Idea for a Thesis

[drago]

I have to come up with a thesis over the next 6 months or so and am pretty sure I narrowed it down. If it wasn't for the goddamn Nuremberg Trials, I would be all set.

I don't want this to be predicated on race but I have a feeling the majority of who it would affect would be of one racial group. Oh well, I can't really help who commits the crimes in this country.

Thesis: By sterilizing three time felons, crime will decrease by 30% over the next 20 years.

My real question is, because i have not started research, is: do 3 time felons get life in prison? If that's the case, than it is a moot point. So i could switch the crimes to 4 time misdemeanors. Or some kind of combination of the two.

I'm tired of turning on the news everyday and hearing of the prions being over crowded or having some kids rob a bank, shoot and kill a cop, only to have his mom come on the tv explaining how much of a good kid he was and that he was just misunderstood.

There's my thought, bash away if you will.

[ZachEY]

Your opinion is your opinion, but if you wanted a thesis that would be taken seriously, I'd think of something else.

[neckdemon]

I have to come up with a thesis over the next 6 months or so and am pretty sure I narrowed it down. If it wasn't for the goddamn Nuremberg Trials, I would be all set.

I don't want this to be predicated on race but I have a feeling the majority of who it would affect would be of one racial group. Oh well, I can't really help who commits the crimes in this country.

Thesis: By sterilizing three time felons, crime will decrease by 30% over the next 20 years.

My real question is, because i have not started research, is: do 3 time felons get life in prison? If that's the case, than it is a moot point. So i could switch the crimes to 4 time misdemeanors. Or some kind of combination of the two.

I'm tired of turning on the news everyday and hearing of the prions being over crowded or having some kids rob a bank, shoot and kill a cop, only to have his mom come on the tv explaining how much of a good kid he was and that he was just misunderstood.

There's my thought, bash away if you will.

what do you mean by sterilizing? you mean so they can't reproduce? i hate to say it but this sounds like a bad thesis. what is the class?

[Jetsfan80]

Here's a thesis for you. Why has crime increased over the years? Opportunity. In the 1950's, crime was more difficult, especially theft, because anything you wanted to steal was gigantic (such as a fridge or TV), and was usually guarded by a wife who stayed at home. Granted, a woman home alone might not be able to do all that much to prevent an armed man from taking something, but its better than no one.

Today, you have mp-3 players, flat-screen TV's, i-phones, video game systems and other small devices that can be taken with ease, thrown into the trunk or back seat of a Honda Civic and driven off within 15 minutes without anyone to guard it. Have a fancy home protection system? Who cares. They're gone, and you're not getting your stuff back.

There may not be much to be done regarding theft, other than buying more insurance for the things you own. As far as violent crime, the solution is simple: buy more guns, or get some friends who are licensed gun holders.

IBTL!

Edited February 9, 2010 by Jetsfan80

[drago]

Crime is directly coorilated to poverty. As poverty increases, so does crime. It also tends to work out that the people in poverty tend to have the most kids. It's really not a race thing, it's a poverty thing.

Sure it is harsh, but so is crime.

--the class is EDU604, education masters. It's the final class but i haven't started it quite yet.

Edited February 9, 2010 by drago

[JerryK]

What sort of crime do you expect to have reduced?

-shoplifting?

-speeding?

-mattress-tag tearing?

Different crime comes from different sectors of society. You'd likely not see a drop like 30% across the spectrum.

And your time window may be too short to base on sterilization. You're assuming they won't create more criminals, but your 'test subjects' won't have new kids that reach 18 to commit crimes for almost 20 years. (so your crime drop couldn't begin to be measured for that long).

..unless you're considering castration and those criminals becoming mellow and avoiding crime, but I don't think that will get you 30% across the board either.

[drago]

What sort of crime do you expect to have reduced?

-shoplifting?

-speeding?

-mattress-tag tearing?

Different crime comes from different sectors of society. You'd likely not see a drop like 30% across the spectrum.

And your time window may be too short to base on sterilization. You're assuming they won't create more criminals, but your 'test subjects' won't have new kids that reach 18 to commit crimes for almost 20 years. (so your crime drop couldn't begin to be measured for that long).

..unless you're considering castration and those criminals becoming mellow and avoiding crime, but I don't think that will get you 30% across the board either.

Valid point.

the 30% is a very general number, clearly. I do know there were studies done on when abortion was illegal and the lag time to more crime about 20 years later. Without having done research, i'm only grasping at straws. I was hoping to use abortion as a study to follow. I remember hearing it was outlawed in the 70's? Not sure if that is accurate.

The crimes i am interested in are the violent ones only; armed robbery, domestic violence, assault and battery...things like that.

From what I hear, these projects need to be broken down to the smallest detail, which i'm looking forward to. I know in this country people love their civil rights at all costs, looking at past countries, the harsher the penalties the less the crime. Not in all cases but in many.

[Otter]

I'm failing to see how castration of violent felons fits into an education masters thesis?

[drago]

i never said castration, i said sterilization. The topics can literally be done on any topic under the sun. I live in Milwaukee, it's a topic that I believe has merit and I have heard of this in other cultures.

[Otter]

i never said castration, i said sterilization. The topics can literally be done on any topic under the sun. I live in Milwaukee, it's a topic that I believe has merit and I have heard of this in other cultures.

If your thesis can be on any topic and you feel strongly about this then go for it. But as someone pursuing an education masters I think you would be better off connecting this to young people or education. Maybe look at the way we treat youthful offenders here in America (or maybe just in Wisconsin) and compare it to the way they are treated in other nations.

[drago]

If your thesis can be on any topic and you feel strongly about this then go for it. But as someone pursuing an education masters I think you would be better off connecting this to young people or education. Maybe look at the way we treat youthful offenders here in America (or maybe just in Wisconsin) and compare it to the way they are treated in other nations.

That is a good point. The one thing that is different with my situation is that I will not be a classroom teacher at any point. I am pursuing the masters for work in a business field and to strengthen my credentials for a head soccer coaching position at a university.

I like your idea on how youth are treated in terms of crimes and punishments. I do think that needs to be a way to clear a record after X amount of years. I'll definitely take that into consideration. Thanks.

[slats]

Interested in reducing crime and punishing violent felons?

Legalize marijuana.

Legalize it, regulate it, and tax it. Release all non-violent marijuana offenders. This will open up space in prisons for violent offenders. A lot of space.

It also mainstreams a large criminal business, putting criminals out of business. Takes the violence out of this particular segment of the drug trade. It'll probably reduce some of those California wildfires being started by mountain growers, too.

Money and resources currently used to enforce these victimless crimes could instead be put towards enforcing laws against violent perpetrators. Money generated from the legalization and taxation of marijuana could be used to fund crime prevention - or any number of things.

There's a thesis. Get it done.

[RutgersJetFan]

i never said castration, i said sterilization.

It doesn't really matter. This particular topic depends heavily on the considerations you're going to have to account for legally, politically, morally, and sociologically. And I say this with the utmost sincerity; if business is your niche and you're not learned in those areas, you might be better off choosing something a little more relevant for a project that carries as much magnitude as a thesis does. If you are, then enjoy, but a graduate thesis should really be used to help prepare you for future work as well.

You also may want to consider making it more of a research-oriented topic rather than something that's blatantly argumentative. In long projects such as this one, your view's likely to change on a few things here and there, and you're better off not boxing yourself in. As in, would this help? Rather than, this will help. It'll expand your source usage and it'll just look better as the research is being presented.

Edited February 9, 2010 by RutgersJetFan

[Aten]

Thesis: By sterilizing three time felons, crime will decrease by 30% over the next 20 years.

Thesis: if this is a M.Ed candidate, American schools suck **** at teaching math

[dbatesman]

Thesis: if this is a M.Ed candidate, American schools suck **** at teaching math

Spotty arithmetic is the least disturbing part of this thread.

[drago]

I didn't realize this was basic arithmetic. I know you probably live in your nice little subdivisions where race and poverty are not an issue. Hate to say, but it does exist, check it out sometime, visit a school outside of your white norm.

[CTM]

Crime is directly coorilated to poverty. As poverty increases, so does crime. It also tends to work out that the people in poverty tend to have the most kids. It's really not a race thing, it's a poverty thing.

Sure it is harsh, but so is crime.

--the class is EDU604, education masters. It's the final class but i haven't started it quite yet.

I think this is good. Forced sterilization is a tool in governments toolkit isn't used enough imo.

Really anybody on welfare or below a certain income level should be sterilized. Would do wonders for deficit

And ugly people. World would be much beautifuler place without them and their ugly kids

Fatties too.. Sorry crusher, but the sweat between your fat rolls starts to stink after awhile and it's rather unpleasant for those around you. Specially the ass sweat..

[CTM]

Interested in reducing crime and punishing violent felons?

Legalize marijuana.

Legalize it, regulate it, and tax it. Release all non-violent marijuana offenders. This will open up space in prisons for violent offenders. A lot of space.

It also mainstreams a large criminal business, putting criminals out of business. Takes the violence out of this particular segment of the drug trade. It'll probably reduce some of those California wildfires being started by mountain growers, too.

Money and resources currently used to enforce these victimless crimes could instead be put towards enforcing laws against violent perpetrators. Money generated from the legalization and taxation of marijuana could be used to fund crime prevention - or any number of things.

There's a thesis. Get it done.

That was my sr. thesis in high school.. lol

[dbatesman]

I didn't realize this was basic arithmetic. I know you probably live in your nice little subdivisions where race and poverty are not an issue. Hate to say, but it does exist, check it out sometime, visit a school outside of your white norm.

You're proposing forced sterilization of three-strikes offenders and you're accusing others of being myopic and intolerant? Congratulations, friendo, you win.

[ZachEY]

Crime is directly coorilated to poverty. As poverty increases, so does crime. It also tends to work out that the people in poverty tend to have the most kids. It's really not a race thing, it's a poverty thing.

Sure it is harsh, but so is crime.

--the class is EDU604, education masters. It's the final class but i haven't started it quite yet.

So, if it's a poverty thing, shouldn't we be treating that, as opposed to sterilization? I don't want to discuss it, but that's the first question you're going to be asked.

Also, do you have any preliminary research to support this? How many of these felons have had children before their 3rd felony? Should we have a 4th trimester abortion on those kids? Did you consider that there might be a rush to get someone pregnant before a verdict is handed down? Do we prevent that some how?

In an education masters, would a more (appropriate/humane/realistic) thesis possibly be some kind of education initiative based on charter school models?

Or, did you just think that cutting people's balls off would be fun to write about?

[ZachEY]

You're proposing forced sterilization of three-strikes offenders and you're accusing others of being myopic and intolerant? Congratulations, friendo, you win.

yeah, ok.

[CTM]

So, if it's a poverty thing, shouldn't we be treating that, as opposed to sterilization?

Treating poverty with sterilization seems logical to me. It would be better first to invent a time machine and then sterilize their parents, this way we reap the benefits right away. But science just hasn't caught up enough to implement dragonian idears.

Stupid science.

Stupid poor people.

[JerryK]

What does this sterilization thing have to do with an Education or Coaching career????

If you plan to work in academia, this topic is inconsistent with your long-term goals and is likely going to get you *ignored* by the people you aspire to work for.

[SouthernJet]

I have to come up with a thesis over the next 6 months or so and am pretty sure I narrowed it down. If it wasn't for the goddamn Nuremberg Trials, I would be all set.

I don't want this to be predicated on race but I have a feeling the majority of who it would affect would be of one racial group. Oh well, I can't really help who commits the crimes in this country.

Thesis: By sterilizing three time felons, crime will decrease by 30% over the next 20 years.

My real question is, because i have not started research, is: do 3 time felons get life in prison? If that's the case, than it is a moot point. So i could switch the crimes to 4 time misdemeanors. Or some kind of combination of the two.

I'm tired of turning on the news everyday and hearing of the prions being over crowded or having some kids rob a bank, shoot and kill a cop, only to have his mom come on the tv explaining how much of a good kid he was and that he was just misunderstood.

There's my thought, bash away if you will.

My advice:

Most colleges and therfore professors at said instituitions are very liberal.

You have a better chance of a good grade if its liberal tainted. If you get all right wing there is a chance they will shiit on paper no matter how good it is.

JGBs will tell you a story if he wants on how his friend got accpeted to Law School by stating what he wanted to do with his Law Degree

[johnny green balls]

i agree with the old man but out of principle i don't think that way any longer.

in undergrad, i had to take a mandatory class on feminism. i spent all semester telling them everything they wanted to hear and my final paper was about how i was at fault for "robbing" my mom of her life goals by "forcing" her to be a stay at home mom. i was ashamed of what i had done by regurgitating every bit of liberal nonsense i could think of.

in the end i got my grade: C-

ironically, i also learned the most important lesson of my life from this class: you cannot appease those whose entire ethos centers around you being an oppressor.

be true to yourself. in the end, it's all you've got.

[dbatesman]

I can't decide what's more stomach-churning: that someone believes compulsory sterilization to be just and sensible, or that any belief to the contrary is somehow evidence of any ideology beyond "being a civilized human being."

Either way, there are only two relevant considerations involved in this question, and neither has anything to do with ethics or ideology. First is that the OP's conception of crime is rooted in an underclass paradigm that's been rejected in whole or in part by pretty much every respected sociologist alive as factually flawed at best and offensively racist at worst. I'm sure that'll be taken as Exhibit B of "liberal bias," but materially all it means is that a thesis proposing mandatory sterilization will prove only that you've engaged precisely none of the relevant literature.

More to the point: the Supreme Court declared punitive sterilization unconstitutional in 1942. I think it'd be much more fruitful to cast aside the ethical and sociological questions entirely and instead write a thesis on how one could possibly convince 38 states to approve a constitutional amendment to resurrect a practice that was considered barbaric in the days of the Zoot Suit Riots and the Tuskegee Experiment.

[johnny green balls]

why not make your thesis in this way: we pay anyone under 30 years old $5k to be voluntarily sterilized.

theoretically, the underclass would disproportiately do this for the $5k, it would have a similar reduction in crime as your method, and would reduce the longterm cost to taxpayers as there will be less kids out there that are subsidized by the state.

that way you can avoid the "offensive" aspect of forced-sterlization but still work toward proving/disproving the same hypothesis.

[ZachEY]

why not make your thesis in this way: we pay anyone under 30 years old $5k to be voluntarily sterilized.

theoretically, the underclass would disproportiately do this for the $5k, it would have a similar reduction in crime as your method, and would reduce the longterm cost to taxpayers as there will be less kids out there that are subsidized by the state.

that way you can avoid the "offensive" aspect of forced-sterlization but still work toward proving/disproving the same hypothesis.

Great. So 5K could go to getting your useless testicles chromed.

[johnny green balls]

not me i just turned 31

[ZachEY]

not me i just turned 31

Well, I'm still in! Can I do it today? I've still got time to make my 2009 Roth IRA contribution.

[johnny green balls]

i'm sure we can do a collection and raise 10x that amount to prevent you from breeding.

[ZachEY]

i'm sure we can do a collection and raise 10x that amount to prevent you from breeding.

They're only feelings...

They'll heal.

http://www.mrsnv.com/evt/e01/part.jsp?rid=1101418&id=2686&acct=9001292075

[gg]

Interested in reducing crime and punishing violent felons?

Legalize marijuana.

Legalize it, regulate it, and tax it. Release all non-violent marijuana offenders. This will open up space in prisons for violent offenders. A lot of space.

It also mainstreams a large criminal business, putting criminals out of business. Takes the violence out of this particular segment of the drug trade. It'll probably reduce some of those California wildfires being started by mountain growers, too.

Money and resources currently used to enforce these victimless crimes could instead be put towards enforcing laws against violent perpetrators. Money generated from the legalization and taxation of marijuana could be used to fund crime prevention - or any number of things.

There's a thesis. Get it done.

Don't you know that marijuana is a gateway drug?

[neckdemon]

Interested in reducing crime and punishing violent felons?

Legalize marijuana.

Legalize it, regulate it, and tax it. Release all non-violent marijuana offenders. This will open up space in prisons for violent offenders. A lot of space.

It also mainstreams a large criminal business, putting criminals out of business. Takes the violence out of this particular segment of the drug trade. It'll probably reduce some of those California wildfires being started by mountain growers, too.

Money and resources currently used to enforce these victimless crimes could instead be put towards enforcing laws against violent perpetrators. Money generated from the legalization and taxation of marijuana could be used to fund crime prevention - or any number of things.

There's a thesis. Get it done.

this leads to a good thesis......"the war on drugs is a failure and will never succeed"

[Aten]

I can't decide what's more stomach-churning: that someone believes compulsory sterilization to be just and sensible, or that any belief to the contrary is somehow evidence of any ideology beyond "being a civilized human being."

Either way, there are only two relevant considerations involved in this question, and neither has anything to do with ethics or ideology. First is that the OP's conception of crime is rooted in an underclass paradigm that's been rejected in whole or in part by pretty much every respected sociologist alive as factually flawed at best and offensively racist at worst. I'm sure that'll be taken as Exhibit B of "liberal bias," but materially all it means is that a thesis proposing mandatory sterilization will prove only that you've engaged precisely none of the relevant literature.

More to the point: the Supreme Court declared punitive sterilization unconstitutional in 1942. I think it'd be much more fruitful to cast aside the ethical and sociological questions entirely and instead write a thesis on how one could possibly convince 38 states to approve a constitutional amendment to resurrect a practice that was considered barbaric in the days of the Zoot Suit Riots and the Tuskegee Experiment.

None of this is as repugnant as the notion that some institution of higher learning is about to confer a graduate degree on a bozo who thinks eugenics is gonna yield a 30% return in 20 years. Even granting all of his assumptions as to efficacy and factoring in the chilling effect we're still talking about something more on the order of a single percentage point. I'm pretty sure the only way to achieve that kind of reduction in that kind of timeframe is wholesale decriminalization.