Wednesday, December 11. 2013

Today's schedule is B-A-D-C

B Block Social Studies 10 - Today you'll have part of the class to continue work on your 'Ole Bill Coot assignment but first...we'll examine the Confederation debate in British Columbia. We'll look at those supporting Confederation - joining Canada (like Anthony Musgrave, John Robson and Amor deCosmos), those supporting Annexation - joining the U.S.A. (like John Sebastien Helmcken) and those supporting Imperialism - staying a colony of Great Britain. I'd like you to explain the positions of each and identify the impacts on BC for each. So...

Confederation - benefits of this idea and impacts on BC
Annexation - benefits of this idea and impacts on BC
Imperialism - benefits of this idea and impacts on BC

After this you may continue working on 'Ole Bill Coot which is due this Friday...yep a deadline that is two days away. No worries right? 

A Block Criminology 12 - From yesterday...I'd like you to explain the types of serial and mass murderer along with the reasons why they commit these crimes. You can find the answers to this in the work of Jack Levin and James Alan Fox "Multiple Homicide: Patterns of Serial and Mass Murder". The summary of their work is on pages 209 and 210 of the textbook in the Criminological Enterprise section.

Too often people throw the term psycho around without really understanding what it means so we'll look at Dr. Robert Hare's PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised). The diagnosis "Psychopath" is closely related to Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition). We'll watch the recreation of the 1961 Stanley Milgram experiment on "Obedience to Authority". From ABC News "Basic Instinct: The Science of Evil"

In the experiment, conducted at Yale University over a period of months in 1961, an authority figure -- "the experimenter" -- dressed in a white lab coat and instructed participants to administer what they believed were increasingly painful electric shocks to another person. Although no one was actually receiving shocks, the participants heard a man screaming in pain and protest, eventually pleading to be released from the experiment. When the subjects questioned the experimenter about what was happening, they were told they must continue. And continue they did: Two-thirds of Milgram's participants delivered shocks as they heard cries of pain, signs of heart trouble, and then finally -- and most frightening -- nothing at all.

So if we are studying violence and we categorize violence as "evil" then shouldn't we understand what makes people do "evil" things? The ABC Primetime News team recreated Milgram's experiment and we'll watch it today.

D Block Law 12 - Today you again have the notebooks in our block to work on your case study project. The Insurance Bureau of Canada has a great webpage to help with Occupier's Liability called Slip/Trip and Fall. On this site it indicates:

As an occupier, you and/or your organization are required to keep areas such as aisles, stairs, ramps, walkways, driveways and parking lots reasonably safe for persons who are using them. Some common hazardous conditions include:

• ice and snow that has not been cleared
• unexpected elevation changes
• uneven surfaces (e.g., cracks, gaps, potholes)
• slippery surfaces (e.g., wet floors, tile flooring)
• missing or loose handrails on stairs
• debris on walking paths (e.g., boxes in aisles)
• inadequate lighting.

An occupier may be held liable for slips, trips and falls if he/she/it fails to provide a reasonable standard of care in keeping the premises free from hazards. In cases where there is more than one occupier – such as a landlord and a tenant or in the case of shared spaces – it is possible for liability to be shared. Who is held liable depends on the circumstances of the loss. The following are some of the criteria used to determine whether or not the appropriate standard of care was applied:

• Whether the danger was foreseeable.
• Whether the occupier’s conduct was in accordance with acceptable standards of practice.
• Whether there was an adequate system of inspection (considering the risks involved) in place and carried out.
• Whether the danger was allowed to exist for an unreasonable amount of time.
• The ease with which the danger could have been prevented.

I would highly recommend that you check out some web pages to help with your project:
Occupiers Liability Act [RSBC 1996] Chapter 337
Products Liability Act
Doing Business in Canada (Product Liability)
Family Compensation Act [RSBC 1996] Chapter 126
Medical Malpractice Canada
Lawyers BC Medical Malpractice
John McKiggan Medical Malpractice Informed Consent (minors)


C Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Yesterday we looked at Social Structure Theories and tried to see if the explanation of crime by the Crips fit within any of those theories (social disorganization, strain, and or cultural deviance). Remember the narrator in the documentary indicated that the Crips came out of an area that had poor schools, housing and an unemployment rate three times the national rate. Also Raymond 'Dhanifu' Cook said that they were "like bandits coming from the poor sections (of LA) to the more affluent sections (of LA) to requestion their material to bring it back to the neighbourhood" and 'Crippin' meant "are you ready to rob, plunder, pillage"? This kind of fits within the Social Structure theories.

There are three major arguments among Social Process Theories that focus on how people learn to commit crime (Social Learning), how society fails to control deviancy and criminality (Social Control), and the impact of criminal labels on individuals subsequent behavior (Social Reaction).
So to help understand this we'll look at the Law & Order Los Angeles episode "Hollywood" that we missed last Friday (snow day). This episode combined three separate pop culture story stories/themes.

1. First is the Bling Ring, the crew of Southern California teenyboppers who burgled celebrity homes by tracking their marks’ whereabouts via the Internet. The band of seven, which included E! reality star Alexis Neiers, burglarized the homes of Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, Rachel Bilson, Audrina Patridge and Paris Hilton, who was reportedly robbed a total of five times by the group.
2. Second is the Brody Jenner type reality TV star, an L.A. rich kid who dated his way into pseudo-stardom.
3. Third, there is a version of the Lindsay-Dina Lohan mommy-daughter psychodrama, complete with lots of heavy talk about living through/off your children...remember the cartoon from yesterday's class "Children's Guide to Growing Up: Social Class"? Hmmm...lots of stuff from yesterday's cartoon in today's Law & Order: Los Angeles episode.

We'll see whether or not Social Learning, Social Control or Social Reaction theories can help explain the Bling Ring and to end the class I'll have you work on yesterday's question along with today's question: Have you ever been given a negative label, and, if so, did it cause you social harm? How did you lose the label, or did it become a permanent marker that still troubles you today?