China - Two researchers say comprehensive new data shows that traditional family patterns in China, combined with tough population-control measures, have resulted in ``female infanticide on a grand scale'' -- close to 800,000 baby girls abandoned or killed in a single region between 1971-80 alone.
G. William Skinner, an anthropologist and China specialist at the University of California-Davis, and Chinese researcher Yuan Jianhua based their conclusions on an analysis of 1990 Chinese census data. They presented their findings at the Association for Asian Studies' annual meeting last weekend in San Diego.
While the phenomenon of disappearing girls isn't new, the paper by Yuan and Skinner is the first to show how location and family composition help determine infants' fate: The more rural a baby girl's surroundings, and the more sisters she had at birth, the higher her chances of not surviving.
The researchers say most of the girls were abandoned or killed at birth. Chinese officials have long maintained that missing girls are adopted or raised on the sly, but Skinner said the data does not allow for concealment.
Skinner and Yuan, who works for a semiofficial agency in Beijing that does population projections for the Chinese government, focused on a 1 percent census sample of China's lower Yangtze region. Located around the central metropolis of Shanghai, the area ranges from crowded coastal cities to surrounding rural communities, and had a population of 140 million in 199...
Gangs can be classified as a group of adolescents who are perceived to be a threat to society, are mostly recognized by their name and territorial power, and have been involved in numerous acts that violate criminal law procedures in North America. (Esbensen, Winfree, He and Taylor, 2001). The first theme that was present in the pieces of literature collected was the lack of opportunities. As previously stated before, becoming involved in a gang starts at a young age. An article titled “Youth Gangs and Definitional Issues: ‘When is a Gang a Gang, and Why Does It Matter?’” explicates what exactly constitutes a gang, starting with young adolescents. Using a survey conducted in the United States, Finn-Aage Esbensen, L. Thomas Winfree, Jr., Ni He, and Terrance J. Taylor (2001) surveyed over 5,000 students. The questions asked were based on how and why they chose to be in a gang (whether they were a part of it currently or before the survey was conducted). The authors concluded their research in deciding unanimously that there was a connection between a social learning theory, and the commencement of gangs. Correspondingly, Herbert C. Covey (2003) created an academic book entitled, Street Gangs Throughout the World, which gave an in-depth look at the different types of gangs across the world. Throughout several chapters, Covey looks at the root causes of how any why gangs are formed. The author noticed that there was a significant trend among young, deprived adolescents and gang membership. (Covey, 2003). Covey (2003) indicated that the more underprivileged a youth was, the more likely the chances would be of them joining a gang, which is a major concern.
First off, in the documentary “China’s Lost Girls” is to shine a light on China’s female foster children, and how they have a crazy abundance of female children that get left to die, abandoned or thrown out. This is because of China’s one child policy. When the one-child policy was introduced, the government had come up with a target number of population by the year of 2000. This number was 1.2 billion. The policy has only helped to reduce the fertility rate, or the rate at which the civilians have been reproducing. This also resulted into most people hoping and only keeping their sons, because they are the ones that carry on the family name and help take care of
In 1979, China decided to establish a one child policy which states that couples are only allowed to have one child, unless they meet certain exceptions[1].In order to understand what social impacts the one child policy has created in China it important to evaluate the history of this law. China’s decision to implement a Child policy has caused possible corruption, an abuse of women’s rights, has led to high rates of female feticide, has created a gender ratio problem for China, and has led to specific problems associated with both the elderly and younger generation. Finally, an assessment of why China’s one child policy is important to the United States allows for a full evaluation of the policy.
China developed into a patriarchy society, on page 445 patriarchy is defined as a group in which men-as-a-group dominates women-as-a-group; authority is vested in males. China has over four thousand years of culture and history, being one of the oldest societies in the world. With the population of China growing out of control, China took drastic measures to get a control on the amount of people being born in China. With their being around four billion people living in the world, one in five of the total population resides in China. Food and medicine became scarce and something had to be done. Laws were put into effect that families could only have one child, and if the laws were broken families would face large fines. This became the largest population effort in history, and could be the cause of devastation on China in the near future. Instantly males became the preferred gender over females, and families would take drastic measures if they had a female first. But why is male preferred over female? Because males carry on the family name and males work to help pay bills and never leave, but instead stay to support the family. Females would be given away, sold, abandoned, or even worse, killed, to prevent being fined for having two children. This is the reason why majority of adoptions from China are baby girls. Every baby girls has a story, whether abandoned in a park, or left in the market, each has a tragic start to life. And with only 100,000 baby girls a year being tracked, what is happening to the rest of the babies? Are they being sold, given away? Maybe sweat shops, or human trafficking is the answer. None of the babies have social workers, so their stories are questionable. It could b...
Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.
China’s population has shifted drastically over the past century resulting in ongoing issues that greatly impact the people of China beyond visually troubling demographic. China was once a poor and struggling country plagued with years of war and disease. The leader during this era, Mao Zedong had thought that influencing his people to grow their families it would lead economic prosperity. Sadly, the situation led a famine killing 30 million people. As a result of the disaster, Mao Zedong shifted his mindset towards an idea based around the slogan “Late, long, few”. Although fertility rates had dropped by half between 1970 and 1979, the Chinese government feared that the population was still growing too fast which then resulted in the one child
...asons are for protection, for profit, to gain a family or friends, to join family or friends already associated with the gang, to gain means for something, or for retribution and power. A gang creates relationships or a feeling of family, and most important a new social bond filled with ties of attachment, commitment, beliefs, and involvement (Siegel 2012). It gives individuals, especially the younger ones, a hope for the future, a family dynamic, a form of means and income, and a place to create ties and bonds. Especially if their ties to conventional society are weak because they are not involved, they do not have many commitments in school or work, or they are not attached to his or her family or friends. Humans are social creatures, and this type of group allows humans to interact with people who have similar lifestyles, beliefs, values, needs, and experiences.
No one knows exactly how many children and youth nationwide are gang members or join a gang in an average day, but the numbers are astonishing and increasing. What is it about gangs that is so appealing to children? Gangs offer identity which a child may not have felt he or she had before. Gangs also offer belonging, protection, money, sex, and status. The majority of the children who become involved in such groups as gangs usually don't have a sense family or belonging to anyone, are lonely, and are looking for friends. Some may think that gangs are actually a good thing in that they offer so many positive things to a child's life. That is where some go wrong, and make the biggest mistake of their lives.
In the early 1990’s, it was reported that eleven million women in the United States suffer from various eating disorders. At the same time, at least ninety percent of people struggling with eating disorders are female (Stephens). Many researchers tried to figure out why so many women today were suffering from these terrible conditions that destroy people from the inside out. After thorough amounts of research were done, it was concluded that today’s society generates intense amounts of pressure on women to fit an “ideal image” of the models they see in various ways. Thanks to false advertising, false images of women, and the changing “desires” of society, the Beauty Myth gives women an image of themselves that is physically impossible to achieve.
China's population reaches over 1.2 billion people, which makes up one-fifth of the world’s total population. In retrospect, China’s land mass is similar to that of the United States, but China has 4.5 times more people. However it is no surprise that overpopulation has become a concern for the Chinese government. Due to the rapid population growth, the economy began dwindling causing the poverty level to rise. This, unfortunately, left a plethora of people unemployed. Realizing these issues needed to be fixed, the government took immediate action. Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China, implemented the One Child Policy in 1979. The consequences of this decision was long yet to be discovered. However, though it helped slow the population growth, other problems started to arise. Consequently, the country ended up with over thousands of brutal abortions. The roots of this issue date back hundreds of years, and is still considered a contemporary issuet today. Regardless of what country, what year, what race or gender; people have always held strong feelings about this idea of contraception. Abortion is a form of birth control that is widely known and used. It is a contemporary issue that is notorious for causing grave debates. The conception of birth control is the main perpetrator of China’s abortion epidemic. As birth control laws were being enacted, women were involuntary forced to abort their child in order to sustain normal population numbers. This massive abortion epidemic flooded China as leaders forced one-child policies on the citizens and completely changed the people’s outlook on birth control. This idea of a one-child policy took away many of the peoples freedoms, allowing the government to have one hand ...
By 1980, although the birthrate in China has fallen to below 3 children per family, it was believed by a new regime of Chinese leaders which included Deng Xiao Ping, that forced and restricted population growth would lead to greater economic prosperity. This coercive policy influenced the family of the Chinese citize...
Many young people join street gangs due to weak family relationships and poor social control. Social Control Theory presumes that people will naturally commit crime if there were left to their own devices (i.e. no laws in society) and people do not commit crimes because of certain controlling forces, such as social bonds that hold individuals back partaking on their anti social behavior (Bell, 2011). Examples of controlling forces are family, school, peers, and the law. Young people who are t...
With excitements, many teens get hurry out to disobey authority or involvement in crimes. The young may be engrossed to the mob’s way of living as it stays out of the law and takes place in illegal behaviors. Others prefer to be in the mob because of the many problems they encounter at homes. With the promise of a greater life by the gangs then the excited teens get attracted to the illegal activities of the mob (Bryman, 2008).
...y standards, further resulting in negative impacts on their self-esteem and confidence. Furthermore, this limited perspective of beauty causes women to be blinded and not realize that there is not one specific look of beautiful, but many. In a sense, women are taught to think that beautiful is being thin, having silky hair, toned legs, big breast, blemish and acne-free skin, and so on. However, in order to reach these beauty standards set by society, a woman can overwork her body in order to lose weight by dieting, or not eating to be “thin”, which also puts her health at risk and acts as an additional issue. Women who fail to reach these beauty standards set by society, may feel as though it is their fault and end up feeling even more insecure and bad about their body image, when in fact, the beauty standards were unrealistic and unattainable from the beginning.
A gang can be defined as a group of people who unite to serve a common purpose and engage in violent or otherwise criminal behavior. (http://www.ci.torrance.ca.us) The types of crimes committed by gang members differ between gangs, but the crimes generally associated with gangs include vandalism, robbery, drug-trafficking, assault, arson, and murder. There are many reasons why teenagers may join gangs. The root causes of violent gang formation are poverty, stressed families, unemployment, under-employment, under-education, racism, and the breakdown of sociocultural institutions. (http://www.instanet.com) Many people join gangs for protection from violent people in other gangs. (http://www.public.iastate.edu) Other people join gangs for the sense of family that comes along with it. The youth gang satisfies a void - the child's desire to feel secure. It provides the child with a sense of identity, belonging, power, and protection. The gang provides a protective barrier against the outside world. (http://www.highways.com)