Junior Theme Update

In case you haven't read my last couple posts, my topic for the junior theme is childhood obesity. With the due date approaching fast, there is still lots of work to be done. My interviewee, a Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University is going to be unavailable. Conveniently for me, he offered to meet May 6th, the day before the paper is due.
Other than my interview trouble, I keep finding new subtopics within my portions of my thesis map which all could stand alone. The first reason I am outlying to explain the increase in childhood obesity is the increase in fast food consumption nationwide. Within this issue, however, I have various decisions to make. I could expand upon the unhealthiness of the foods offered at such places, write about the sudden and dramatic increase in soft drink consumption (McDonalds Coca-cola syrup sales are the highest in America), or the fast food chains being opened in high schools nationwide.

After continuing to research juvenile crime in America, I have decided to take a different route, in selecting a new topic altogether. While there are undoubtedly plenty of juveniles raised in single-parent families, this is a correlation not a causation of crime. Juvenile crime was on the rise for over 2 decades, but it hit its peak in the mid 90's. Since then, from petty crimes to violent crimes, the overall crime rate in America has plateaued. I considered researching why the crime rate has decreased since the mid 90's but wasn't too interested that approach. Contrary to male crime, female crime, in particular, violent female crime has shown a slight increase over the past twenty years. However, female crime is almost 90% of the time non-violent crime, and less than 1/5 of all crime in America. There really is no link between criminal physchology and the topic I decided to research- childhood obesity. I had considered writing about this dilemna originally as it is certainly a prevent issue in America right now. The life expectancy of children born after 2000 is shorter than that of their parents. Type 1 diabetes, once thought to be an adult only form of the disorder, is now becoming more prevalent among children. The topic is one that will hopefully assess the crisis in America, and will create reasonable solutions to this problem.

Junior Theme Update

For the last couple weeks of American Studies class, we have been researching topics of interest in a seemingly never ending attempt to create a why question. Initially I had no idea which theme my paper would be; sports, political, media, etc. I am fascinated by physcology, and came across an interesting article online about the physcology of criminals. This topic became one of interest to me, and I continued to search in the library for books that pertained to this topic. Upon further research, I read an article that presented a narrower question that I saw potential in for a "Why" question. It brought to my attention the controversy of the insanity claim. The defense used by criminals in hopes of lessening their sentence, or not facing a death penalty. However, this defense is used in less than 1% of criminal's trials, and there is no trend in recent years to further investigate, i.e., a sharp increase or decrease in the usage of this defense. Refocusing on criminal physcology I looked for a new topic within this field, with a little more relevance in the present day. I found an interesting article that over the last 30 years there has been a sharp increase in children being raised by singles parents, and that children raised by single parents make up over 70% of inmates in state junvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences. Likewise, the studies showed additional statistics that were very striking: children in single-parent families are 20 times as likely to end up in prison and 32 times as likely to run away from home. The numbers vary from source to source, but the general consensus is that we have a sharp rise in crime that is held responsible by children in single-parent families. Take away 70% of crime from America today, and are society would be much safer then it is today. This topic yields a few question I can't help but wonder; why the sharp rise in single parent families, and more importantly, why the increase in crime for these juveniles in single-parent families?