Introduction

The assessment of the debate of whether children should wear school uniform is one that has been in existence for long amid the assertion that schools in the US should adopt a uniform policy. The adoption of the uniforms rules had been considered as a means of stopping children from dressing in gang colors in most of the troubled urban areas. Later, there were assertions that the introduction of school uniforms resulted in the better discipline while the results of these students improved, an issue that encouraged different districts as well as schools to implement the change. However, issues that support the desire not to have uniforms in the school incline me into supporting those who argue against the introduction of the uniform policy.

One of the assertions by the proponents of the school uniform policy is that it leads to the creation of a desirable feeling of belonging to an institution for the students wearing the uniform. The assertion is, however, wrong, as making the wearing of uniforms by the students will only lead to the hampering of the students’ original thinking. Compelling children to subscribe to a certain way of thinking hampers their independence in future, being unable to make their opinions without the assistance of others effectively. Everyone has a right to individuality, making one’s decisions as well as expressing their personality (Wilken, Ilani, & Van Aardt, P 159-184). Compelling children to wear the certain type of clothing thus is an infringement of their right of free expression. The assertion, in this case, is that the protection of the right to free expression is central to the development of the personalities of the young people, and choosing what to wear to should be left within their purview.

The assertion that adopting the policy on school uniforms is going to be a way of ensuring that the students are more focused on their education and not their clothes have been used to support the adoption of the uniform policy. The fact when it comes to the assessment of the issue is that school uniforms have become a means of promoting the element of conformity over the case for individuality. The culture that characterizes the current school environments is that promote the appreciation of the diversity of the children, which implies that the efforts that are geared towards the enforcement of the standardized dress code are a contradiction to this culture (Gentile, Elisabetta, & Imberman, P1-17). Further, the issue of the gendered schools that dictate boys have to wear pants while girls wear skirts, it brings new challenges in a society that is keen in accommodating the transgendered individuals, gender non-conforming as well as the gender fluid students who are left feeling ostracized.

There has been the assertion by the supporters of the policy on school uniforms that they assist in the creation of the leveled playing ground among the students from different background in addition to the reduction of peer pressure and bullying. The assertion has however been found to be flawed in that the adoption of school uniforms does not reduce the cases of bullying and that it has been seen to increase the case of bullying (Mimmo, P4-5). The issue here is that the introduction of the compulsory school uniforms the doubling of fights in the middle schools in the same year. The fact that there does not exist official data supporting the assertion that the introduction of the compulsory uniforms serves to reduce the case of violence in schools further serves to water down the argument of the parties supporting the introduction.

The argument that introducing uniform policy serves to enhance the pride of school, the unity as well as the community spirit. The fact of the matter, however, is that school uniforms fail to address an issue of academic preparedness, school attendance, and the exam results. The overall assertion is that the adoption of the school uniforms does not have any impact on the desire of the students to attend schools, behavioral improvements as well as issues of substance abuse (Brookshire, P6-18. It has become evident through research that school uniforms have no impact on the performance of the second-grade students in mathematics and reading examination, with the case being the same for the 10th-grade mathematics, reading, and history and science examinations.

The further assertion that school uniforms help parents to save money and thus supporting the adoption of the school uniform policy has been negated by the fact that the time that is spent addressing the enforcement of the district the stakeholders from resolving the core issues affecting the schools (Bhembe & Mfanzile, P20.35). The time and resources spent on the assessment of how the policy is going to be implemented only served to detract the concerned parties from the efforts meant to reduce the rates of crime as well as enhance school performance.

As a prosecutor, explain the final report to the prosecution of a case is always important. The first importance of this report is that it helps the prosecution to identify the critical elements of the case as well as the most reliable admissible evidence by which every element will get approval. This means that the report will help to identify any facts favorable to the defendant and any representations from the defense over the likely prosecution. The final report is also important to the prosecution because it helps in identifying the evidence which may be needed to rebut the likely lines of argument from the defendant (Gibson, 2002). In this case, the report provides expert evidence, to rebut any potential defense arguments by foreseeability. The final report to the prosecution of a case is also important because it encompasses the views of the victim on the suggested prosecution. If the victim’s statement has been taken, this becomes availed by the Approval Officer, and if the victim hasn’t made a statement, his views become nevertheless considered in the prosecution report. The final report to the prosecution of a case also sets out the aggravating, mitigating as well as other factors that are critical to sentencing. This serves the purpose of providing a vivid summary for the approval officer. As a result, it helps in a Friskies schedule production if the case is approved.

In the prosecution process, there is possible impact of poorly completed final reports on a case. Poorly completed final reports hinder the prosecution to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Such reports fail to provide rebuttal from the defense, and as a result, the case can be lost. Poorly prepared final prosecution report can also lead to injustice to the defendant (Tong, Bryant & Horvath, 2009). This shows that the accused can get a harsher punishment than what is just. At the same time, poorly prepared prosecution report can lead to the miscarriage of justice whereby the defendant can be left off the hook because of prosecution negligence. Poorly prepared final prosecution reports can leave loopholes where the defense attorneys, as well as the judge, can dismiss the case. Finally, poorly prepared prosecution report for a case can make the court to demand fresh investigation and prosecution of the case. This is not only waste of time, but also criminal justice system resources.

There are different stages in the Criminal Justice Process where evidence is provided to merit the case. Each of these stages is important in building a successfully litigated action. The first evidentiary stage is the preliminary hearing. This stage is important because it determines whether or not there is enough evidence exists against the defendant to continue the litigated action. This process allows the prosecutor to test the evidential strength at his disposal. This is important in making the judge decide if a crime was indeed committed and if there is the likelihood that the person in the court committed it. Therefore, this process is important for successful litigation. The second stage where evidence is provided in the justice process is the information or indictment stage. In this case, the grand jury listens to the evidence from the prosecutor and determines whether a case needs to face the trial (National Institute of Justice & National Research Council, 2001). Hence, the prosecutor has to provide evidence to determine the probable cause to charge the defendant formally. The last stage in which evidence is provided in the court process takes place during the trial. This happens when there have not been pleas, or the case has been dismissed because of different reasons. During the trial process, there are laws which govern the evidence submission. These regulations are tightly procedural law as well as precedent controlled. During this process, the procedural law specifies the type of evidence to be submitted, the credentials allowed representing the parties and what the jury can hear. This is a stage whereby the prosecution is always tasked with proving the guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or the defendant is left off the hook by the judge during judgment. Therefore, the preliminary hearing, indictment, as well as the trial, is three states in the court process where evidence is provided. In sum, preliminary hearing evidence helps to convince the judge that the defendant has a case to answer while the indictment proves to the jury that the defendant is liable for prosecution. On the other hand, the trial evidence is important to ensure justice is served. Thus, the three stages are important for successful litigation action.

A criminal investigator plays important roles in preparing a case for the court. This involves collecting and using forensic evidence as a way of solves crimes. He or she also interview suspects, informants, as well as witnesses to determine alibis, time frames, clues as well as possible suspects. He also bags the evidence carefully to ensure that it meets prosecution. He also runs personal identification database as a way of obtaining matches. Criminal investigators also play a role of collect sufficient evidence to support criminal case in the court criminal. They also process crime scenes, file evidence, follow up on leads and prepare investigative reports to be used by the prosecution. They also attend and make autopsies notes and prepare evidence sketches as well as diagrams. Criminal investigators are also important in obtaining search warrants, carrying out surveillance to monitor suspects, analyze criminal tests among others.

The work of criminal investigators always involves cooperation with the prosecution as a way of enhancing courtroom presentation. Criminal investigators always work jointly with the prosecutor in explaining to the jury regarding the significance of evidence about the proof. They also collect sufficient evidence which is shared by the prosecution to support courtroom presentation. Criminal investigators also collaborate with prosecutors by sharing suspect interview responses. This is important in careful evidence presentation in the courtroom to ensure a successful prosecution.

Not guilty and acquitted are two terms that are always found in the criminal justice system. Acquittal is where the accused becomes free of the criminal charge based on the criminal law (Riddell, 1916). In this case, the prosecution has failed to proof its burden of proof. On the other hand, not guilty means legally blameless. This is where the court finds the offender blameless after the prosecution has provided its full evidence. Thus, Not guilty’ is a decision made by the court concerning an individual charged with committing a particular offense to being freed after being blameless while acquittal means the prosecution have failed in its duty. Therefore, in my opinion, an acquittal means that the investigator failed. The reason is that the investigators must always use his evidence and knit it to the case to convince the court that the defendant is guilty or has a case to answer. Therefore, the investigator must always follow the procedural law to guide the prosecution in defending the case.

In 20 years time, there are some changes that may permeate the criminal investigation. One of the will be the use of radio frequency in investigations. This will help to track evidence source as well as forensic details to facilitate successful prosecution.

Chapter 11 Questions
Define a stockholder and stakeholder. What is the difference between the two?

A stockholder is an individual with the claim over owning part of the company in such a way that he/she has ownership of the stock and has an influence on the finance of the corporation. A stockholder can at the time be referred to as the shareholder. A stakeholder, on the other hand, is an individual with the interests of the organization or corporation. And for this case, the stakeholders has some other interests other than the stock appreciation of the Corporation (Lindsay, 2016).

A stockholder is an individually that will take part in the electing the directors of the company and another small number of additional issues that he/she can handle. At the same time, a stockholder is entitled to dividends. A stockholder can be part of the stakeholders group, but a stakeholder is not regarded as stockholders. The positions outlined that stockholding is within stakeholding.

A stakeholder is any individually that represents a wide group of the persons with the interest in the operations (success or failure) of the company. The group has a big impact on the general operations of the company as it is wide and it includes the stockholders (shareholders), the creditors, customers, the local community, employees and the government. A stakeholder takes greatly part in the management of the corporations as their influence brings about the loss or the decline in the organization performance. They have a high impact on the decisions undertaken within the business.

What process does a company go through to respond to stakeholder concerns? What are the steps of this process?

In the operations and general management of an organization, the stakeholders play a crucial role as they take part in the decision-making process. To get the stakeholders concerns responded to by the managers, different methods can be applied. However, based on the role they play engagement is the most reliable principle to go about the task. Once they are engaged, the creation and the maintenance of the business value are upheld. The stakeholders’ engagements strategy is defined by the social business relationship (BSR) background. The strategy can be implemented through five distinctive steps of engagement strategy (set), stakeholder mapping (Define), Preparation (Focus), Engagement (Conduct), and Action Plan (Identify).

The engagement strategy comes before understanding that engaging stakeholders mean taking and treating the issues and opinions of the stakeholders as the outside concerns.

Stakeholders mapping stage defines the collaborative undertaking of research and conducting a discussion to have the identification of the key list of the company stakeholders. The mapping is done through the steps of identifying, analyzing, mapping and prioritizing. The success of the stakeholders’ identification will depend on the knowledge of the participants in the research and discussion.

The preparation stage once more defines the examination of the identified organization stakeholders to have a good understanding of their concerns, positions, and interests. The follow-up step of identifying is the determination of the best method of incorporating the concerns within eh company with the best understanding of the risks associated with the engagement. This defines the action plan which upholds to the system of the participant (managers) that goes by the engagement, communicating and informing. Engaging defines the stakeholders, communication, on the other hand, defines the stakeholders with the highest level of willingness to engage and inform defines the seeking of the information than conversations (Morris & Baddache, 2012).

What is the agency problem? What are the governance mechanisms that can be put in place to defend from this problem?

An agency problem can be defined as the conflict of interest that may exist between the management of the organization and the stockholders of the company. In this case, the managers within the management bracket define the agents who have the official task of making sound decisions that will get to maximize the profits (dividends) to the stockholders.

The corporate governance comes in to provide the balance through the sharing of powers amongst the directors, management and the stockholders with the aim to maximize the shareholder value and protect the stakeholder’s interest. The way to go about the agency problem is to ensure that the company complies with local, state and federal statutes. Establish some standards that should comply. Thirdly, implement best practices as suggested by the professional organizations.

Describe internal controls and strategies that can be implemented to ensure ethical behavior within a company.

The development of an ethics program within the organization will get the ethical behavior implemented. The program should get done through the establishing, communicating and the monitoring of the ethical values. The values are expected to characterize the company history, culture, and the operating system. The program should accommodate the codes of conduct to the employees.

Develop ethical standards and take the employees through the training about the standards. Also, ensure that the employees comply with the ethics, and this can be measured through the comparison of the ethical employee performance.

Chapter 12 Questions
How can organizational design contribute to competitive advantage?
There are so many ways in which an organization can be structured based on the objectives of the organization. An organization is usually referred to as a group of entities which operate to achieve the same common goal or goals. The structure of any organization influences the performance of the organization. Organizational structures offer the capability to specify responsibilities for assorted functions and processes to entities including workgroup, individuals, branch, and department. People who operate as individuals are often hired for specified time periods in organizational structures to carry out contracts of work, orders for work, permanent contract employment or even under program orders. Constantly increasing competitive pressure correlates with changing organizational structures and the involved processes to improve the competitive advantage of the organizations. The existence of skills and resources that are better outside the organization increased application of the use of alliances, down scoping or outsourcing by firms tend to cause the firms to draw in the narrow scope of activities.

Describe how a strong organizational culture leads to transparency, ethics, and to competitive advantage within a company.

Effective organizational structures make better the relations of work among the several entities that exist within the organizations. This will improve the efficiency of carrying out activities within the organizational units and hence enables an organization to develop an order and control, which is important for the monitoring of various processes that exist in the firm. The organization, therefore, supports command for carrying on with a variety of orders and changes in the conditions for performance of work. The organization incorporates the use of skills from individuals to introduce ease of change and application of creativities. With the expansion of business, the chain of command becomes longer and hence expands the span of control. With age, the flexibility of the organization will reduce with the creativity fatiguing. This makes it necessary for the organizational structures to be often changed to accommodate recovery.

How does the implementation of functional structures lead to more organizational control and more effective strategic planning?

Organizational culture influences the way in which specialists in the organization think and carry out their responsibilities. It is influenced positively by important reconfiguration of the part played by human resources in the development of the organization. As a result of organizational culture, there is improved performance within organizations and increased flexibility in the demand of the market. A strong corporate culture is known as an imperative driver of innovation to forces from the outside.

The culture of a company is derived from the values, structures, assumptions which are essential for the survival of an organization in a given industry. Organizational culture is transparent to workers in the firm, investors, and customers. It sets the picture of the organization at present and in the future. The organizational culture creates a strong relationship with the group that is difficult to break. The culture can either be the strongest asset or the biggest liability to the organization. Its impact is more than talents present in an organization and apparently possesses significant influence on the goals of the organization.

Organizational culture assists in the development of ethics that are expected in an organization. This is because it outlines what each and every individual in the organization is expected. If well incorporated into the culture of the organization, the ethics are easily followed by the stakeholders in the firm as well as its employees and management. It also encourages transparency since all the individuals surrounding the organization can observe what the organization stands. This increases trust by customers and even investors since the organization becomes very easy to understand regarding operations and policies.

Organizational structure outlines how activities in an organization are directed to the achievement of the organizational goals through the allocation of tasks, supervision, and coordination. The organizational structure, therefore, serves as a way through which people see their organization and the environment of the organization. It influences the activities of the organization in ways such as the provision of the foundation on which the accepted standards of operation and procedure routines. This makes it a very important tool in the strategic planning. It also determines which members of the organization are given the role of making decisions which determine the extent to which their opinions affects the line of action to be taken by the organization.