Thesis Statement

Women are discriminated in law enforcement job positions. They have been treated with less respect and looked at as if they are inferior to their coworkers even if they offer the same or better work ethics.

Quote

"When finding myself in difficult and very dangerous situations, how I got out of them was to just think." -Dr. James Houlihan.

Dr. James Houlihan is a former agent and a current Criminal Justice professor here at Lewis University. Coming out of the academy he was second in his class and was able to pick where to transfer as an agent and chose to stay in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. 

This quote infers that just because you are trained in a high level of defense doesn't always necisarrily mean you will be using violence to get yourself out of difficult and potentially harmful situations. The most dangerous situations sometimes don't aquire any act of violence physically but sometimes the remembering of all of the knowledge you possess from training and other situations is more powerful and useful than defense mechanisms themselves.

Interview with Houlihan

Houlihan, James. 

When I sat down with Dr. Houlihan, I learned that he hadn't planned to be a special agent. After the military, no one had given him the information needed to prepare his future out of the military. At first he turned down two because he didn't know that the agency paid for the out of state training. After a couple of years with a job he hated doing, he was finally able to become a special agent. The hardest part of his job was putting people away that he didn't truly feel belonged in prison or he didn't feel were necessarily guilty. One of the most dangerous things he had to deal with was having guns pointed in his face and having to get out of them not knowing what could happen. When I asked him how he dealt with the difficult challenges he faced and the more greusome assignments he simply said "By thinking". He continued to tell me that you had to use your smarts, what you learned and what you simply have always known to get yourself out of those situations and deal with the more rough cases that were hard on you emotionally. The most rewarding thing on his job was putting the bad guys away. When I had asked Dr. Houlihan about discrimination of women he said towards the beginning there was rarely any women agents. However, as time went on some women became his bosses. He had mentioned that he believes in every job opportunity there is discrimiantion against women in the work force. He said he didn't notice it too much possibly because he never looked at women as inferior. As our interview came to an end he had told me to prepare himself, he stayed healthy, did the basic training, and worked out at least twice a week. One of the best feelings he ever had was when he would train agents himself at the basic training camp, and they would be some of the top agents out of the training. 

Video Post

"P&G: Do Things "Like A Girl"" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

This video would be useful because it shows the discrimination that is around today against women and even in little girls and teenagers. The video shows how as we grow up we are told you do this "like a girl". It makes it seem like being a girl is a bad thing. The video displays that obviously women do things like a girl because we are girls and we can't change that. They put this stereotype on females that make the minorities to men in today's society. It would help me prove the point that doing things like a girl because you are one doesn't stop you from getting the job done thats needed. Being a female isn't going to stop you from doing things to the best of your abilities or doing things just as well or even better than a dominate male figure.

T

additional source

Schuck, Amie M. “Female Representation in Law Enforcement: The Influence of Screening, Unions, Incentives, Community Policing, CALEA, and Size.” Female Representation in Law Enforcement: The Influence of Screening, Unions, Incentives, Community Policing, CALEA, and Size. N.P., 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

article one

Vogue, Ariane De. "Drug Enforcement Agency 'Repeatedly, Purposefully' Discriminated Against                Women Agents." ABC News. ABC News Network, 26 May 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.


In this article it explains the events that happened in a complaint that took 20 years to decide on. The complaint was within the DEA. They filed a complaint of discrimination on women. There were remarks made that if women wanted to be undercover or over seas that they should "stop getting pregnant". Many women were turned down when they applied for over sea positions for the DEA and/or undercover opperations. They had always seemed to be beat out by the men. Remarks had been made that the best female agent wouldn't even be as good as the worst male agent. They were dsicriminated and beat out of amazing job opportuities just because of their gender. While in trial, they looked back at some of the workers' profiles and realized that women just as good or even better than the male agents were rejected and not given explanations as to why they didn't recieve the position and opportunity. Even though this case started in 1992 is had finally been resolved in 2012. The women had said that they knew that their was discrimination against them before and well after the case had began. 

soucres

Toro, Maria Celia. The internationalization of Police: The DEA in Mexico. The Journal of American
    History.86. Web. 29 October 2014

Roufa, Timothy. "DEA Agent Career Profile." About. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 October 2014

Vogue, Ariane De. "Drug Enforcement Agency 'Repeatedly, Purposefully' Discriminated Against Women Agents." ABC News. ABC News Network, 26 May 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.

=

Criminal Justice Careers

1. What is the hardest part of finding a job in the field?
2. What is the hardest part of performing the job?
3. How was adjusting to the job? Why?
4. What job did you choose and why?
5. How has your job made you as a person?
6. What were the requirments to obtain your position?
7. What is one of the most rewarding things from the job?
8. What degree is needed to get a job in the field?
9. How many different positions are there in the field?

What Could Be More Interesting Than How The Mind Works?

Steven Pinker is a cognitive scientist and an experimental psychologist. Language, behavior, and the development of human nature is what interested him most. As a student, Steven attended Harvard in 1976 which he received his Ph.D in psychology. Years later, he returned to become a professor at his old graduate school. As a child, Steven was smart and always had an interest in the human mind and how it worked. He grew up in a time where the concept of nature vs. nurture was highly talked about and often debated. Because of this unsolved concept, Steven was automatically drawn to finding answers. He hoped that by asking profound questions, he could find answers in a lab. He was so fascinated by the human brain that he wrote "How the Mind Works". He describes his written piece simply by saying that "its sheer audacity in trying to explain exactly that, how the mind works, between one pair of covers" (Pinker). Steven Pinker spent and devoted his time finding and researching ways to fully understand the complexity of the human brain. He furthered his education on the subject by coming up with his own theories that he backed up with information and facts he discovered along the way.

Like A Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUWjt2JAYWo

The video shows how people portray doing things "like a girl". It shows that it can be hurtful and demeaning. Girls do things like a girl simply because they are a girl.

The Summoned Self

“The Summoned Self” was an article that proposed that there are two ways to think about your life. The first they called the Well-Planned Life.  It is merely about finding your purpose in life when you are younger. Investing a lot of time young, so when you are older you know the path to follow and where your path will lead you to.  Once you come up with your purpose of life, you make the decisions of committing your time and the talents you possess. They had said, that most people with this view of life use near term accomplishments. It’s the more practical approach to life, knowing the outcomes, the costs, and the sources you will use to complete the purpose of life.

            The second way of thinking about life is called the Summoned Life. Life is to be explored, not put together. “Life isn’t a project to be completed; it is an unknowable landscape to be explored” (Brooks). They say with this way of life, you won’t truly understand concepts of life until you yourself have been through them or are engaged with them. People with this thinking style are more skeptical. They believe that one presentation can be applied to many other circumstances not just one.  The power of having different choices and options to make are the most important features of being human. You must ask yourself questions that are answered by observation and being aware not by planning and numbers. They believe that life comes to a point not when the choice is complete but when life evolves to a much larger purpose and cause.

            Both ways of life are helpful. “The first vision is more American. The second vision is more common elsewhere” (Brooks). However both visions of life are useful to each person when trying to live a considered life style.