Saturday, August 31, 2019

Marketing Strategy in ecommerce industry

IntroductionTechnological development has led to formulation of quite a number of strategies aimed at elevating marketing in line with the current electronic age. Amazon and eBay provide us with a perfect example to the extent to which e-commerce can help in the continued growth of business. In the traditional marketing strategy, the model used is the Four P’s model. That is, there has to be product, place, price and promotion. The commodity offered on the market to attract attention or intended to be offered for acquisition is the product. When you have your product you must also have the platform which will act as the venue of meeting between the targeted client and the product in question.The value attached to the product and which is the target channel to the generation of revenue is the price. The price attached or tagged on the product need not necessarily be the price at which it is sold. This is because the process of selling is subject to many constraints, bargaining being one of them. Customers or targeted customers need information about the product, its characteristics and distinguishing features in order to make their purchases. Promoting the product therefore helps in ensuring that this role is played. It ensures awareness of the product by the potential customers. It is done in several ways. Advertising is one of the ways through which this promotional activity is carried out.The model applied in e-commerce strategy is more complex than what we have discussed above. However,   Ã‚  it is good to also note that it is very essential; that both traditional model and this advanced model be fused together in order to create a smooth transition without leaving a hanging gap. According to Allen and Fjermestad, integrating the new strategic frameworks with the traditional marketing model a more thorough framework can be developed.Due to great expansion that has been seen in the area of internet use, which means that the number of internet users h as immensely increased, there is need to come up with a model that can serve the needs of all these customers so that businesses do not lose the goodwill of the very customers whose satisfaction the existence of the business depends on. If the satisfaction of the customers is not assured then the business can be sure to lose their confidence yet it is fundamental that the business reassures every customer of satisfaction. In fact, information apart from providing awareness, it is a product on its own.   It is therefore important to examine the problems that the e-commerce faces by critically looking at the marketing mix. In addition the four P’s do not lose meaning but rather the gain meaning.Data requiredAs we have indicated above, data is a product on itself in addition to being a means of creating awareness to the benefit of a given product offered by a company. The product can either be a service or a good. Companies in need of obtaining data through quick online connec tion need to license eBay Market Data. After licensing eBay Market Data, they can access AERS (Advanced Economic Research Systems) data services online. Companies can get online quickly with time tested search technologies that produce correct analysis using the most efficient techniques possible. Before we look into the kind of data a company would need it is good to understand the setting in which the data will be situated.Allen and Fjerstand go ahead to state that the development in technology has allowed the information about the product or service to be separated from the product or service itself (Allen and Fjerstand). This, they say, has three elements: content, context and infrastructure. Content is what is being sold and could be information, service or a physical product.Context is how the product is presented for exchange. This method of presentation is vital to winning the consumer loyalty. Once the consumer loyalty is won, there is assurance of large and similar transac tions taking place. Infrastructure on the other hand is the way in which the buyer and the seller are brought together in order for the transaction to be executed.There is need to understand that mentioning marketing we must have two kinds of information. We must have consumer information and product information. Therefore the data required falls under the two categories of information. The consumer has to be equipped with the full information about the product before making good the urge to purchase. In addition, the fact that the whole process internet selling is quite intangible increases the risk involved. The seller also needs to have information about the buyers. It is important that the seller understands the location of the customer, preferences and tastes. The customer will also need to know about shipping, physical features of the product on offer.Location of the dataAdvanced Economic Research Systems provide a wide range of data systems which in turn provide location for access of data. The following are some of the data systems that can act as location for data.eBay Category Structure Lookups eBay Smart Search Technology eBay Demographics Data Systems eBay Market Research (Customized Reporting) eBay Shipping Data Systems The method used to inquire about the information is just a click on the mouse and the navigator takes you to the required center.Analysis of the dataIt is vital that correct information is gathered concerning the customer or the product. If this is not done, there is possibility of collecting the wrong information thereby either buying the wrong product or providing buyers with the wrong product. Coming up with a comprehensive marketing is a challenge which has several advantages that give a strong of go on.It allows reduced warehousing by the companies thereby reducing storage costs and holding costs and reduced inventory costs due to automation. Internet selling is just to all companies big and small since any company is able to operate internet. There is possibility for companies to reach customers who are far away and who the company would otherwise not have the ability to sell to in their localities. Internet has enabled a one to one marketing in addition to creating room for 24-hour operation. Lastly, it provides a unique form of market research for information about the market.The internet has also its own demerits. The rapid growth in internet use has made it difficult for the companies to cope with high demand and manage distribution. Secondly, it is possible for transactions to take to long before being executed. This is because it is easier for buyers to forget after making an order due to dalliance. Lastly, apart from the fact that it could hard to find some sites, there is a barrier created between the buyer and the company since the products can’t be seen in person.Achievement of any framework developed should be measured in terms of customer satisfaction such that its failure would be se en through its failure to satisfy the targeted customers.  In conclusion, we ca say that there has been an enormous increase in the demand for information which can be justified by the increase in internet connectivity. This means that there is need to be developed a strategy that will ensure effective management and sustained distribution to customers.Reference:Checking out. (2000, March- April). Harvard Business Review, p. 22Mardesian, J. (1999, November 8). ‘The Web is no Shopper’s Paradise’. Fortune. Pp 189, 190

Friday, August 30, 2019

Boko Haram

Boko Haram From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Boko Haram People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad | Participant in the Nigerian Sharia conflict| Active| 2002–| Ideology| Islamism Islamic fundamentalism Oppose man-made law Support strict sharia law| Leaders| Mohammed Yusuf Abubakar Shekau[1] Mallam Sanni Umaru[2][3][not in citation given]Abu Qaqa – spokesman[4] Abu Zaid – spokesman[3]| Headquarters| Kanamma, Nigeria|Area  of operations| Northern Nigeria| Opponents| Nigerian State| Battles/wars| Nigerian Sharia conflict 2009 Nigerian sectarian violence| Map of Nigerian states that currently implement Shariah (in green) People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad[5] (Arabic: , Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad), better known by its Hausa name Boko Haram, is a jihadist terrorist organization based in the northeast of Nigeria. 6] It is an Islamist movement which strongly opposes man-made laws. Founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2001[7] or 2002,[8] the organisation is a Muslim sect that seeks to abolish the secular system of government and establish sharia law in the country. [9][10] The group is also known for attacking Christian churches. [11] The movement, whose name in the Hausa language, Boko Haram, translates as â€Å"Western education is sacrilege†[9] or â€Å"a sin†,[12] is divided into three factions, and in 2011, was responsible for more than 450 killings in Nigeria. 9] Though the group first became known internationally following sectarian violence in Nigeria in 2009, it does not have a clear structure or evident chain of command. [13] Moreover, it is still a matter of debate whether Boko Haram has links to terror outfits outside Nigeria and its fighters have frequently clashed with Nigeria's central government. [9] Contents * 1 Etymology * 2 Ideology * 2. 1 Criticism * 3 History * 3. 1 Background * 3. 2 Origin * 3. 3 The beginning of violence * 3. 4 Reemergence * 4 Assessment * 5 Funding * 6 See also * 7 References * 8 External links| EtymologyThe group has adopted its official name to be People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad, which is the English translation of Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad ( ). In the town of Maiduguri, where the group was formed, the residents dubbed it Boko Haram. The term â€Å"Boko Haram† comes from the Hausa word boko meaning â€Å"western education† and the Arabic word haram figuratively meaning â€Å"sin† (literally, â€Å"forbidden†). [14][15][16][17] The name, loosely translated from Hausa, means â€Å"western education is forbidden†.The group earned this name due to its strong opposition to anything Western, which it sees as corrupting Muslims. [18] Ideology Boko Haram is an indigenous Salafist group which only turned itself into a Salafist Jihadist group in 2009. [6] It propagat es that not only interaction with the Western World is forbidden, but it is also against the Muslim establishment and the government of Nigeria. [19] The group publicly extols its ideology despite the fact that its founder and former leader Muhammad Yusuf was himself a highly educated man who lived a lavish life and drove a Mercedes Benz. 14] The members of the group do not interact with the local Muslim population[20] and have carried out assassinations in the past of any one who criticises it, including Muslim clerics. [18] In a 2009 BBC interview, Muhammad Yusuf, then leader of the group, stated his belief that the concept of a spherical Earth is contrary to Islamic teaching and should be rejected, along with Darwinian evolution and the concept of rain originating from water evaporated by the sun. [21] Before his death, Yusuf reiterated the group's objective of changing the current education system and rejecting democracy. 22] Nigerian academic Hussain Zakaria told BBC News that the controversial cleric had a graduate education, spoke proficient English, lived a lavish lifestyle and drove a Mercedes-Benz. [21] In the wake of the 2009 crackdown on its members and its subsequent reemergence, the growing frequency and geographical range of attacks attributed to Boko Haram have led some political and religious leaders in the north to the conclusion that the group has now expanded beyond its original religious composition to include not only Islamic militants, but criminal elements and disgruntled politicians as well. Boko Haram has become a franchise that anyone can buy into. It's something like a Bermuda Triangle,† said Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima. [23] Criticism Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, the Niger State governor, has criticised the group saying â€Å"Islam is known to be a religion of peace and does not condone violence and crime in any form† and Boko Haram doesn't represent Islam. [24] The Sultan of Sokoto Sa'adu Abubakar, the s piritual leader of Nigerian Muslims, has called the sect â€Å"anti-Islamic† and, as reported by the website AllAfrica. om, â€Å"an embarrassment to Islam. â€Å"[25] The Coalition of Muslim Clerics in Nigeria (CMCN) have called on the Boko Haram to disarm and embrace peace. [26] The Islamic Circle of North America,[27] the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada,[28] The Muslim Council of Britain,[29] the Organization of Islamic Cooperation[30] and the Council on American Islamic Relations[31] have all condemned the group. History Background Main articles: Islam in Nigeria and Colonial NigeriaBefore colonisation and subsequent annexation into the British Empire, the Bornu Empire ruled the territory where Boko Haram is currently active. It was a sovereign sultanate run according to the principles of the Constitution of Medina, with a majority Kanuri Muslim population. The Bornu Sultanate emerged after the overthrow of the Kanem-Bornu Empire ruled by the Saifawa dynasty for over 2000 years. The Bornu Sultanate of the Kanuri is distinct from the Sokoto Caliphate of the Hausa/Fulani established in 1802 by the military conquest of Usman dan Fodio. 6] Both the Bornu Sultanate and Sokoto Caliphate came under control of the British in 1903. However, due to activities of early Christian missionaries who used Western education as a tool for evangelism, it is viewed with suspicion by the local population. [18] Increased dissatisfaction gave rise to many fundamentalists among the Kanuri and other peoples of northeast Nigeria. One of the most famous such fundamentalists was Mohammed Marwa, also known as Maitatsine, who was at the height of his notoriety during the 1970s and 1980s.He was sent into exile by the British authorities, he refused to believe Mohammed was the Prophet and instigated riots in the country which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. Some analysts view Boko Haram as an extension of the Maitatsine riots. [32] Origin The group was founded b y Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 in the city of Maiduguri with the aim of establishing a Shari'a government in Borno State under former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. [7][32] He established a religious complex that included a mosque and a school where many poor families from across Nigeria and from neighboring countries enrolled their children. 18] The centre had ulterior political goals and soon it was also working as a recruiting ground for future jihadis to fight the state. [18] The group includes members who come from neighbouring Chad and Niger and speak only Arabic. [33] In 2004 the complex was relocated to Yusuf's home state of Yobe in the village Kanamma near the Niger border. [22] Human Rights Watch researcher Eric Guttschuss told IRIN News that Yusuf successfully attracted followers from unemployed youth â€Å"by speaking out against police and political corruption. Abdulkarim Mohammed, a researcher on Boko Haram, added that violent uprisings in Nigeria are ultimately due to â€Å"t he fallout of frustration with corruption and the attendant social malaise of poverty and unemployment. â€Å"[34] The beginning of violence Timeline of incidents| 7 September 2010| Bauchi prison break[35]| 31 December 2010| December 2010 Abuja attack[36]| 22 April 2011| Boko Haram frees 14 prisoners during a jailbreak in Yola, Adamawa State[37]| 29 May 2011| May 2011 northern Nigeria bombings[38]| 6 June 2011| The group claims responsibility for the 2011 Abuja police headquarters bombing[39][40]| 26 June 2011| Bombing attack on a beer garden in Maiduguri, leaving 25 dead and 12 injured[41][42]| 10 July 2011| Bombing at the All Christian Fellowship Church in Suleja, Niger State[43]| 11 July 2011| The University of Maiduguri temperory closes down its campus citing security concerns[44]| 12 August 2011| Prominent Muslim Cleric Liman Bana is shot dead by Boko Haram[45]| 26 August 2011| 2011 Abuja bombing[46]| November 2011| 2011 Damaturu attacks[40][47][48]| 25 December 2011| December 2011 Nigeria bombings[49]| 5–6 January 2012| January 2012 Nigeria attacks[50]| 20 January 2012| January 2012 Kano bombings[51]| 28 January 2012| Nigerian army says it killed 11 Boko Haram insurgents[52]| 8 February 2012| Boko Haram claims responsibility for a suicide bombing at the army headquarters in Kaduna. [53]| 16 February 2012| Another prison break staged in central Nigeria; 119 prisoners are released, one warder killed. 54]| 8 March 2012| During a British hostage rescue attempt to free Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara and Briton Christopher McManus, abducted in 2011 by a splinter group Boko Haram, both hostages were killed. [55]| The group conducted its operations more or less peacefully during the first seven years of its existence[6] That changed in 2009 when the Nigerian government launched an investigation into the group's activities following reports that its members were arming themselves. 56] Prior to that the government reportedly repeatedly ignored warnings about the increasingly militant character of the organisation, including that of a military officer. [56] When the government came into action, several members of the group were arrested in Bauchi, sparking deadly clashes with Nigerian security forces which led to the deaths of an estimated 700 people. During the fighting with the security forces Boko Haram fighters reportedly â€Å"used fuel-laden motorcycles† and â€Å"bows with poison arrows† to attack a police station. [57] The group's founder and then leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed during this time while in police custody. 58][59][60] After Yusuf's killing, a new leader emerged whose identity was not known at the time. [61] Reemergence After the killing of M. Yusuf, the group carried out its first terrorist attack in Borno in January 2010. It resulted in the killing of four people. [62] Since then, the violence has only escalated in terms of both frequency and intensity. In January 2012, Abubakar Shekau, a form er deputy to Yusuf, appeared in a video posted on YouTube. According to Reuters, Shekau took control of the group after Yusuf's death in 2009. [1] Authorities had previously believed that Shekau died during the violence in 2009. 63] By early 2012, the group was responsible for over 900 deaths. [64] Assessment Boko Haram is considered a major potential terrorist threat affecting Nigeria and other countries, and U. S. officials believe it is potentially allied with Al Qaeda. U. S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) Commander General Carter F. Ham stated in September 2011 that three African terrorist groups – Shabab of Somalia, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb across the Sahel region, and Boko Haram – â€Å"have very explicitly and publicly voiced an intent to target Westerners, and the U.S. specifically† and that he was concerned with â€Å"the voiced intent of the three organizations to more closely collaborate and synchronize their efforts. â€Å"[65] General Ham reitera ted his concern after the Christmas Day 2011 bombings of churches in Nigeria: â€Å"I remain greatly concerned about their stated intent to connect with Al Qaeda senior leadership, most likely through Al Qaeda in the lands of the Islamic Maghreb. †[65] The US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence urged the Obama Administration and U.S. intelligence community in November 2011 to focus on Boko Haram as a potential threat to United States territory. [66] Nigeria's National Security Adviser, General Owoye Andrew Azazi, has been working with other African governments, European and Middle Eastern governments, and the U. S. government to build cooperation against Boko Haram. He met in 2010 with then-CIA Director Leon Panetta, and in 2011 with AFRICOM Commander General Ham, and other U. S. fficials, and was in the United States when the congressional panel was preparing its report on Boko Haram. He participated in a CIA conference at about the sam e time. [67] After the Christmas 2011 bombings carried out by Boko Haram, President Barack Obama's office issued a statement that confirmed that the U. S. and Nigeria were cooperating at a senior level against the terrorist group. [68] Funding A spokesman of Boko Haram claimed that Kano state governor Ibrahim Shekarau and Bauchi state governor Isa Yuguda has paid them monthly. [69][70]

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Are Serial Killers Born or Created

We have been looking at the Nature vs Nurture debate in psychology and how it can be applied to Serial Killers. In class we also looked at the ways nature and nurture effected how Colin Jackson and found that it was a combination of the two arguments. I believe that it may be similarly a combination of both sides of the argument that lead a person to becoming a serial killer. The nature argument towards people’s behaviour is that traits such as intelligence, personality, aggression and sexual orientation are encoded in a persons DNA.This would suggest that Identical twins would have the exact same levels of intelligence, personality and aggression. It also suggests that identical twins would both have the same sexual orientation but as we saw in a psychology lesson there were two identical twins where one showed very masculine traits for a male such as playing with toy guns and cars and the other showed very feminine traits like playing with barbies even though they were ident ical twins which suggests that not everything can be only down to your genetic makeup.The nurture argument is that even though they do believe genetic tendencies exist they do not actually matter in terms of a persons personality etc. This is because they believe that behavioural aspects originate from environmental aspects such as a persons upbringing. Studies done on this have been supportive as they have found cases where identical twins were separated at birth and grew up in different environments and developed very different personalities, intelligence and aggression. At the same time this also goes against the nature theory because it means that they haven’t been affected by only genetics.The opposite end of this argument would suggest that Fraternal Twins would act in exactly the same way and have exactly the same attributes as they will have both been raised in exactly the same environment under the same conditions. In this piece I aim to discuss whether a serial kill er becomes a serial killer due to Nature or Nurture or due to a combination of the two. 1. Power & Control This type of serial killer experiences complete sexual gratification from the domination and humiliation of the victim. This killer is a true sociopath and lives by his own personal set of rules and guidelines.Many of the famous serial killers we have seen in history would fall under his type of serial killer. 2. Visionary This type of serial killer is compelled by voices or visions they experience and are considered psychotic. These voices and visions compel them to kill certain kinds of people. 3. Mission This type of serial killer feels a â€Å"need† or duty to kill certain types of people or â€Å"class† of people such as religious or racial groups or prostitutes. This type of serial killer is not considered psychotic. 4. HedonisticThis type of serial killer makes a strong connection between personal violence and sexual gratification. This type of killer can a lso be described as a â€Å"lust† or â€Å"thrill† killer. This killer receives pleasure from the act and has eroticized the experience. They generally take the time to torture or mutilate their victims. I found this whilst I was doing some research about the serial killers that I have chosen and have tried to use reports of serial killers from a range of these 4 classifications of serial killers in order to make a wider and better rounded summation.I used Crime Library to do my research as I believe it is a reliable source of information on the serial killers and found four case studies that I can use; Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein and Charles Whitman. Firstly I read Ted Bundy’s page and found that in the early years he was brought up by his grandparents who he was told were his actual parents and his natural mother was his older sister so that it would protect her from being judged as having a child before she was married.For the first 3 years of Bundy's life he lived with his grandparents who raised him as their son, this means that he will have formed an attachment to them both and seem them as his mother and father figure throughout the critical period of his life in terms of Bowlbys theory of Maternal Deprivation. This would then have been disrupted when he was told that it was all a lie and that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. This may have caused Ted Bundy to change his cognition about how lying is acceptable within society as he has been lied to throughout his whole life.This may have led to him being unable to form secure attachments with anybody again and it was later reported that he became a petty thief which may have been a direct consequence of him being lied to about his parents. It was reported that soon after this he began to develop psychopathic tendencies and changed from being a shy person to someone that was very driven and dominant. This is a suggestion that Ted felt he had been bet rayed by his family and those around him leading him to have a warped perception of loving which may have influenced the way that he acted.I did some research and found a website that actually had reports of old x-ray’s and other tests on his brain which found there were no abnormalities which suggests that everything causing him to become a serial killer came from the nurture side. Bundy's favoured method was to first lure victims to his car by pretending he had a broken arm and needed someone to take his books to his car then gain control usually by bludgeoning with a crowbar he kept in his infamous Volkswagen Bug. The murders he committed at the sorority house in Florida he used a piece of wood he had found right outside the house.After being hit over the head the victims were strangled as they were raped by Bundy. Teddy also had the peculiar fetish of necrophilia, returning sometimes weeks after dumping a body to have sex with it over and over again. (‘Crime Library ’) This may have had a direct link with what Bundy’s childhood and the way that he was nurtured when growing up. For example when his parents lied to him for large periods of his life it may have led him into believing that it was acceptable for you to lie to people in order to benefit him which is exactly what he was doing when leading women back to his car before beating them.The fact that Bundy also returned to have sex with his victims bodies after weeks after dumping the body means that he was in control of his actions and reinforces the fact the there was no nature argument towards him being that way. However I am unsure what in his upbringing would have led him to act in this way as there were never any reports of any sexual abuse towards him that would have led him to maybe finding it to be acceptable.I believe that in Ted Bundy’s case he would have been a Power and Control type of serial killer because it is almost a direct description of the way that h e acted, he could have also been some aspects of a mission type serial killers as he only killed young women generally in university which may have a direct connection with an event that happened in his life. In the crime library report it said about how the â€Å"love of his life† had broken up with him and he did not know what to do with himself for the rest of his time at university and could not concentrate on anything.This happened whilst he was in university which may have led him to believe that it was down to him in order to kill university girls as he felt they were evil. So Ted Bundy is a serial killer that I believe was created from the Nurture side of things because it was not reported that he had anything wrong with his nature to cause him to act the way in which he did although I couldn’t find any records of brain scans or information about it to suggest that he had actually been properly tested for it.The next serial killer that I researched on was Charl es Whitman, who is not as infamous as Ted Bundy even though he killed a far higher number of people. Charles Whitman was brought up in a wealthy family with his dad being a self employed man that was at the top of his profession so there was no form of poverty in his life. There are a few things from his childhood and teenage years that may have affected the way that he grew up, one being that his father would regularly hit his wife.This may have led to Charles beating his wife as well which he reportedly did, he may have learnt to do this via social learning theory. This would have meant that because he had seen it done from a man that he saw as respectable and holding power that it was acceptable for him to do it as well. When Charles was aged 18 he came home drunk one night and his father punished him by beating him and throwing him into the swimming pool where he almost drowned. This would have a major impact on his life as he had almost been killed by his father.After that he j oined the Marine Corps and it was taught to Charlie from an early age that it was necessary for him to be the best that he could be at whatever he did because he was desperate to prove himself as a man after his father had belittled him for many years. Charlie joined university and was finally free from the regimented life that he had led due to his strict upbringing from his father and the strict training in the Marines which is when he began to get into trouble and found himself getting lots of debts and his grades going down.Charlie was considered to be a genius at a young age so this upset him greatly and when he returned to the Marines he found the military life to be oppressive and lonely. He began to hate the marines and this led to him being Court martialled for his gambling and unauthorized possession of guns. Charlie was embarrassed by his self failure during the marines and at school and was determined to redeem himself.He became obsessed with self improvement and many sc hemes were found where he had written down ways for him to improve himself and the way that he was acting. Someone described him as â€Å"Like a computer. He would install his own values like a machine, then program the things he had to do, and out would come the results†. This image that he desperately tried to uphold crumbled on occasion where he had bouts of temper and frustration which further damaged the self respect that he had for himself.He continued to receive money and expensive gifts from his father. Charlie hated freeloaders, yet that was how he saw himself. He hated failure, yet he had failed to accomplish anything he had set out to do since he left home at 18. He saw being overweight as a sign of weakness, yet he was unable to keep himself as trim as he had been in the Marines. Outwardly, Charlie was diligent and conscientious, a devoted husband and a hard worker; inwardly, he seethed with self-hatred.  (‘Crime Library’)I believe that this came fr om a mixture of both Nature and Nurture in that his father had taught him that failure was unacceptable but it was also found that Charlie had a tumour on his brain that was the size of a peanut that was never dealt with and only found after his death that changed his cognition to make him hate himself and see himself as a failure because in reality he had not actually failed he just didn’t achieve grades or ranks in the marines that he felt he should have meaning that it was mainly himself believing he had not achieved enough whereas those around him actually thought he was doing well enough for himself. â€Å"I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter,† he wrote.â€Å"Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. † He went on to say he'd increasingly been a victim of â€Å"many unusual and irrational thoughts† and that his attempt to get help with his problems (the visit to Dr. Heatly) h ad failed. He expressed a wish that his body be autopsied after his death to see if there was a physical cause for his mental anguish. As he continued, he outlined his plan for the coming 24 hours. â€Å"It was after much thought that I decided to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight after I pick her up from work at the telephone company,† he revealed. â€Å"The prominent reason in my mind is that I truly do not consider this world worth living in, and am prepared to die,  and I do not want to leave her to suffer alone in it. â€Å"He continued, â€Å"similar reasons provoked me to take my mother's life also. â€Å"(‘Crime Library’) This quote from Crime Library is very interesting as it suggests that Charlie himself had known that there was something wrong with the way that he was thinking and felt that there was something wrong with his brain making him think the way that he was. I believe that Charlie wanting to kill his wife and mother because he did not consid er the world worth living in suggests that he is a Mission type serial killer as he wanted to kill people to remove them from a world that he didn’t see as being good enough for the people he killed.Later in the report it says that Charlie climbed to the top of a Texas bell tower with 4 guns where he barricaded himself and began taking shots at people below killing 17 people in total and wounding a further 35 before he was killed by police that made their way up to him and killed him with multiple shotgun shots to the head. In his suicide notes Charles had left a final request to have an autopsy done on his brain where the pecan sized tumour was found. It was found that Charles had a build up of Necrosis surrounding the area of the tumour and the neuro-scientists studying his brain believed that it may have gone from being dormant to suddenly active which may have caused him to have done what he did as his natural ways of thinking were going wrong.The nature argument is prese nt with this Serial Killer but it isn’t solely Nature as it is near impossible to completely rule out any form of Nurture in a child’s upbringing but I originally felt that a combination of the two is what caused people to become serial killers in the first place so this goes very well with that opinion as I believe the combination of both his father telling him that he was a failure led him to being angered easily by those around him and may be what caused him to have the thoughts about killing people but I also believe that the tumour and his brain chemistry that changed when the Necrosis surrounding the tumour became active.It is well documented that he had thoughts about killing people long before he actually did it and it was found that the psychiatrist that was trying to help him through it ignored his sayings about killing people as nonsense even though if he was taught ways to change his cognition on this matter then it may have a actually allowed him to have a higher level of control over the brain tumour allowing him to use techniques taught to him to stop killing those people. The psychiatrist that ignored these facts was given no punishment even though I believe it was down to him to report this to somebody as it endangered the lives of innocent people regardless of ethical issues that may become present for breaking confidentiality. The next serial killer that I found on Crime Library was Ed Gein.This man is one of the better known serial killers with lots of films being done about his life and his killings. Ed Gein was another serial killer that I looked at because I felt that he also had a mixture of both the Nature and Nurture sides of things affecting him and causing him to become what he was; A very notorious serial killer with many films based around his life. Ed’s family appeared to be completely normal when being viewed from the outside as he had a mother, father and also an elder brother. The problems with his life fr om the nurture side all stemmed and revolved largely around his mother who was fanatically religious with very strict morals and taught her sons that women had â€Å"Immorality and looseness†.This constant teaching about how evil the outside world was is one thing that could have caused Ed to be the way he was as his victims were mostly women including the bones that he dug up from graves. Ed saw his mother as the â€Å"epitome of goodness and followed her every order† so much so that when she died â€Å"Ed lost his only friend and his one true love – and was absolutely alone in the world† from Freuds work on the psychosexual stages of development I believe that Ed Gein was stuck in the Oedipus complex which caused him to be in love with his mother. I think due to the way he was brought up by his mother he was never given an opportunity to escape this complex as he was so sheltered from the outside world that it was never possible for him to form real att achments with anybody else.Even when Ed went to a school it was difficult for him to hold relationships with other people of his age because he would be beaten by his mother if she ever found out so he lived in constant fear of displeasing his mother. Eds father was the complete opposite to his mother in that he was a weak man who his mother despised and was an alcoholic therefore as the two boys were growing up it was evident that they would develop a poor perception of how a male should act which I believe may have been the cause for his victims being predominantly female and why he created a suit out of womens skin because his perception had taught him that women were strong and the â€Å"epitome of goodness† whilst men were feeble and couldn’t support their family.Something particularly interesting about the Ed Gein case is that he had a brother that was older than him and although from the videos we have watched in class we know that the nature of a child does not predetermine them having the same personalities it is also evident from this case that siblings do not share similar personalities due to their nurture as well. It was never documented throughout his brother’s life of him ever doing anything similar to that of his brother although it is not entirely possible to disprove it using this case because Ed’s brother was mysteriously killed during a forest fire, Ed was originally suspected because he led them directly to the body which had cuts and bruises on it that were irregular for a fire death but dismissed it as Ed looked too small to kill his brother. I believe that it was Ed that killed his brother and the reasoning behind it would have been that it would allow him to have his mother to himself because his father had passed away previous to that.The reason that Ed Gein may be a combination of both Nature and Nurture is because it was thought that he was mentally retarded which from previous videos and research I have found that this decreases a person’s capacity for learning and a person with a standard brain can expect their brains size to grow at a rate of 1 year per year whereas a person with mental retardation can expect their brain to grow at a far slower rate so they will be unable to learn at the same rate which may have caused Ed to become frustrated and be incapable of using the same thought process as others and it was suggested that he could plead not guilty via insanity suggesting that there was indeed something wrong with his brain that came from the nature side of things.The last serial killer that I looked at was John Wayne Gacy who was born into a family where he was the second child of three with a sister that is 2 years older than him and also a sister that is 2 years younger than him. They grew up in a middle class neighbourhood where Gacy busied himself with school and part time jobs. Gacy was not unpopular in school which is something we tend to expect of most serial killers but he was fairly well liked by staff and pupils. At the age of 11 Gacy was hit in the head by a swing which caused a clot in his brain, and between the ages of 11 and 16 Gacy suffered a series of blackouts.At the age of 17 Gacy was diagnosed with a heart ailment hospitalizing him several times throughout his life. As Gacy aged he began having trouble with his father who was an abusive alcoholic that abused his wife and verbally abused his children. Gacy was desperate to gain his father’s devotion and attention but was unable to do so before his father died which is something that Gacy regretted for his entire life. I believe the part about having the blood clot in the brain would be considered a nature side to things but it was actually not important in him becoming a serial killer because he had medication and it was removed long before he killed anybody.Later in life Gacy’s health took another turn for the worse where he suffered major weight issues leading to more problems with his heart and also a spinal injury that would plague him for the rest of his life. Although this is the case I do not believe that it actually impacted on Gacy becoming what he did because it is usually has to be something that affects the brain and this had no effect on the way he thought and was only impacting his physical attributes. In the community that he lived he was a well-respected man who worked long shifts and volunteered for his community. This is the point when things began to turn worse for Gacy as rumours were spread about his area that his sexual preference was Men which was frowned upon at the time and he was always in the company of young boys.In 1968 the first charges were being presented to Gacy with the first being about tricking a young boy into being tied up and raping him. The fact that Gacy’s victims were all young men may have been something to do with the way that he was brought up aiming to impress his father as much as possib le. Since he would have been of a similar age at the time that he was working towards impressing his father then he may have held a strong feeling that other young men did not deserve the opportunity that was taken away from him at that age to impress their fathers so that he was not alone. In total Gacy killed 33 people and buried them under his house.It was found that most of these were young men that Gacy had lured into working for him and then violently sexually abusing them and also engaging in Necrophilia after killing them where he would keep the body in his bed for days after killing them. In my research on John Wayne Gacy I couldn’t find a definitive reason for him doing this but I believe it may have a link with the way that Gacy’s father treated his mother because he would regularly physically abuse her so it may have been installed into Gacy’s values that this was an acceptable thing because it would have been similar to that of his father’s a ctions that he probably wanted to replicate to the full in order to make his father proud of him. This warped perception of what his father did may have been caused by the Blood clots in his brain when he was around that age because he may have not fully understood what was happening.In summary of Gacy’s actions I believe that the majority of his actions came from his nurture side where his father had abused members of his family so because Gacy looked up to his father and wanted to make him proud he thought that the way to do it would be to replicate the way his father acted. In conclusion of the way serial killers are created I still firmly believe that it is caused by a combination of both Nature and Nurture. I believe that Nature gives you a capacity for learning, for sports, for other things such as the ability to become a serial killer. Whereas nurture is about releasing that potential that you have by how they have been brought up.An example of this is from the video t hat we watched of Colin Jackson where he was discovering about how his genetic makeup and his nurture effected the way that he developed into an Olympic hurdler so if Colin Jackson was simply given the capacity to become an Olympic hurdler from birth and left it idly then he would not have been able to win the races that he did. It requires some input from the Nurture side in the form of training for athletes. So this can be directly applied to the way serial killers are created because I believe there is something in their genetics that gives them a potential to become a serial killer such as a short temper or an inability to think clearly and then this can either be left as simply a potential that is never unleashed in the form of them becoming serial killers.So that means that there has to be something in the nurture side of things that has made them act the way that they have such as some of the theories that we have learnt about in psychology like Social Learning Theory, Matern al Deprivation etc. which means that a person may have learnt from their parents in the cases of John Wayne Gacy for example that beating women was an acceptable thing to do because that is what his father did when he was a child. The capacity for learning to become something could actually be something very common if I’m correct in my explanation meaning that people around you could actually have the potential to become a serial killer because of the way their bio-chemistry is making them have a short temper or hear voices in their head for example.But I believe that because  people are generally subjected to a higher standard of parenting nowadays that serial killers are becoming rarer in western civilizations where it has become necessary to be a good parent otherwise social services will intervene meaning that someone with the potential to become a serial killer does not get that potential unlocked as they have been brought up in a home that will allow them to properly deal with their problems and learn how to react when confronted with them. Another thing that I believe has helped to reduce the number of recent serial killers is the fact that psychological treatment is more advanced these days meaning that even if a person’s cognition does tell them to kill people, or they hear voices within their heads telling them to kill a person then they can be treated to find ways around this. Are Serial Killers Born or Created We have been looking at the Nature vs Nurture debate in psychology and how it can be applied to Serial Killers. In class we also looked at the ways nature and nurture effected how Colin Jackson and found that it was a combination of the two arguments. I believe that it may be similarly a combination of both sides of the argument that lead a person to becoming a serial killer. The nature argument towards people’s behaviour is that traits such as intelligence, personality, aggression and sexual orientation are encoded in a persons DNA.This would suggest that Identical twins would have the exact same levels of intelligence, personality and aggression. It also suggests that identical twins would both have the same sexual orientation but as we saw in a psychology lesson there were two identical twins where one showed very masculine traits for a male such as playing with toy guns and cars and the other showed very feminine traits like playing with barbies even though they were ident ical twins which suggests that not everything can be only down to your genetic makeup.The nurture argument is that even though they do believe genetic tendencies exist they do not actually matter in terms of a persons personality etc. This is because they believe that behavioural aspects originate from environmental aspects such as a persons upbringing. Studies done on this have been supportive as they have found cases where identical twins were separated at birth and grew up in different environments and developed very different personalities, intelligence and aggression. At the same time this also goes against the nature theory because it means that they haven’t been affected by only genetics.The opposite end of this argument would suggest that Fraternal Twins would act in exactly the same way and have exactly the same attributes as they will have both been raised in exactly the same environment under the same conditions. In this piece I aim to discuss whether a serial kill er becomes a serial killer due to Nature or Nurture or due to a combination of the two. 1. Power & Control This type of serial killer experiences complete sexual gratification from the domination and humiliation of the victim. This killer is a true sociopath and lives by his own personal set of rules and guidelines.Many of the famous serial killers we have seen in history would fall under his type of serial killer. 2. Visionary This type of serial killer is compelled by voices or visions they experience and are considered psychotic. These voices and visions compel them to kill certain kinds of people. 3. Mission This type of serial killer feels a â€Å"need† or duty to kill certain types of people or â€Å"class† of people such as religious or racial groups or prostitutes. This type of serial killer is not considered psychotic. 4. HedonisticThis type of serial killer makes a strong connection between personal violence and sexual gratification. This type of killer can a lso be described as a â€Å"lust† or â€Å"thrill† killer. This killer receives pleasure from the act and has eroticized the experience. They generally take the time to torture or mutilate their victims. I found this whilst I was doing some research about the serial killers that I have chosen and have tried to use reports of serial killers from a range of these 4 classifications of serial killers in order to make a wider and better rounded summation.I used Crime Library to do my research as I believe it is a reliable source of information on the serial killers and found four case studies that I can use; Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein and Charles Whitman. Firstly I read Ted Bundy’s page and found that in the early years he was brought up by his grandparents who he was told were his actual parents and his natural mother was his older sister so that it would protect her from being judged as having a child before she was married.For the first 3 years of Bundy's life he lived with his grandparents who raised him as their son, this means that he will have formed an attachment to them both and seem them as his mother and father figure throughout the critical period of his life in terms of Bowlbys theory of Maternal Deprivation. This would then have been disrupted when he was told that it was all a lie and that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. This may have caused Ted Bundy to change his cognition about how lying is acceptable within society as he has been lied to throughout his whole life.This may have led to him being unable to form secure attachments with anybody again and it was later reported that he became a petty thief which may have been a direct consequence of him being lied to about his parents. It was reported that soon after this he began to develop psychopathic tendencies and changed from being a shy person to someone that was very driven and dominant. This is a suggestion that Ted felt he had been bet rayed by his family and those around him leading him to have a warped perception of loving which may have influenced the way that he acted.I did some research and found a website that actually had reports of old x-ray’s and other tests on his brain which found there were no abnormalities which suggests that everything causing him to become a serial killer came from the nurture side. Bundy's favoured method was to first lure victims to his car by pretending he had a broken arm and needed someone to take his books to his car then gain control usually by bludgeoning with a crowbar he kept in his infamous Volkswagen Bug. The murders he committed at the sorority house in Florida he used a piece of wood he had found right outside the house.After being hit over the head the victims were strangled as they were raped by Bundy. Teddy also had the peculiar fetish of necrophilia, returning sometimes weeks after dumping a body to have sex with it over and over again. (‘Crime Library ’) This may have had a direct link with what Bundy’s childhood and the way that he was nurtured when growing up. For example when his parents lied to him for large periods of his life it may have led him into believing that it was acceptable for you to lie to people in order to benefit him which is exactly what he was doing when leading women back to his car before beating them.The fact that Bundy also returned to have sex with his victims bodies after weeks after dumping the body means that he was in control of his actions and reinforces the fact the there was no nature argument towards him being that way. However I am unsure what in his upbringing would have led him to act in this way as there were never any reports of any sexual abuse towards him that would have led him to maybe finding it to be acceptable.I believe that in Ted Bundy’s case he would have been a Power and Control type of serial killer because it is almost a direct description of the way that h e acted, he could have also been some aspects of a mission type serial killers as he only killed young women generally in university which may have a direct connection with an event that happened in his life. In the crime library report it said about how the â€Å"love of his life† had broken up with him and he did not know what to do with himself for the rest of his time at university and could not concentrate on anything.This happened whilst he was in university which may have led him to believe that it was down to him in order to kill university girls as he felt they were evil. So Ted Bundy is a serial killer that I believe was created from the Nurture side of things because it was not reported that he had anything wrong with his nature to cause him to act the way in which he did although I couldn’t find any records of brain scans or information about it to suggest that he had actually been properly tested for it.The next serial killer that I researched on was Charl es Whitman, who is not as infamous as Ted Bundy even though he killed a far higher number of people. Charles Whitman was brought up in a wealthy family with his dad being a self employed man that was at the top of his profession so there was no form of poverty in his life. There are a few things from his childhood and teenage years that may have affected the way that he grew up, one being that his father would regularly hit his wife.This may have led to Charles beating his wife as well which he reportedly did, he may have learnt to do this via social learning theory. This would have meant that because he had seen it done from a man that he saw as respectable and holding power that it was acceptable for him to do it as well. When Charles was aged 18 he came home drunk one night and his father punished him by beating him and throwing him into the swimming pool where he almost drowned. This would have a major impact on his life as he had almost been killed by his father.After that he j oined the Marine Corps and it was taught to Charlie from an early age that it was necessary for him to be the best that he could be at whatever he did because he was desperate to prove himself as a man after his father had belittled him for many years. Charlie joined university and was finally free from the regimented life that he had led due to his strict upbringing from his father and the strict training in the Marines which is when he began to get into trouble and found himself getting lots of debts and his grades going down.Charlie was considered to be a genius at a young age so this upset him greatly and when he returned to the Marines he found the military life to be oppressive and lonely. He began to hate the marines and this led to him being Court martialled for his gambling and unauthorized possession of guns. Charlie was embarrassed by his self failure during the marines and at school and was determined to redeem himself.He became obsessed with self improvement and many sc hemes were found where he had written down ways for him to improve himself and the way that he was acting. Someone described him as â€Å"Like a computer. He would install his own values like a machine, then program the things he had to do, and out would come the results†. This image that he desperately tried to uphold crumbled on occasion where he had bouts of temper and frustration which further damaged the self respect that he had for himself.He continued to receive money and expensive gifts from his father. Charlie hated freeloaders, yet that was how he saw himself. He hated failure, yet he had failed to accomplish anything he had set out to do since he left home at 18. He saw being overweight as a sign of weakness, yet he was unable to keep himself as trim as he had been in the Marines. Outwardly, Charlie was diligent and conscientious, a devoted husband and a hard worker; inwardly, he seethed with self-hatred.(‘Crime Library’) I believe that this came from a mixture of both Nature and Nurture in that his father had taught him that failure was unacceptable but it was also found that Charlie had a tumour on his brain that was the size of a peanut that was never dealt with and only found after his death that changed his cognition to make him hate himself and see himself as a failure because in reality he had not actually failed he just didn’t achieve grades or ranks in the marines that he felt he should have meaning that it was mainly himself believing he had not achieved enough whereas those around him actually thought he was doing well enough for himself. â€Å"I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter,† he wrote.â€Å"Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. † He went on to say he'd increasingly been a victim of â€Å"many unusual and irrational thoughts† and that his attempt to get help with his problems (the visit to Dr. Heatly) had failed. He expressed a wish that his body be autopsied after his death to see if there was a physical cause for his mental anguish. As he continued, he outlined his plan for the coming 24 hours. â€Å"It was after much thought that I decided to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight after I pick her up from work at the telephone company,† he revealed. â€Å"The prominent reason in my mind is that I truly do not consider this world worth living in, and am prepared to die,and I do not want to leave her to suffer alone in it. † He continued, â€Å"similar reasons provoked me to take my mother's life also. â€Å"(‘Crime Library’) This quote from Crime Library is very interesting as it suggests that Charlie himself had known that there was something wrong with the way that he was thinking and felt that there was something wrong with his brain making him think the way that he was. I believe that Charlie wanting to kill his wife and mother because he did not consider the world worth living in suggests that he is a Mission type serial killer as he wanted to kill people to remove them from a world that he didn’t see as being good enough for the people he killed.Later in the report it says that Charlie climbed to the top of a Texas bell tower with 4 guns where he barricaded himself and began taking shots at people below killing 17 people in total and wounding a further 35 before he was killed by police that made their way up to him and killed him with multiple shotgun shots to the head. In his suicide notes Charles had left a final request to have an autopsy done on his brain where the pecan sized tumour was found. It was found that Charles had a build up of Necrosis surrounding the area of the tumour and the neuro-scientists studying his brain believed that it may have gone from being dormant to suddenly active which may have caused him to have done what he did as his natural ways of thinking were going wrong.The nature argument is present wit h this Serial Killer but it isn’t solely Nature as it is near impossible to completely rule out any form of Nurture in a child’s upbringing but I originally felt that a combination of the two is what caused people to become serial killers in the first place so this goes very well with that opinion as I believe the combination of both his father telling him that he was a failure led him to being angered easily by those around him and may be what caused him to have the thoughts about killing people but I also believe that the tumour and his brain chemistry that changed when the Necrosis surrounding the tumour became active.It is well documented that he had thoughts about killing people long before he actually did it and it was found that the psychiatrist that was trying to help him through it ignored his sayings about killing people as nonsense even though if he was taught ways to change his cognition on this matter then it may have a actually allowed him to have a highe r level of control over the brain tumour allowing him to use techniques taught to him to stop killing those people. The psychiatrist that ignored these facts was given no punishment even though I believe it was down to him to report this to somebody as it endangered the lives of innocent people regardless of ethical issues that may become present for breaking confidentiality. The next serial killer that I found on Crime Library was Ed Gein.This man is one of the better known serial killers with lots of films being done about his life and his killings. Ed Gein was another serial killer that I looked at because I felt that he also had a mixture of both the Nature and Nurture sides of things affecting him and causing him to become what he was; A very notorious serial killer with many films based around his life. Ed’s family appeared to be completely normal when being viewed from the outside as he had a mother, father and also an elder brother. The problems with his life from the nurture side all stemmed and revolved largely around his mother who was fanatically religious with very strict morals and taught her sons that women had â€Å"Immorality and looseness†.This constant teaching about how evil the outside world was is one thing that could have caused Ed to be the way he was as his victims were mostly women including the bones that he dug up from graves. Ed saw his mother as the â€Å"epitome of goodness and followed her every order† so much so that when she died â€Å"Ed lost his only friend and his one true love – and was absolutely alone in the world† from Freuds work on the psychosexual stages of development I believe that Ed Gein was stuck in the Oedipus complex which caused him to be in love with his mother. I think due to the way he was brought up by his mother he was never given an opportunity to escape this complex as he was so sheltered from the outside world that it was never possible for him to form real attachmen ts with anybody else.Even when Ed went to a school it was difficult for him to hold relationships with other people of his age because he would be beaten by his mother if she ever found out so he lived in constant fear of displeasing his mother. Eds father was the complete opposite to his mother in that he was a weak man who his mother despised and was an alcoholic therefore as the two boys were growing up it was evident that they would develop a poor perception of how a male should act which I believe may have been the cause for his victims being predominantly female and why he created a suit out of womens skin because his perception had taught him that women were strong and the â€Å"epitome of goodness† whilst men were feeble and couldn’t support their family.Something particularly interesting about the Ed Gein case is that he had a brother that was older than him and although from the videos we have watched in class we know that the nature of a child does not prede termine them having the same personalities it is also evident from this case that siblings do not share similar personalities due to their nurture as well. It was never documented throughout his brother’s life of him ever doing anything similar to that of his brother although it is not entirely possible to disprove it using this case because Ed’s brother was mysteriously killed during a forest fire, Ed was originally suspected because he led them directly to the body which had cuts and bruises on it that were irregular for a fire death but dismissed it as Ed looked too small to kill his brother. I believe that it was Ed that killed his brother and the reasoning behind it would have been that it would allow him to have his mother to himself because his father had passed away previous to that.The reason that Ed Gein may be a combination of both Nature and Nurture is because it was thought that he was mentally retarded which from previous videos and research I have found that this decreases a person’s capacity for learning and a person with a standard brain can expect their brains size to grow at a rate of 1 year per year whereas a person with mental retardation can expect their brain to grow at a far slower rate so they will be unable to learn at the same rate which may have caused Ed to become frustrated and be incapable of using the same thought process as others and it was suggested that he could plead not guilty via insanity suggesting that there was indeed something wrong with his brain that came from the nature side of things. The last serial killer that I looked at was John Wayne Gacy who was born into a family where he was the second child of three with a sister that is 2 years older than him and also a sister that is 2 years younger than him. They grew up in a middle class neighbourhood where Gacy busied himself with school and part time jobs. Gacy was not unpopular in school which is something we tend to expect of most serial kille rs but he was fairly well liked by staff and pupils. At the age of 11 Gacy was hit in the head by a swing which caused a clot in his brain, and between the ages of 11 and 16 Gacy suffered a series of blackouts.At the age of 17 Gacy was diagnosed with a heart ailment hospitalizing him several times throughout his life. As Gacy aged he began having trouble with his father who was an abusive alcoholic that abused his wife and verbally abused his children. Gacy was desperate to gain his father’s devotion and attention but was unable to do so before his father died which is something that Gacy regretted for his entire life. I believe the part about having the blood clot in the brain would be considered a nature side to things but it was actually not important in him becoming a serial killer because he had medication and it was removed long before he killed anybody.Later in life Gacy’s health took another turn for the worse where he suffered major weight issues leading to mo re problems with his heart and also a spinal injury that would plague him for the rest of his life. Although this is the case I do not believe that it actually impacted on Gacy becoming what he did because it is usually has to be something that affects the brain and this had no effect on the way he thought and was only impacting his physical attributes. In the community that he lived he was a well-respected man who worked long shifts and volunteered for his community. This is the point when things began to turn worse for Gacy as rumours were spread about his area that his sexual preference was Men which was frowned upon at the time and he was always in the company of young boys.In 1968 the first charges were being presented to Gacy with the first being about tricking a young boy into being tied up and raping him. The fact that Gacy’s victims were all young men may have been something to do with the way that he was brought up aiming to impress his father as much as possible. S ince he would have been of a similar age at the time that he was working towards impressing his father then he may have held a strong feeling that other young men did not deserve the opportunity that was taken away from him at that age to impress their fathers so that he was not alone. In total Gacy killed 33 people and buried them under his house.It was found that most of these were young men that Gacy had lured into working for him and then violently sexually abusing them and also engaging in Necrophilia after killing them where he would keep the body in his bed for days after killing them. In my research on John Wayne Gacy I couldn’t find a definitive reason for him doing this but I believe it may have a link with the way that Gacy’s father treated his mother because he would regularly physically abuse her so it may have been installed into Gacy’s values that this was an acceptable thing because it would have been similar to that of his father’s action s that he probably wanted to replicate to the full in order to make his father proud of him. This warped perception of what his father did may have been caused by the Blood clots in his brain when he was around that age because he may have not fully understood what was happening.In summary of Gacy’s actions I believe that the majority of his actions came from his nurture side where his father had abused members of his family so because Gacy looked up to his father and wanted to make him proud he thought that the way to do it would be to replicate the way his father acted. In conclusion of the way serial killers are created I still firmly believe that it is caused by a combination of both Nature and Nurture. I believe that Nature gives you a capacity for learning, for sports, for other things such as the ability to become a serial killer. Whereas nurture is about releasing that potential that you have by how they have been brought up.An example of this is from the video that w e watched of Colin Jackson where he was discovering about how his genetic makeup and his nurture effected the way that he developed into an Olympic hurdler so if Colin Jackson was simply given the capacity to become an Olympic hurdler from birth and left it idly then he would not have been able to win the races that he did. It requires some input from the Nurture side in the form of training for athletes. So this can be directly applied to the way serial killers are created because I believe there is something in their genetics that gives them a potential to become a serial killer such as a short temper or an inability to think clearly and then this can either be left as simply a potential that is never unleashed in the form of them becoming serial killers.So that means that there has to be something in the nurture side of things that has made them act the way that they have such as some of the theories that we have learnt about in psychology like Social Learning Theory, Maternal De privation etc. which means that a person may have learnt from their parents in the cases of John Wayne Gacy for example that beating women was an acceptable thing to do because that is what his father did when he was a child. The capacity for learning to become something could actually be something very common if I’m correct in my explanation meaning that people around you could actually have the potential to become a serial killer because of the way their bio-chemistry is making them have a short temper or hear voices in their head for example. But I believe that becausepeople are generally subjected to a higher standard of parenting nowadays that serial killers are becoming rarer in western civilizations where it has become necessary to be a good parent otherwise social services will intervene meaning that someone with the potential to become a serial killer does not get that potential unlocked as they have been brought up in a home that will allow them to properly deal wit h their problems and learn how to react when confronted with them. Another thing that I believe has helped to reduce the number of recent serial killers is the fact that psychological treatment is more advanced these days meaning that even if a person’s cognition does tell them to kill people, or they hear voices within their heads telling them to kill a person then they can be treated to find ways around this.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

What is Ethical Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What is Ethical Leadership - Essay Example Leadership is defined as the power to motivate people by words, actions and deeds using vision, belief and truthfulness. Ethical leadership is defined as the process of â€Å"ethically motivating others in ethical directions† consisting of both â€Å"procedural† and â€Å"substantive† (character-based) aspects (Chumir, 1992). The procedural dimension of ethical leadership includes problem-solving and decision-making techniques within the circle of ethics. For example, ethical leadership demands that the leaders, before putting their decisions into action, inform and discuss them with the parties which are going to be affected by their decisions. This means that the concerned parties are being given due respect and importance. The substantive aspect of ethical leadership includes knowledge, strong standards and courage to follow ethical directions despite strong opposition. The success of an organization depends largely on value-based actions and deeds. Ethical le adership will take care of the workforce so as to maintain a healthy environment within the organization. An ethical leader will keep track of having the salaries paid in time with no delay, will consider paying rewards and bonuses to the employers, will listen to the workers’ problems and will try to eliminate them. This will keep them working at high efficiency rates. The ethical leader will make pacts with business partners keeping in view what they want and respecting their decisions.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

E-Banking and the Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

E-Banking and the Leadership - Essay Example Leadership and management are closely related but it can be easily said that leadership ability is an essential part of managing effectively. The differences between management and leadership lie in their motivation styles. For leaders, the leadership styles tend to be transformational or transactional whereas mangers tend to be more authoritative. Leaders have a vision and they are oriented towards driving a change. As for managers they are more focused on adapting to changes and implementation and achievement of goals. There is also a difference between the personality types of leaders and managers. While managers tend to try to achieve stability leaders are more inclined towards risks from changes. (Brown, 2009) Thus it may seem that management and leadership emerge from different ends of the spectrum but in reality the qualities of a good leader and manager compliment and enhance each other. Thus though these are two different approaches they tend to work well with each other bri nging about the best in the organization and from its people. Leadership and management has been a focus of many studies which have traced the roots of leadership characteristics as well as studied the different kinds and dimensions of leadership. A brief overview of these studies done over a long period of time is taken to draw conclusions about leadership and the basic differences between management and leadership.... There are multiple theories of leadership which explain whether leaders are born or evolved. They also describe the kinds and the qualities of effective leaders. There are also studies which identify different types of leaders. As compared to this the basic management functions consist of Planning, organizing, leading, controlling, decision making and problem solving. The University of Iowa studies The University of Iowa studies in the 1930's identifies 3 broad styles of leadership. They were labeled authoritarian, democratic and Laissez fair. The authoritarian leader was directive I his style and did not encourage participation from his followers. The democratic leader encouraged discussion and participation and tried to be objective. Nevertheless he was the one who made the decisions. In contrast the laissez fair leader allowed complete freedom to the followers to make and follow their own decisions. (Martin, 2005, p. 351) Trait theory These traditional theories of leadership inclu de the Trait theory of leadership which distinguishes leaders from non-leaders. It says that there are personal qualities and characteristics which define a leader and that leaders are born and cannot be made. Leaders are described as courageous, enthusiastic and charismatic and examples include Mahatama Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Research later validated that all leadership traits can be broadly categorized under the Big Five traits of leadership which were extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness and emotional stability. Recent studies have also found that emotional intelligence is strongly linked to effective leadership. (Robbins, 2010, p. 174) Behavioural theories The behavioural theories of leadership focused on observable behaviours

Human Resources Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Human Resources Management - Essay Example Due to the diverse nature of the roles played by the human resources department of any organizations the unit could consist of several individuals based on their career roles. Recruiting and placement manager are in charge of sourcing for the right candidates to serve in the organization (Mathis & Jackson, 2008). This is mainly done through advertising for available positions, conducting the selection process through interviewing and making an employment decision based on the evaluation of shortlisted candidates (Mathis & Jackson, 2008). A development and training specialist are in charge of orientation for new employees in the roles, they are expected to play in the organization. They also analyze employee performance to identify any deficits. The feedback obtained in applied in planning, coordinating and conducting training for capacity building (Mathis & Jackson, 2008). A career as a compensation and benefits specialist involves providing legal information to employees and the company on labor organization regulations in terms of employee remunerations, benefits offered, and compensations recommended. They are in charge of wages and salaries administration. Strategic planning based on company performance and growth projections is done to evaluate the ability of available resources to sustain the set targets. Health, safety and security specialist ensures that the HR department is informed of current employee working conditions in the organization and possible improvement to create an environment that motivate opt imal productivity (Mathis & Jackson, 2008). For effective performance of the HR department, a strategic plan is essential since it links the HR management to the organization overall strategic planning (Armstrong, 2011). It guides future decisions in integrating HR strategies towards meeting the organization mission and vision while sustaining the needs of employees and other stakeholders (Armstrong, 2011). This plan ensures

Monday, August 26, 2019

Light peak( high speed opictal cable technology) Essay

Light peak( high speed opictal cable technology) - Essay Example Light Peak is defined to as a new interface technology of peripheral which enable nodes to connect devices of peripheral or other nodes through an optical connector. Use of optical technology has been in the industry for quite sometime. Telecom companies have used it for networking for years. Light, instead of a wire, is considered much more efficient means of relaying enormous data over long distances. The challenge is optical modules used in conversion of the electrical signals into optical were exceedingly large and expensive. By use of the newly come technology, there is a possibility for the firm to produce affordable and compact optical modules. There are several outstanding differences between optical cabling and electrical cabling. However, the major advantage of using Light Peak technology is seen in optical cabling substituting electrical cabling. Use of copper wire in inter-device communication has its demerits. The level of signal distortion increases with the increase in the distance and speed of transmission. Consequently, the interruption becomes too much that there is no reliable signal transmission between the peripheral and the computer. This explains the reason as to why peripheral cables have fixed lengths. Optical signals do not reflect the interruptions experienced when copper wire is used in signal transmission. This implies that optical cables can extend to serve longer distances compared to copper wire. Additionally, optical fibers are much thinner enabling more flexibility in cabling compared to bundles of copper wire. A recommended cable of Light Peak is almost of the same size of a strand of human hair. These optical cables can be increased up to a length of100 meters that will effectively serve every place within a household as well as enough for businesses. Light Peak technology has a close comparison with the allied USB technology. Although USB

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Chapter 3, Security Surveys and the Audit, in the Fennelly textbook Essay

Chapter 3, Security Surveys and the Audit, in the Fennelly textbook - Essay Example The advanced Covert Body Scans would detect concealed weapons in these cases in a detailed manner, such as which conventional methods like body taps would not. The Covert Body Scans would also ease up the long passenger queues caused by the current slow security systems, thus saving time for passengers and other officials. On the onset of security threats, many travel avenues heighten security measures leading to long queues, cancelled trips and inconvenienced passengers. The covert security scanners would see an end to this since they can scan people as they move through, thus eliminating long, stagnant queues. These systems are also useful in that they are multipurpose in nature that is they can detect a wide variety of security threats from airborne pathogens and illegal immigrants, to concealed weapons (Fennelly, 2013). The implementation of the covert security scanners is acceptable wherever imminent threat to human lives is constant, either directly or indirectly. Such locations include airports, academic institutions, the Mexican border, entries to prominent buildings like major banks and the white house. As indicated earlier, these security systems are a necessity wherever there is a threat to human life. Statistics indicate that more security threats occur in the private sectors than the public ones. These include private institutions like schools, banks, and shopping malls. Some, however, would argue that this development would be an infringement of the right to confidentiality. There requires to be a balance between the value of life and the preservation of privacy. Furthermore, Homeland security assesses and mitigates privacy implications that could result from developed security systems. Such security technologies would definitely be of immense assistance in safeguarding lives and property if implemented. The covert security scanners expose objects in as acute

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Canadian And World Issues- GMO and the Bee Essay

Canadian And World Issues- GMO and the Bee - Essay Example GMOs affect the environment and systems in different perspectives. Use of GM plants encourages the use of herbicides and insecticides in farming (Lichtfouse, 2010). These herbicides can potentially harm birds, insects, soil organisms and marine ecosystems owing to its toxicity. This brings about a reduction in biodiversity, pollution of water resources and there an almost zero sustainability. The GMOs also cause reduced births and regeneration of other species of plants and animals (Carter, Moschini & Sheldon, 2011). The long-term effects of GMOs are usually unpredictable. GMOs may cause long-term toxicity of the organisms through unclean agricultural methods. Toxicity of organisms is promoted by their likelihood to develop bioaccumulation effects of chemicals from pesticides. The explicit nature of the GM crops is such that there are fewer weed flowers, meaning less nectar for prospective cross pollinators. Specific constraints associated with GMOs include increased cases of food allergies, significant decrease in the foods’ nutritional value and increased body resistance to antibiotics Scientifically, through comparable research findings, it is highly un-recommended that an individual eat GM foods on a daily basis. In fact, consumption of GM foods has no complete approval from both health experts and the scientific community who have established the side effects of GMOs (Carter, Moschini & Sheldon, 2011). Therefore, a person would have numerous problems by opting to consume GMO regularly including enhanced chances for nutritional – related ailments such as diabetes, anemia and food poisoning. It is a factual assertion that human food supply is an interconnected system of processes and inputs by different actors. The components of the food supply work in a coordinated and integrated manner with each one complementing the other. So said, it therefore mean that

Friday, August 23, 2019

MR4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MR4 - Assignment Example VoIP system has the huge potential to provide call quality as well as reliability as compared to other competitor who generally offer the service of landline calls or mobile phone (Moran). VoIP or Voice over IP provides a lot of benefits over typical telephony, since they normally provide great reduction in cost, less complication and extra highly developed features of communication. The most prominent benefit of VoIP technology is the prospective planned for savings the costs of telecommunications. The traditional and ancient phone services used for business can be quite costly as we take into account the cost of numerous phone lines, extra charges planned for some specific features similar to three-way or conference calling, as well as the details that the majority telephone service provider’s use to bill business calls during a minute. So VoIP allows us to efficiently make our voice calls all through the similar data network that we generally use for every day applications like Web access as well as e-mail, thus greatly confiscating the cost of dedicated voice lines (Moran). The Kaestners company provides a free online test to facilitate and verify the appropriateness of Internet connection designed by considering VoIP. It estimates how many concurrent VoIP calls our network might be possible to hold through measuring its bandwidth of both directions (which may be significantly less than the raw upload bandwidth of network) as well as latency. With the implementation of this technology we are able to provide a better support for the enhanced business administration and efficient working support (Moran). Moran, Joseph. "VoIP: A Primer for Small Business." 16 November 2005. SmallBusinessComputing.com. 27 September 2010

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Planning Function of Management Essay Example for Free

Planning Function of Management Essay Planning is a crucial function of management that enables an organization to achieve its maximum potential. Halliburton is one of the largest corporations in the United States, with a workforce of over 100,000 people in over 120 countries. Their home office is located in Houston, Texas and they are one of the worlds largest providers of products and services to the oil and gas industry. This paper will discuss the issues impacting and influencing management planning within Halliburton. Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter DruckerIt takes successful management at all levels and quality leadership to lead a business down the proverbial golden path. Planning is the primary management function, which formalizes an organizations goals and objectives and establishes a base for the other functions of management. Halliburton Company is an oilfield services company and a provider of engineering and construction services that was founded in 1919. The company has expanded through tremendous internal growth and several acquisitions and in March, 2002, Halliburton split into two main divisions: the Energy Services Group (ESG) and Kellog Brown and Root (KBR). ESG offers a wide range of products and services to upstream oil and gas customers worldwide, ranging from the manufacturing of drill bits and other downhole and completion tools and pressure pumping services (www.halliburton.com) [APA citation error (incorrect-do not use Web addresses or URLs in citations). If the author is cited in text = Authors name (year) direct quote (p. #). If the author is not cited in text = direct quote (author, year, p. #).] . KBR is the engineering subsidiary for Halliburton and is a global leader in construction and project management. Additionally, KBR is a leading government services contractor, which has been t he focal point of many legal and ethical issues. Halliburton has received a great deal of negative publicity over the past year or so regarding it Iraq and Kuwait operations. The Pentagon and Justice Department have both launched criminal investigations due to erroneous contract cost estimates totaling $2.7 billion to serve American troops in  the middle east. Accusations have been made of overcharging for meals supplied to troops in Iraq, as well as employees accepting kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor. Pentagon auditors found that KBR overcharged the U.S. government by $27.4 million during a period of nine months in 2003. Additionally, Halliburtons internal audit revealed employees accepted these kickbacks in exchange for providing Army supply contracts to the subcontractor (Associated Press). Limited military spending has created lucrative opportunities for privately held companies such as Halliburton to win these contracts and will continue to be at the forefront of media campaigns as long as the United States remains in Iraq, especially when it comes to Dick Cheney. [You have addressed the issue thoroughly and supported your assertions.] Much speculation has been generated in regard to current Vice President of the United States and former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheneys financial ties to his former company. On the September 14, 2003 edition of NBCs Meet the Press, Vice President Cheney said, And since I left Halliburton to become George Bushs vice president, Ive several all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and havent had, now, for over three years (St. Louis Journalism Review). However, it came to light that Cheney received a salary of over $150,000 and maintained over 400,000 shares of unexercised stock options at the time. Cheney stated that he deferred his salary and stock options; therefore it did not constitute a violation of ethics. The Congressional Research Service found that these financial interests in Halliburton demonstrated a financial interest with his former employer creating a conflict of interest. Despite the fact that Cheney broke the law of ethics, he is exempt from the enforcement of such laws and cannot be prosecuted for it (Halliburton Watch). KBR is the largest military contractor in Iraq, with more than 50,000 employees and subcontractor working there and in Kuwait and Afghanistan. These employees drive trucks, wash clothes, deliver mail, and provide additional support services for the U.S. troops. These workers are part of the Pentagons privatization strategy that enables the military to reduce the number of troops needed in a given location by assigning noncombat functions to civilians. Halliburtons social responsibility is to keep these  workers safe and away from fighting, but it has proved a difficult task. Numerous complaint and lawsuits have surfaced because of Halliburtons failure to provide safe working conditions and in the case of one man who was killed, the suit states he was intentionally sent the convoy as an enemy decoy in the U.S. military camouflage vehicles, to ensure the safe arrival and delivery of a second H-KBR fuel convoy (CNNMoney.com). Halliburtons social responsibility remains in question with workers being placed in harms way on a regular basis. Factors influencing Halliburtons strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning include political instability, rising steel prices, and environmental regulations. Halliburton operated in countries such as Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Russia, which are currently experiencing unstable political and social climates. Continued conflict in these areas could have an impact on the companys bottom line and their ability to generate substantial revenue. Steel is a major commodity that is used in the setting up of plant and processing facilities for natural gas and petroleum refining. Record breaking high prices were reached in early 2005, but have since stabilized. However, the ongoing consolidation in the steel industry could lead to higher prices causing the profit margins to suffer. Lastly, Halliburton is subject to environment and legal requirement in its worldwide operations, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Air Interstate Rule, causing the states to re duce the allowable sulfur dioxide SO2 emissions by 70% and nitrogen oxides emissions by 60%. Environmental issues such as these could place a burden on is cash flow. [Insightful analysis]Halliburton has an exceptional global presence and they are currently playing a prominent role in rebuilding Iraq and by providing our troops with shelter, meals, and delivery of materials. Although Halliburton has come under intense scrutiny over the past several years due to its involvement with Vice-President Chaney and its legal and ethical issues, it has still managed to win military contracts due to its expertise in the oil service industry. This shows tremendous resiliency and reassures its customers and stockholders that it will continue to be a strong force in the oilfield services industry. [Your paper is well written. It is clear and concise.]References-references must match citations by author/owner. References begin with author/owner name e.g. CNN.money and Halburton are the owners of the websites. See examples in APA manual. MarketLine Business Information Center. Retrieved January 27, 2007 fromhttp://dbic.datamonitor.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/companies/company/?pid=B07921BD-F512-44F2-AE84-4DA7D8630C9D#CompanyOverviewTop 25 Censored Stories. St. Louis Journalism Review; Dec 2006/Jan 2007, Vol. 36Issue 292, P23-27, 5p. Retrieved January 26, 2007 fromhttp://web.ebscohost.com. Decision Management System. Retrieved January 28, 2007 from www.halliburton.comHalliburton Announces Full Year and Fourth Quarter Results. Retrieved January 28,2007 from http://CNNMoney.comKelly, Matt. (2003, March). Halliburton Fires Workers for Allegedly Taking Kickbacksfor Iraq Contract. Retrieved Janury 27, 2007 from www.commondreams.orgTotal points available=14Your score=13.75Areas for improvement=teal belowContent and Development = 40%_____ Key elements covered, content comprehensive/accurate, clear points supported with detail, appropriate use of vocabulary, integration of theory and practice, research adequate/timely, content and purpose clear. Very good work on this section. Organization = 30%_____ Lead is interesting and relevant, thesis is well-developed, directional statement previews major points, paragraph transitions maintain flow, body paragraphs support a specific major point, conclusion is logical/flows evenly, conclusion reviews major points. Good work-very well organized. Easy to read. Format = 10%_____ APA format, reader friendly, utilizes references appropriately, headings aid adaptability/not overdone, neatly presented, format requirements followed. Some small errors in APA formatting of reference page and citations. (-.25)Mechanics = 10%_____ Punctuation rules followed, contractions avoided, spelling correct, vernacular is avoided, written in same person throughout, tense remains consistent. Readability and Style-10%_____ Complete, clear, concise statements, well constructed sentences, sentence transitions present, words/concepts precise,

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Poetry Slam Essay Example for Free

Poetry Slam Essay On my visit to Bar13 I was instructed to watch a poetry slam. I have never experience such a vivid art of performing poetry. The only way I had experienced poetry before was by reading it from books. This has change the way I see poetry now. The poetry slam is a very competitive event in which the poets perform their work. The poets are judged by people of the audience. The host, who was pregnant, selected the judges who were instructed to give a numerical score (the score being 0 – 10). The score was based on the poets’ content and performance. I was a little hesitant when the host asked me to be a judge. Since this was the first time, I was scared that I wasn’t going to be a fair judge. The host explained to me the basic rules for the contest and how the poets are selected. The first rule one is that each poem must be the poet’s own work. The second is that each poet gets only three minutes to read or say the poem. The third is that they can’t use any musical instrument or costumes and the fourth and last one is that from the score the poets receive the high and low scores are dropped and the middle three are added together giving them a total score of 0 – 30. Before the contest started the microphone was open to other poets. In my opinion there were a couple of poets who were good. After the opening performance was done, the host presented a poet who has competed before. Her name was Gypsee. She performed for about 45 minutes, the content of her work was very good and her performance was excellent. I think she has practice a lot. I remember clearly two of her poems. One talked about crossing the Canadian bridge into the United States as an immigrant (she was born in Albania). The second one was about her childhood and soldiers with shotguns. During the slam there was different kind of poetry. It was very interesting to listen to a diverse range of work within the slam. It included love poetry, social issues, personal problems and even some were kind of comic. What I really like was the range of poets presented; they are free to do work in any style on any subject. I will recommend it to my friends and I would like to go back, it was a nice experience.