Discussion questions and topics for academic study

Homelessness in America has been a problem for a very long time. The homeless are a vulnerable population therefore something has to be done to make sure that the situation is either controlled or improved. One suggestion I would make is putting the homeless up in a local shelter and tries to re-integrate them back to the society very rapidly. The shelter encourages the people to look out for themselves by requiring that the homeless take part in the upkeep of the shelter if they want to stay. The second suggestion would be enabling these homeless people at these shelters go back to work. Social workers can help the homeless get their birth certificates or proof that they are citizens and a social security card hence they can be bale to get work. These ideas can make the homeless more responsible and hence they can be able to stand out on their own. Once they get jobs that can be able to afford their own shelter and hence they will be out of the streets. This will solve the problem of being homeless in America since the homeless will now afford to pay for a decent shelter and hence get out of the streets and shelters.

People commit crimes for various reasons such as jealousy, love and money. However, there are crimes whereby only someone who lacks reason is capable of committing. These are such as murder, rape, serial killing, suicide bombing, domestic violence, and suicide. If these crimes are committed by people who lack reason then I think they should still be convicted and an action taken against them by the criminal justice system. This is because whether a crime is committed with reason or not a criminal has to face the consequences. A crime is still a crime therefore a perpetrator has to be punished regardless of their state of reason.

Chivalry hypothesis echoes the perception that female inmates as victims argues that women are usually treated more lenient as compared to men at various stages of the justice process which is male dominated as a function of the male desire to protect the weaker females. Chivalry hypothesis is the reason why crime rates are different for males as compared to females especially then juvenile girls. For juvenile girls according to this theory they tend to commit more crimes since they know that even if they are apprehended the officers will be more lenient with them and in many cases, they find themselves out of custody faster as compared to their male counterparts. With this knowledge then they would not fear committing crime since they know that they will be treated in a special way if they are arrested. Some of the crimes that juvenile girls often commit are like stealing, and once they go to juvenile systems they easily get out. This can be reduced by making the systems tough whereby both male and female offenders are treated in the same way. This will prevent juvenile girls from committing the crimes since they will not be treated any different from male offenders. Another thing would be giving tough punishment to offenders, which will prevent them from committing a crime in future (Rebecca Bay, 2014).

In reference to the social theory, I would say that people join gangs because of an attachment to their peers. In many situations it is the peers that influence one into joining a gang, they would tell them how good it is to be part of that gang and because someone has an attachment to their peers they will listen to the and end up join the gangs. There are also other theories that explain gang membership such as strain theory and differential association theory. Social theory and other theories can help in reducing gang membership. This is because once we understand why individuals join a gang based on these theories then we can be able to reduce gang membership. There can be talks held to students in schools regarding the influence on peer pressure. This will help break the peer attachments and hence prevent any peer influence that can lead to joining gangs (Rebecca Bay, 2014).