Predictive Policing Essay Example for Free

Predictive Policing Essay Information Technology, or IT, is the study, design, creation, utilization, support, and management of computer-based information systems, especially software applications and computer hardware. Information technology is not limited solely to computers, but other devices such as mobile phones, PDAs and other handheld devices. The field of IT is quickly moving from compartmentalized computer-focused areas to other forms of mobile technology. (Information Technology, 2011) Over the last decade, computer and telecommunications technologies have developed at a surprising rate. Increased computing power, advances in data transmission, smart and user-friendly graphic interfaces present law enforcement agencies with unprecedented capacity to collect, store, analyze and share data with stakeholders inside and outside of government. Ultimately, information technology represents a tool to help local law enforcement achieve its broadened and increasingly complex missions. (Reichert, 2001) Using information technology to fight crime by the police officers is becoming increasingly effective in apprehending the crime perpetrators. Historically, technological innovation has served as the substance for intense changes in the organization of police work and has presented both opportunities and challenges to police and other criminal justice practitioners, according to Janet Chan, a social scientist who has studied how information technology affects the way police do their jobs. 1 Noting that . information is the stock-in- trade of policing,. Chan has identified three general imperatives driving law enforcement’s evening investment in information technology. Using information technology in policing has add that more efficiency to the police department. Comparing the old-fashioned way of patrolling the streets to combat crime to then use them of using technology to predict the crime area and patrolling in advance deters crimes from happening. There are many advantages associated with using information technology in policing. Comparative analysis shows that using information technology (IT) to combat crime has save lot of resources and time in the police department. There are a number of other advantages that can be associated with the use of information technology in the police department. For instance they use of Automated Field Reporting System by the police department has eradicated the use of hand writing of reports at the field by the Police Officers. Officers completed handwritten incident reports in the field and submitted them at the end of a shift to a field supervisor. After reviewing and approving reports, field supervisors would send them to a central repository for filing, usually in the department’s records section. Personnel in the records section were responsible for distributing copies to other units in the department, such as the appropriate investigative unit, and entering information from the incident reports into a database. Depending on the specific system at a police department, the incident report process could take days, or even weeks, from the time the report was written to its availability in a database. The AFRS had saved Polices from going through all these processes. Even the time of going back to the office to submit the report has been saved by the police officers. The use of information technology makes the police officers to be able to know where a crime may potentiality happen, and their presence ahead of time help prevent the crime. Whereas random patrolling has the potential of missing the crimes area and that give criminals the leeway to perpetrate their criminal act. Using technology by the police helps them to arrive at the crime scene as early as practicable; this helps the offices to trace the criminals and apprehend them. Its called Predictive Policing a program which Capt. Sean Malinowski says puts officers on the scene before crimes occur. Sixty-five percent of our crimes are burglary, grand theft auto and burglary from a motor vehicle Malinowski said. And thats what these boxes represent. The real measure of this is not how many people you catch it is how much crime you prevent, said Beck. I love catching people its what I live for but what Id rather do is live in a place and work in a place where crime didnt happen. These include inputs, processing, output, and feedback. Inputs are collected in a form of data. The departments of the Police depends upon police incident and arrest reports for their crime data, but they also used computer-aided dispatch (CAD) data to aid identify geographic hot spots. In Minneapolis, officer debriefings of suspects were an additional feature of the information/data-gathering process. The Compstat process began when an officer filled out an incident/arrest report that he or she then hands to a commanding officer for approval. Once approved, a data clerk, who is located in the district, or in headquarters, enters crime information from the reports into a records management system (RMS). At this point the analysts in the Crime Analysis Unit (CAU) selected the data on the crimes that were regularly presented at Compstat meetings and entered them into a computer database. using a data management program, either MS Excel or MS Access. The main field research techniques we used were participation, observation, and formal interviews with city officials and police at various levels in the chain of command. At each site, researchers observed weekly or biweekly Compstat meetings and interviewed city and police department personnel. These included the mayor, city manager, chief, civilian staff, middle managers or district commanders, captains, lieutenants, detectives, first-line supervisors or sergeants, and patrol officers. District commanders previously relied heavily upon reading daily crime reports to identify problems and patterns, and they supplemented this information with personal experience and subjective evidence. The data is then analyzed and processed to make more meaningful. In conducting intensive field research, the police officers are especially interested in attaining detailed information on the role of Compstat-generated data and in learning about the â€Å"scanning† part of the problem-identification process. How were problems analyzed, and how were tactics reviewed and selected? What was the scope of the treatment developed to deal with a Compstat identified problem, in terms of the resources mobilized to deal with it? Was there a reorganization or mobilization of resources to address the problem, or was it handled merely by the routines of individuals or units already assigned to these duties? How were rank-and file officers involved in this process, if at all? Were specific officers or patrol units made accountable for addressing problems? How much follow-through was there on these initiatives? Data-driven problem identification and assessment: Compstat has significantly enhanced management and analysis of data. Examining crime maps and reviewing summary statistics was not essential to this process. Crime data helped inform but did not drive decision making.

Devadasi System in India

Devadasi System in India Commonly known as dancing girls or temple girls is a system that has come in to existence for more than thousand years. When the great tamil kings belonging to the erstwhile Chola, Chera and Pandya Kings built huge temples for their gods, they felt that there is a need to maintain these temples in a proper way and thus need full time devotees to take care of the diety and the temple premises. One other angle given to constructing Huge temples are to protect the people from flood, cyclone or any other natural disaster. In other words, temples are meant to be shelter for the people of that area from natural disasters. Hence they appointed girls to maintain these temples. The main function of these girls are to sing and performing dances and taking care of the diety. They are considered to be the wives of the gods in the temple in which they are appointed. They are not allowed to marry any mortal man during their life time. These girls are held in High esteem as they are considered to b e close confident of the god. The dance which they perform is famously known as Barathanatyam the most famous dance form of South India. This practice of dedicating girls to deities are commonly known as Devadasi System and the girls thus dedicated are known as Devadasi which is a Sanskrit word or Thevaradiyar which is a Tamil word that literally means female slaves of the god. As mentioned above these Devadasi are expected to be experts in Music and Dance. As years passed their service shifted from gods to earthly gods and lords . They are forced to do service not only to the deities, but also to the landlords and rich devotees of the deities. In short, they started living the life of a prostitute with religious sanction and customary backing. Initially this system was prevalent only among the upper caste Hindus particularly of the Brahmin community . The British colonization of India brought major change in the religious and cultural fabric of India. The upper caste Brahmins occupied major positions in British rule and were able to recognize the dance performed by Devadasi as Bharatanatyam and were able to give a cultural supremacy for this form of dance, thus bringing out devadasiss to main stream of life. However, the Brahminical Hindu Religion which is known for its Caste imbalances and discrimination against the lower caste sowed the seeds of the system into economically, politically and socially disadvantaged lower caste Dalit Hindus. This system started spreading its tentacles to other parts of the country in different forms and names such as Bogams in Andhra Pradesh, Jogatis or Basavis in Karnataka, Thevaradiyar in Tamil Nadu, Muralis in Maharashtra, Maharis in Kerala. Dalits dedicated their girls to the Diety mainly because of two reasons one is because of the superstitious belief that it will bring glory to their family and their village, the other one is the economical reason that it is very difficult for the parents to marry of their daughter because of the prevalent dowry system and also if they dedicate the girl to the Diety, their family will be taken care of by the village rich man to whom the girl do the sexual favours in the name of the Diety. Over a period of time, this practice has represented a clear violation of Human Rights with these Dalit Devadasis were dedicated with a hidden object of performing sexual favours to initially upper caste Hindus and then they become a public property forcing them to enter prostitution. They are also not allowed to marry any man of their choice and often fell a prey into the hands of Broker agents representing brothels from Mumbai and other areas. Several movements India is a party to a number of Human Rights Instruments like that of International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights 1966, The International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966, The International Convention for the Elimination of All forms of racial Discrimination 1966 which advocates for among others, equal rights for women and prohibits racial discrimination in any count. Added to that provincial states in India has enacted legislation like The Bombay Devadasi Act 1934, The Devadasi(Prevention of Dedication) Madras Act 1947; The Karnataka Devadasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act, 1982 to tackle this menace of Devadasi System. Irrespective of this, it is widely reported that this system prevails in some parts of India particularly among the Dalit community. This paper attempts to find out the root causes of the system and the reason why this system is still prevalent in India. Accordingly, this paper is divided into four parts, the ongoing is the first part that introduces the topic, Part II deals with the History and Origin of Devadasi System, Part III deals with the Social movements that fought against the Devadasi system, Part IV analyses Indias obligation to eradicate the system in line with the international obligation which it assumed through various treaties and finally part IV concludes with recommendations to eradicate the same. DEVADASI SYSTEM AND VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS: STATUS OF INDIAS LEGAL OBLIGATION Devadasis could face discrimination on three counts viz as a woman, as a Dalit and sometimes as a child. International community has time and again tried to address the issue by way of multilateral Conventions/Treaties making member states to eliminate these kind of discriminations. Accordingly a number of International Instruments are made at the international level to address these menace which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant for Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Convention for Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimintion against Women (CEDAW). One of the purposes of the United Nations is to achieve international co-operation in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of this purpose. Art 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Art 2 further bestows rights upon individuals without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Similarly Art of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights 1966, prohibits discrimination of any kind including discrimination based on social origin . Art 2(1) of ICCPR mandates the state parties to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present covenant. Art 2(2) requires the state parties to adopt such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights As mentioned above, India is a founding member of these Conventions. However India has not till date enacted any enabling legislation to implement the same in the domestic sphere. Without an implementing legislation Indian courts may not be able to enforce the provision of these treaties in the domestic realms. Needless to say, Treaties are considered to be the main source of international law. When it comes to human rights, treaties play an important role. Human rights treaties have contributed to the development of customary rules and general principles of international law. They create obligations not only among parties but also between parties and individuals. More important, these treaties have become a source of inspiration to many judges and lawyers in their interpretation of domestic legislation. Some international organizations grant their membership only to those states, which. ratify certain human rights treaties. The ratification of human rights treaties demonstrates the ratifying states adherence to civilised standards. As a result, a states credentials in international society depend in part a1 least on the acceptance of and compliance with its obligations under human rights treaties. Thus the ratification of Human Rights treaties by India may be seen as an act to outshow the world that it is a civilized nation thus avoiding isolation in international Human Rights diplomacy. But the non-enactment of a domestic enabling legislation alone cannot be considered as failure on the part of the member state to fulfill the international obligation which it assumed by way of treaty. A state may not go for the enactment of domestic legislation if it is satisfied with its existing legislative mechanism that the legislation in place are sufficient enough to tackle the menace. In this regard it is imperative to look and analyse the legislative mechanism in India aimed at the abolition of the system of Devadasi. Indian Constitutional and Legal Provisions relating to Womens Rights Indian Constitution contains several provisions relating to women and children. However equality and freedom has always been neglected in the name .of custom, honour, family welfare and social prestige. Equality that is guaranteed in the constitution of India is a dynamic one. While hoping for the ideal of equality, it does not recognise the realities of inequalities. Article 14 of the Constitution recognises equality before law for all citizens without any discrimination. Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Article 15 (3) says about protective discrimination to women and children and Article 21 says about the protection of life and liberty to all. The Constitution also ensures protection against traffic in human beings and forced labour. Art 42 says about provisions for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. The protection for women in the work place is given in factories Act 1948. It includes several welfare regulations and protective measures for women and children in working places, section 125 of criminal procedure code 1973 provides maintenance to women. Indian penal code Sections 509, 294 and 354 deals with Eve-teasing and sexual Harassment. The Indecent Representation Of women (protection) Act, 1986 for preventing the depiction of a woman in a manner which is derogating or denigrating to women, or which is likely to corrupt public morality through advertisement. Publications, writings, paintings, figures, or in any other manner. Indian Judiciary was also pro-active in guarding womens rights in general. In some of the leading cases such as In State of u.P. v. Boden Sundara Rao the Apex Court came down h eavily on the High Court of Andhra Pradesh for awarding grossly inadequate sentence in the following words: Crimes against women are c;m the rise. Imposition of grossly inadequate sentence and particularly against the mandate of the legislature not only is an injustice to .the victim of the crime in particular and the society as a whole in general, but also at times encourages a criminal. The courts must not only keep in view the rights of the criminal but also the rights of the victim of a crime and the society at large while considering importance of appropriate punishment. In Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan. The Vishaka, an Organization working for the welfare of the women, moved toSC when a social worker was gangraped in Rajasthan. While deciding the case the Supreme Court brought the international conventions in Indian Law. How they are trying to incorporate it is very well understood from the words. . Some Provisions in the CEDAW-Arts 11 and 24 as also general recommendations of CEDAW in this context-articles 11, 22, 23, 24 as ratified in the present context are of significant. According to the Supreme Court, Sexual harassment includes such unwelcome behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as: (i) physical contact or advances: (ii) a demand to request for sexual favours; (iii) sexllally co loured remarks; (iv) showing pornography; (v) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual behaviour. Though the Indian system is quite effective in protecting the Womens rights, it served limited purpose in protecting women who are Devadasis particularly from the Dalit community. Needless to say there were several legislations which prohibited this system and provided rehabilitation for the same.

Why were Alehouses and Gin-shops Threatening to Authorities?

Why were Alehouses and Gin-shops Threatening to Authorities? Why were alehouses and gin-shops threatening to the authorities? This essay will argue that alehouses and gin-shops were threatening to the authorities because they were deemed to disrupt the established social, political and economic order. Commentators of the time, labelled alehouses as nests of Satan[1] and gin-shops as the source of Theft, Murder and Perjury.[2] These hostelries were perceived a widespread menace linking them to crime, poverty, sedition, drunkenness and idleness. At the time, drinking took place in three main types of institutions: the coaching inn that supplied lodgings, victuals and replacement horses, taverns mainly in towns supplying beer and wine, and lastly alehouses, small, often one room, offering only beer. Whilst evidence suggests that government, Parliament, county magistrates and parish constables did not always worry about the same threats, it is likely that much protest and condemnation emanated from the inhabitants of the towns and cities. This viewpoint is supported by extensive research carried out on petition s, legislations, pamphlets, ballads and woodcut prints. There appears a difference in the charges levelled by the authorities between alehouses and gin-shops. With the alehouses, they were concerned in policing to prevent licentiousness and drunkenness, and the latter by moral reformers, targeting the spirits trade and the social problems caused by the labouring classes addiction to gin. This essay will look in detail at the threats posed by the alehouses and the response from government and Parliament. The protests rose from the judgments of the emerging middle-classes, moral reformers identified as Puritans, and local inhabitants. From the mid-seventeenth century, the authorities identified the potential seditious nature of some of the activities within the alehouses. The second part will identify the dangers that the gin craze posed to society at large, the size of the growing problem and the speed of the response of the authorities in tackling this issue. The social function of the alehouses, providing drinking, eating, gambling, dancing and even flirting cannot be underestimated, as these no longer occurred in churchyards following the English Reformation of the 1530s.[3] Recent studies estimate that by 1570 there were 24,000 alehouses, a ratio of 1 every 142 inhabitants, this rose to 50,000 by the 1630s and hit a peak of 60,000 in 1700, a ratio of 1 to every 87 residents.[4] Clearly, as evidence suggests, alehouses were becoming more and more popular, and more and more common within society. The corollary of this expansion infers the central nature and focus of social activities inside the alehouses. It was widely accepted that the alehouses were an essential institution run by the poor for the poor[5], and provided vital income for the innkeeper. In many ways, the alehouses could be said to offer the poor and the unemployed an alternative home.[6] Throughout this period the number of wage-earners within society grew and it is very likely that the authorities feared that people worked just long enough to earn their beer-money rather than spending it on their families, as a petition in Pewsey in Whiltshire demonstrates[7]. It could then be further claimed that this led to a greater strain upon poor relief provided by the parishes because of feckless parents. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, reflects this viewpoint in one of the ballads in his collection: in The Bad-Husbands Folly or Poverty made known a drunken husband who used to spend all his money in strong beer, neglecting his family obligations, repents and vows not to return to the alehouse because Bad company did me undo.[8] The Licencing Act of 1552, set in motion some legal controls over the proliferation of the alehouses, the law stated that to open an alehouse a licence issued by two local Justices of the Peace and evidence of a good character were required.[9] It should also be noted that the late 1500s were a period of bad harvests, hence Parliament and magistrates were probably concerned in storing the grain rather than allowing it to be used for brewing. However, this legislation failed to curb the growth in numbers of the alehouses due to the people not complying with the law and most of them remained unlicensed. This section will address the concerns of the moral reformers, known as Puritans, and of the self-declared better-sort or chief inhabitants of the towns towards the alehouses. Puritanical thought emerged from Protestantism and comprised a moral view of family life in line with scripture. They exercised authority via positions of prominence within society and were ministers of religion, Justices of the Peace, the middle-classes and the gentry. Puritan ministers were not opposed to drinking alcohol in moderation, however the excesses of the alehouses, with all that that entails and the resultant effects on family life were to be condemned. Ministers often took the lead in organising petitions against disorderly alehouses that attracted thieves, prostitutes, gamblers and female drunkards. This hotter sort of Protestants wrote pamphlets attacking the tipplers of the drunkards academye[10] as immoral, depraved and dissolute. Moreover, alehouses attracted people of ill-repute who preferred to drink rather than attend church services on the Sabbath. In addition, a recent study has proved that Puritans disliked the ritual of health-drinking or toasting, full of ceremony, that reminded them of Papist traditions of drinking from the same cup.[11] Besides, healths were often described as lascivious acts that deliberately scorned puritan values and, by declaring allegiance to the king, they were straightforward in resisting Cromwells puritanical regime.[12] Whilst during the Interregnum of 1649-1660 no new legislation was enacted against the alehouses, greater enforcement was undertaken to vet and bar royalist sympathisers from obtaining a licence.[13] Another offensive came from the local yeomanry, gentry and middle-class, who unlike the Puritans, did not seek to suppress all the alehouses, but to censure the ones who were deemed to be in excess, those without a licence, off the beaten path, unruly and disruptive. It was clear that the sheltering of vagrants and prostitutes, the trade of illicit goods and excessive alcohol consumption beyond the point of drunkenness, led to a lack of sleep at night, fights and unchaste behaviour. This habit is cited in the case of Michael Fayered of Inworth in Essex who was accused of having evill rule in his house all night long.[14] Even women alehouse-keepers were deemed to be a menace with the assumption they were setting up brothels and running these establishments with immoral sexual conduct. The number of court cases and protests brought to the attention of government, who sought to limit the effects of drunkenness, led to the Acts of 1604, 1606 and 1618. For the first time, being drunk in public was a finable offence and the annual renewal of licences was established.[15] These acts were more successful than the 1552 Licensing Act and provided some control in confining disorderly behaviour. However, gaming, swearing, tippling, theft, assault and illicit sex were common cases in the law courts. James Scott in his book claims that alehouses hosted a radically subversive culture, one that was well hidden from the view of the elites, hence he coined the term hidden transcript.[16] In support of his thesis, he cites a court case of 1691 where an ale seller in Whiltshire denied hearing any seditious discourses in his house, and that he usually advised his customers not to talk about governments affairs.[17] This statement may infer that political discourse was commonly taking place. In addition, it is possible that it was within the inns and taverns, institutions frequented by the better-sort, that plots against the Crown were hatched. At the same time authorities were concerned about what was really taking place in the alehouses. In the light of these inappropriate political discourses, the targeting of the alehouses might have become a priority for the authorities who sought to crack-down on these behaviours by instituting spies. Records from seventeenth-century Southampton sh ow that a tight surveillance, by both publican and landlords, was in place[18] to make sure that their principal use, victualling and lodging, remained the primary purpose and disorderly behaviour actively discouraged. Thus, the emphasis of the authorities shifted to all forms of recreational drinking which were assumed to be a threat to law and order. Recent historical investigations support the viewpoint that the role of the alehouses for social purposes was more important than the subversive nature previously thought. The observed correlation between alehouses and drunkenness has, in recent years, moved into investigating the alehouse sociability in a more lenient and a less radical approach. The scholar Mark Hailwood demonstrates that it was not always the case that alehouses were the source of lewd behaviour and political radicalism, and that the relationship between getting drunk and being sociable was not antagonistic but interdependent.[19] Sociability might have provided so cial cohesion among people who worked and lived in the same neighbourhood, a jovial environment rather than chaos and disorder. From the proliferation to the peak of the alehouses it took roughly one hundred and fifty years, and several Acts of Parliament before the authorities brought the alehouses under control. By the end of the seventeenth century a new threat appeared on the horizon, namely the Gin Craze. Looking at the effect gin shops had on society and their threat to the authorities, there was an ever-increasing consumption of gin following the banning of French brandy in 1689 by William III. This ban and the London Company of Distillers losing its monopoly led to the increased production of cheap British gin and the establishment of unregulated distillers, who often put turpentine and other lethal ingredients as part of their concoctions. Consequently, thousands of small gin-shops opened in cellars, back rooms of private homes, some people even sold it from pushcarts in the streets. With no regulations in place and a cheap price, the so-called Gin Craze took off. By the mid-1720s the practice of regularly attending dram shops, especially amongst Londons labouring and poor classes, had become a significant social and health concern for the authorities, with the impeding need to pass legislation designed to control the consumption of gin. In contrast to the alehouses, the gin trade and its consumption were opposed mainly by the propertied classes, Puritans and a coalition of Middlesex and Westminster Justices. It can be claimed that the 1729 Gin Act did little or nothing to limit the number of unlicensed premises, which in London alone were about 4,000.[20] Protests against the gin trade reached a fever-pitch by 1735 with the publication of pamphlets, cartoons and treatises. These discourses claimed that drunkenness caused by gin in the street was responsible for social disorders, with an increased number of robberies, fights, murders and deaths by intoxication. It was inferred that the consumption of gin may have been linked to idleness and the incapacity to work, resulting in opportunistic crimes being committed to obtain money to satisfy their addiction to Mother Gin. The Puritans feared that the addled minds of drunk people might have supported the ever-present Jacobean threat, resulting in a return to Catholicism in Britain. These concerns have been well summarised in the 1736 Thomas Wilsons pamphlet Distilled Spirituous Liquors the Bane of the Nation: people were enervated by a fatal love of a slow but sure Poyson.[21] The likely lobbying of Sir John Gonson, a Westminster magistrate, associated with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and Sir Joseph Jekyll, played an active role in the contended passage of the 1736 Gin Act that increased license fees and fines, and also aimed to reduce the smuggling of gin.[22] Historians have started to investigate the impact of gin drinking on society, and according to Peter Clark, the reformists campaign against the spirits trade was exaggerated and sensationalist.[23] His theory is supported by records of the time which demonstrate that in Clarkenwell, Mile End and Stepney, where gin selling was widespread, there was no substantial evidence of increased crime rates, and this was also reflected in the wider country. Despite legislation being enacted in 1736, it failed to regulate gin selling leading to widespread public disorder by 1738. Many of the gin-shops and street gin selling occurred in the southern and eastern suburbs of London where gin was mostly popular amongst women. The increasingly observable situation of drunk mothers and neglected children caused moral outrage to the Puritans with their view of family life[24]. There was a polarisation between drunken behaviour and thriftiness promoted by moralists. It was believed that heavy drinking was increasing the number of mothers and babies deaths, and that gin was the root of disruption of domestic oeconomy and respectability. It was also widely perceived that gin-drinking mothers were regarded to produce a Spindle shankd generation,[25] with the foetus being damaged in the womb. Above all, it was a commonly held thought that drunkenness led to fecklessness, and people were condemned to a life of misery. The renowned 1751 engraving by Wi lliam Hogarth, Gin Lane,[26] highlights all these threats posed to society. The print pictorialises the violence of excessive gin consumption depicting a ragged bare-breasted mother scraping the contents of her snuff box as her child is toppling from her arms down a cellar that bears the inscription Drunk for a penny, Dead drunk for twopence. The new 1751 Act was effective and restricted retailing to respectable sellers and raised duties on distilling, subsequently gin consumption fell. Overall, it can be asserted that the offensives of Parliament, middling urban society and reformers towards gin consumption blamed the poor for their behaviour. This essay had discussed the different reasons why alehouses and gin-shops were a threat to the authorities in early modern England. Even though the consumption of ale had existed within English society in perpetuity, the increased popularity and concentration of excessive beer drinking became a problem from the mid-sixteenth century. Although the authorities were not against drinking per se, they were worried about the acts of disorder caused by excessive drinking. The authority exercised on the alehouses came from above, government and Parliament, and from below by Puritans and citizens. On the other hand, the gin craze was a sudden import from the continent in the late 1600s and started in metropolitan areas as opposed to the mostly rural alehouses. As demonstrated, the gin craze presented similar problems to the authorities as the alehouses, but included more acute threats that required urgent action: extreme criminality, adult mortality and infant deformity. It should be noted t hat the authorities reaction to the alehouses spanned a period of about one-hundred and fifty years and multiple acts of legislation by Parliament. This is a marked difference to legislation against the gin trade that took over a period of about twenty years culminating in the provisions set out in the Act of 1736. The seditious nature of alehouses only became to be considered a problem from the mid-1600s, prior to this period the alehouses were a focus of social discord which could have deemed to have been a threat to authority but it was not in its nature seditious. On the other hand, gin-shops were deemed to be seditious since their inception. The difference in the response by authorities to the alehouses and gin-shops could be partially explained by the hidden rural proliferation of the alehouses amongst the poor, compared to the self-evident chaos observable in Gin Lane by the urban upper and middle-classes. The influence of puritanism and its revulsion of the amoral family val ues, that resulted from the gin-craze, was probably more keenly felt in the metropolitan areas rather than in the countryside. Ultimately, it is very interesting to note the changes in historical perspective with regards to beer. As detailed in Hogarths Beer Street and Gin Lane[27], intended to be viewed together, alehouses were not seen as places of chaos and disorder any more, they were rather a site of social conviviality, in contrast with the parish of St. Giles portrayed as an urban image of an alcohol-induced road to oblivion. [1] Christopher Hudson 1631 in Peter, Clark, The Alehouse and the Alternative Society in Donald Pennington and Keith Thomas (eds.), Puritans and Revolutionaries. Essays in Seventeenth-Century History presented to Christopher Hill, (Oxford, 1978), p.47 [2] Hogarth, William and Fielding, Henry, Gin Lane, (1751) [accessed 15 February 2017] [3] Mark, Hailwood, Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England, (Boydell and Brewer Ltd, 2014),p.5 [4] Peter, Clark, The English Alehouse: a Social History 1200-1830, (London, 1983),pp.42-47 [5] Clark, The Alehouse,p.53 [6] Patricia, Fumerton, Not Home: Alehouses, Ballads and the Vagrant Husband in Early Modern England, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies,32:3 (Fall 2002),p.505 [7] Hailwood, Alehouses,p.41 [8] The Bad-Husbands Folly; or, Poverty made known (c.1671-1702), in Pepys Ballads, IV, p. 77 [accessed 15 February 2017] [9] James, Nicholls, The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England, (Manchester University Press, 2011),p.11 [10] Sir Richard Grosvenor 1625 in Hailwood, Alehouses,p.19 [11] Angela, McShane, Material Culture and Political Drinking in Seventeenth Century England, Past and Present Supplement 9, (2014),p.260 [12] Marika, Keblusek, Wine for Comfort: Drinking and The Royalist Exile Experience, 1642-1660, in Adam Smyth (ed.), A Pleasing Sinne. Drink and Conviviality in Seventeenth-Century England, (Cambridge, 2004),pp.55-68 [13] Bernard, Capp, Englands Culture Wars: Puritan Reformation and Its Enemies in the Interregnum, 1649-1660, (Oxford University Press, 2012),pp.162 [14] Keith, Wrightson, Alehouses, Order and Reformation in Rural England, 1590-1660 in Eileen Yeo and Stephen Yeo, (eds.), Popular Culture and Class Conflict 1590-1914: Explorations in the History of Labour and Leisure, (The Harvester Press Limited, 1981),p.8 [15] Nicholls, Politics,pp.13-15 [16] Scott in Hailwood, Alehouses,p.65 [17] Ibid.,pp.70 [18] James, Brown, Drinking Houses and the Politics of Surveillance in Pre-industrial Southampton, in B. KÃ ¼min (ed.), Political space in Pre-industrial Europe, (Ashgate, 2009),pp.61-80 [19] Mark, Hailwood,'It puts good reason into brains: Popular Understandings of the Effects of Alcohol in Seventeenth-Century England,Brewery History,150 (2013),p.14 [20] Peter, Clark, The Mother Gin Controversy in the Early Eighteenth Century, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society,vol.38 (1988),p.68 [21] Wilson in Jonathan, White, The slow but sure Poyson: The Representation of Gin and its Drinkers,1736-1751, Journal of British Studies,42:1(2003),p.46 [22] Clark, Mother Gin,pp.74-75 [23] Ibid.,p.72 [24] Maddox in White, The Representation,p.59-63 [25] Nicholls, The Politics,p.40 [26] Hogarth, Gin Lane, (1751) [27] Hogarth, Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751)

Booker T. Washington :: essays research papers

Booker T. Washington was a great influence for the black community. The efforts this man put to become such a wonderful leader were incredible. Booker T. Washington was a man that started up from scratch. He grew up as a Black slave, who did not have much choices in life. He was born in Virginia in 1856, and he had a white father and a black mother. After the Emancipation Proclamation he went to work in a coal mine, while still a child. When Booker was seventeen he went of to Hampton Institute, he worked there as a janitor. He then became a student there. Following all the hard work Booker T. Washington has put in his life he became a very famous speaker on educational subjects. Booker T. Washington became a very famous speaker he had been invited to eat dinner in the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt. Slowly Booker began to get the respect he deserved. Booker preached that Blacks should accept that they were inferior to whites, he told them that we have to prove to them that we are socially capable of taking care of ourselves. He said the way we do this is make successful businesses we get educated and get into politics. For these beliefs that Booker believed in is why he was called "The Great Compromiser." Many white ex-slave owners began to respect Bookers notions. Not only was he becoming acknowledged by the Blacks but now also by the whites. Booker T. Washington was being secretly funded by great industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The love approached racism in a nonthreatening way. The only thing that was a problem to him is not all people liked his belief. Booker T. Washington :: essays research papers Booker T. Washington was a great influence for the black community. The efforts this man put to become such a wonderful leader were incredible. Booker T. Washington was a man that started up from scratch. He grew up as a Black slave, who did not have much choices in life. He was born in Virginia in 1856, and he had a white father and a black mother. After the Emancipation Proclamation he went to work in a coal mine, while still a child. When Booker was seventeen he went of to Hampton Institute, he worked there as a janitor. He then became a student there. Following all the hard work Booker T. Washington has put in his life he became a very famous speaker on educational subjects. Booker T. Washington became a very famous speaker he had been invited to eat dinner in the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt. Slowly Booker began to get the respect he deserved. Booker preached that Blacks should accept that they were inferior to whites, he told them that we have to prove to them that we are socially capable of taking care of ourselves. He said the way we do this is make successful businesses we get educated and get into politics. For these beliefs that Booker believed in is why he was called "The Great Compromiser." Many white ex-slave owners began to respect Bookers notions. Not only was he becoming acknowledged by the Blacks but now also by the whites. Booker T. Washington was being secretly funded by great industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The love approached racism in a nonthreatening way. The only thing that was a problem to him is not all people liked his belief.

Cancer :: essays research papers fc

Cancer INTRODUCTION   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the American society, cancer is the disease most feared by the majority of people within the U.S. Cancer has been known and described throughout history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the early 1990s nearly 6 million cancer cases and more than 4 million deaths have been reported worldwide, every year. The most fatal cancer in the world is lung cancer, which has grown drastically since the spread of cigarette smoking in growing countries. Stomach cancer is the second leading form of cancer in men, after lung cancer. Another on the increase, for women, is breast cancer, particularly in China and Japan. The fourth on the list is colon and rectum cancer, which occurs mostly in older people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the United States more than one-fifth of the deaths in the early '90s was caused by cancer, only the cardiovascular diseases accounted at a higher percentage. In 1993 the American Cancer Society predicted that about 33% of Americans will eventually get cancer. In the United States skin cancer is the most dominating in both men and women, followed by prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. Yet lung cancer causes the most deaths in men and women. Leukemia, or cancer of the blood, is the most common type in children. An increasing incidence has been clearly observable over the past few decades, due in part to improved cancer screening programs, and also to the increasing number of older persons in the population, and also to the large number of tabacco smokers--particularly in women. Some researchers have estimated that if Americans stopped smoking, lung cancer deaths could virtually be eliminated within 20 years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The U.S. government and private organizations spent about $1.2 billion annual for cancer research. With the development of new drugs and treatments, the number of deaths among cancer patients under 30 years of age is decreasing, even though the number of deaths from cancer is growing overall. TYPES OF CANCER   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1.Cancer is the common term used to designate the mosst aggressive and usually fatal forms of a larger class of the diseases known as neoplasms. A neoplasm is described as being relatively autonomous because it does not fully obey the biological mechanisms that govern the growth and the metabolism of individual cells and the overall cell interactions of the living organism. Some neoplasms grow more rapidly than the tissues from which they arise, others grow at a normal pace but because of the other factors eventually become recognizable as an abnormal growth and not normal tissue. The changes seen in neoplasm are heritable in that these characteristics are passed on from each cell to ots

Discussion and Analysis Essay

Construct a good, solid essay of at least 3 full pages which answers one of the prompts below. In addition to consulting your lecture notes and textbook, you may find it helpful to consult the New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I, which may be found in the Walsh Library Reference Room, call number D117. N48. Essays will be graded on content (clarity and coherence) as well as mechanics (grammar and spelling). Late papers will be significantly penalized and any paper later than 24 hours will NOT be accepted. Drafts of papers are to be submitted as hard (printed) copies to both  your editing partner and me. Final versions of papers are to be submitted as hard (printed) copies to me; you will also  include  the marked-up version of your draft. All papers must have 1† margins, be double spaced, and in Times New Roman or Garamond, size 10-12 font. Do not double-space your initial, first page heading. In supporting your observations, you will certainly need to point to specifics in the texts. However, you should not rely on direct quotations and should use them very sparingly. You may not use any quote lengthier than two sentences. No block quotations. Any essay that consists of more than one-quarter direct quotations will receive a D. You should learn how to sum up examples in your own words, but be aware that changing only a few words of someone else is still considered plagiarism. Any time you use a direct quotation or paraphrase something, you need to cite the material. This includes anything from the Chronicle text. For this second essay, your goal is to analytically read primary source materials. As you read and begin to formulate your essay, consider some of the following questions: who is this author? Why are they writing? What is the obvious, surface purpose of this document? Is there a purpose or conclusion that the author reaches which is not so obvious? What fundamental assumptions does the author have about his subject material? How do these assumptions influence or appear in the work, either explicitly or implicitly? How do the attitudes or perceptions of the subject matter change or evolve over time? How does the historical context of each author influence his approach and treatment of his subject matter? These questions should be only the beginning of your inquiry and you certainly are not restricted to them. Use them to formulate your own questions, and then use those questions to help you structure your essay. Often the best essays are built around thesis questions, not thesis statements. Primary source excerpts can be found in your Rosenwein reader or online at the Fordham Medieval Sourcebook and google books. This is a 3 page paper; obviously you cannot use all the sources, however what you choose should make sense for your thesis. The Crusades Tactic I Using the documents listed below, explore what motivated people to go on crusade to the Holy Land in the middle ages. Did their experiences match their expectations? Were they fulfilled, disappointed? How important was morale and how was it kept up? Address strengths and weaknesses of the source material and be sure to make connections between the sources. Tactic II Using the documents listed below, explore what we can learn about memory and different groups’ interpretation of events. Address strengths and weaknesses of the source material and be sure to make connections between the sources.

The Road To Growth For Financial Institutions

involution of tushts and fiscal acquisitions in the U. S. gener completelyy pass a itinerary in deuce ways by positive reaping or by amalgamations and acquisitions. fundamental exploitation is the rate of line of reapings intricacy that an varianceation can reach by increasing output and enhancing gross revenue. This stool of blood line intricacy excludes any scratch or proceedss accomplished from mergers, acquisitions, and take-overs.This represents the true pay offth for the center of at cristaltion of a beau monde and is a earnest indicator on how puff up the arrangings management has utilise its own internal resources to augment proceedss. This subject of line of credit amplification likewise attentions to identify whether managers wipe out apply their skills to correct the problem line (Investopedia 2006a Wikipedia 2006a). On the some some several(predicate) hand, acquisitions, mergers and take-overs do non develop about profits g enerated within a company, and argon thus non considered constitutional ontogeny.Historically, investiture deposits (which ar defined as in depotediaries which assist companies in selling self- ascertain of themselves as stock or borrowing m unityy directly from investors in the blueprint of bonds) consent been reason outly associated with the activity of merger and acquisitions since it represents a gross revenue opportunity for the enthronisation march on. For a strand to merge with an separate(prenominal) pecuniary brass, it need to attain a fair trade respect for its sh ars to trade in with shares from the other entity.A popular formula in describing mergers and acquisitions is peer little plus iodin makes three the report principle behind purchasing a company is to earn shareholder value over and above that of the sum of the cardinal principal companies abstruse (Investopedia 2006a Investopedia 2006b Wikipedia 2006b Investopedia 2006c). In other words, 2 companies together are deemed to a greater extent valuable than two cleave companies. Strong companies buy other companies to create a more(prenominal) war-ridden, cost-efficient organization and to acquire a great food food merchandise share.Target or weaker companies in bit frequently agree to world purchased by these cockeyeder companies when they issue they cannot survive al i in a warring trade (Investopedia 2006a Investopedia 2006b Wikipedia 2006b Investopedia 2006c). Most major pecuniary institutions in the US countenance gone with some form of merger and all of these institutions inevitably admonisher their original exploitation. The tumefybeings that each type of business line magnification advances are unique, and in that respect are certain advantages and disadvantages in each type.The relevancy of discovering mergers and acquisitions involving fiscal institutions is that these activities can visit the fortunes of the companie s containd for course of instructions to come, and pass on colossal impact on investors involved as well as within the organizations themselves. Likewise, original maturation helps to strengthen an organization internally and places it on a stronger securities industry flummox if done impressively and undefeatedly. The significance of this search psychoanalyse is to compare these two types of business expansion.The objectives of this weigh are to analyze these two types of business expansion as to their strengths and weaknesses, benefits and electromotive force threats or disadvantages to the banking domain, and to provide an over clear of the history of the banking sphere of influence in terms of twain radical fertilizer return and mergers and acquisitions activities and endeavors. The investigate is steadying in that it give provide valuable interrogation information and hopefully some helpful discernments to help pecuniary institutions, self-aggrandi zing or small, to evaluate their present business expansion activities.Small companies which are limited to thorough growth, and whitethorn wish to venture into mergers or acquisitions, may be able to use the selective information provided here. Larger institutions which practice some(prenominal) constitutional growth and mergers and acquisitions, on the other hand, may be able to use this purport for to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of twain(prenominal) activities. The rest of the pertlyspaper is organized as fol grims. air division I as presented here provides for the introduction to the consume, commentary of terms, objectives, the inquiry topic, and the significance of the seek. partitioning II provides for a literature review on both total growth in the banking heavens and mergers and acquisitions of pecuniary institutions. subsection III discusses the data pull aheading passage for this reputation, the methodology use, and the research framework followed for this occupy. Section IV bequeath provide for the analysis of the results and findings as pull together from the literature and connect work reviewed. Section V presents the summary and conclusions of the guide establish on the analysis provided for in Section IV. Finally, Section VI entrust imbibe future directions this guinea pig might take.II. literature Review fit in to the results of an annual study conducted by A. T. Kearney, one of the worlds largest management consulting firms, investment management firms are outperforming retail banks in the highly competitive race to grow profitably and to gain market share. A. T. Kearney conducted an Annual positive suppuration Index (OGI) for 2006 for standard growth in investment and retail banks. The study was base on data collected online by Harris Interactive? of more than 4500 banking nodes in the 20 largest US metro markets.Seven out of the ten top-scoring monetary institutions included in the OGI esta blish on their cap expertness to grow essentialally were investment management firms, with Ameriprise with the top tote up for the second consecutive year, outperforming approximately banks and other investment firms much(prenominal) as Edward Jones, A. G. Edwards, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, and Merrill Lynch. Wachovia, on the other hand, outperformed some(prenominal) of its retail bank counter move, in like manner for the second year in a row since A. T. Kearney started conducting this study in 2005 (A. T. Kearney 2006). A. T.Kearneys study is noteworthy for this research since it provides insight into which pecuniary institutions are close capable of achieving and sustaining constitutive(a) growth. The index connects client attitudes and actions with their note display en exemplar allocation decisions. The OGI looks at the mental process of monetary institutions based on their susceptibility to achieve both client and pocket book pulsation. Customer Momentum measu res an institutions world power to attract and retain guests, forge long-lasting guest similarityships, and in all the resembling protagonism among their clients. For the A. T.Kearney stick with, the following regions were involved in measuring Customer Momentum advocacy, primary financial institution identification, propensity to strike institutions, and wishing of errors. Wallet Momentum on the other hand measures an institutions ability to expand the follow of harvest-festivals and drive greater penetration per foolroad with its clients. Components involved are intent to add accounts, intent to sum up equity account value, share of wallet with primary financial institution, and average come of products per node (A. T. Kearney 2006). According to the results of the A.T. Kearney study (2006), investment management firms performed remediate overall than retail banks by scoring high in both Customer and Wallet Momentum. sell banks on the other hand ready higher o n Customer Momentum than Wallet Momentum. However, the study concludes that no genius type of financial institution dominates in either military operation matrix. Most financial institutions strive to live on their clients Primary fiscal Institution (PFI), and necessitate generally been conquestful at increasing the average number of accounts per individual within the last year (A.T. Kearney 2006). However, the study indicated that investment management firms hire more difficult relationships with clients, and that being designated as nodes PFI does not unavoidably ensure success for retail banks. The study in any case bespeaked that customers who consume two service errors or account problems within one year were 35 per centum more probable than the intentness average to leave much(prenominal) financial institution. This attrition rate doubled aft(prenominal) three errors were experient in one year (A. T. Kearney 2006).The study provides for the following suggesti ons in order to improve thorough growth in financial institutions (A. T. Kearney 2006) ? Institutions with tether Customer Momentum s tendernesss call for opportunities to cross-sell new-made products and run, and should determine how to recognize and reciprocate muckle for selling a bundled treated of products when most organizations are organized to measure and reward for selling specific products. ? Products and run to be added or cross-sold essential be placed in relation to margins on incumbrance products, and the total portfolio, to ensure useful growth.Cross-selling is slight costly than adding new customers, exclusively the motley or products and run is equally sieveical when considering impact on profit. ? Product complexity and product variation makes it difficult for customers to visualise a value proposition and for employees to formulate it. This bear ons both service delivery and act soundness, and to a fault increases the capability for errors . A financial institution should thus improve its ability to manage product complexity, as a way of swap service attri furthere and overall customer contentedment.A similar study conducted by Daniel follow and James Bossert (2005) involved the analysis of the 2004 American Customer atonement Index, which indicate that organic growth for banks have been hampered by the fact that the financial services patience has some of the lowest customer contentment ratings of any angiotensin converting enzyme industry. According to the study, customers view banks and other financial institutions as a commodity, with no unique source for forming a business relationship with one particular bank.The study by Cox and Bossert (2005) studied in-depth the strategies employed by beach of America in 2001 to improve customer gratification as one of its control force to expand its organic growth. patois of America started to focalization on its organic growth in 2001, which meant increasing its customer base while becoming more efficient by change over processes. It genuine a new strategy which relied to a great extent on voice of the customer (VoC) and fasten all its planning efforts to factors that would drive customer satisfaction and loyalty (Cox and Bossert 2005).In other words, chamfer of America recognized customer satisfaction as the core component of organic growth. With approximately 28 million customers at the meter, the bank encountered approximately 200 customer interactions per second. To improve the overall customer experience, the bank implemented an associate training design called verify of America Spirit, which was initially simulation to mirror the associate behavior of Disney employees. It re-evaluated its business sham and the models execution by comparing them to other raft 500 companies that focused on customer service.It focused on the following model for improvement as seen in go steady 1 in the next scallywag rely of America regularly surveyed their customers to gather VoC, and used these survey results in turn when developing new products and services. Paying close attention to such customer needs turned out to be instrumental in increasing its revenues and in improving its organic growth (Cox and Bossert 2005). Accenture, another leading management consultancy firm, conducted a global survey of strategies and programs for organic growth in retail banks.In its survey, Accenture examined more than 100 retail-bank executives strategies. The firm as well provided for an industrialization concept critical for growth in the banking sphere Differentiation on the Outside, Simplification on the Inside, Execution Mastery. The research at studyed that pure cost-cutting strategies previously adapted by financial institutions produced diminished return. The emphasis on growth, and mainly organic growth, while managing cost as the same time, would produce the topper results for a financial organization (Accent ure 2006).The study showed that 87 portion of the executives surveyed indicated that increasing revenues is still top priority, mainly driven by the need to satisfy investor expectations. 73 percent also cited the achievement of cost-efficient scale. few than one in ten believed that market growth volition go with 15 percent, while more than 20 percent believed their own banks provide grow at a higher rate. To drive strong organic growth, respondents in the Accenture survey accentuate the need for excellence in merchandising and product management, distri moreoverion and service and fulfilment (Accenture 2006).The study further recommended that to achieve growth targets in an increasingly competitive market, banks must(prenominal) industrialize their marketing, gross revenue and service capabilities to maximise cross-selling. Similar to the findings and recommendations in the study by Cox and Bossert (2005) on camber of America, the Accenture study indicated that cross-se lling must focus on gaining and retaining profitable customers. separate capabilities necessary to achieve this would involve transformation in areas such as customer segmentation, which should include customer segmentation, product design, and worth/value equation (Accenture 2006).The mental faculty study by Rhoades (2000) for the Board of Governors of the federal backup System examined and canvass bank mergers and banking structure in the US from 1980 to 1998. The study provided that 200 banks failed annually from 1987 to 1989 in the US, due(p) to problem loans in petroleum, agriculture, commercial genuine estates, and loans to less-developed countries. These factors may have created some approximate buying opportunities for banks that were performing relatively well (Rhoades 2000). According to the study, the US banking industry experienced an unprecedented merger movement since 1980, with intimately 8000 mergers and about $2.4 trillion in acquired as mountains as of 20 00 unsocial. The banking industry has been restructured in retort to the removal of legal restrictions on intrastate and interstate banking throughout 1980-1998. The number of banks in the US decreased from 14407 to 8697 and the number of banking organizations decreased from 12342 to 6839 (Rhoades 2000). In his study on mergers in the US banking industry, Rhoades (2000) provided for the following conclusions ? The number of banking offices continued to grow in the US throughout the mid-nineties despite the burgeoning of ATMs and ATM proceeding.? submergence of control over aggregate US bank deposits among the largest banks increased substantially, with the share of the 100 largest go up from about 47 percent to 71 percent, and the share of the 10 largest rising from 19 percent to 37 percent the latter(prenominal) rise occurred mostly after 1990. ? Concentration increased substantially in many another(prenominal) local banking markets, especially in large metropolitan areas. ? The number of bank mergers reached the highest aim for the period in the mid-1980s, when industry profit rates and stock prices were very low (Rhoades 2000).solely what exactly motivates firms to merge and how do these mergers proceed competition and the economy? According to Moore and Siems (2006), there are two primary factors that guess the need for financial institutions to remain competitive deregulation and engineering. deregulating has significantly changed how and where banks do business. Relaxation of restrictions on banks securities activities has stuporous the conventional distinction with investment banking while the exclusion of branching restrictions has created vast geographic expansion possibilities.Continued consolidation is estimated to eventually result in about 3000 banking organizations, with a handful of ace banks competing simultaneously with many smaller residential area banks. Advancements in technology have also created incentives to merge due to decline in be in information airing, allowing for far-flung operations created through mergers. In other words, technology and deregulation have blurred accepted boundaries as to time, geography, language, enterprises and regulations in the banking industry (Moore and Siems 2006).Thus, one advantage for mergers is that customers can perplex one-stop financial services. This allows for greater efficiencies through bankrupt information flows and lower transaction costs for the financial institutions involved. However, studies show that major whirligig for earnings and stocks through mergers is if the economy continues to show stronger-than-expected growth, which in turn could increase submit for commercial lending. If the economy slows down, stock prices become pretty full, and takeovers are less likely to benefit the banks involved (LaMonica 2003).The data used for this research study were garner from related database found online and from case studies and academic papers. The case studies were conducted by management consultancy firms such as Accenture and A. T. Kearney, whereas the working papers were collected from organizations such as the Board of Governors of the federal official apply System and the American Society for Quality. Results and findings from surveys and a posteriori analysis conducted by these research individuals and organizations were used for this paper.News articles from sources such as CNNMoney and other apt(p) websites were also used. B. The Sample The data used are primarily case studies gathered from related literature. These were survey results and findings from studies conducted by research individuals and organizations such as Accenture (2006), A. T. Kierney (2006), and Cox and Bossert (2005). The findings analyzed for this paper were conclusions and results from the data-based data from surveys conducted in 2005 and 2006 from the various existing case studies reviewed. C. look for DesignThe research question for this paper is Whether US banks should focus on organic growth or mergers and acquisitions in order to expand their business? The possible action is that Customer satisfaction, through counselling on VoC, is the key component to organic growth which is the recommended business expansion activity for financial institutions over mergers and acquisitions. The hypothesis will be answered based on the analysis of the findings and insights gleaned from case studies and related literature. The study will make use of soft Research Methodology.Numerical and statistical data were not gathered due to time timidity and physical limitations on conducting surveys in the financial institutions throughout the US. Based on qualitative analysis, the research paper thus onrushes the study by providing a complete, and detailed comment of organic growth and mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector based on a study of related literature. Based on the qualitative research approach, the researcher is the data-gathering instrument, and the data herein provided is in the form of words and pictures, as indicated in Figure 1 (Neil 2006).IV. abstract of Results and Findings Results from the analysis of the case studies provided indicated that many financial institutions recognize the need for growth, whether it be through organic growth, mergers and acquisitions, or both. Many financial institutions are also aiming for annual organic growth rates of at least(prenominal) 10 percent or higher, but often, they fall short due to a variety of factors (A. T. Kearney 2006). An examination of the data provided would show that organic growth and mergers and acquisitions benefit two different groups.The organic growth of a company would benefit the bank itself, but more than anything, it will result in a greater advantage and benefit to the customers. The reason behind this is that studies have indicated that productive organic growth is premised on customer satisfaction as its most big component. To achieve high performance, increase revenue, and happen their average growth rate, financial institutions must finds ways to harvest relationships with existing and new customers. Cross-selling will help increase share-of-wallet from both existing and new customers.However, cross-selling efforts must be accompanied with managing product complexity since customers have become increasingly aware of the aver of banking and financial services in stock(predicate). Less than passable products or poor service will cause the customers to shop around and switch service providers, especially since banks are set more as commodities rather than business partners by their banking clientele. Thus, cross-selling must be utilised to gain and retain profitable customers (Cox and Bossert 2005 Accenture 2006 A.T. Kearney 2006). trusts would necessarily have to improve their marketing, sales, and service capabilities to increase cross-selling. To achieve this, customer segmentation , product design, and price/value equations should be closely monitored in relation to customer relationship management. convention of customer data will help management to ascertain customer needs and to adjust and improve market and product management, distribution, service and fulfillment accordingly.Full integration of customer data provides for an accurate and complete view of the customer, and will allow for an empowered and snap off-trained sales force to turn customer insight into profitable and satisfying interactions (Cox and Bossert 2005 Accenture 2006 A. T. Kearney 2006). A model for a undefeated venture into improving customer satisfaction to increase its organic growth is the case of Bank of America.By establishing a customer satisfaction goal, which provides for a measuring rod process to evaluate afoot(predicate) performance and to acquire analytical dexterity to improve performance in a targeted way, Bank of America was able to streamline its products and serv ices to effectively retain and increase its customer base. By relying on VoC, and tying all its planning efforts to factors that would drive customer satisfaction and loyalty, Bank of America improved its organic growth (Cox and Bossert 2005).Focusing on organic growth will result now wholly improve customer satisfaction, increase customer base and profit, but will also drive wealth creation for shareholders (A. T. Kearney 2006). On the other hand, mergers and acquisitions provide a greater advantage to the financial institutions themselves. A company with financial problems will benefit from unify with a stronger company. The latter, in turn, would gain a greater market share and lose weight competition in the industry by acquiring smaller or too situated institutions.Advancements in technology and less legal barriers regarding financial transactions have also allowed financial institutions to cover wider geographical areas. This in turn benefits the customer as well since the bank becomes a one-stop-shop for banking transactions, available wherever the customer may be. Deregulation and technology have been key factors in the drive for mergers, and have lead to significant cost-cutting measures for the firms involved. It has also provided for greater efficiencies and information dissemination to the financial institutions, which in turn provides for greater flexibility and convenience for its customers.One dependableguard for cook institutions which opt for mergers and acquisitions to expand its growth is restrain one hundred fifty-five under the Securities Act, also know as the Integration of Abandoned Offerings which was passed by the Securities and Exchange Commission ( sulfur). SEC revise command 152 of the Securities Act of 1933 in response to the challenges under previous securities regulations and the changing market conditions. overshadow one hundred fifty-five became effective on March 7, 2001, and has had significant impact on companies s eeking alternative support in light of a weakened securities market.It provides for a flexible framework in which companies can convert their occult passs to registered passs and the other way around, minus the usual risk of integration. The convening provides non-exclusive safe harbors from the integration amidst registered and confidential digestings, and allows issuers to move more quickly if market conditions change rapidly (Marek and Seo 2001). Before territory 155 was enacted, a financial institution with a failed registered offering was limited in the choices it subsequently had to raise capital.It could either set apart or abandon a registered offering, but would encounter difficulty in quickly obtaining alternative funding due to indecipherable regulations on integration. A company that started a private offering may have found sufficient investor interest to rationalize making a registered offering, but was confront with making offers of registered securities prior to filing a registration statement. Before govern 155, there were thus no clear guidelines as to how a company can insulate itself from the risk of mergers and acquisitions.SECs prior guidelines in this area were limited to suggesting a six-month chilling off period as well as a traditional five-part test involving consideration of whether two or more offerings (Marek and Seo 2001) ? Are part of a single plan of financing ? Have the same general purpose ? Involves the same class of security ? Are made at or about the same time and ? Involve securities sold for the same type of consideration. The adoption of the new Rule 155 provides for reliefs for financial institutions (and other institutions in different industries) who opt to participate in mergers, acquisitions, or take-overs.The new Rule 155 does not change the traditional five-factor analysis approach of SEC but clarifies the implication of integration in two specific types of transactions (Marek and Seo 2001). Rule 155 creates integration safe harbors for two types of common transactions 1) a registered offering following an abandoned private offering and 2) a private offering following an abandoned registration offering. The term private offering is specifically defined to include whole the offerings that qualify for one of the following exemptions (i) Section 4(2) of the Securities Act, for transactions not involving a public offering(ii) Section 4(6) of the Securities Act, for transactions that do not exceed $5 million and involve offers and sales only to accredited investors. Or (iii) Rule 506 of Regulation D, for transactions involving offers and sales to an outright number of accredited investors and no more than 35 purchasers who, although not accredited, are sophisticated (Marek and Seo 2001). Thus, safe harbors in Rule 155 sets forth clear guidelines under which a company may change its offering between registered and private offerings without the risk of integration.It provides gr eater flexibility to companies such as financial institutions in this case which seek financing in this changing market (Marek and Seo 2001). V. thick and Conclusions The case study on Bank of America is a model on how focusing on customer satisfaction can further enhance organic growth for a financial institutions. By establishing a customer satisfaction goal, a financial institution can set up a measurement process in order to evaluate current performance and acquire analytical capability to improve performance in a targeted way (Cox and Bossert 2005).Gathering information about the customers will allow a company to streamline its products and services to meet customer needs. This also allows for greater opportunity for more effective cross-selling which will help increase share-of-wallet from both existing and new customers. Institutions with high levels of customer satisfaction, or customer momentum, need to look at products and services through the eyeball of the customer and should simultaneously listen to the VoC.There is a need to recognize and reward populate for selling bundled sets of products rather than merely focusing on measuring and rewarding sales associates for selling specific products only (A. T. Kearney 2006). A financial institution must also take note that products and services to be added or cross-sold must be primed(p) in relation to margins on core products to ensure profitable growth. The mix of products and services offered to customers is equally important when considering their impact on profit.Many financial institutions have limited insight into the true profitability of specific products which makes the maturement of an economically-attractive bundle (whether from the customers or the institutions perspective) problematic (A. T. Kearney 2006). As such, managing product complexity is also important. To fail serve their customers, sales associates must say their products, and when a bank has too many products and services on its platter, its employees tend to be less knowledgeable about what to offer or cross-sell to their customers.Managing product complexity will allow for improvement in the product cost/price relationship and will help customers understand a value proposition. It can help improve both service delivery, transaction effectiveness, and decrease the potential for errors within the financial institution (A. T. Kearney 2006). Thus, effective organic growth should focus on customer satisfaction or VoC as its key component. Mergers and acquisitions however provide for opportunities for financial institutions to gain a greater market share, improve cost-cutting measures, increase profit, and eliminate competition.Ailing financial organizations also have a better chance for survival by being merged with stronger banking counterparts, while the latter gain a stronger foothold in the market through such acquisitions. .The new Rule 155 adopted by the SEC in provides for safeguards for financia l institutions in case of such mergers, acquisitions and take-overs. It provides for non-exclusive safe harbors from the integration between registered and private offerings, and allows issuers to move more quickly in case market conditions change quickly.The rule provides for clear guidelines in which a financial institution may change its offering between registered and private offerings without the risks usually associated with integration (Marek and Seo 2001). Deregulation, such as through adoption of the new Rule 155, and technology have been identified as two of the driving forces why banking institutions merge. Technology on the other hand has literally allowed banks to cross borders, and have made limitations as to time, geography, and boundaries much non-existent.Information dissemination through the speed of technology has allowed mergers across continents, and for such financial institutions to enamor a large slice of the market share. It has also provided for flexibili ty and convenience to customers. However, one threat to this form of business expansion is the formation of super banks, similar to what is disaster in the retail sector wherein only a small number of key players dominate the industry. This may potentially affect customer needs, as the competitive edge remains with a select set of power players in the banking sector.The lack of boundaries, such as having branches in different parts of the globe, may also hinder optimum customer satisfaction, as a financial institutions operating purpose remains uniform and standard, but customer needs always differ per area, region, or continent. Institutions will use both organic growth and mergers and acquisitions to grow and expand their businesses. But what can be concluded is that those financial institutions with business models that push for strong organic growth make more successful acquirers (A. T.Kearney 2006). Since they understand the needs of their clients better, the services and pro ducts they offer tend to be more separate and thus more cost-effective and profitable. By knowing their customers, and ultimately the strengths of their organizations, then institutions with strong organic growth models are better capable of acquiring and merging with other banking institutions in the future. VI. Future Research The prelim research in this data indicated case studies from surveys conducted on the banking sector for 2005 and 2006.Trends with regard to organic growth and mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector were analyzed. Future research in relation to this study could include analysis of empirical data from major banking institutions and a equivalence of their profit rates from their organic growth and mergers and acquisitions. 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