Nature and Nurture in Crime and Punishment In the news today there is an article about a high-school boy who brought guns to school and shot several students. The parents of the victims are suing various computer game companies saying that the violent games present shooting and killing people as pleasurable and fail to portray realistic consequences. A representative of one of the companies released a statement saying that this is another example of individuals seeking to elude responsibility that has become so common in our society. This case is not about software. What is on trial is the age-old debate between nature and nurture, which also lies at the center of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In his dream about the gray nag, Raskolnikov as an unshaped child is innately compassionate; he weeps for horses being cruelly beaten, but already society, in the form of his parents, begins to shape him, to train him, to numb his compassionate feelings for those in pain. His mother draws him away from the window when he sees such a horse pass and his father tells him when the men kill the nag "They're drunk, they're playing pranks, it's none of our business, come along" (59). Already Raskolnikov is being taught to rationalize murder, for all those people who watched and did not interfere are partly to blame as they rationalize that "it's none of our business." Mikolka, the horse's murderer, also rationalizes his role; first, he defines the mare as property, not as life. Repeatedly he says "It's my goods" (57) while those who object refer to the horse not as an neuter object but as "her." Secondly, he attempts to justify the act through cold reasoning: "I might as well kill her, she's not worth her ... ... middle of paper ... .... Even today as we scan the news we can still find the nature versus nurture issue addressed by Dostoevky still prevalent in our court cases and legal system. Works Cited and Consulted: Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Interpretations. New York, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. New York: Random House, 1992. Gale Research Co. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Detroit, MI 1984, Vol. 7. Kjetsaa, Geir. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, A Writer's Life. New York, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987, Magill, Frank. Masterplots. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1976. Terras, Victor. Handbook of Russian Literature. New Haven, CT; Yale University Press, 1985. Timoney, John. Speech on Crime and Punishment. Mt. Holyoke College, November 10, 1994.
While no one can dispute the positive effects of the Title IX, there are those dissenting voices who still to this day feel that is unfair that the major revenue generating sports such as Men’s Football and Basketball pay the way for the non revenue sports such as the Women’s Athletics programs. The same could be said though for such non revenue men’s sports as well. Sports such as men’s golf, lacrosse, soccer, etc.
Hansen, Bruce. “Dostoevsky’s Theodicy.” Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996. At . accessed 18 November 2001.
1. Cesare Lombroso applied the methods of natural science (observation, measurement, experimentation, statistical analysis) to the study of criminal behavior. Lombroso rejected the classical theory of crime, associated with Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, which explained criminal activity as freely chosen behavior based on the rational calculation of benefit and loss, pleasure and pain. Critically analyze both schools of thought and provide an opinion as to what theory you believe is more relevant.
Human gene therapy is a method used in the medical field that treats diseases at a molecular level, by solving the source of the problem; our genes. Today, diseases and disorders are commonly treated by solving the symptoms, the surface of the problem. Many disorders and diseases are caused by defective proteins and within those defective proteins are damaged and defective genes. These defective genes can be treated through gene therapy. Gene therapy is not new and has been developed and improved by researchers for the past couple years. Being an experimental technique, gene therapy also has its pros and cons, but so far is showing positive and rising success rates.
The visible effects of Title IX were mainly seen in the athletic arena, but the subtle effects of Title IX came to all women in the United States in the fo...
Thirty-one years ago, with the rise in revenue and attendance at collegiate sports, the federal government implemented a Title IX program that would established opportunities for men and women in colleges for their programs and academics. A major emphasis on the program has gone to schools athletic programs, to share the funds and sporting teams equally. There is a debate over whether the teams are really split fairly or are some of the more successful male teams get prominence over women's teams.
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Title IX is a law passed in 1972 that requires gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance. – From the preamble to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). The actual Title IX document was based on 10 key areas: (1) access to higher education (2) employment, (3) athletics, (4) career education; (5) education for pregnant and parenting students, (6) employment learning environment, (7) math and science, (8) sexual harassment, (9) standardized testing and (10) technology (titleixinfo.com.2011). Title IX legislation has been subject to over 20 additional reviews and proposed amendment revisions due to the different interpretations and lifestyle changes that present themselves in their various court cases.
Raskolnikov is an impoverished ex-student living in St. Petersburg, the grimy, plagued, and urbanized capital of the Russian Empire. He “is nothing but a poor half-crazed creature, soft in temperament, confused in intellect” (Waliszewski), a maverick who believes he must deliver society from mediocrity. Deluded, he murders Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and her unsuspecting half-sister, Lizaveta. Throughout the story, Raskolnikov undergoes transformations in all facets of his life, many of which are attributed to his infatuation with Marmeladov’s humble daughter, Sonia. Forced into prostitution, she is seen by Raskolnikov as a fellow transgressor of morality, but also as a savior that will renew him. This new development causes him to decry his nihilistic lifestyle as desolate and insufferable and to expiate, ending his self-imposed alienation and long suffering. Notwithstanding the title, the story has little to do with the crime or the punishment; the true focus is the turbulent internal conflict of Raskolnikov - the constant doubting of his motives and the psychological torment he endures.
After I interviewed both my grandfather and Samm, I was not going to leave them without giving them information on the topic, and both of them thanked me for the information, because they both said they had been misinformed on what exactly Title IX is. That brings me to a point. Do you know what Title IX is? To be honest before I started this research for this paper, I was always told it is how women got the right to play sports. Now given sports...
Nature versus nurture has been argued in attempt to understand how criminals behave. The theory of what influences psychopath and serial killers’ violent and destructive pathways has not been agreed on till this day. Criminals such as psychopaths and serial killers have been researched for the past two decades. Scientists have found that genetics is a determining factor of who becomes a serial killer. It is important to understand the determinants involved within a serial killer, because if these social and environmental causes are discovered, they can be altered and controlled to reduce crime (Lykken, 1993). With more studies, we would therefore prevent mass murders and could assist in significant reductions of crime within society.
Every year, the rate of mortality increasing because most diseases may lead to death if not treated early. One of the methods that can be used to cure some diseases is by using the treatment known as gene therapy. Based on Pruitt’s (2008) study, numbers of inherited and acquired diseases were reduced since gene therapy has the ability to provide new treatments to cure them. According to Shi and Zou (2008), gene therapy is defined as expression of protein or interrupts the synthesis of protein in cell by transferring the genetic material into a host in order to treat or prevent a disease. Besides that, Kelly (2007) stated that an “abnormal” hereditary disease-causing gene in an individual’s cells and tissues is treated and used gene therapy by to replace them with a “normal” gene. Around 1970’s, idea to use “genes” as “drugs” for human therapy was originally from United States (Giacca, 2010). Moreover, there are some objectives in using the gene therapy as a treatment. First, gene therapy is used to cure or slow the progression of disease by introducing the genetic material into target cells and next objective is to aim at the direct correction of endogenous genetic defects by delivered some additional copies of a gene (Pruitt, 2008; Giacca, 2010). Furthermore, Yadav and Tyagi (2008) found that there are two types of gene therapy which are germline gene therapy and somatic cell therapy. As stated by Shi and Zou (2008), therapy that involved modification of any cells in a patient’s body is called as somatic cell gene therapy while germ line gene therapy is therapy that involved modifying of human eggs or sperms that pass genes on to future generations. Other than that, animal tissue culture is used to test the effective...
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Dostoevsky, the only one who has taught me anything about psychology.” The two writers share many similarities and differences. Dostoevsky clearly had an effect on the thinking of Nietzsche. The two would be considered both philosophers and psychologists. Both writers became prominent in the late 19th century in Germany and Russia respectively. Dostoevsky was noted for his Russian literary classics and would be responsible for a flowering of late 19th century Russian literary culture. His Russian contemporaries include Leo Tostoy and Anton Chekov. Dostoevsky’s most famous works include The Brothers Karamozov, The Idiot, and Crime and Punishment. Nietzsche is most famous for his philosophical works such as thus spoke Zarathustra. The two writers have many similarities in their philosophy. They both see a changing role in religion. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky also differ sharply on some other aspects of life. One of these being the differing views on the role of the fatherland. Nietzsche’s beyond good and evil and Dostoevsky’s crime and punishment are two works that can be compared and contrasted to show the similarities and dissimilarities of the two geniuses. The two men offer great insights in these books on morality and the affect it can have on the actions of the individual and the society as a whole.
Raskolinkov’s beliefs transform from the beginning of the novel to the ending. His theory was never complete and to test his theory he commits the murder of an evil soul. The irony of this novel is Raskolinkov who though he was an extraordinary men, have the will to commit murder but not the power to live with the crime on his hands.
After inferring from the rationality of Raskolnikov’s hypothesis on illness that the rest of his working theory would too be correct, the reader is led down a path of definite expectations for his/her “extraordinary” narrator. This path would have been one whereby Raskolnikov was able to implement widespread well being as a result of his murders. Furthermore, he would have been able to avoid submission to the common law of the “ordinary” people in order to preserve his greatness.