-Crime, education, health care, immigration, and balancing the budget continue to top the list of issues on the public agenda. 

-Moral breakdown is the one recurring theme cutting across the political spectrum. 

-1/4 of the nations children under six years of age live in poverty.  Poverty rates have climbed from 18% in 1979 to 25% in 1994. 

-Michael Mandel writes that the new global and technology-based economy is creating a Ahigh risk society.@  He warns that no one can expect that today=s job will still exist five years down the road, and no one can predict the industrial growth ten years down the road. 

-Legislators complain that the public: 1) believes there can be gains without pains, 2) demands instant solutions to complex problems, 3) expects too much from government, and 4) is politically inattentive and disengaged. 

-Our crisis is essentially political, not economic. 

-Theodore Lowi, likens the government to a jellyfish that is pervasive but weak, easily captured by private interests. 

-American political reformers always end up reinforcing the status quo.  The main problem is that the reformers work from a narrowly conceived concept of democracy as representation. 

-Government is an essential part of doing business in the U.S. - as in every other industrial nation. 

-Democracy has its institutional limitations as compared to all other systems. 

Democratic fallacy = the open-endedness of hopes leading to the view that a majority can or should have whatever it wants. 

-Most politicians have relatively short time horizons. 

-Religion has a very large role in shaping how Americans think about politics. 
*84% of the voting age population are Christian Americans. 

-Lawyers, lobbyists and politicians receive numerous benefits from the parasite economy. 

-Yair Ahoroni (No Risk Society) asserts that the welfare state has turned into an insurance state. 

-The U.S. is still a debtor nation.  We continue to suffer a balance-of-trade deficit. 
 
 

-Western Europe, the U.S. and Japan have been outpaced by newly industrialized countries such as Brazil and the so-called Four Tigers (Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong).  Behind the Tigers have been Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. 

-The U.S. is facing serious problems, including trade imbalances and extensive foreign borrowing. 

-Japanese exports to the U.S. have risen in the past years, while U.S. exports to Japan have fallen. 

-In 1985, the U.S. became a debtor nation for the first time since WWI.  This means that the U.S. owes more money to other nations than they owe to us. 

-The real challenge is in balancing the budge (and reducing the national debt) while, at the same time, encouraging economic growth and prosperity for the benefit of the average citizen. 

-More than $1 trillion is owed on credit cards in the U.S. 

-An important reason for the downward pressure on wages is a decline in labor union membership and influence. 

The Hidden Unemployed 
-Discourage workers, homeless, African American/Latinos, involuntary part-time workers, workers not qualified for unemployment benefits, workers who have exhausted unemployment benefits, and undocumented immigrants. 

-Due to so many American women working, serious implications for child-rearing, family life, and parental involvement in the schools have risen greatly. 

Aggregate supply = total of all goods and services produced in an economy, less exports and adding imports. 

Inflation = the increase in the supply of money and credit. 

-Economists argue there are several possible causes of inflation: 1) Demand pull inflation, 2) Cost-push inflation and 3) Monetarism. 

Money supply = the total deposits the banking system carries on its books plus currency in circulation. 

-The growth of the money supply is limited in two ways: 1) Hard money and 2) Soft money. 

Tariffs = taxes levied on imports 

The Political Economy 

1. What Shape The American Economy?
2. Three Indicators of a Healthy Economy: How Does the U.S. Measure Up?
3. Who is to Blame?
4. The Language of Macroeconomics
5. Stabilizing the Economy

II. The best measures of a healthy economy are productivity, income distribution, and employment. In terms of these indicators, the U.S. economy is showing signs of illness. Even though unemployment is at an all-time high, there really is no job security in the economy. However, those with ‘steady’ jobs, saw increases in sales and the rate of purchase went up, thus trying to make the economy stronger, and allotting more money for salaries, and thus, a downward pressure movement on wages. However, for those with jobs, steady or unsteady, wealth distribution since the 1970s has targeted certain types of people, and race distribution is a factor in this targeting. It has been a very long time since we have heard of growing incomes. During the years of expansion, American prosperity has been extremely uneven. People at the top of the ladder have enjoyed a rise in their wages, however, the middle class either stayed even or began to slip. America now has the greatest division between rich and poor more than any other industrialized country in the world. Productivity has had similar rises and falls, much like wages, and the rate of productivity seems to be affected directly by the spending power of the American consumer. 

III. World War II is the main reason why America’s economy is the way it is. This is the event that began to shape America’s economy. Adding on the strong dependency on imports and foreign capital, makes the debt more of a mountain of debt. The debt leads to a weaker economy, which in turn leads to social tensions among various groups of people. 

IV. Aggregate supply: total of all goods produced in an economy 

1. Inflation: The increase of supply of money and credit; undue expansion of a country’s currency
2. Demand-pull economy: excess demand on the economy
3. Cost-push inflation: higher costs for goods and services
4. Monetarism: excessive increases in money supplies
5. Momentum inflation: rise of goods vs. rise in services as forseen By the producer
6. Deflation: sustained reduction in the rate of prices
7. Stagflation: high rate of inflation and high rate of unemployment

V. Main factor: Government employment of civilians. When business is low, production fails, prices rise, and the buying power hits a slump. However, the government can still keep steady ‘production’ going, and Congress can add more jobs at anytime. 

Main factor: Transfer payments- federal dollars paid directly to individuals, including Social Security and Medicare. These payments have accounted for the recent growth of more federal spending. 

Main factor: keeping a steady GNP (total dollar value of all goods bought for final use and for services during the year. This helps anchor the economy, thus making for a steady business cycle. 

- The Social and Economic Importance of Education
Technology has made education even more important to the economic and social well-being of us all, the significance has also grown with the “erosion” of the church and family. 
Education serves two primary functions
? Helps socialize young people into being good citizens (politically involved, neighborly, and rule abiding.
? Prepares people for employment and to be productive citizens
Education also decreases crime, increases personal income, expands job opportunities and gives a better ability to compete in international markets.
Paul Barton (page 73 of Brewster) states that it would be better to spend more on education than on building more prisons.
- Schools, a Local Matter
The American School System has always been controlled by the local government, for the most part. Thomas Jefferson believed strongly that there should not be a centralization of education he believed local government was the best guarantee of freedom.
School was originally paid for by the student or his family, but schools in large cities began to pay for the schooling using local property taxes such as in Michigan where sixty percent of schools funding had come from property taxes, but now seventy percent comes from state taxes. The issue of who pays for this public education relates to just who is in control, in later years the trend is for the state government to take greater control. 
- New Ideas in the Progressive Era
In the last years of the 19th century, a group of mainly young educated reformers in professions set out to apply the scientific and rational techniques they had learned in their professions to the betterment of the larger society. John Dewey and educational philosopher with the progressives believed that children, not the subject matter, should be the focus of school policy, and that schools should be community centers and instruments of social progress. During this period educators congratulated themselves for successfully drawing more people into schools and making instruction more meaningful.
- Sputnik and the Cold War Years
Following WWII Americans were preoccupied with education, education was key to success. Many parents rushed to join PTA (Parent-Teacher Associations) so they would have a voice in the educational process, and they brought out many problems concerning education such as using obsolete teaching methods, schools were overcrowded and understaffed, etc. After the Russians launched Sputnik, America was desperate to up its standards in education and Congress issued its National Defense Education Act which funded high school programs in math, foreign languages and the sciences. President Johnson also issued his war on poverty by creating many educational programs serving as the principal weapon. Trying to make the “good life” more equal to everyone. He created many acts with the help of congress. These included: Job Corps & Neighborhood Youth Corps to provide marketable skills, work experience, remedial education, and counseling for young people; Head Start- to prepare low-income preschoolers for grade school; and he also started Upward Bound for impoverished high school students who inspired college educations.
Educators also began during this time to emphasize thinking and decision making skills rather than simply teaching facts. Books became more “realistic” focusing on lifestyles and attitudes, and roles of men and women.
- A Warning to the Nation
National Commission on Excellence in Education warned nation that the school systems were deteriorating by its findings:
? 19 tests of international academic achievement, American students did not place first in any one
? 23 million adults were functionally illiterate
? Tests scores on standardized tests were lower than in the fifties
? Business and Military leaders complained of having to spend remedial training on basics such as reading, writing etc.
? Average graduate of U.S. Schools and colleges was not educated as those of 25 years prior.
- Educational Crisis: A Fundamental Problem?
Christian fundamentalist have challenged public education for much of the 19th century (moral majority) - waged their battles against the “modernism” of the school systems, they believed it would tear the traditional and morally based society down.
- Teacher Unions and the PTA
Teacher Unions
The two greatest are the NEA and the AFT. These unions work hard to see that their members earn their wages and enjoy the terms of their employment through collective bargaining. These unions also try to stifle educational competition by:
? having certified teachers
? limits on school board contracting services
? negotiated wages for school employees by collective bargaining
? complete opposition to legislation which would or could provide vouchers to allow children to enroll children in private schools
    PTA’s
? reflect Teacher Union’s influence through policies and positions
? misdirected resources
? restrict discussion of controversial topics
? no idea of policies in their name by national and state PTA hierarchies 
- Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 
Supports four broad goals
? high standards for all students
? teachers better trained for teaching to high standards
? flexibility to stimulate local reform
? close partnerships with families, communities, and schools
- Outcomes-Based Education: A Good Idea Gone Bad?
First introduced as a way to ensure all children have demonstrated competencies in those subjects deemed necessary to success, also a way to hold educators responsible. Most recently George W. Bush has used this type of education to require school districts, teachers, and students to be accountable for performance, a highly controversial issue.
- School Choice
President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 expands options for parents in deciding where to send their child to school. It allows students to attend schools that may be safer, better, or to get specific help, etc. Giving school choice in areas such as charter schools is a way to hopefully provide incentives for schools to improve.
- School to Work Programs
1994 proposed solution to raise the quality of workers that businesses get from the educational system. The program was to include career exploration and counseling and instruction in a career major, and also at least one year of post-secondary education. The act expired in 10-2001 and the No Child Left Behind Program did not leave enough funds to reinstate this program.
    - Education in the Information Age
        As technology continues to get more complex, computers, the Internet, and other related information technologies already have changed to some extent curriculum, methods of teaching, and even physical school structure. 
- Does “One Size Fits All” Education Work?
The American system has always been to have the same material for all to ensure a common grade school education “a place where every talent would be given an equal chance to excel” the German model offers a different system, a dual system. Here students have three directions to take either grammar, technical, or vocational schools. Brewster suggests the US considering a multi-track system of education which would allow students to select the path most suited to their temperament, intellect, and career ambitions.
- Educational System: A Battleground for Affirmative Action
“class-based” affirmative action proposals have become important in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision suggesting that race-based scholarships may be unconstitutional. The public and courts seem ready to do away with racial preferences in admittance to schools. ie’s:
? California Civil Rights Initiative- “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to any individual…”
? Hopwood v. State of Texas- race may not be considered a factor in admissions process for the purpose of achieving diversity.

-Declining test scores, a high drop-out rate, disruptive and often violent behavior in the schools, and complaints from employers that today’s students are ill-prepared to compete in the international job market is evidence of the American educational system failing. 

-The secret of American economic and political vitality is our greatest social invention:  mass education. 

Education serves two primary functions: 
1) It helps to socialize the young into becoming “good” citizens. 
2) Prepares people for employment and to generally productive citizens. 

-Americans were preoccupied with education in the years following WWII.  They viewed education as the key to the future financial success of their children. 

-The landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passed by Congress in 1965, provided federal aid to numerous schools. 

-Court-ordered desegration of the schools, along with the women's movement hit hard on social dynamics in schools. 

-The educational crisis is only going to get worse as our nation faces record high enrollments coupled with the shortage of qualified teachers and adequate space. 

The two most influential teacher unions: 1) National Education Association (NEA) 
      2)American Federation of Teachers (AFT) 

-Politics is at the core of every attempt of reform within the educational system. 

-The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (IASA) reauthorized and restructured the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. 

The IASA endorses four goals: 1) High standards for all students 
     2) Teachers better trained for higher goals 
     3) Flexibility to stimulate local reform 
4) Close partnerships with families, communities and schools 

-School choice and charter schools also are attempts to hold schools accountable for their performance.  Charter schools are alternative public schools in which parents are empowered to make more critical decisions in the design and operation of the school. 

-The escalating cost of the U.S. health care bill has reached such a proportions that politicians are being forced to respond. 

-In the early 1990's, neither the providers or the payers were happy with the overall health care system.  The consumer was not happy either. 

-Political candidates (both state and national) started to exploit the health care issue in the 1992 election cycle. 

Compared to other major industrialized nations in the world, our uneven patchwork of health delivery:  1)  costs more per person,  2)  delivers lesser results based on international standards of success, and 3) serves fewer of our citizens. 

-Between 1988 and 1993, the yearly increases in national medical outlay were three times the annual increases in the overall cost of living, declining slightly in recent years to two times the annual rise. 

-An American citizen's access to quality health care is perceived as a privilege, not a right. 

-Paying America's health bill has traditionally fallen to what is termed a third-party payer. 

Third-party payer = a financial agent who assumes the risk of medical and hospital expenses incurred by the first party (the insured patient) with the second party (provider) after the services are provided. 

-Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) are making rapid strides toward becoming the new model for health care delivery. 

-In summer of 1965, President Johnson signed the legislation the ensured hospital and physician services to the nation's elderly and its poor. 

-Radically expanding access to basic health care, the legislation established two separate programs:  Medicare and Medicaid.  Medicare addressed the needs of elderly and disabled.  Medicaid served the needs of the nation's poor. 

-General practice physicians, under contract with the National Health Service, receive a flat rate for each patient in their care, similar to the HMO primary care doctor the United States. 

-The first preliminary requirement is that we, as a nation, accept universal access to health care as an entitlement, similar to our acceptance of public education as a right. 

-Unless you understand the unique HIV virus and how it wreaks havoc, you cannot comprehend AIDS as disease or political problem.  AIDS has a very brief history, the first cases were diagnosed and reported in 1981. 

-It must be understood that the higher administrative levels in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), as in all cabinet departments, are people by political appointees of the incumbent president. 

-By 1982, there was evidence that AIDS was contaminating the nation's blood supply trickling into the CDC.  The maneuvering of political interest groups that acted itself out over the next several years would be just another example of work-a-day policymaking - had not "politics as usual" murdered people. 

-The resistance to screening blood was about economics. 

-Politics was an intricate part of AIDS from the first report in 1981.  Gay rights interest groups, blood merchant trade associations, religious right political action movements, government regulatory agencies, local and national politicians were all accounted for.  At times the accelerating toll of sickness and death seemed only a backdrop to the machinations of groups, government, egos, and ambition. 

-Federal medical research money is distributed, if not democratically, at least geographically.  Across the nation, university medical centers and private foundation labs scramble for their place at the governmental funding trough.

-HIV infection also has profound implications for the United States' efforts to modernize the African economic infrastructure and to stabilize political regimes in the still-struggling nations. 

-Many commentators have attributed the pressure for not reporting the HIV infected by name as a product of intense gay activist politicking.  It is true that those with the best organized gay lobbies and are also the states most protective of anonymity in HIV test results. 

-The Department of Defense (DOD) had already anticipated the HIV antibody test and was prepared to launch mass screening of armed forces personnel. 

-The rationale for screening was based on several principles:  direct solider-to-soldier transfusions occasionally necessary in battle; the proximity of soldiers in group housing; the protection of infected military personnel from the live virus vaccinations administered to all personnel; and the cost to the military health care system in treating those in whom symptoms developed. 

-The Department of Labor got into the act.  It would screen all students, staff, and applicants for the Job Corps. 

-Government has put an enormous amount of money into AIDS research and education. 

-A truly pubic policy is one that aims to solve a problem that cannot or will not be solve by private initiative. 

A. AIDS: Keeping The Lid On 

1.  AIDS is a equal opportunity

1. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) 
2. Most political, legal, and public health issues stem from the peculiar ability of HIV 

(1) to permanently infect, 
(2) to be transmitted to others with no one being the wiser, and 
(3) to require years of expensive medical intervention and drug therapy to little ultimate avail.

1. Casual contact does not spread HIV 
2. Recipients of infected blood and blood products are a highest risk of HIV infection. 
(transfusion recipients and intravenous drug users) 
3. The major mode of HIV transmission is sexual.

1. A new strand of pneumonia was found in homosexual males.  It became known as the “Gay Plague”.  No special congressional funds were appropriated to deploy CDC personnel to investigate causes. 
2. The discovery of AIDS in 1981 was awful timing. Reagan was the new president and Health and Human services were not his top priorities. For Reaganites, the AIDS- afflicted were anti-Christ.

1. By the beginning of 1982, evidence that AIDS was contaminating the 
nations blood supply was trickling into the CDC. 
2. Trade associations suppliers were corralled by representatives of the CDC and of the Food and Drug Administration, which bears the responsibility for direct govern mental oversight of the blood industry.

1. Rural men and women t brought HIV to the cities 
2. HIV infections in Africa prostitutes during the late 1980s demonstrate extremely high rates of infection, from 30 percent in Zaire to 66 percent in Kenya to 88 percent in Rwanda

1. HIV wasn’t killing the people and their immune system like as with the HIV-2 
2. It was directly administered through a polo vaccine

1.The government has put an enormous amount of money into AIDS research and education, but in a timely fashion. 
2. Public funding priorities need to be shifted. Often public money is tossed in some useless directions without understanding the limits of government action. 
3. AIDS education and intervention efforts now receive a substantial part of total HIV funding. 
4. Only government intervention and direction can surmount the private disincentive that stands in the public good

•  Economist, David Anderson, wrote in the Journal of Law and Economics that the total cost of crime in this country is $1.7 trillion. ($397 billion annually) He goes on to say that if there were no criminals at all, these individuals would not be costing the US but would be contributing to society and their lives.
•  Most Americans think of money or the value of objects stolen when they think of the cost of crimes when in fact there are many more direct costs.

• There are three main types of crimes: Violent crime, Property Crime, and White-Collar crime.
• White-Collar crime, again the most costly, has many subgroups including: Government Fraud, Environmental Crime, Public Corruption, Financial Crime, Bankruptcy Fraud, Computer Crime, Unwarranted Lawsuits, Victimless Crime, Hate Crime, and Organized Crime.

• Teenage criminals today seem far more violent and even deadly, than were their predecessors. More and more are armed with handguns and automatic weapons.
• There is a growing support across the country for treating violent juveniles as adults, even if it means a death sentence.

-Why do some people act out of the norms of the law? Who are Criminals and why are they? 

-Emile Durkheim, a sociologist, offered one of the earliest and still relevant macro sociological 
approaches to criminal behavior. 

-She argued that various parts of the social systems lose their integration and people may fall 
into a state of normalessness or confusion. [Does Durkheim really look like a "she"?]
-She also believed that these behavioral changes are particularly widespread during times of 
rapid change when values, technology, and social structure are shifting at different rates. A high crime rate is almost always a product of rapid economic development (not just during a depression) 

Demographic Features
- Other criminologists and sociologists think the high prevalence of crime in the U.S is due to 
demographic factors (age, race, class). 
-Demographic changes: 

-The number of persons between 15-24 year olds in the 1960’s was about 24 million where as in 2000 there were nearly 40 million 15-24 year olds 
-Young people, usually males under 24, commit most crime. 
-Most crimes in the 60’s were blamed on the baby boomers coming of age. 
-Crime rate dropped in he 90’s due to an increase in median age of baby boomers who also 
waited to have children in their late 20’s to early 30’s 
-Many think the future is not so “rosy” because in 1995 39 million children were under the age of ten 
-Rise in serious crimes in 2001 may be the start of an upward trend, as children of baby 
boomers become 15-24 
-The 2000 census date showed that males committed 49.1% of crimes while 50.9% were by 
females. However, 18 year olds committed 74% of those crimes. Of that 74%, 35.9% were men and the other 38.4% were women. 

-In 2002 Human Rights Watch reported that out of almost two million people incarcerated in adult 
facilities 63% percent were African Americans or Latino 
-These two groups only constitute 25% of the large population 
-Reasons behind minority groups leading a life of crime are poverty, broken homes, and 
decaying schools 
-Low-income people regardless of race are often at a disadvantage in criminal justice system 
because of inability to post bail or hire an experienced criminal attorney. 

-In 12 states 10-15% of adult black men are incarcerated. 
-In 15 states black women are incarcerated at rates between 10 and 35 times greater than white women. 
-In 6 states black youth under the 18 are incarcerated in adult facilities at rates between 12-25 
times greater than white youth. 
-In 4 states Hispanic youth under the age of 18 are incarcerated between 7-17 times greater that whites. 

-About 48% of jail and prison inmates grew up with one parent or other relatives 
-40% of prison inmates and 34% of those in jail have an immediate family member who has been 
incarcerated have an immediate family member who has been incarcerated 
-Most offenders are single with dependent children, half of prison inmates have never been 
married, and  24% are divorced of or separated. 
-The level of education for most inmates is way below national average. 
-Only about 40% of jail and 28% of prison inmates have completed high schools. 
-Those better educated are the majority of drug offenders. 
-45% of all males were unemployed at time of arrest. 
-However there is no agreement on whether social class and economic condition cause criminal 
behavior. 

-Most crimes are committed by males especially those under 20. 
-Men are most likely to be arrested for more serious crimes. 
-Higher proportions of women incarcerated for property crimes. 
- In recent years teenage girls have been involved in car hijacking and other violent acts. 
-Young women in gangs are more prone to violent behavior. 
-Historically women if women have been arrested they are more protected by police and courts 
especially if they had children 
-However in the 1990’s number of women in prison rose 100% 

-About 55% of non-citizens processed in court in 1994 were in U.S legally 
-In 1984 35% of non-citizen offenses were drug related. In 1994 this rose to 45% 

-Enrico Ferri, an Italian legal scholar who helped developed criminology as an academic 
discipline said that basically crime is like a disease that has to be attacked itself 
-“That which has happened to medicine will happen to criminology” 
-Liberals have been addicted to medical metaphors ever since 
-Conservatives have exaggerated the gain that can be wrung from tougher law enforcement 
-According to conservatives, we have always been losing the war on crime and the remedy has 
always been the same: to unleash forces of the law and order so criminals can be quickly caught 
convicted and punished 
-If Americans are to have any hope of reducing criminal violence to some more tolerance level, 
we may want to proceed cautiously and with modest goals 

-The Miranda Warning should be changed because when a police officer is put in the position of telling a suspect in a murder or a rape that they don’t have to tell us anything and that may be the best thing for you. It can also produce a situation in which a proper confession in thrown out by 
the way in which it was read or that is was not read at the right time. 
-Rothwax believes Miranda can be replaced by the recording of an arrest interrogation through 
videotapes, tape recordings and other technology. 
-The Exclusionary rule states that evidence obtained in violation of the 4th amendment should be excluded from criminal trial. This has led to many cases being thrown out 
-Rothwax feels it should be at the discretion of the judge and there could be a test of 
reasonableness and subjective good faith 
-Right to counsel: 6th amendment provides right to counsel. Rothwax agrees it is essential but 
nowhere in the amendment does it say that a lawyer has to be present t the time of questioning 
or interrogation, but it only needs to be during pretrial/trial. 

-Many Americans feel that victims should have rights 
-Clinton supported amendment that guaranteed victims and their families the right to be present 
at all critical stages, such as testifying 
-Known as the Kyle - Feinstein amendment 
- Three strike law requires mandatory life in prison for career violent criminals convicted of bank 
robbery and smuggling. 

-Many Americans feel ambivalent towards police especially after OJ Simpson’s trial 
-Some see them as threatening because they are implementers of violent forces. 
-Police officers depend on the public to help solve crimes 
-Citizens also need to take a role in preventing crime such as participation in crime-stopping 
programs such as neighborhood watch. 

-All four presidents pushed congress for anticrime bills to show public that they were tough on 
crime and supportive of victims 
-1984 Reagan passed one that allowed judges to deny bail to a suspect that  seemed 
dangerous. 
-Clinton made room for 100,000 new police officers, community policing, three strikes and you’re 
out law, federal prison construction death penalty expansion of 60 categories such as terrorists 
and drug kingpins 

-Violent crimes are higher in U.S than in any other industrialized nation 
-Americans are 7-10 times more likely to die by homicide than in any other country in Europe 
and Japan nearest competitor is Great Britain 
-U.S feels that we have easy access to guns 
-Women are three times more likely to be raped than women in West Germany 
-Six times more like to be robbed 

-Many Americans believe the criminal justice system is in a state of collapse. 

-The bottom line is that the criminals are going free.  There is no respect for the truth, and without truth there can be no justice. 

-All crimes are corrosive to society.  The most costly crimes in terms of dollars and the most damaging to the moral fiber of society are so-called white-collar crimes. 

-The American justice system is thought by many to be extremely punitive, and yet the Bureau of Justice Statistics demonstrates this image does not match reality. 

-The 1995 crime clock shows that a violent crime happens every eighteen seconds and a property crime every three seconds. 

-It is estimated that five-sixths of us will be victims of attempted or completed violent crimes during out lives.  The risk is greater for males than females and for African Americans than for whites. 

-Total gross receipts from criminal activity was between $26.9 billion and $136.9 billion in 1986. 

-Violent crime refers to such events as homicide, rape, and assault that may result in injury to a person. 

-Property crimes are unlawful acts with the intent of gaining property without involving the use of threat or force against an individual. 

-The investigations of white-collar crime remains one of the top national priorities of the FBI. 

-Financial crimes are schemes to defraud, embezzle, or misapply the money, funds, securities, or credits of individuals, business, and/or financial institutions by manipulations, misrepresentation, falsification, or deceit. 

-Criminal action relating to bankruptcy fraud involves intentional concealment of some of the assets belonging to the debtor or the furnishing of false information to the courts. 

-MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) made Americans aware that alcohol is the greatest cause of death on the highways and has successfully pressured the courts  and state legislators to take drunk driving more seriously. 

-Most crimes fall into the victimless crime category.  These crimes include prostitution, homosexual activity, gambling, drug addiction, drunkenness, vagrancy, disorderly conduct, and traffic violations. 

-There has been an increasing concern about juvenile offenders.  One reason is teenage criminals seem far more violent than their predecessors. 

-Other criminologists and sociologists think the high prevalence of crime in the U.S. is due to demographic factors. 

-There is no agreement on whether social class and economic conditions cause criminal behavior.  One reason is that some people with similar characteristics commit crimes and others do not. 

1. History of Terrorism
2. Types of Terrorist Tools and Attacks 
3. Terrorists Threats 
4. Existing Policy Tools 
5. Potential Policy Tools 
6. The September 11. Attacks 
7. Policy Impacts of the Attacks 

History of Terrorism 

The term itself goes back to 1795, when it referred to the guillotining of opponents by members of the French Revolution. 

In the first century, Jewish Zealots publicly executed Romans and their collaborators. 

The term referred not to acts of violence by nongovernmental entities but violence by states themselves, such as acts conducted by the Soviet and Nazi governments against their citizens. 

In 20^th century the term changed to mean violence against the state itself by individuals and, now against individual citizens of a state. 

Modern terrorism was honed during the Arab-Israeli Six Day War in 1967, and in the Student movements in 1968. The first acts were the pro-Palestinian airline hijacking in the early 1970’s leading up to kidnapping and subsequent murder of Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972. 

Types of Terrorist Tools and Attacks 

Conventional terrorist attacks involve the use of explosives in pipe bombs, car bombs, shootings, kidnapping, and assassinations. Targets may include anything from commercial buildings, to transportation links or facilities, or symbolic targets. 

Suicide terrorism a signature of the Al-Qaeda or Palestinian radicals, and involves setting off a bomb strapped to the body of a person in a crowded area. 

Chemical Weapons are chemical substances used to kill injure, or main citizens. Considered WMD weapons include Nerve agents, Blister agents, Choking agents, Blood agents, Toxins, Control agents, and incapacitating agent. One example of a chemical attack was the 1995 Tokyo by the group Aum Shinrikyo. 

Biological weapons are toxic substances made of natural substances. Biological weapons are placed in five groups: Bacterial agents….i.e. anthrax, plague, and typhoid fever, Rickettsial agents ……..i.e. typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Viral agents …..Smallpox, influenza, yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalic, Toxins, and fungal agents are the categories that biological weapons categories. 

Radiological weapons are weapons with ability to spread radioactive particles. A RDD spread radiological materials upon explosion and the simple RDD, or dirty bomb, which spreads radiological materials without the use explosive materials. Sources of the this kind of weapon are : other countries, hospital radiation therapy sections, radiopharmaceutical materials, nuclear power plants fuel rods, laboratories ,and universities. 

These weapons are hard to obtain, make and transport. Therefore there has been no known attack using "dirty bombs". 

Cyber terrorism is terrorism that involves computers, networks, and in the information they contain. This is an appealing target to many terrorists, growing at an enormous pace in the past ten years. Cyber terrorism is designed into five different categories: On a specific database of a specific owner, With the purpose of accessing a network , for espionage purposes, to shut down service ,and introduce harmful instructions to a computer system. 

Terrorist Threat 

Seven countries are listed by the State Department as official sponsors of terrorism. Iran the most active supporter of terrorist groups, although the support and activity has lessened for groups other than Palestinians. 

Iraq was the only Arab-Muslim country that did not condemn the September 11 attacks. They continue to support terrorist groups like Palestine Liberation Front. 

Syria has not been involved in terrorism since 1986, but has continued to provide a safe haven for terrorists groups as: the Palestine Islamic Jihad. 

Libya after an agent of the country was found connected to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland. Libya has been distancing itself from terrorism and terrorists groups. 

Cuba provides safety for terrorist particularly those involved in Latin American issues. 

North Korea provides safety for Japanese terrorists and evidence shows that they are active in selling arms to groups. 

Sudan provides safety for groups such as the Egyptian Jihad, and the Palestine Jihad. 

The US has taken four harsh actions against these countries: A ban against all arms-related sales and exports, controls against dual use items, and banning all economic assistance to these countries. 

Terrorists Groups have one of the following four idea that make them a terrorist organization: Political beliefs, Religious, Ethinc (hate crimes), and Social (single issue).The State Department identifies 33 groups as terrorist organizations. 

Al-Qaeda is the group behind the 9/11 attacks, formed in 1988 by Osama bin Laden whose wealth comes from his family construction business, the group was formed to fight Soviets in Afghanistan, people came from a variety of countries and were trained and Radicalized at the numerous bases in the country. Al –Qaeda has three main activities: Attempts to radicalize existing Islamic groups and create Islamic groups where none exist. Advocates destruction of the United States, which has been seen as the chief obstacle to reform in Muslim societies, supports Muslim fighters in different Arab countries. 

Actions taken by the US are : blocking most of the money used by the group, arresting most of the senior officers( with the exception of bin Laden) 

Existing Policy Tools 

Policy was focused on state terrorism but a the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 allowed the focus to be turn to the actual groups actively carrying out attacks. 

Diplomacy and Constructive Engagement 

The US, NATO, and many other countries joined with the Untied States in condemning the 2001 attacks. 

Economic Sanctions 

Economic Sanctions can be undertaken against terrorist groups themselves or against state sponsors of terrorism. Seven categories describe the sanctions: restrictions on trading, against technology transfers, foreign assistance, on export credits and guarantees, foreign aid, on aircraft or ship traffic, on the implementation of some treaties. 

Covert Action 

Basically a counter terrorism plan, the plan includes kidnapping accused terrorists. 

Military Force 

The 1986 bombing of Libya for its alleged role in the bombing of a German club, in which 32 people died. 

The 1998 missile attack against terrorist bases in Afghanistan, on a supposed chemical weapons factory in the Sudan. 

The November 2002 attack using the unmanned Predator drone with Hellfire missiles that killed six Al-Qaeda operatives. 

There is no clear-cut definition of “Terrorism.”  In this text alone, there are six different federal agencies listed and six different definitions. 

Domestic terrorism is not controlled by any government and has a limited scope. 
 Examples – Weather Underground attacks and Oklahoma City bombing 

International terrorism has a broader scope, but is also not sponsored by a government. 
 Examples – Terrorism directed at American or Israeli interests abroad. 

State terror is controlled directly by the government but focuses only on the citizens of the country itself. 
 Examples – Activities by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in Iraq 

State-sponsored terrorism is violence run by individual nations as a tool of their political and economic interests. 
US considers these to be state sponsors of terrorism – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cuba, North Korea, and the Sudan 

These nations either sponsor terrorism or provide a safe harbor and assistance to terrorists from outside their country. 

HISTORY OF TERRORISM 

Acts of terrorism have been occurring since the first century, when Jewish Zealots publicly executed Romans and their collaborators. 

Until the twentieth century, the term terrorism referred to violence by states themselves, such as the Soviets and Nazis against their own citizens.  It then changed to mean violence against the state itself by individuals.  It is now against individual citizens of a state. 

The first modern terrorist acts were the pro-Palestinian airline hijackings in the early 1070s, which led up to the kidnapping and murder of Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972. 

Terrorist groups have now spread worldwide. 
Examples – Irish Republican Army in Ireland, Red Army in Japan, Red Brigades in Italy, Weathermen in the U.S., and West Germany’s Red Army Faction. 

Most major terrorist incidents were aimed around the world, not just the U.S.  The number of terrorist attacks on the U.S. has declined since the early 1980s.  Most other incidents took place in South or Central America.  There have been fewer attacks on American soil or on American targets than on other targets worldwide. 
TYPES OF TERRORIST TOOLS AND ATTACKS 

Conventional Weapons 
This involves use of explosives in pipe bombs, car bombs, shootings, kidnappings, suicide attacks, and assassinations. These types of attacks require the least amount of skill and have an impact on citizens but lack the impact of WMD. 

Chemical Weapons 
These are chemical agents used to kill, injure, or maim citizens.  They are considered WMD. 
Examples – Nerve agents, blister agents, choking agents, blood agents, toxins, control agents, incapacitating agents, and nerve gases 
These weapons are not easy to handle and are even more difficult to obtain and manage. 

Biological Weapons 
These weapons can include either toxins or pathogens. 
Five Categories – Bacterial agents, Rickettsial agents, viral agents, toxins, and fungal agents 

Categories range from A, B, and C – A being most dangerous.  A includes smallpox, anthrax, plague, botulism, and Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers. 

The use of biological weapons against citizens began with Japan in World War II.  Since then, other countries have developed biological weapons. 

Countries Known Or Suspected To Have Biological Weapons – China, India, Iran Iraq, Libya, North Korea, and Russia 

Radiological and Nuclear Weapons 
Radiological weapons spread radiological materials upon explosion or without explosives, such as the dirty bomb.  They would kill by exposing citizens to radiological materials when they breathed, ate, or touched them. 

Countries With Nuclear Capabilities – U.S., China, India, Pakistan, and Russia 

Cyberterrorism 
Cyberterrorism is “terrorism that involves computers, networks, and the information they contain.” 

This has become an appealing target because of society’s growing reliance on the computer.  These types of weapons include reconnaissance, root compromise, information requests, malicious codes, denial-of-service, user compromise, and web site defacement. 

TERRORIST THREATS 
State Sponsors of Terrorism 
Actions Against These Countries – ban against all arms-related sales and exports, controls against dual-use items, ban on economic assistance to these countries, and financial restrictions. 

Terrorist Groups 
Reasons – Political beliefs, religious, ethnic, and social 

EXISTING POLICY TOOLS 
Diplomacy and Contructive Engagement 
Bush administration is continuing the use of diplomacy in engaging other countries in the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban. 

Economic Sanctions 
Examples – Restrictions on trading, against technology transfers, on foreign assistance, on export credits and guarantees, foreign aid, aircraft or ship traffic, implementation of some treaties 

Economic Inducements 
Some of these inducements reduce poverty or improve education. 

Covert Action 
This involves intelligence used to determine the intentions and actions of terrorist groups 

Rewards for Information 
Rewards up to $5 million for info that could prevent or resolve international terrorism 

Extradition/Law Enforcement Cooperation 

Military Force 

International Conventions 
U.S. is signatory to at least three terrorism-related international conventions, or agreements. 

POTENTIAL POLICY TOOLS 
International Court for Terrorism 
There is some support for the creation of an international court for terrorism. 

Media Self-Restraint 
Many think that if media did not report terrorist incidents, the number of them would decline, but others believe that the media has a responsibility to report the news. 

THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS 
The Attack 
To date, the death toll at the World Trade Center is 2,797.  Only 1,411 victims’ remains have been positively identified.  Several recovery teams are suffering lung ailments from breathing in the air in the area. 
$20 billion to $39 billion in lost economic output and 132,400 fewer jobs in NYC 

POLICY IMPACTS OF THE ATTACKS 
USA Patriot Act 
Gives greater authority for federal law enforcement officials to intercept all kinds of communications for law-enforcement or intelligence purposes. 

Homeland Security 
Color-coded system for level of terrorist threats have been implemented.  Several other actions have been taken. 
Bush administration wants to turn this into a full-fledged cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, with same status as other cabinet-level departments.  This would involve the largest federal government restructuring in decades. 

The only answer to terrorism at this point is to educate ourselves and become involved in the decision-making process. 

-The myth of the United States in the mind of immigrants, is the lack of external constraints, of unbounded personal opportunity. 

-The U.S. census reveals that, between 1980 and 1994, over one-third of the overall population growth in the United States was due to new immigrants, disproportionately Latin American and Asian. 

-The first legislative enactments to control the flow of immigrants into the United States had its beginnings in 1907 with the creation of the first Immigration Commission. 

-The border separating the United States from Mexico isn't the most breachable in the world, but it is the most breached. 

-The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 designed to limit and equalize numbers of officially admitted immigrants, was modified by the Refugee Act of 1980, and made changes to requirements for legal immigration but did not address the influx of foreigners entering the United States legally. 

-Amnesty would allow resident illegal aliens to file for resident status and, eventually, citizenship. 

-Priority workers (about 40,000 a year) are defined as those aliens with extraordinary ability, such as outstanding professors or researchers and certain multinational executives and managers. 

-Through every wave of immigration, the loss of employment to immigrants has always been the first issue raised. 

-The worsening of state, county, and local school-district deficits in the metropolitan areas with the heaviest immigrant settlement has turned attention to the public programs most heavily burdened. 

-Those immigrants eligible for citizenship under the 1986 Immigration Act reached the five-year period of residence required for the citizenship application.  A large number of those eligible began to naturalize, and the national mood was turning dominantly hostile toward all immigrants. 

-The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a well-organized interest group whose legislative agenda is to limit legal immigration, to eliminate illegal migration through national documentation, and to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the effects of immigration on all aspects of the social environment.