Legal Advice and Funding :: Papers

Legal Advice and Funding Michelle wants to claim compensation for the injuries she has suffered in an accident. Identify and briefly describe where she could obtain advice about a possible claim. There are many places that offer advice regarding British law but few people know how to access these services. If Michelle looks in the right places she can obtain this legal advice for free. There are places that are funded by charities and there's also places like the Citizens Advice Bureau which is primarily funded by the government. If you were setting out to obtain legal advice, places like these is where you should start, they aim to provide access to justice to everyone who needs it. The CAB has over 2000 bureaux throughout the country. Volunteers that aren't actually legally qualified provide 'free, independent and confidential advice' on a variety of issues. They have arrangements with solicitors who will give a free initial interview. Five million people use this service every year. Another place for free advice is a law centre. There are only 51 law centres in the country (as of April 2003) and they are normally situated in socially deprived areas. Law centres provide free and independent, professional, legal advice as it is required in the area. They are staffed by solicitors, barristers, legal advisors and community workers who are paid and the funding for these salaries comes from local authorities and the Community Legal Service Fund. Some law centres will be better than others a factor that affects this is the demand for legal advice in the area. If Michelle went to a Law Centre she could expect to receive advice on issues like welfare rights, immigration, housing, employment, discrimination, mental health, juvenile crime, disability and children's rights. Another place which is probably overlooked quite a lot is organisations like the AA and R.A.C. However organisations like this will probably only help you with issues which relate to the organisations area of business. Also you must be a paying member to

Strategic Marketing of Giordano

University of La Verne – BUS 567 Service Sector Marketing| Giordano | Positioning for International Expansion| Sheng-I, Chang (Becky)Chang-Ta, Yang(Frank)Chieg-Chiung, Chen (Jeff)September , 15th, 2011 | Introduction Giordano established in 1981 by Jimmy Lai. It is a Hong Kong- based retailer of casual clothes targeted at men, women and children via its four company brands, Giordano, Giordano Ladies, Giordano Junior and Blue Exchange (Bitner & Zeithaml, 2011).Giordano is one of the best known and established apparel retailers in the Asia Pacific region, employing over 8,000 friendly staff with over 2,400 shops operating in 30 territories worldwide (About Giordano, 2011). They are committed to delivering quality products and service to their customers in the worldwide market. Their vision is to be the best and the biggest world brand in apparel retailing with the mission of making people â€Å"feel good† & â€Å"look great†. This paper starts with a corporate prof ile of Giordano.The main part of the case is positioning the international expansion of Giordano and a detailed analysis of its competitive environment and alternative solutions. Furthermore, the company’s growth strategies are discussed with recommendations provided to conclude the case. Company Profile The Giordano Group is a leading international retailer of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel and accessories. Giordano’s success is measured by the company’s relentless focus on its five corporate business values of quality, knowledge, innovation, simplicity and service.The company has its own apparel manufacturing division where many of its own clothing styles are produced. Giordano is also renowned for its basic and practical men’s, women’s, and children’s T-shirts and trousers, especially denims. In comparison, Giordano is very similar to the American based popular retailer The Gap. Responding to the slow sales in the past, Giordano changed its positioning strategy in 1987 which the company decided to shift its focus to maximizing sales instead of maximizing price margin via a â€Å"value-for-money† policy with selling discounted casual unisex apparel, and increased commitment to customer service.The shift in strategy was successful. The management values and style leads Giordano to be successful, which including a willingness to try new and unconventional ways of doing business and to learn from past mistakes, and considering front-line workers to be its customer service heroes. Giordano's commitment to service began with its major Customer Service Campaign in 1989. There are three tenets in this campaign which is † we welcome unlimited try-ons; we exchange – no questions asked; and we serve with a smile†.Giordano's philosophy of quality service could be observed not only in Hong Kong, but also in its oversea outlets. There are many companies in the market selling c asual apparel. The way in which Giordano differentiates itself from other companies to gain competitive advantage is critical to its success. Giordano's Strategies Giordano distinguishes itself from the others through its high-quality service and superior customer value. However, Giordano is still a long way off from being well known brand compared to other international brand.Giordano is a label that doesn't shape opinion, After 2005, when the garment quota is abolished, imports into the Asia region will become more competitive. This change could affect Giordano's position and growth potential. Philosophy And Value System Regarding to Giordano's philosophy and value system, they believe that mistakes are unavoidable because of the rapid changes in the market. The critical thing is to learn from the mistakes. Giordano has made his employees comfortable about making mistakes.They believe in empowering people through providing a supportive, participative environment in which employees feel safe when mistakes are made. In Giordano philosophy, they feel that with contribution and participation of all employees, mistakes will be minimized. People only make mistakes when they have decision-making ability. Employees As An Asset Training is an important part of Giordano's strategy. It is provided on a continuous basis in order to support Giordano philosophy that employees are key to the company's success.However, even the most sophisticated training program will not guarantee the best customer services and satisfaction. It is the people who deliver that gives it from and meaning. Giordano has stringent recruitment and selection procedures to match its value and service requirements which continues to maintain top-level service to customers. Performance Evaluations Performance evaluations are conducted frequently at the store level, as well as for individual employees. Stores are evaluated for customer satisfaction twice every month, while individual employees are eval uated once every two months.Internal competitions are designed to motivate their employees and stores intend to do their best in serving their customers. Product Strategy & Quality Services Giordano is able to incorporate a high level of customer service as part of its products through a concerted effort, which involved every employee of the company. The company focuses on the concept of value-for money which constantly improves the value of the products and what the products mean to their customers.However, it is also essential to recognize the importance of the management and leadership’s commitment to be customer-oriented and to provide high quality service. Product strategy is to sell a small number of core products in its stores. Giordano's limited product line is seen as a strength. It has no more than 100 items and no more than 17 core items in the store while other retailers have 200-300 items. Because the company believes that merchandising a wide range of products w ill affect retailers to take a longer time to response to the market changes.Simplicity, flexibility and speed as values at Giordano is reflected in several ways which allowing company to react rapidly to the market changes, and quick decision making and well communication through its flat organizational structure. Competitive Advantage The competitive advantages those worked as key success factors for Giordano to achieve a distinct position in the competitive markets are as following: * Computerization – The POS terminals that are used to record and transmit flows of stocks to a mainframe computer which then aids in controlling stock flow of inventory. A tightly controlled menu – It mainly focus on a few items whose demand and desirability can be closely monitored. * Frugality – Curbed spending on advertising and tight inventory control * Value pricing – Value for money apparel. * A dedicated workforce in all outlets that provides quality service: In ord er to maintain this Giordano follows stringent selection procedures to ensure only desired employees are chosen, conduct workshops on â€Å"attitude training†, follows rotational on the job training method and performance related pay systems on the basis of periodic performance evaluations. Simplicity and speed of operations: Giordano maintained a flat organizational structure and this facilitated easy communication between people within the organization, helped to make speedy decision and to manage the project efficiently. * A recognized brand: Giordano has received awards such as: The American Service Excellence Award, ISO 9002 Award and People Developer Award which helped Giordano to establish their brand as a familiar one in over 30 countries.All these competitive advantages and sources should be maintained by Giordano in order to keep its current competitive position and there are some other competitive advantages that should be developed by Giordano in future. The futur e competitive advantages can be gained through investment into the development of employees and continued development of a learning organization which may not be gained by the other competitors. (Giordano K-10, 2010) Giordano's Problems We have indicated some problems and considerations regarding to the position for international expansion.If at all, Should Giordano reposition itself against its competitors in its current and new markets, and should it have different positioning strategies for different geographic markets? Does the company need to apply different HR strategies to suit different countries? Analysis & Solutions I. Should Giordano reposition itself against its competitors in its existing and new markets, and should it have different positioning strategies for different geographic markets?Regarding to the Giordano's positioning of international expansion, should Giordano reposition itself against its competitors in its existing and new markets, and should it have differ ent positioning strategies for different geographic markets? According to Osama Taha- â€Å"A positioning strategy results in the image you want to draw in the mind of your customers, the picture you want him/her to visualize of what you offer, in relation to the market situation, and any competition you may have† Giordano's current positioning strategy is based on providing â€Å"value-for-money† or quality merchandise of discounted casual unisex appeal.The company also emphasized on the merchandise that is relatively mid-priced which means â€Å"inexpensive yet contemporary and trendy†, and offers quality, value and excellent customer services. The reasons for Giordano's success in market place are filling a gap in the market for trendy with reasonable price and quality unisex apparel, and the delivery of quality customer service. Now the fact is whether or not Giordano should reposition itself against its competitors in its current and new markets.Moreover, a fter thirty years of operation, Giordano's brand name and value have been in the customers' mind clearly. If Giordano changes its positioning strategy, it will be very difficult to obtain high-end customers acceptance in this intensive global apparel competition, and may lose the existing low-end customers at the same time. Therefore, we believe that Giordano should not change its existing positioning strategy. Repositioning is not necessary for the entire company because Giordano’s relatively mid-priced positioning worked well in the past decades. The Inexpensive Yet Trendy† clothing appealed to Asia’s frugal customers in the Asia market. However, Giordano could alter their brand image into a more high-value, high-quality, and high-end market. This could mean primarily repositioning Giordano as a higher priced and higher value brand in particular markets in the world. The price may can increase within 5 ~ 10 %, but not too high. According to the statistics, adju st the middle range of clothing prices within 5 ~ 10% will not affect the consumer's sensitivity of the price. Giordano must continue to be creative in their promotions.Perhaps they should spend more on traditional advertising, as they spend less on advertising and promotion than close competitors. However, compared to other international brands, Giordano still doesn’t shape opinion. One of the Giordano's competitors is Esprit who are seen as more up-market than Giordano, while being stylish and trendy. Besides, Esprit promoted a â€Å"lifestyle† image, even though it is positioned similarly to Giordano. Therefore, Giordano could re-launch its image, to be more stylish and thus promoting a lifestyle and not just a brand.It is not necessary for Giordano to follow same positioning strategies for different market but it will depend on the market condition of a particular whether to follow standardized or customized strategy. The company can go after with standardized posi tioning strategies â€Å"value-for-money merchandise† for different markets within the same region like South East Asian countries. But before implementing this standardized positioning strategy Giordano needs to understand the particular market on the basis of consumer’s tastes and preferences about the products and promotional activities.On the other hand, the other successful strategies of Giordano in proving excellent quality customer services, information system and efficient logistics and human resource policies and practices should be implemented tactically for different markets. It means customized strategies should be developed for different countries even within Asia because there are some variations between countries in terms of their economic, cultural and social factors. II. What are Giordano’s key success factors and sources of competitive advantage?Are its competitive advantages sustainable, and how would they develop in the future? The company is establishing a good key success factors. They serve their clients with good quality service and having other company as a reference for bench mark. The company emphasizes the service and the value-for-money which has a big impact to the company source of success. When they are selling their products, they are selling service which is half the price and the other half goes to the production cost. They are not only for goods but they also sell services.Moreover, Giordano have other key success factors like short product development cycle and fast market-driven new product development, excellence in management’s swift cost-control strategies, good in marketing and strong brand positioning, excellence service with â€Å"no questions asked exchange† and â€Å"unlimited try-on† policy, good location primarily in good ground-floor areas, drawing high-volume traffic and facilitating shopping, browsing, and impulse buying. By all of these key successful factors, they ha ve strong competitiveness in the clothing retail market.However, in the long run, sustainability of key success factors of Giordano highly depend on creativity and innovative of the organization. Some competitive advantages can be Giordano key success factors now, but it may not be in future. For example, information was disseminated to production facilities in real time by IT system but if Giordano’s competitor installed the similar system as Giordano did, it will no longer Giordano’s competitive advantages and cannot become the key success factor of Giordano.Giordano should never satisfy itself in such rapid changing current market situation. As the results, Giordano should look into new ways of improving and strengthening its competitive advantages. Creativity and innovative play an important role in continue to gain competitive advantages as â€Å"people are the key† to create value to organization or so called â€Å"organization culture† which is dif ficult to adopt by its competitors in market.Although Giordano might lose some of competitive advantages in future, investment in human resources will help Giordano to create new competitive advantages to contribute in the key success factors of Giordano and stay ahead in future market. Besides this, Giordano should keep on commit to its excellent customer service orientation philosophy and well monitoring with their market competition. These key success factors would develop in certain training and more research about the service and the products the target market wants to have.Innovation of product and service is a must for a company to develop and gain profit in a long period of time. Also, Giordano should rapidly development in Internet and Intranet technologies, solutions such as MS Office, point of sale (POS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and supporting telecommunications service (e. g. broadband Internet access), Giordano’s competitor could acquire i ntegrated IT and logistics technology more easily and more cost-effectively than ever before. III. A third issue to be considered was Giordano’s growth strategy in Asia as well as across continent.Would Giordano’s competitive strengths be transferable to other markets ? Would strategic adaptation to IT strategy and marketing mix be required or would tactical moves suffice? Giordano Company’s main competitive strengths which can be transferred to other market are: the experience of the employees, inventory controlled system, HRM practices but the policies should be different for each country and can use the established distribution, marketing and inbound channels members in order to market their product outside the home country.IT strategy which is currently used by Giordano, it should not adopt the same strategy for other countries where they are planning to expand their business. Because the IT infrastructure for each country in Asia and other continents may no t be the same and the current IT strategy of Giordano may not be supported by that particular country’s technological structure. Giordano needs more efficient, cost effective, and secure internal communication platform which will link its many sites in Hong Kong and other host countries.As the cross border business of Giordano is increasing, the company needed a comprehensive communications tool that would help Giordano employees conduct multisite management meetings, share documents and collaborate for fast business decisions and quality customer service. In such scenario Giordano can go for partnership with the IT company (Like Microsoft), through which they can install such a server and software through which they can equipped their staff with real time teamwork and presence capabilities that dramatically increased productivity.At the same time they can decrease its multi-national direct dialing and travel cost, as well as IT management costs. The marketing mix strategies that are followed by the Giordano for the existing market should not be the same for new markets where the company is willing to enter. The marketing mix strategies mainly deal with arrangements of the 4 Ps’. So the strategies regarding product price, price, place and promotion should not be the same for all target countries as the market differs in terms of their economic, cultural, social and political environment.But the successful strategies which are currently used for other market can be used by Giordano as guidelines and can develop tactical strategies for different market according to the market situation and customers’ requirements. Recommendation In the past, Giordano has relied on a consistent strategy across retail outlets in the Asian countries that it transacts with. The success strategies include the company's positioning and quality service, recruitment and selection policy, training and development, above-market reward and compensation system, flat str ucture, quick decision making.We believe that the same brand in different regions should not apply different positioning strategy, which should keep the same business strategy consistency. Due to the intensive competitions in the global market, same brand name with different positioning strategy will cause the confusion of customers worldwide. Customers in these markets may become confused as to what Giordano stands for, and this inconsistency makes effective service strategy implementation difficult, particularly as consumers are becoming increasingly mobile and travel more frequently between Giordano’s core markets.Moreover, Giordano might can develop a new high-end brands in order to satisfy the demands of high end markets. From the above analysis we have some recommendation for expansion in the international market for Giordano. First, it is essential to start promotions to increase brand awareness when starting businesses in new market. Second, the location and site sele ction for establishing Giordano’s outlet in different country will be critical. The company should carefully select the site to position their stores which will be convenient for the customers. Third, customer is the key and main factor for differentiation is customer care.The company needs to follow customized customer service strategy for each market segment. Fourth, Giordano needs to find out possibility of outsourcing to maintain low costs. Fifth, extensive market research is needed to investigate designs and fabrics required by the target customers. Giordano has perfectly focused in the value-for-money concept and everything they do is managed at a world-class standard. The management conducted their business in such an excellent and professional manner which helped this brand to reach from Asia to the Middle East and India, Australia, Eastern Europe, and now in North America.Reference Giordano (2011). About Giordano. Accessed Sep 15 , 2011 from http://www. giordano. com . hk/web/HK/ourCompany. html Giordano (2011). Giordano International Limited Annual Report 2010. Kowloon, Hong Kong. Accessed Sep 15 , 2011 Bitner, Zeithaml, Gremler (2011). Service Marketing – Integrating Customer Focus Across the File 5th edition. McGraw Hill. Accessed Sep. 15, 2011. Tam, F. Y. , Chan, T. S. , Chu, P. W. , Lai, T. C. , Wang, L. L. (2005). Opportunities and challenges: Hong Kong as Asia’s fashion hub. J.Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 9(2), 221-231. Accessed Sep. 15, 2011 Tyler, D. , Heeley, J. , Bharma, T. (2006). Supply chain influences on new product development in fashion clothing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 10(3), 316-328. Accessed Sep. 15, 2011 Taha, O. (2000). How to Design Your Positioning Strategy. Retrieved Sep. 23, 2011, from http://www. dime-co. com/marketing/positioning. htm Giordano International Limited (Hong Kong). (2011). Retrieved Sep. 25, 2011, from http://www. giordano. com. hk/web/HK/index. html

An Analysis of Gender and Performance Essay

The most important issue that was tackled in the Good Body of Eve Ensler was society’s definition of an ideal woman figure. The image of a perfect woman, as depicted by the prevalent norms, in the society should be explored because this issue largely affects how women are treated. To some extent, such subject also affects the overall importance of women based on the societal roles they assume. To be specific, the play touched on the concepts of fatness, sexiness, beauty, perfection, and femininity. As shown in the story, beauty was confined to the image of models and Hollywood stars shown in magazines and posters. An ideal woman is a woman possessing a sexy body – particularly a flat stomach. The world of the perfect feminine creature was inclusive to women who are sexy or slim. Anyone who did not possess such characteristic was dismissed as a bad, dirty, or foul creature. Moreover, fat girls suffered from discrimination, intolerance, and sometimes, even violence. Some people even regard them as less of a woman – as if the fat girls belonged to an entirely different gender on their own. Their physical appearance was the basis of their social roles, rights, privileges, and opportunities. In â€Å"the Good Body†, gender was shown as a societal concept which is defined on the basis of the prevalent ideas in the society. Being in a certain gender equates to the â€Å"responsibility† of possessing the gender qualities or rather – the â€Å"gender requirements†. In the case of being a woman, one should possess beauty and sexiness in order to be labeled as â€Å"feminine†. What’s worse about this concept of gender and femininity is the fact that women themselves are willing participants of prejudice in the society. While men prompt women to adhere to the society’s gender requirements, women also force themselves to fit the definitions of beauty and perfection. Women who are suffering from the unfair treatments posed by being fat sometimes thought that they really deserved the discrimination and violence. Most of these victims even hated themselves for being what they are instead of accepting their entirety and loving their body. As a result, their response to discriminations was not of defense – it is a passive acceptance of what was supposedly wrong. Instead of fighting for what they have, most women fought for what they wanted to have. Women who wanted to fit in a society that was molded by commercialism starved themselves through various slimming regimens. Through the various cosmetic surgeries available these days, many women subject themselves to mutilation. What’s surprising is that this concept of femininity, beauty, and perfection is observed now, at a time when people thought that many societies are practicing equality for all genders – even lesbians, gays, and transsexuals. In this contemporary setting when almost everyone thinks that women enjoy the same rights and privileges as men, many girls unknowingly submit themselves to inequality. As shown in the performance, women were defined and treated according to how they look and how well they fit into the society’s popular idea of an ideal woman. It seems that gender was now a tool for inequality and majority of the world’s population cannot recognize this discrimination propelled by commercialism.

A Modern America: Industrialized Immigrants Realizing The American Dream Essay

The â€Å"American Dream† is a phrase or concept that gets thrown around a lot here in America, and if ten different people were asked what it meant, you would probably get ten different answers. It is generally seen as the fact that anyone can get anything if one works hard enough. In his book the Epic of America which was written in 1931, James Truslow Adams defines the â€Å"American Dream† as: â€Å"that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.† I see the â€Å"American Dream† as one of the reasons why Americans should get on their knees every day and thank God for this country (along with baseball and apple pie). To me, the â€Å"American Dream† is the fact that anyone, no matter the social or financial stature, can obtain anything he wants if he gives the required effort. In â€Å"The Newsies†, the main characters are Francis Sullivan (a.k.a. Jack Kelly) and his unlikely friend David. Jack’s father is a convict and his mother is dead, but he tells others that they are out West looking for a ranch and are going to send for him when they find one. Although he knows that this is not true, he still dreams of catching a train out West to Santa Fe. Railroads are vital to the realization of Jack’s dream, as it is his transportation out West. Jack believes in the equal opportunity rights that make our nation great. David is a member of a struggling, but loving family and he has a valuable education. He is working as a Newsie while his Dad is out of work. David’s father had an accident at a factory and became useless to his employer, thus he was fired. The factories of the time provided virtually no opportunity for advancement due to the fact that everyone generally does the same thing over and over, which is why the factory was so quick to fire Mayer. Since he had no workers union to protect him, he was forced to live with only the income David and his younger brother Les could bring in. David’s mindset that you can achieve anything you work towards if you believe in and do it with passion directly correlates with the American dream. In the 1900’s, catchy headlines were essential to selling newspapers; especially headlines with words like maniac, corpse, love nest, or nude in the title. During this time when a trolley strike was in full effect, good headlines were hard to come by, so the newsies decided to improve the truth a little by exaggerating uninteresting headlines and making them seem like interesting stories. The newsies bought the â€Å"papes† that they sold and got to keep the profit from what they sold, so a 10-cent price increase was almost crippling. Because the was not a Newsies Workers Union, it was imperative for all of the newsies to come together if there was going to be an effective strike. The owner of â€Å"The World†, Mr. Pulitzer, exemplifies the corrupt businessmen of the time. He was a man that judged his quality of life by the size of his wallet. It came quite easy to him to up the paper price to the â€Å"distribution apparatus† 10 cents. He also uses his money and political power to influence those around him. He influences the mayor to stop the strike by baiting him with a conversation about the upcoming election with a few others as wealthy as himself. Pulitzer also tries to bribe Jack with everything he’s been dreaming of: money, freedom, and a trip out West. He knew that if he cut of the strike at the head, the rest would follow. In America during this time, both immigrants and children were treated poorly. This is demonstrated in the movie when the police violently stop the convention using their force. Children along with immigrants were often given poor working conditions. Also, a shot was seen of men being beaten because they would not join the trolley strike. Obviously at this time land and money were more valuable during this time of industrialization than human life. At the conclusion of the movie, Jack’s dream is realized, but not in the form of Santa Fe. All of his effort is rewarded when (with a little help from others) the prices are brought back down. He realized that just because you don’t have family doesn’t mean no one cares about you. Moreover, in the American â€Å"happily ever after† style, he falls in love with David’s sister Sarah (as if a kiss is any sign of true love, right Ms. K?). David’s dream of winning as the underdog is also realized, and all of his hard work is rewarded. Without suffering through these growing pains, America would not be what it is today. Jack and David’s dream that anyone can be anything if they work hard enough and believe in it has almost become a right as an American. Though greed is still evident and corrupt politicians are as prevalent as ever, it is not a trademark of our society anymore, and for that I am thankful. In conclusion, it was the immigrants that came to America so they could become something that gave the nation a big part of its character today. Their sacrifices have become our blessings.

Taxation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Taxation - Assignment Example But at the same time you must keep in mind that starting out in self-employment poses many difficulties and you would have to work very hard with no guarantee of a regular income. But first of all you must assess for yourself if you are suitable for self-employment which requires total self commitment, ability to work long business hours which in turn requires physical and mental strength and, last but not the least, complete support from your family. Then you have to do market research to identify the opportunities available in your selected field. Since you are currently employed with a computer software company it is obvious you have the technical skills, but do you have the business skills to run your business. If you lack these skills you shall have to learn them fast from the information that I am about to provide you and from other sources. When you start out on your own in business you can do so as a sole trader, in partnership or by setting up a limited company. You have indicated that you wish to start your business as a sole trader, which means, you intend to set up your business on your own. Starting out as a sole trader is relatively easy and straightforward but if your business fails your liability is unlimited or in other words all your assets will be legally available and can be used to pay your creditors. If you intend to start your business from your home you are likely to be requiring Planning Permission. In case you are going to use one or two rooms in your home you would need to apply for a partial change of use from domestic to commercial purpose. In case you intend constructing a shed or additional room for your business you may require planning permission for which you shall have to contact your local authorities. Market research is very important before you set up your business in your chosen field but let me caution you that no amount of research will guarantee you success. However, your market

Crime Pattern and Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Crime Pattern and Environment - Essay Example It is a process where the detectives try to trace the path of the criminal using specialised tools. They cover an entire area where the crime has been taking place and put it on radar, tracing the possible movements of the criminal through previous precedents. It involves the mental psychology of the criminal as well as once the criminal has committed a crime and moved on to another area, the detectives then try tracing the path from one place to another, understanding the movement of the criminal in order to catch him. Originally it was applied in cases of serial murder, rape and bombings, it is now frequently being used in robbery, burglary, arson and fraud cases as well. This methodology evaluates the location of connected serial crimes in order to figure out the most probable area for the criminal activity. The idea was propounded by Kim Rossmo, who in 1995 wrote a doctoral dissertation on this aspect. This methodology was then taken into practice by the Vancouver Police Department. Rossmo was Vancouver based detective who pioneered this methodology. He then developed a computer programme known as Criminal Geographic Targeting which is used as a tool to trace criminals. Geographical profiling helps to analyse the abundance information via geographical links in order to apprehend the movement of the criminal. It involves having a large pool of information as the first step to gain an understanding on the whereabouts of the criminal. Once the information arrives at the hands of the investigators, geographical profiling helps the detectives to marrow down the area within which the crime has been taking place for better accuracy. â€Å"Geographic-profiling consists of both quantitative (objective) scientific geographic techniques and qualitative (subjective) components e.g. a reconstruction and interpretation of the offender’s mental map.’ The primary geographic technique is a computerized system known

The Watergate Scandal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Watergate Scandal - Research Paper Example Nixon effected the American breakthrough with China with his landmark visit. In Moscow, he signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and an Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to slow the arms race. The Paris Peace Accord ended American military involvement in Vietnam. â€Å"American President: Richard Nixon (1890-1969).† However, Nixon is now largely remembered as the only President to resign from office. Richard Nixon’s legacy is centered on solely one issue: the Watergate scandal, with its connotations of abuse of power and impropriety. The Watergate Scandal originated in June 1971, as a reaction to the publication of an intensive study of the Vietnam War by Daniel Ellsberg. Fearing that these ‘Pentagon Papers’ would reveal his own political secrets, Nixon established the Special Investigations Group (SIG): nicknamed ‘the plumbers’ because of their mandate to prevent any media leaks about the Nixon administration. In an attempt to discredit Ells berg, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt of the SIG organized the burglary of the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, to gather damaging evidence. In 1972, the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) allocated funds for Operation Gemstone, a campaign to gather information against Nixon’s political adversaries. ... Nixon won a landslide election victory in November 1972, and began his second term as President. (â€Å"The Watergate Scandal†). At this juncture, the dam of the Watergate Scandal broke, and the deluge washed away his Presidency. The exposure of the Watergate Scandal gained momentum due to the reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post. Their informer, called ‘Deep Throat,’ was revealed in 2005 to be the former deputy director of the FBI, W. Mark Felt.  (â€Å"Deep Throat Revealed.†) As Nixon attempted to cover his tracks over past political errors, the axiom that â€Å"the cover-up of the crime can be more damaging than the crime itself† (â€Å"American President: Richard Nixon (1890-1969)†) proved true. It became increasingly clear that the break-in was authorized by top White House officials, campaign funds were diverted for illegal SIG operations, and that the White House attempted to buy the silence of the arres ted men. It was proved that a $25,000 cheque from the campaign fund was paid to Bernard L. Barker and hush money was given to E. Howard Hunt to be distributed by his wife. In January, 1973,  Frank Sturgis,  E. Howard Hunt,  Virgilio Gonzalez,  Eugenio Martinez,  Bernard L. Barker,  G. Gordon Liddy  and  James W. McCord  were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. James W. McCord  wrote to Judge James Sirica alleging that the defendants submitted to political pressure from John Dean, Counsel to the President, and John Mitchell, Director of CREEP, to remain silent and plead guilty. Nixon persisted in maintaining his ignorance of the operations, but his defense began to wear thin. (â€Å"The Watergate Scandal†). As the net began to