Saturday, January 25, 2020

The Objective Of Financial Reporting And Qualitative Characteristics And Constraints Accounting Essay

The Objective Of Financial Reporting And Qualitative Characteristics And Constraints Accounting Essay 1 Introduction The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), namely the Boards, jointly published a Discussion Paper and received 179 responses. The Exposure Draft was created from the Boards redeliberations regarding issues being raised by respondents. The Boards published this common Exposure Draft for the public to comment and it is the Boards broader conceptual framework. The Boards are considering their frameworks: to provide standards that are consistent, converge their standards, to develop a general and enhanced conceptual framework. The Boards decided that a reconsideration of concepts would not be efficient because many aspects of the frameworks are consistent and do not need fundamental revision. The Boards are focused on improving and converging their existing frameworks. The conceptual framework for financial reporting established by the Board displays the concepts that underlie financial reporting. This conceptual framework consists of 2 chapters: the objective of financial reporting and qualitative characteristics and constraints of decision useful financial reporting information useful financial reporting information. 2 Chapter 1: The Objective of Financial Reporting This conceptual framework establishes the objective of general purpose financial reporting by business entities in the private sector, which is the foundation of the framework. The objective of general purpose financial reporting is to provide financial information to current capital provides to make decisions. This information might also be useful to users who are not capital providers. The general purpose financial reporting develops superior reporting standards to help in the efficient functioning of economies and the efficient allocation of resources in capital markets. General purpose financial reporting focuses on an extensive range of users needs that lack the ability to obtain financial information needed from the entity. It should be broad enough to comprehend information for the various users. Therefore, the financial report is where they depend on to acquire information. Diverse users may require different information which might go beyond the scope of general purpose financial reporting. The financial reports are prepared from the entitys perspective (deemed to have substance on its own, spate from that of its owners), instead of the entitys capital providers. An entity attains economic resources (its assets) from capital providers in exchange for claims to those resources (its liabilities and equity). Capital providers include Equity investors Equity investors normally invest economic resources in an entity expecting to receive a return on, as well as a return of, the resources invested in. Hence, equity investors are concerned with the amount, timing, uncertainty of an entitys future cash flows and the entitys competence in generating those cash flows which affects the prices of their equity interests. Furthermore, they are concerned with the performance of directors and management of the entity in discharging their responsibility to make efficient and profitable use of the assets invested. Lenders Lenders usually expect to receive a return in the form of interest, repayments of borrowings, and increases in the prices of debt securities. Lenders have similar interests as the equity investors. Other creditors Other creditors provide resources because of their relationship with the entity, instead of a capital provider; no primary relationship. Employee salary or compensation Suppliers extended credit Customer prepay for goods and services Managers responsible for preparing financial reports Capital providers make decisions through useful information provided in financial reporting by particular entity. Financial reporting usefulness in assessing cash flow prospects depends on the entitys current cash resources and the ability to generate sufficient cash to reimburse its capital providers. Besides, financial reporting usefulness in assessing stewardship includes the managements responsibilities to protect the entitys economic resources (assets) from unfavourable effects. Management is also liable for safeguarding the assets of the entity which conforms to the laws, regulations and contractual provisions; thus, the importance of managements performance in the decision usefulness. The general purpose financial reporting is limited to information which does not reflect pertinent information from other sources that should be considered by the users. Financial reporting information is based on estimates, judgements, and models of the financial effects on an entity of transactions and other events in which, is only ideal for preparers and standard setters to strive. Achieving the frameworks vision of ideal financial reporting to the fullest will be difficult in the short term because of technical infeasibility and cost constrains. Financial reporting should include information about: the economic resources of an entity (assets), the claims of the entity are (liabilities and equity), the effects of transaction and any events or circumstances that can affect the entitys resources and claims and provide useful information about the ability of entity to generate its cash flow and how well the entity meets its management responsibilities. The usefulness of financial reporting to the users: Provide useful information about the amount, timing, and uncertainty of future cash flow To identify the entitys financial strengths and weaknesses (especially for capital providers) To indicate the potential of entitys cash flow for its economic resources and claims To identify the effectiveness of the entitys management responsibilities To assess availabilities of the entitys nature and quantity of the resources for the use in its operation To estimate the values of the entity. The quantitative measures and other information regarding the changes in entitys economics resources and claims in the financial report can help the users to assess the amount, timing, and uncertainty of its cash flow; and indicate the effectiveness of management responsibilities. Furthermore, the entity must provide a positive return on its economic resources in order to generate net cash inflows; and return the earning to its investors. Other information like variability of returns, past financial performance, and managements ability can be used to assess the entitys future financial performance. The information regarding the accrual accounting in financial reporting can better provide the users to assess the entitys past financial performance and future prospects in generating net cash inflows without obtaining additional capital from its investors. The entitys cash flow performance in financial reporting assist the investors to understand the entitys business model and operation through assessing how the entity obtains and spends cash. Information about its borrowing, repayment of borrowing, cash dividends and other distribution to investors, as well as the factors of entitys liquidity and solvency, can also assist the investors to determine the entitys cash flow accounting. Besides, information about the changes of entitys resources and claims not resulting from financial performance may assist the investors to differentiate the changes that are results of the entitys financial performance and those that are not. The information of management explanation should be included in financial reporting to assist users for a better understanding about management decision in any events and circumstances that have affected or may affect the entitys financial performance. It is because the internal parties know about the entitys performance than the external users. 3 Chapter 2: Qualitative Characteristics and Constraints of Decision-Useful Financial Reporting Information Fundamental qualitative characteristics distinguish useful financial reporting information from information that is not useful or is misleading. For information to be useful, it must have two fundamental qualitative characteristics: Relevance capable of making a difference in the decisions made by users as capital providers. Information is relevant when it has predictive value, confirmatory value, or both. Predictive value information that is assists the capitals providers to form their own expectations about the future. Confirmatory value information that confirms or changes past or present expectations based on previous evaluations. IASB said that information is relevant when it influences the economic decisions of users by helping them evaluate past, present or future events or confirming, or correcting, their past evaluation. FASB believes that to be relevant, accounting information must be capable of making a difference in a decision by helping users to form predictions about the outcome of past, present, and future events or to confirm or correct expectations. Since some users may have been obtaining information elsewhere other than financial reporting, and emphasizes the relevance of information in their decisions, relevant information does not really make a difference in the past or in the future. Any information that might be able to make a difference is said to be relevant. Faithful representation depiction of an economic phenomenon is complete, neutral, and free from material error. Complete includes all information that is necessary for faithful representation of economic phenomena. Neutrality information which is bias free. Freedom from error estimation of the economic phenomena is based on the appropriate inputs and each input must reflect the best available information. Relevance is concern with the connection between economic phenomena with the decisions of capital providers and not their depictions, therefore should be consider first. Then, the faithful representation is applied to determine which depictions of economic phenomenon best corresponds to the relevant phenomenon. Enhancing qualitative characteristics improves the decision usefulness of financial reporting information that is relevant and faithfully represented. They are used to distinguish more-useful information from less-useful information. The enhancing qualitative characteristics are comparability, verifiability, timeliness, and understandability. Comparability Comparability is the quality of information that enables users to identify similarities and the differences between two sets of economic phenomena. Since the essence of decision making is to select between alternatives, the information is more useful if it can be compared with similar information about the other entities and with similar information about the same entity for some other period. Comparability should not be confused with uniformity. Overemphasizing on uniformity may reduce comparability by making unlike things look alike. The IASB Framework actually discusses comparability as a qualitative characteristic which is equally important as relevance and faithfully representation. However, FASB concludes that comparability is an enhancing qualitative characteristic because regardless of how comparable the information may be, it will not be useful if it is irrelevant to users decisions and does not faithfully represent the economic phenomena. Verifiability A quality of information that helps to assure users that information faithfully represents the economic phenomena that it purports to represent. If the information is verifiable, the knowledgeable and independent observers could come to the general consensus. The verifiability of the information focuses on whether the recognition or measurement method is correctly applied. Verification can either be direct or indirect. An amount or other representation itself verified such as by counting cash or observing marketable securities and their quoted prices are called direct verification. An example of verifying the carrying amount of inventory by checking the inputs (quantities and costs) and recalculating the ending inventory using the same cost flow assumption (accounting convention or methodology average cost and first-in, first-out) is indirect verification. IASB Framework does not include verifiability as an explicit aspect, yet FASB does. FASB observed that some of the information which is faithfully represented may not necessarily be verifiable. Therefore, if the information is verifiable, it is generally more useful. Thus, FASB concluded that verifiability is an enhancing qualitative characteristic. Timeliness Timeliness means having information available to decision makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions. A lack of timeliness can rob information of its potential usefulness. The IASB Framework discusses timeliness separately, as a constraint that could rob information of relevance. However, FASB concluded that reporting information in a timely manner can enhance both the relevance and faithful representation of the information since information can be reported in a timely manner but has no relevance, or information delayed in reporting remains its relevance. Understandability Understandability is the quality of information that enables users to comprehend its meaning. When the information is classified, characterized, and presented clearly and concisely, the understandability will be enhanced. Although the reporting information has to be understandable, the users of the financial report should also review and analyze the information with reasonable diligence as the users are assumed to have a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and to be able to read the financial report. Enhancing qualitative characteristics should improve the usefulness of financial information and should be maximized to the extent possible. However, if the information is irrelevant or not faithfully represented, the enhancing qualitative characteristics cannot make that information useful for decision. Besides, the application of the enhancing qualitative characteristics is an iterative process which does not follow the prescribed order. In addition, FASB considered whether some other qualitative characteristics should be added, such as transparency, true and fair view, credibility, internal consistency, and high quality. FASB concluded that it would be redundant if transparency is added as one of the qualitative characteristics. True and fair view is not a qualitative characteristic itself, but it should result from applying the qualitative characteristics. FASB concluded that it should be the goal to achieve high quality to which financial reporting and standard setters aspire. By adherence to the objective and qualitative characteristics of financial reporting information, the goal can be achieved. Therefore, the characteristics mentioned in not added as the qualitative characteristics of the financial reporting information. In a nutshell, the qualitative characteristics of financial reporting information in this draft can be categorized into fundamental qualitative characteristics and enhancing qualitative characteristics as shown in the following: Figure 1 Compared to the conceptual framework issued by the Malaysian Accounting Standard Board (MASB) in 2007, most of the qualitative characteristics are identical to the characteristic discussed in this draft. However, the most distinctive aspect which can be found is MASB did not categorize the qualitative characteristics into fundamental and enhancing qualitative characteristics. The qualitative characteristics concluded by MASB are shown in the figure below. Figure 2 MASB concluded that the relevance of information is affected by its nature and materiality while FASB discusses materiality under the constraints of financial reporting. MASB provides that the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of the financial statements could be influenced when the omission or misstatement of the information is material. Thus, materiality provides a threshold or cut-off point rather than being a primary qualitative characteristic which information must have for it to be useful. Besides, MASB also discussed about substance over form and prudence under the characteristic of reliability. MASB provides that if information is to represent faithfully the transactions and other events that it purports to represent, it is necessary that they are accounted for and presented in accordance with their substance and economic reality and not merely their legal form. However, FASB did not identify substance over form as a component of faithful representation as it would be redundant to do so. In addition, FASB did not conclude prudence as a qualitative characteristic because it might conflict with the quality of neutrality. MASB discussed the characteristic of timeliness as a constraint on relevant and reliable information. If there is undue delay in the reporting of information it may lose its relevance. Management may need to balance the relative merits of timely reporting and the provision of reliable information. However, FASB concluded timeliness as an enhancing qualitative characteristic of the financial reporting information. There should be a balance between the qualitative characteristic as the IASB Framework says: In practice a balancing, or trade-off, between qualitative characteristics is often necessary. Generally the aim is to achieve an appropriate balance among the characteristics in order to meet the objective of financial statements. The relative importance of the characteristics in different cases is a matter of professional judgments. The information provided by financial reporting is limited by materiality and the cost of providing. Materiality Materiality depends on the nature and amount of the item judged in the particular circumstance of its omission or misstatement. It is important to consider the materiality of information because material omissions or misstatements will cause information to contain error, making it biased and incomplete. However, it is hard to specify a uniform quantitative threshold at which the information is material. Concepts Statement 2 and IASB Framework define materiality similarly but discuss materiality it differently. IASB describes materiality as an aspect of relevance and does not indicate that it has a relationship to other qualitative characteristics. On the other hand, Concepts Statement 2 provides that materiality should be considered together with qualitative characteristics (not only relevance). Thus, the Boards conclude that materiality is pertinent to all of the other qualitative characteristics. Cost The Boards emphasized the balance between the benefits of financial reporting information and the cost of providing and using it. Costs of providing information: Cost of collecting and processing Cost of verifying Cost of disseminating Cost of analysis and interpretation Cost resulted from omission of decision-useful information Benefits of financial reporting information: More efficient functioning of capital market Lower cost of capital Improved access to capital market Favourable effect on public relations Better management decisions However, the major problem for the standard setters in conducting rigorous cost-benefit analyses is the difficulty in qualifying the benefits of a certain reporting requirement. Besides, it is also difficult to obtain complete, quantitative information about the initial and ongoing cost of a requirement and impose them. Nevertheless, standard seekers should take into account both benefits and costs of proposed financial reporting requirements. There are 3 constraints of financial reporting information mentioned by the MASB: Balance between benefit and cost As mentioned in FASB, cost is one of the constraints of financial reporting information and the Boards emphasizes on the balance between the benefits of financial reporting information and the cost of providing and using it. Balance between qualitative characteristic MASB provides that, In practice a balancing or trade-off, between qualitative characteristics is often necessary. The relative importance of the characteristics in different cases is a matter of professional judgments. The FASB also mentions, In assessing whether the benefits of reporting information are likely to justify the costs, it is necessary to consider whether one or more qualitative characteristics might be scarified to some degree to reduce cost. Timeliness MASB mentioned that a constraint which is not mentioned in the conceptual framework of FASB; timeliness. MASB provides that if there is undue delay in the reporting of information it may lose its relevance. To provide information on a timely basis it may often be necessary to report before all aspects of a transaction or other event are known. On the other hand, if reporting is delayed until all aspects are known, the information may be highly reliable but of little use to users who have had to make decisions in the interim. Management may need to balance the timely reporting and the provision of reliable information.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Freedom Writers Essay Essay

What life holds for us is determined by how much we are willing to sacrifice. In the movie Freedom Writers, Ms. G is the main character. Her way of viewing life gives hope to the people surrounding her. In this essay, I am going to compare her willingness to sacrifice with the sacrifice I was once asked to make. Ms. G dedicated herself to teaching a difficult group of students. California had integrated the school system, which resulted in a culture of conflict and violence. She spent a lot of her time and gave up a lot of her family life in order to help people that she barely knew. Her desires to make a change were clear and honest. For example, she took evening and weekend jobs in order to buy books and take her students on trips. She also made herself available to help students with personal issues. She had a strong desire to help her students understand that they were worthwhile, and that whatever challenges they faced, they could make their lives better. As a result of these efforts, her students learned to trust her and became united with each other. They began to feel hope for their future. Even though Ms. G. experienced success and satisfaction in helping others, she faced opposition. Her marriage was jeopardized. Her husband could not understand why she spent so much time and energy with her students, and he often felt second in her life. He did try to cope with this lifestyle, but it was too much for him to deal with and he finally left the relationship. I also embarked on a similar adventure. In June 2002, I was called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Denver, Colorado. While on my mission, I taught the gospel to Spanish speaking people. Like Ms. G, I was dedicated to a good cause working with Hispanic people. I also immersed myself in helping those people to overcome personal and family challenges. I sacrificed two years of my life to serve people I had never met. I did it with all my heart. I knew that teaching people how to apply correct principles in their lives was the best way for them to achieve happiness. My goal was to help others to understand the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Teaching people the principles I knew to be true helped them to improve their lives and find joy as well. For example, I remember one person I taught; his name was Enrique. He was addicted to drugs and alcohol. When I found Enrique he told me that, from using drugs, he had lost his sense of taste and his body was no longer able to produce sweat. He also shared with me that his life had no purpose. He would go to work to get money to buy drugs, which created an endless cycle. I felt deep sorrow for him and wanted to do something to help him. I taught him about how to overcome his addictions to drugs and alcohol. Eventually, Enrique was able to overcome these addictions. I helped him to learn English and he began school at a University. Later, he told me how grateful he was for the new direction that his life was taking. Not only was my service similar to Ms. G’s, but my challenges were also. My family was upset about me going away for so long because while I was away, I would not be able to help them financially. They told me that if I went, I might as well forget about them. â€Å"It’s either a mission or us,† they said. I knew that I could not abandon my commitment to serve a mission. I pled with my family to understand my decision, but they reluctantly dismissed me. Once I was in the mission in Colorado, I tried to write to my family to let them know I was okay and that I was making a difference in the world by helping people to overcome many of the challenges that tear individuals and families apart. My family never answered my letters. I knew that what I was doing was right, but having my family reject me in those difficult years made me feel abandoned. Nonetheless, I was determined to continue working to help the people in Colorado. Certainly, my experience was a much shorter period of time than Ms. G’s and eventually my family embraced me again, while Ms. G’s husband never returned. Also, she taught the same group of people for four years, whereas I traveled around and met new people. Nevertheless, during the time I served my mission, I, like Ms. G, learned what it means to give everything for a good cause regardless of the adversity. As Ms. G and I both persevered in doing what we felt was right, we discovered great meaning in our lives and the work we were doing. In conclusion, our ability to fulfill our duty is not determined by our environment or surroundings. Ms. G and I have shown that if people’s hearts are in the right place, their rewards can be greater than what they lose. Our service, strength, and willingness can make a difference in the world regardless of who we are, or what we are standing for.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Film Analysis Paper - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 701 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/03/19 Category Art Essay Level High school Tags: Film Analysis Essay Did you like this example? Introduction The 1996 film, Fargo, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is widely considered a neo-noir and addresses issues of its time and place by taking directions from classic noir. Fargo documents Marge, a pregnant detective who is called to investigate a triple homicide. She later finds out that these homicides were a result of Jerry, a nervous car salesman, who hires two men, Carl and Gaear, to kidnap his own wife. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Film Analysis Paper" essay for you Create order Jerry plans to collect a large sum of ransom for his wife from his father in law, so he can pay off his debt. The film Fargo utilizes the sense of humor, lack of drama, and an inauspicious view of humanity in order to prove that it is critiquing our societys normalization of violence. In the scene after Gaear hits Carl in the head with a shovel, Marge is driving and notices the car that she believes was the one stolen from the company Jerry works for. Curious, Marge stops her car and approaches the quaint cabin behind the stolen car. She hears a noise and decides to investigate. Marge pulls out her gun and cautiously moves toward the sound. She turns to reveal Gaear standing behind a wood chipper, with what appears to be blood-stained snow in front. Marge treads closer to see what exactly is going on. Gaear is stuffing Carls leg into the wood chipper. Police!, Marge yells. Gaear doesnt hear Marge and proceeds to push Carls leg in the machine further. Attempting a second time to get his attention, Marge yells again, Hands up! Police! Gaear notices Marge and chucks a piece of wood at her as he begins to run away. Marge shoots at Gaear, hitting him in the leg on her second shot. Gaear falls to the ground, and Marge starts walking towards him. This scene emphasizes the horrible violence seen in this film, yet shines a light on the nonchalance surrounding it. As we watch, many ideas associated with violence in this scene become apparent. Foremost, one usually notes the humor related to this scene. The red blood staining the snow is shown in a laughable way, not in a morbid manner as one would expect. Why did the Coen brothers choose to make that decision? One will further ask: is this to make this scene a slight bit less gruesome, or is it suggesting something deeper? Is Marges lack of reaction simply due to her stoic character, or is there more meaning? On a similar note, relating to noir, is this scene added to show the backstabbing qualities of Gaear, much like a noir character? This scene proves that this films display of violence is critiquing our modern day issue of normalizing violence. The humor related to this scene is exemplifying how in our society, we often disregard intense violence and even choose to view situations such as that in this scene as humorous. Our society is so accustomed to the brutality that we require the scene to be excessively gruesome for it to be noteworthy. With a scene that is visually repulsive, one would expect Marge to have a dramatic reaction. The fact that she doesnt have a substantial reaction demonstrates the insignificance this violence has on her. This is reflected by the lack of interesting shots and angles. Most disturbing or violent scenes typically have interesting shots and angles, such as close-ups or skewed angles, to increase intensity. However, this scene only consisted of medium and long shots. This emphasizes the lack of significance related to violence the Coen brothers chose to convey. By using primarily long shots when filming Gaear and the woodchipper, the gruesome action becomes less dramatic, and therefore slightly normalized. If this scene is portrayed as insignificant, one might ponder why the Coen brothers chose to put it in the film at all. It is not for visual disturbance, but more so for character development. The directors wanted to show Gaears cold-hearted and disloyal ways, similar to a classic noir character. This scene introduces a ghastly situation and rejects any significance of the disturbance, therefore normalizing the situation. In the end, this scenes relevance lies in the meaning behind it, and not in the visuals shown.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Differential Association Theory By Edwin H. Sutherland

Differential Association theory by Edwin H. Sutherland states that criminal behavior is learned. Sutherland’s theory is essentially arguing that individuals that engage in criminal activity have learned to engage in criminal activity from association with others. Differential Association theory is broken down into nine propositions. The first proposition is that criminal behavior is learned (Sutherland, 2010). The second proposition states that the interaction with the other person or persons has to be in form of communication (Sutherland, 2010). Thirdly, the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups (Sutherland, 2010). Furthermore, the fourth proposition states that when the criminal behavior is learned there has to be certain things that are learned. These things are: techniques of committing the crime, the motives, drives, rationalizations, and the attitudes (Sutherland, 2010). The fifth proposition states that the nature of drives is learned from the definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable (Sutherland, 2010). In continuation, the next proposition states that â€Å"a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definition favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to the violation of law† (Sutherland, p.137, 2010). In addition, Sutherland states that differential association may â€Å"vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity† (Sutherland, p.17, 2010). The eighth proposition states that the process ofShow MoreRelatedCorporate Tax Evasion Essay example690 Words   |  3 Pagesbest gives explanation to corporate tax evasion is Edwin H. Sutherland. Edwin H. Sutherland was a pioneer in research dealing with White Collar crime in a time when the study of street crime was of primary interest and White Collar crime or corporate deviance was all but ignored. The Differential Association Theory is Edwin H, Sutherland’s chief contribution to the study of Socio logy. Differential Association is an Interactionist Theory. The theory analyzes the process by which a particular personRead MoreBad Monkey And The Social Phenomenon Of Crime783 Words   |  4 PagesSocial Science theories in criminology builds frameworks of empirical evidence which are used to study and interpret the social phenomenon of crime (Callinicos, 1999). Of the many theories developed over the course of the study of the science of criminology, Robert Agnew’s General Strain and Edwin H. Sutherland’s Differential Association theories stood out the most while I indulged in Carl Hiaasen novel Bad Monkey. In this essay I will be using Carl Hiaasen novel Bad Monkey to draw out examples ofRead MoreSutherlands Differential Association Theory1430 Words   |  6 PagesSutherland’s Differential Association Theory Ryan Herron Dr. Patrick Parnaby SOC 2070 9 November 2017 There are many theories used by Sociologists to explain deviance. One such theory is differential association theory, proposed by Edwin Sutherland. There are many strengths and weaknesses of differential association that will be laid out in this paper after differential association theory is fully explained. When discussed, it becomes apparent that differential association theory has many strengthsRead MoreEssay on Crime and Delinquency1407 Words   |  6 PagesCriminologist Edwin H. Sutherland proposed his theory of Differential Association in his Principles of Criminology textbook. Differential Association theory states that criminal behavior is learned behavior. Sutherland along with Richard Cloward, and Lloyd Ohlin attempted to explain this phenomenon by emphasizing the role of learning. To become a criminal, a person must not only be inclined toward illegal activity, he or she must also learn how to commit criminal acts. Sutherland’s differential associationRead MoreRo bert Merton s Strain Theory1299 Words   |  6 PagesI have selected Robert Merton’s Strain theory and Edwin Sutherlands Differential Association theory and their approach to the study of crime for my essay. Robert Merton developed the theory that people engage in deviant behaviour when they can’t achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. Deviance is a result of the strain an individual feels when they cannot achieve legitimately. Merton uses â€Å"The American Dream† to illustrate strain theory. Merton’s explanation is in two pieces; StructuralRead More Differential Association Essay3062 Words   |  13 Pages Sutherland’s Differential Association nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Born August 13, 1883 in Gibbon, Nebraska, Edwin H. Sutherland grew up and studied in Ottawa, Kansas, and Grand Island, Nebraska. After receiving his B.A degree from Grand Island College in 1904, he taught Latin, Greek, History, and shorthand for two years at Sioux Falls College in South Dakota. In 1906 he left Sioux Falls College and entered graduate school at the University of Chicago from which he received his doctorate. (GaylordRead MoreCrime Theories766 Words   |  4 PagesVarious Theories of Crime Causation vickie murphy AIU online E.Hale 2/19/12 Abstract Within this paper we will discuss the merits of the idea that genetics are a source for criminal behavior. As well as some of the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence surrounding genetics and crime and In closure what would be some of the repercussions in the criminal justice field if the existence of the criminal gene is proven to be true. Theories of Crime Causation To begin to understand theRead MoreCrime Is Something That Everyone Tries To Stay Away From,1480 Words   |  6 Pagesteaches the scientific method of crime; for example why gang crime happens. This paper will be discussing Social Strain Theory and Differential Association Theory and how they can cause gang crime. Gang crime, criminal acts of violence committed by a group of individuals on a regular basis, is explained by the social strain theory and differential association theory. Social strain theory is defined as groups with the greatest access to legitimate means are the most likely to be conforming, whereas theRead MoreThe Strengths Of Labelling Theory And Differential Association Theory1703 Words   |  7 PagesLabelling Theory can explain the factor of low socioeconomic status while Differential Association Theory can explain how the factor of family as reasons why some youth join gangs. This paper compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of Differential Association theory and Labelling theory and I argue that Labelling Theory offers the most compelling theoretical perspective to help account for how these factors influence youth to join gangs. I also argue that unlike the other two theories, a MarxistRead MoreEssay on Juvenile Deliquency - Lee Boyd Malvo1353 Words   |  6 PagesEdwin H. Sutherland’s formulation of differential association theory proposed that delinquency, like any other form of behavior, is a product of social interactio n. On October 14th, 2002, 17 year old Lee Boyd Malvo was charged by the state of Virginia for two capital crimes: the murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin in the commission of an act of terrorism and the murder of more than one person in a three-year period. Sutherland’s nine propositions of differential association best explains Malvo’s