release (Tonry, 1999). Fourteen states have eliminated early release at the discretion of a parole board for all offenders, and many more states have substantially reduced â€Å"goodtime† credits, by which prisoners may earn their early release (Ditton and Wilson, 1999). Some jurisdictions have attempted to structure sentencing through the use of presumptive or voluntary sentencing guidelines. Several states have made a conscious effort to avoid populist punitive policies by requiring legislators to consider the impact of a law on criminal justice resources. For example, before approving legislation, Louisiana legislators must consider an impact statement on how a mandatory sentencing bill would affect jury trials, plea bargaining, overcrowding in prisons, and the corrections budget (DiMascio, 1997). In stark contrast to the federal sentencing guidelines, eight states have adopted â€Å"front-end resource matching†; the resources required for the implementation of a sentencing law must be approved before the sentencing law is enacted. This focus on resource matching may create more rational sentencing and allow legislators some breathing space in which to resist intense public pressure arising from high-profile cases (Frase, 1995, p. 179). These efforts, however, are infrequent, and policies reflecting penal populism still carry the day more often than not in contemporary America. Criminal Control Truly, the complexity of the criminal justice problem is such that issues like the etiology of crime and the impact of drug addiction on criminal behavior may never be completely understood. Because of this, there is much room for the purveyors of scientific snake off to sell their wares to an unsuspecting public. Proponents of the various programs that are engineered as solutions to such problems as recidivism and crime prevention are so diverse in their political philosophies and theoretical schools as to cause the head to reel. Still, the public demands that there be answers, and politicians have mandated that they be found – and they have been. Bureaucrats and academics, professional consultants and political activists, government commissions and high-powered think tanks have all been analyzing data and constructing better programs for the alleviation of crime. Each of the many camps that have sprung up around this industry has a particular theory to espouse and a specific agenda to promote. Most of them have budgets, jobs, and political turf to protect. And whether one is trying to deflect attention away from the failure of law enforcement and its allies or pursuing failure as a means of promoting a political agenda of scapegoating the poor, nothing will achieve the goal better than the latest and most fashionable pseudoscientific technique for reducing crime. Evaluating the Criminal Justice Policy Criminological research, just as any other body of scientific knowledge, can serve ideological or bureaucratic ends just as readily as it can serve the advancement of positive social goals. Indeed, this is the entire point of Jeffrey Reiman's Pyrrhic defeat theory. By selectively collecting and analyzing some data while ignoring others, one can frequently arrive at whatever conclusion will support the practitioner's or researcher's favorite theory. At the very heart of Reiman's assessment of the American system of justice is the contention that the police focus on street crime while ignoring white-collar and corporate crime. He notes, for example, that while 9,285 members of the work force lost their lives due to crime in 1972, 100,000 of them died as the result of occupational hazards (Reiman 1979, p. 66). It is Reiman's contention that many of the latter deaths were preventable, and thus were tantamount to negligent homicides. It is no wonder, then, he contends, that corporate interests use their influence to ensure that no legislation that would make such negligence prosecutable comes into being while, at the same time, supporting the aggressive pursuit of street gangs, burglars, and robbery suspects. Samuel Walker and the Criminal Justice Policy Samuel Walker does an excellent job of illustrating the impact of ideology on criminology and the American system of justice. In his book Sense and Nonsense About Crime and Drugs, he describes what he refers to as the conservative theology (pp. 17-19) and the liberal theology (pp. 19-20) of crime control: â€Å"Conservative crime control theology envisions a world of discipline and self-control; people exercise self-restraint and subordinate their personal passions to the common good. It is a place of limits and clear rules about human behavior. The problem with criminals is that they lack self-control† (p. 17). So goes Walker's account of the stance of the right. He goes on to asses the position of the left on issues of crime as well: â€Å"Liberal crime control theology views the world as a large and idealized school. It explains criminal behavior in terms of social influences. People do wrong because of bad influences in the family, the peer group, or the neighborhood, or because of broader social factors, such as discrimination and lack of economic opportunity. The liberals' solution to crime is to create a different set of influences. Rehabilitation involves shaping the offender in the direction of correct behavior† (p. 19). Samuel Walker and the Mandatory Sentencing Having set the stage, Walker goes on to explain that each of these camps has set upon a quest for its own brand of success. He describes the liberal push for reforms in the area of corrections as â€Å"the story of a continuing search for the Holy Grail of rehabilitation† (p. 19). As for the conservative tendency to equate deterrence with parental discipline, he tells us that â€Å"The real world, unfortunately, does not work like family discipline† (p. 18) Walker then supports these characterizations of the liberal and conservative schools of criminology by debunking several of the programs the two sides support and the claimed successes for each. One example used by Walker is that of the mandatory sentencing programs so near and dear to the hearts of law-and-order conservatives. The state of New York's 1973 drug law mandating lengthy prison terms is one of those examined. The law provided that convicted heroin dealers would serve minimum, mandatory prison terms ranging from one year to life for minor offenders, and fifteen years to life for major offenders (those who either sold an ounce of heroin or possessed two ounces of the substance). It was found, however, that between 1972 and 1976, â€Å"the overall percentage of arrests leading to conviction fell from 33.5 to 20 percent† (Walker 1994, p. 92). Walker points out that members of the â€Å"courtroom work group† (p. 48) (prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys) were able to evade the intent of the law by selectively charging and dismissing the offenders. Although he concedes that there was some modest success, in that the rate of incarceration did go up for those who were convicted, the effect of the law was essentially nullified (p. 92). The claim that mandatory sentencing program are, by and large, not successful is further supported by the experiences of both the state of Florida and the federal system. Even though Florida passed mandatory sentencing laws in 1975 and 1988, no significant impact on sentencing practices has resulted. Walker again points out that such factors as judicial discretion and â€Å"good time† reduction of prison terms effectively negated the laws' impact as an effective tool for reducing crime (pp. 87-88). The story for the federal system is similar, though it must be conceded that the length of prison terms for those convicted did increase. Walker points out that this served to greatly increase the prison population and add to overcrowding. At the same time, however, correctional officials employed a greater use of â€Å"good time† programs in an effort to ease these conditions. The result is that whatever benefit might have been realized has again been negated (p. 95). An example of how Samuel Walker explains the failure of the left to come up with the right answers to the question of how to control crime is found in his account of the Martinson Report. This 1974 criminological report by Robert Martinson resulted from a review of all of the evaluations of correctional programs that were available in English-language publications between 1945 and 1967. Walker informs us that most of this universe of data was eliminated as not bun scientifically valid, for the Martinson team found that they were lacking such vital research components as control groups or drew â€Å"questionable conclusions from the data† (p. 209). The upshot of the study was that although Martinson did find some positive results from correctional rehabilitation, he also stated that â€Å"with few and isolated exceptions, the rehabilitative efforts that have been reported so for have had no appreciable effect on rehabilitation† (pp. 208-209). Follow-up studies of the type conducted by Martinson, Walker indicates, have resulted in similar findings, fueling a long-term debate on the efficacy of rehabilitation programs. Samuel Walker makes it clear that practitioners and researchers alike are guilty of wishful thinking and of stacking the deck in favor of their individual arguments. Time and again he demonstrates that many of the so-called successes in rehabilitation have been invented rather than achieved. Closer attention to ethical decision making might have served to advance the state of criminology in these instances, just as it might aid in achieving a more effectively run police department. A brief look at two of Walker's examples will be illustrative. Diversion is one of the programs Walker examines, and he chooses the Manhattan Court Employment Project as an example (p. 212). In this program employment services were provided to underemployed and unemployed defendants-not facing homicide, rape, kidnapping, or arson changes. Such persons were granted a delay of prosecution and could have their cases dismissed if they secured stable employment. A program evaluation conducted shortly after the project was initiated gave it high marks, including a 48.2 percent success rate and a very low cost. Later, however, another study found that recidivism was not abated and that the cost figures were misleading. Walker explains that this was due to the â€Å"net-widening syndrome,† (p. 213) a situation in which low risk offenders who would otherwise have their cases dismissed were selected for inclusion in the diversion program. The result, of course, is a skewing of statistics and the incurring of a cost that would otherwise not have been necessary. â€Å"The net-widening phenomenon suggests that the ‘old' diversion did a better job,† writes Walker (p. 214). Walker notes that what he means by this is that district attorneys who declined to prosecute and police officers who elected not to arrest offenders for minor violations of the law did a far more cost-effective and less intrusive job of diversion than did the Manhattan Court Employment Project. Walker also takes a look at intensive probation supervision (IPS), another of the many fads to hit the rehabilitation scene. In IPS programs, probationers are closely supervised with a great number of contacts between the client and the probation officer, frequent testing of drugs, and generally much tighter restrictions on behavior and movements. Not all that surprisingly, Walker finds that such programs are not new. As evidence of this he cites the San Francisco Project, an IPS program that was put into place during the 1960s. The San Francisco Project, a federal program of intensive probation supervision, was subjected to systematic evaluation at the time. Control groups were set up, reports Walker, for the purpose of comparing the new intensive measures with more traditional and less restrictive ones. The evaluators learned that there was â€Å"no significant difference in the recidivism rates of offenders in the various groups† (p. 214). Walker points out that there are similar findings in studies of the newest wave of IPS programs. Evaluations recently conducted in California, New Jersey, and Georgia are equally disheartening. â€Å"IPS suffers from both confused goals and exaggerated promises,† he writes (p. 220). Conclusion After all, a question still remains as to what are we to make of all of these?   Confusion and a seemingly endless series of fits and starts appear to constitute our best effort at finding a solution to crime and violence.   Samuel Walker provides us with a very solid explanation in his book as he goes about the task of illustrating the significant issues that encompass the current criminal justice policy. References DiMascio, W. M. (1997). Seeking justice: Crime and punishment in America. New York: Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Ditton, P. M., and D. J. Wilson (1999). Truth in sentencing in state prisons. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Special Report (NCJ 170032). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice. Frase, R. S. (1995). State sentencing guidelines: Still going strong. Judicature. 78(4): 173–179. Reiman, Jeffrey (1979). The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Tonry, M., and K. Hatlestad, eds. (1997). Sentencing reform in overcrowded times: A comparative perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. Tonry, M. (1999). The fragmentation of sentencing and corrections in America. National Institute of Justice: Research in Brief. NCJ 175721. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Walker, Samuel (1994). Sense and Nonsense About Crime and Drugs: A Policy Guide. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.      

How to Punctuate Non-He Said Attributions of Quotations

How to Punctuate Non-He Said Attributions of Quotations How to Punctuate Non-â€Å"He Said† Attributions of Quotations How to Punctuate Non-â€Å"He Said† Attributions of Quotations By Mark Nichol The speaker of a quotation or a line of dialogue is normally identified in an attribution, a phrase as simple as â€Å"he said† that attributes the words to a particular person. However, there are other ways to attribute, including the ones illustrated in these examples, that don’t explicitly require an attributive verb. The sentences below illustrate the major difference between explicit and implicit attribution: punctuation (or lack thereof). (Note that explicit and implicit are not terms of art; I’m using them in the absence of, to my knowledge, any established terminology for these distinct types of attribution.) When â€Å"he said† or the like follows a quotation, it is preceded by a comma; if, less often, the attribution comes first, a comma follows it. Meanwhile, a colon, not a comma, should follow attributions such as â€Å"She had this to say in her defense.† But note the deletion of commas or colons in revisions to the following examples in which the attribution is merely implied: 1. â€Å"I had been opening my speeches with the line, ‘Are we entering a new era of American prejudice?’† When a sentence that includes a quotation does not include an explicit attribution, and the quotation is grammatically integrated into the sentence, omit any intervening punctuation: â€Å"I had been opening my speeches with the line ‘Are we entering a new era of American prejudice?’† 2. â€Å"‘The deepest bias in the history of the American people,’ is how historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. referred to our nation’s history of anti-Catholic prejudice.† See the explanation of the revision above; the same guideline applies when the quotation opens the sentence: â€Å"‘The deepest bias in the history of the American people’ is how historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. referred to our nation’s history of anti-Catholic prejudice.† 3. â€Å"You’ll be hearing from him again† was my friend’s guess. This sentence and its attribution are simpler than the preceding sentence and its attribution, but the rule is the same when a verb follows a quotation, punctuation after the quotation is unnecessary: â€Å"‘You’ll be hearing from him again’ was my friend’s guess.† 4. â€Å"I think they’re going to have that mentality of: ‘How dare he?’† In this case, punctuation is redundant to the preposition that precedes the quotation: â€Å"I think they’re going to have that mentality of ‘How dare he?’† The statement is colloquial; if it were not a direct quotation, it could be revised to a slightly more formal version: â€Å"I think they’re going to have that ‘How dare he?’ mentality.† 5. â€Å"To pass a necessity test usually means a negative response to the question: ‘Can the same result be obtained by other means?’† As in the first example, above, this sentence’s quotation is integrated into the flow of the sentence, so no punctuation is required: â€Å"To pass a necessity test usually means a negative response to the question ‘Can the same result be obtained by other means?’† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant NamesOne Fell SwoopThe 7 Types of Possessive Case

Armegeddon essays

Armegeddon essays There will come a time when all souls cannot escape from salvation. It is then, that because of this , the universe will ultimately collapse. Afterward all souls will be depressed again to live a lifetime where they have shackles forever. When a particular place in the universe has cooled life shall emerge, although it will be many years before This so describes the Hindu invision of the end of times in which the universe that includes everything is destroyed and then it is recreated again. It is important because many people believe Hinduism is responsible for the basis of other religions such as Buddhism, Sikkhism and Jainism which is clearly seen , as all three believe in many of the same theories such as reincarnation. For many of these people there is no true Armageddon only the repeat blooming and distraction of the universe by different types of gods. This makes me wonder if these people see Armageddon in such a different angle then conventional christians. How do the people of Confucianism , Marxism or any of the oriental religions perceive the end of The fact is, many of the so called religions out there do not have gods or prayer because there would be no need , rather they are only a philosophies on how people should live their lives . One example would be Confucianism which is predominately an Asian religion that started in the Chon Dynasty years 1122-897 B.C. The religion was founded by a man named Confucius who supported a project called the ritual music culture, that more or less was set up by the government of China to control the various tribes that inhabited the yellow river by giving them a culture that they all shared in common . This form of idealism unfortunately was rejected. The man named Confucius traveled all over China trying to persuade people to accept the ritual music culture , however some ...

Renaissance Art and Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Renaissance Art and Music - Essay Example Northern painters, especially those from Flanders and the Netherlands, were as advanced as Italian artists in landscape painting and contributed to the innovations of their southern contemporaries by introducing oil paint as a new medium. Although portraiture also developed as a specific genre in the mid-15th century, Renaissance painters achieved the greatest latitude with the history, or narrative, picture, in which figures located within a landscape or an architectural environment act out a specific story, taken either from Classical mythology or Judaeo-Christian tradition. Within such a context, the painter was able to show men, women, and children in a full range of postures and poses, as well as the subjects' diverse emotional reactions and states. The Renaissance was also a period of avid exploration; ships set sail in search of new routes to Asia, which resulted in the discovery and eventual colonization of North and South America. Painters, sculptors, and architects were dri ven by a similar sense of adventure and the desire for greater knowledge and new solutions; Leonardo da Vinci, like Christopher Columbus, discovered whole new worlds. This paper aims to define the characteristics of visual art and music during the renaissance through the use of examples, know a little about the artists of the artworks which were used as examples for this paper as well as to compare the works selected as examples in terms of the elements of art. In so doing, the paper will establish that renaissance art, however old and different the world it originated from is still continued to be regarded as timeless and valuable pieces in modern day art. Body Renaissance Art is any type of art produced... The two principal components of Renaissance style are the following: 1. a revival of the classical forms originally developed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and 2. an intensified concern with secular life—interest in humanism and assertion of the importance of the individual. The Renaissance period in art history corresponds with the beginning of the great Western age of discovery and exploration, when a general desire developed to examine all aspects of nature and the world.During the Renaissance, artists were no longer regarded as mere artisans, as they had been in the medieval past. The renaissance has indeed been a period of rebirth because people at that time were given a â€Å"second chance† to live life again. Along with this chance is the realization of the importance of appreciating life and the environment. People were able to have an identity of their own as they were recognized according to what they do best, just like the painters and the musicians. Although, the period is a time of rebirth, still many of its influences, both in visual art and music, comes from religion. Until today, even how old the art pieces of renaissance artists both in visual art and music, their works are still highly regarded and served as guides and models of aspiring artists today. This is manifested in how these new artists study the life and works of renaissance artists and sometimes compare their works to what the young ones of today have created. Truly, renaissance pieces, in art visual art and music, are timeless for until now it has still been considered to be timeless and priceless works of art.

Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing - Assignment Example The market share of iPad is also high because Apple is a pioneer in the technology. Though other companies such as Samsung have launched similar prototypes, these companies do not have the first mover advantage. Thus the most relevant strategy for iPad given its position is a good amount of promotion. Apple should invest in promoting this product to improve on the sales of the product. Find 2 examples of mission statements. Do you think these statements reflect the companies? Mission Statement of Coca Cola: To refresh the world; to inspire moments of optimism and happiness; and to create value and make a difference (Coca-Cola). This statement reflects the new image of Coca-Cola that has been developed through the most recent campaign. TV advertisements promoting the product show happy people being refreshed. This mission statement portrays the company as an organization brining optimism and warmth for its customers. It however, misses one big element and that is taste. Mission Statem ent of Facebook:   ‘Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected’ (Facebook). This mission statement reflects a company centered on the people and how to improve on their sharing experience. Facebook’s mission shows that the company values its users and is build around improving their experience. It talks about connectedness and openness and thus works for the company like this. 2:Peapod, the nation’s leading internet grocer, understanding growing demographic and social cultural macro environmental trends,  allows non-traditional households, such as single working parent households to order more than 8,000 grocery items online and have them delivered to home. Can you think of an example of how beverage marketers might alter an existing product or service, or create something new to satisfy the unique needs of the non-traditional single working parent households? One way in which beverage mark eters may alter existing products is by offering smaller packs for non-traditional single working parents. Such parents are not interested in buying economy packs since most of the product is wasted as they do not have large families to consume the product. Also within single working parent households, there is a greater need for getting food ready quickly. The beverage industry needs to focus on providing quick solutions such as easy to make coffee or 5 minute coffee. The single parent household is also willing to offer more price for premium products as they can afford product because they do not have to cater to a large family. Here beverage industries can offer new varieties and flavors to such households. When we purchase products or services we go through a decision process: Step 1 – Need recognition; Step 2 – Information search; Step 3 - Evaluation of alternatives: Step 4 - Purchase Decision; Step 5 Post-purchase Behavior.  Identify a recent purchase made by y ou and describe what role the product’s marketer played, if any, in getting you through the process.  Comment on the effectiveness of the marketer in someone else’s discussion post vs. your product’s marketer. Recently I brought a new android phone by HTC. Before making the purchase, I went online and searched for android phones with good reviews. I also kept my price range in mind. The marketer in this case helped me to a limited extent. He provided the platform where I would be able to easily gather information. The marketer by

Anthrolpology - Illegal Immigration and the Mexican people (research Essay

Anthrolpology - Illegal Immigration and the Mexican people (research paper) - Essay Example Many have, however, attempted to deny access to housing, schools, medical treatment and social programs to non-citizens. Some argue that U.S. laws apply to all within its borders, legally or not such as the Fifth Amendment right to due process of law. The laws certainly apply to all when they are broken. The federal government, to no one’s surprise, has been no help. For example, the Bush administration has long supported some form of amnesty which has enraged those that are opposed to illegal aliens living, working or going to school in the U.S. On the other hand, the administration also endorses the PATRIOT Act which denies constitutionally guaranteed rights to all people and further punishes immigrants in the effort to win the ‘war on terror.’ The ‘right’ answer escapes the government and many others as well because of the issue’s many complexities. This discussion will examine the immigration debate from a legal, economic and social view. It will present the administration’s answer to the problem along with an opposing opinion. It will also speak to laws germane to the debate including a brief review of the PATRIOT Act, the Fifth Amendment regarding due process and the Fourteenth Amendment which relates to automatic citizenship by birth. The fundamental reason for the flood of immigration from Latin America, specifically Mexico, is the disintegration of the Mexican economy predominantly resulting from free-trade strategies employed by the North American Free Trade Agreement and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The rampant corruption within the Mexican government has also contributed significantly to the collapse of the Mexican economy. â€Å"Due to IMF policies regarding Mexico, its economic output dropped 33 percent in the past two decades† (Small, 2005). During this period, its foreign debt rose 359

In Broad Daylgith Essay Example for Free

In Broad Daylgith Essay â€Å"In Broad Daylight† is about Mu Ying, nicknamed Old Whore. She has affairs with different men and is publicly denounced and paraded before the community by the Red Guards who travel from another city and happen to know her bad name. Her dwarf peddler husband Meng Su tries to rescue her from the public humiliation, only to be humiliated himself by the Red Guards, the spectators and his wife as well. Finally, he is found crushed by a train, and Mu Ying lies alone at bus stop, deranged. Written from the point view of a naive boy, nicknamed White Cat, Ha Jin intends to portray through untainted and authentic lens a Chinese woman with a self-awakening feminist consciousness who stands up for her sexuality. Turning point number one in the story is when the questioning of Mu Ying has started and has to confess her crimes of adultery with three other men. She then comes to the point where she explains the feeling of wanting a man holding her with his strong arms very detailed. After Mu Ying describes this feeling of sexual need, a woman who is the mother of Bare Hips speaks from the front of the crowd and says â€Å"You have your own man, who doesn’t lack an arm or a leg. It’s wrong to have others’ men and more wrong to pocket their money† (Jin 156). And on this moment Mu Ying is still recovering from a punch of the Red Guards and still replies with a smirk on her face looking down on her husband â€Å"I have my own man? † (Jin 156). â€Å"My man is nothing. He is no good, I mean in bed. He always comes before I feel anything† (Jin 156). As a central focus of the public denunciation, Mu appeared to be rather calm when she was caught at home. She neither protested nor said a word, but followed the Red Guards quietly. In her eyes, these Red Guards were only a group of children. She did not expect that the join forces of the Red Guards and the revolutionary masses in the town would be tremendous enough to put her in destruction; more importantly, she did not think that her behavior had violated any rule or law. When her husband appealed to the Red Guards, she stared at him without a word, and a faint smile passed the corners of her mouth. In her yes, the behavior of her impotent husband is pedantic and ridiculous. When the Red Guard asked her why she â€Å"seduced men and paralyze heir revolutionary will with your bourgeois poison† (156), she responded rather calmly with a rhetorical question, â€Å"I’ve never invited any man to my home, have I? † (Jin 156). When several women hissed in the crowd, she even tried to persuade them by citing her own experience: â€Å"Sisters,† she spoke aloud. â€Å"All right, it was wrong to sleep with them. But you all know what it feels like when you want a man, don’t you? Don’t you once in a while have that feeling in your bones? Contemptuously, she looked at the few withered middle-aged women standing in the front row, then closed her eyes. â€Å"Oh, you want that real man to have you in his arms and let him touch every part of your body. For that man alone you want to blossom into a woman, a real woman—† (Jin 156). As a group of juveniles, White Cat and his companions know little about the adult life. This limitation makes their participation a journey of discovery. When adults burst out laughing at Mu Ying’s assertion of her husband’s impotence, the teenagers appeared to be puzzled. The dialogue between them shows this point clearly: â€Å"What’s that? What’s so funny? † Big Shrimp asked Bare Hips. â€Å"You didn’t get it? † Bare Hips said impatiently. â€Å"You don’t know anything about what happens between a man and a woman. It means that whenever she doesn’t want him to come close to her he comes. Bad timing. † â€Å"It doesn’t sound like that,† I said (Jin 157). Obviously, Bare Hips does not know any more than Big Shrimp though his impatient tone tries to conceal this ignorance. Ignorant as he is, Bare Hips makes so bold as to cry at Mu Ying, â€Å"Shameless Old Whore! † (Jin 154). Impossible to perceive, the innocent children are acting the role of accomplice in the public denunciation against Mu. Their thoughts and behaviors manifest the influence they have taken from their parents. In this sense, the innocent teenagers have degenerated from lovely angels to dreadful demons. This is a turning point because when the red guards pulled Mu Ying out of her house and started patrolling her through the city streets to get her to the school yard to sentence her, her husband came running from a street corner begging to let Mu Ying go â€Å"Please don’t take her away. It’s my fault. I haven’t disciplined her well. Please give her a change to be a new person. I promise, she won’t do it again† (Jin 155). And even though I have a feeling Mu Ying does not take the Red guard’s judging protocol as a serious punishment at that point, once she has confessed everything it all gets to her. That is when she gets the feeling that she really has humiliated and hurt her husband, because she is looking for him after she got hit with an ink bottle, only to find that he suddenly left the scene. That is the point she says she does not want to be punished after all and promises to better herself. What I saw as turning point number two becomes clear in the last paragraph, which means I did not see that really as the conclusion. It is the scene where Mu Ying is lying alone at the bus stop, saying: â€Å"Take me home. Oh, help me. Who can help me? Where are you? Why don’t you come and carry me home† (Jin 156). It is a perfect example of â€Å"You don’t know what you have until it is gone. † The second train that used its steam horn killed the husband of Mu Ying and made her a widow and truly alone. What I mean with that is that Mu Ying already felt alone because her man was not good enough for her. This feeling of loneliness combined with her husband’s underachieving partly lead to her committing adultery. Now with her husband dead, she finally exactly knows what it actually means to be alone. But moreover the story clearly shows that her husband saved her live once, after she was raped and now he again tries to get her â€Å"off the hook,† by taking the blame. Her grudge against men because of this rape is probably the other part of why she turned to adultery. It is almost shocking to observe that Mu Ying herself is not punished as the â€Å"Old Whore,† where Meng Su did not only try to take the blame, but also gets himself punished like in Old China. While the Red Guards only make her walk down every street saying the words â€Å"I am an evil monster† (Jin 160), instead of burning her alive, Meng Su is beheaded like in the old days. I strongly felt a parallel between the â€Å"blare of horns† announcing the beheading of Mu Ying’s husband. In Ha Jin’s story, the rough death of Meng Su, the husband, constitutes an â€Å"unscheduled event,† which brings White Cat and his companions to the violence of the adult world. The public denunciation of Mu Ying was no longer a thrilling scene, but something that touched them to their souls, evoking their introspection or maybe disillusion about the world. Bare Hips’s vomiting is a strong signal, indicating the shocking effect that the violence may have brought to him. After the shocking experience, they are no longer innocent adolescences, but adults struggling at the verge of understanding. This whole story turned out like a gruesome, tragic circle of misery and unanswered love to me. I think Meng Su loved Mu Ying dearly, but couldn’t take her grudge against men away that she got from the rape by the Russians. Imaginably, as a victim of the gang rape, she must have experienced a hard time of being treated with disdain. Instead of being hit to death by the accident, she has walked out of the shadow of the concept of chastity, and began to enjoy the pleasure of the flesh as well as economic benefits brought about by men, the invader of her virginity. The bitter time she has experienced has actually hardened her heart and paved the way for her further self-liberation, both physically and spiritually. Meng Su couldn’t cope with not saving her from the shame that the Red Guard trial put on her and killed himself, leaving his beloved Mu Ying really alone and helpless at the bus stop.