Articles Summaries: Sheila Batacharya, DeLeon, Gang Murder by Structure (Essay Sample)

Articles Summaries
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SUMMARY 1
Stefan Timmermans in his research paper attempts to understand jurisdictional conflicts. In the study, he uses an analogy to better present the jurisdictional conflict. As such, he pits medical examiners (and the wider forensic pathology community) versus organ procurement organizations. The study examines how medical examiners interact in the course of discharging their professional mandate with the two different fields, "Public Health and Law Enforcement." Medical examiners in their responsibility to law enforcement are required to provide their expertise to explain unnatural deaths. It is this expertise that makes them exceptional witnesses in court. Their testimony being quite capable of turning Juries in favor of an attorney's client.
Medical examiners again have a responsibility to the public. It is their mandate to ensure that cadavers are properly stored and disposed. However, organ transplant organizations often claim these bodies, in line with their duty to provide the "gift of life." Essentially an organ to individuals who would otherwise die. The study investigates the claims of both organizations and when they have (or ought to have) jurisdiction over a cadaver.
The study is excellent in the manner it is conducted. Stefan goes beyond looking at jurisdictional conflict from a quasi-judicial manner to examining the motives. Stefan attempts to find out if money is a factor in how medical examiners arrive at their decisions. The study finds that a single cadaver can make up to $220,000 and creates an incentive for medical examiners to release bodies, even when it is not in the greater public good. Different examples in the study show Stefan’s depth of research.
In his study, Stefan admits to only offering the medical examiners standpoint. By taking such a standpoint, Stefan fails in his evaluation of the dichotomy by limiting his perspectives, he inadvertently offers a limited view into the jurisdictional conflict CITATION Ste02 \l 1033 (Timmermans, 2002).
SUMMARY 2
Abraham P. DeLeon in his study investigates the discourse of crime and its association to race and "Urban" surroundings. In his study, DeLeon attempts to understand what exactly drives school shootings. DeLeon looks at how School shootings are dealt with by federal agencies and the press. He investigates why school shooters (especially in mass shootings) are predominantly white and how this is perceived by the larger white population. In a startling revelation, the study indicates that the shooter is seen not as a representative of the whole race, but as a deviant or a loner. A person who has deviated from the normal path and requires help, institutionalization, jail and at worst the death penalty. It seems that in the discourse of crime, the notion of white supremacy and "purity" is still accepted as truth by organizations such as federal agencies and the press.
In a shocking example, the FBI a federal agency does not have a profile of a school shooter. It points to an institutionalized incapability or reluctance to accept that crimes can be perpetuated by persons of any race. Is this an institutional reluctance to put a racial profile simply because it would be white?
DeLeon indicates an exceptional grasp of the data that lays the bedrock of his research. His willingness to challenge notions that have long been held indicate the caliber of researcher that he is. The notion of race as a predictor of crime is also challenged in the research. The study also concludes with DeLeon pointing out the need to build a society that is not based on a racialized order. A society that does not look to blame its ills on a singular race or perceive another race as superior.
The study theorizes that the school shootings are in some way connected to European colonization. In this regard, he fails to take into account the social nature of the shooter and to a large extent the effect of his socialization as a contributing factor to triggering the shooter to commit the act CITATION Abr11 \l 1033 (DeLeon, 2011).
SUMMARY 3
Sheila Batachrya in her study looks at the question of gender inequality and its relation to race. In her study, she gives the example of Reena Virk, a young teenager who was physically assaulted and murdered. The perpetrators of this act were however, not male as expected. 7 young women and 1 young man were reportedly involved challenging the notion of women as non-aggressive. Further into the study, Sheila theorizes that white women were essential to the continued dominance of white supremacy during slavery. In conducting her duties in keeping her home, the woman had under her slaves who she exploited for their labor and was in fact instrumental in meting out punishments for deviant behavior.
Sheila Batacharya in her study argues that white women not only supported white supremacy but were essentially its agents. They also acted as guardians of white supremacy by ensuring their men did not marry white women, curtailed nonsocial habits such as drinking and gambling. In re-framing the murder of Reena Virk, Sheila argues that this can only be done by re-visiting our internalized understanding of female hegemony. Sheila theorizes that the girl violence is predicated on the good and bad girl dichotomy.
In her dissection of girl violence, Batacharya does not rely only on racism as the key feature. She investigates hegemony, sex, gender, orientation, class and their interrelation and probable contribution to the discourse of girl violence.
Sheila Batacharya fails to examine the effects of other variables such as socialization and their effects on the perpetrators of Reena Virk’s murder CITATION She \l 1033 (Batacharya).
SUMMARY 4
Nancy G. Kutner in her papers dissects organ transplantation and related costs. Organ transplantation is by its very nature an expensive procedure as it requires specialized medical machines, highly experienced doctors and medical personnel and drugs. The use of such medical inputs make the process of organ transplantation expensive with heart transplants going over the $100,000 mark. However, transplanted organs also run the risk of being rejected by the body since they are a foreign body. Insurance companies therefore do not typically provide for organ transplantation in their coverage, making it risky and expensive to the patient. The procedures are in demand as they are often a last attempt by dying patients to clutch on to life. Who then gets the organ? Especially when the limited availability and pseudo-universal need is considered. Medical criteria (how well a patient would work with the organ) is viewed as the best criteria for choosing how to match a patient with an organ.
The expected quality of life after undergoing an organ transplant matters. In the initial stages of development in the field of organ transplantation, the possibility of an organ being rejected was high. However, this has reduced due to new, better drugs. Individuals with transplanted organs also have a longer life due to the new drugs.
Kutner appreciates as indicated in the study the multi-dimensional nature of organ transplants. The study takes into account, the legal, medical, social, financial et al dimensions of organ transplants and the challenges of balancing the need of these different groups.
Kutner, however, demonstrates a lack of awareness of modern advancements in immune-suppression especially in relation to rejection of donated organs CITATION Nan \l 1033 (Kutner).
SUMMARY 5
Andrew Papachristos in the study approaches murder as a decidedly social enterprise. Noting from research into FBI files that 75% of murders are contracted between people known to each other. These individuals are often in the same social standing, economically and to an extent similar political affiliations. He looks at murder from a gang re...