April 24, 2012  

How to turn your blog into a book

Reblogged from WordPress.com News:

Click to visit the original post

 We know many of you love your blogs, and gleefully publish photos and posts without thoughts to reuse your work in other forms. But we know some wonder: could this be a book? Recently we wrote about how a WordPress.com blogger scored a book deal for You Are Not So Smart. But what if you want to do it all yourself?

Read more… 1,414 more words

March 4, 2012  

“Psychological events ar…

“Psychological events are not causes but conditions of my actions” – Sircio Chan

Man, not biological or environmental factors, causes himself to commit crime. Strictly speaking, it is I who is the cause of my action. Ready or not, I have to face the consequences of my actions head on.

February 26, 2012  

Philosophy on the nature of crimes

Next post: Does man always do what he thinks is good? (Philosophy of crimes)

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February 26, 2012  

“What Do I Live By?”

(On Philosophy and Phenomenology, Self-Knowledge, Availability and Sacrifice)

Answering the question “What do I live by?” is a part of our lifetime mission, together with answering the question “Who am I?” because of the uncertainty of the future. What is true to me now, might not be true in the future. And so, the principles that I live by today might be changed in the future. Furthermore, I say that life is full of uncertainties but amidst these, there is one thing I believe is true. I exist not only for myself but also for and with others. I exist because of my body. My body then is my way of connecting to other people.In this world, we are bound to make connections with other people. That is how we can survive. By establishing connections with other people, it is then that I realize that my life has its center outside myself.

The question “what do I live by?” does not require answers that are only measurable nor answers tha tare only clear and distinct. Rather, it should be dealt with intuition, (primary and secondary) reflection and most especially in a phenomenological manner. By phenomenological way, I shall begin with disregarding the prejudices and biases about this issue.

My purpose is indeterminable. I don’t know why I do the things that I do. Perhaps, it is the society, the people around me, that dictates my actions. I go to school because my parents told me so. I shall do my homeworks because my teacher required me to do it, and so on. True enough, we may never know what tomorrow brings. That is why I chose to “gamble” my life with this uncertainty, subjecting myself to the ideals of the society. Another argument is that my body is just the like the others. If so, then we might all live by the same principles and have the same purpose because I am capable of doing things like other people. What bothers me more is that, if I give myself to others, what’s in it for me?

Well, this is the part where (secondary) reflection comes in. First, by letting all the uncertainties be as they are, life is about taking risks. We don’t know what exactly we are living for. that ‘s why, we are on a journey to knwoing ourselves better in order to know what else more we hope for and what principles in life we should live by. Second, my body is only mine; the way I carry it is unique. the things that I have experienced are for me alone. It is then because of my availability that I reach out to others. It is because of giving myself, or should I say, by making myself available to others that I help myself improve more as a person.

In sum, I live by the principle that “no man is an island”; that by helping others, I help myself.

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February 26, 2012  

FREEDOM

Excerpts from this book are compiled as Reading 18 in our Philosophy journals. So far, I like this the most because I have this turmoil inside – too personal to share. All this time, I have thought that the human being is completely and unavoidably influenced by his surroundings — but I was wrong. Frankl made me realized that man has really a choice of action with regards to one’s suffering. To borrow Postoerski’s words: “There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.” His words made me realized that I too am not worthy of my suffering. I am still suffering until now but I felt that the sense of freedom has finally dawned on me. Reading 18 talks more importantly about F R E E D O M. Freedom as a catalyst in choosing an action helps us preserve or retain our dignity even in terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.

It is attitude that somehow makes us endure life’s challenges.

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February 1, 2012  

THE CORRELATES OF DELINQUENCY (A Thesis)

When I was in the library, I thought of making another blog post for Philosophy. So, I did a little research on juvenile delinquency by exhausting the resources therein. While browsing for related materials, I came upon a thesis by Nenita Dael who took up MA in Education, in 1984. The thesis is about studying the correlates of juvenile delinquency among the selected Misamis Oriental General Comprehensive High School and Misamis Oriental Provincial High School students.

Juvenile crime is attributed to the unusually large number of unsupervised or neglected youngsters who roam around the streets of most cities. The thesis has the following findings: that there is no significant relationship between juvenile delinquency and:

  1. age,
  2. height,
  3. history of contagious diseases, or
  4. the size of the family.

However, there was a significant difference among the delinquents and nondelinquents in terms of

  1. rank or ordinal position in the family,
  2. marital status of the parents,
  3. occupation of the heads of the family,
  4. inadequate education of parents,
  5. nature of interpersonal relationships with fathers and mothers, and
  6. nature of interpersonal relationships with peer groups.

A juvenile delinquent is characterized by having:

  1. A desire for escape/flight from a tense and unpleasant situation,
  2. A belief that unhappiness and bitterness can perhaps be drowned out by intense excitement and running of risks,
  3. A belief that achievement and recognition and status in the group may constitute life’s most important meaning,
  4. A feeling of revenge against parents. The former’s life is made difficult by the latter,
  5. Low I.Q, and are usually shorter and lighter,
  6. Dominant personality traits like hostility, defiance, destructiveness, resentment, suspiciousness, emotional instability and destructive-sadistic frequencies.

(To be continued)

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January 14, 2012  

More about Juvenile Delinquency

What is Juvenile Delinquency?

Children often test the limits and boundaries set by their parents and other authority figures.  Among adolescents some rebelliousness and experimentation is common. However a few  children consistently participate in problematic behaviors that negatively affect  their family  academic social and personal functioning. These children present great concern to parents and  the community at large.

Delinquency a legal term for criminal behavior carried out by a juvenile is often the result of escalating problematic behavior. Definitions of delinquency vary among different groups. To alleviate confusion we describe four perspectives on delinquency:

• A Parental View:

Parents may define disruptive and delinquent behavior as disobedience fighting with siblings destroying or damaging property stealing money from family members or threatening parents with violence.

• An Educational View:

School staff members often regard delinquent behavior as that which interrupts or disturbs classroom learning violates the school code of conduct and threatens the safety of faculty and students.

• A Mental Health View:

Mental health professionals consider delinquency to include a wide range of disruptive behaviors that may involve aggression toward others or animals destruction of property deceitfulness theft and violations of curfew and school attendance.

• A Legal System View:

The majority of states and the federal government consider persons under the age of 18 to be juveniles. However when children under this age commit serious crimes (for example murder) they may be prosecuted as adults.

From a juvenile justice perspective delinquent behavior is divided into two categories: ”status” offenses and “delinquency” offenses. Status offenses are those acts which would not be considered offenses if committed by an adult; they include acts such as truancy (skipping school) running away alcohol possession or use and curfew violations. Delinquency offenses involve destruction or theft of property commission of violent crimes against persons illegal weapon possession and possession or sale of illegal drugs.

More on:

http://www.notmykid.org/media/12959/delinquency.pdf

January 11, 2012  

Bangon CDO and Iligan

Up until now, the people of Cagayan de Oro, whether directly or indirectly affected, are still on the way to recovery since Tropical Storm Sendong (International name: Washi) struck the southern part of the country last December 16, 2011.

Sendong affected 29 municipalities, 278 barangays and 53,240 families (161,437 persons), with 1,194 injured and 636 still reported missing. 24,681 houses were totally or partially damaged and there are still 39,414 persons housed in evacuation centers to date, Philippine Red Cross reports.

Among the severely affected areas are the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. Until now, the government and the private sectors work hand-in-hand in restoring what was destroyed by the raging floodwaters.

Meanwhile, regular classes at Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan will resume tomorrow.

#BangonCDOandIligan.

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November 23, 2011  

Factors that Lead to Juvenile Delinquency

As I was searching for informational videos on juvenile delinquency, I came upon this YouTube video. For the meantime, I want to share this video that contains facts about juvenile delinquency (mostly applicable to USA, as implied in the video).

DISCLAIMER: No copyright infringement intended. I do not own the video.

November 19, 2011  

Juvenile Delinquency: An Introduction

Kalra (1996), Mulvey, Arthur, Reppucci (1993 and 1997), and Regoli and Hewitt (2006) give us this introduction and definition to Juvenile Delinquency (via Wikipedia)

Juvenile delinquency refers to participation in illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not all of which can be applied to the causes of youth crime. Youth crime is an aspect of crime which receives great attention from the news media and politicians. The level and types of youth crime can be used by commentators as an indicator of the general state of morality and law and order in a country, and consequently youth crime can be the source of ‘moral panics’. Theories on the causes of youth crime can be viewed as particularly important within criminology. This is firstly because crime is committed disproportionately by those aged between fifteen and twenty-five. Secondly, by definition any theories on the causes of crime will focus on youth crime, as adult criminals will have likely started offending when they were young.

A Juvenile Delinquent is a person who is typically under the age of 18 and commits an act that otherwise would’ve been charged as a crime if they were an adult. Juvenile delinquents sometimes have associated mental disorders and/or behavioral issues such as post traumatic stress disorder or bipolar disorder, and are sometimes diagnosed with conduct disorder partially as both the cause and resulting effects of their behaviors.

It is not uncommon in these days that the young people are either being used in criminal acts or they themselves commit crimes punishable by law. Experts, through the years, are developing theories why a young person would do such act. As mentioned, theories on the causes of crimes in adults can be also applied to the young people.

Why, one earth, do these young people commit crimes at such an early age? Definitely, these children are experiencing conflict within themselves brought about by the environment s/he is in.

The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities (“nature,” i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences (“nurture,” i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.

The nature-nurture theory in psychology clearly states that the environment is one of the key factors essential to one’s growth and development. Whether good or not, children’s thinking and personality are greatly influenced by the type of environment they are in. Infants and toddlers should, therefore, be exposed to an environment that positively contributes to their development. This knowledge about early development alone will help us understand the psychological aspect of this issue.

Other than the psychologists’ side of this issue, we should equally consider other theories developed by sociologists, theologians, and anthropologists, among others.

As part of my introduction, I should also list other possible topics that I would most likely tackle and conduct research on:

  1. Theories about the causes of (juvenile) crime
  2. Juvenile delinquency in the Philippines and other countries
  3. Statistical data on juvenile delinquency

Meanwhile, as I was searching for topics, I stumbled upon the following comic strips.

Office Comic

Sources

1. Juvenile Delinquency. Definition.

2. [IMG] Photos courtesy of Google Images.

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