International Women’s Day seminar held More power to women

KARACHI: The International Women’s Day seminar was designed and organized by the women action forum Pakistan (WAF) on the topic of women discrimination and harassment; in university of Karachi, department of mass communication-seminar hall on March 22, 2017 at 4pm.

Social activists, psychologist and women representing different fields including Noora Sheerin, Qurat Mirza, Asha and others participated in the event.

They said that women are making tremendous contribution in every sector but society and government do not acknowledge it in terms of giving justice to their sacrifices in their economic fields.

They give a detailed description of their organization WAF; Noora Sheerin described the milestones of the organization and their journey from last 35 years.

Then Qurat Mirza elaborated the goals of WAF and the laws established by government against women harassment. Asha, a psychologist, discussed the topic of sexual harassment in the light of human psychology.

After all women, Mr. Usama ends the note by recalling the Islamic history and role of women according to Islam and spoke positive on the power of women.

Willem Bonger, Ralf Dahrendorf, and George Vold on Crime

Willem Bonger
Bonger believed that society is divided into have and have-not groups, not on the basis of people’s innate ability, but because of the system of production that is in force. In every society that is divided into a ruling class and an inferior class, penal law serves the will of the ruling class. Even though criminal laws may appear to protect members of both classes, hardly any act is punished that does not injure the interests of the dominant ruling class. Crimes, then, are considered to be antisocial acts because they are harmful to those who have the power at their command to control society. Under capitalism, the legal system discriminates against the poor by defending the actions of the wealthy. Because the proletariat are deprived of the materials that are monopolized by the bourgeoisie they are more likely to violate the law.

Ralf Dahrendorf
Dahrendorf argued that modern society is organized into what he called imperatively coordinated associations. These associations comprise two groups: those who possess authority and use it for social domination and those who lack authority and are dominated. Society is a plurality of competing interest groups. He proposed a unifi ed confl ict theory of human behavior, which can be summarized as follows:
❚ Every society is at every point subject to processes of change; social change is everywhere.
❚ Every society displays at every point dissent and confl ict; social confl ict is everywhere.
❚ Every element in a society renders a contribution to its disintegration and change.
❚ Every society is based on the coercion of some of its members by others.

George Vold
Vold argued that laws are created by politically oriented groups who seek the government’s assistance to help them defend their rights and protect their interests. If a group can marshal enough support, a law will be created to hamper and curb the interests of some opposition group. Every stage of the process—from passing the law, to prosecuting the case, to developing relationships between inmate and guard, parole agent and parolee—is marked by confl ict. Criminal acts are a consequence of direct contact between forces struggling to control society.


Sources: Willem Bonger, Criminality and Economic Conditions, abridged ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969, fi rst published 1916); Ralf Dahrendorf, Class and Class Confl ict in Industrial Society (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1959); George Vold, Theoretical Criminology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958).

Alpha DOG (Crime story)

Twenty-five-year-old Jesse James Hollywood (his real name) was living a comfortable life in Brazil, teaching English and living in a fashionable neighborhood, when he was arrested in November of 2005 and sent back to California, where he faces charges of kidnapping and  killing a 15-year-old boy. Though Hollywood never held a job, by age 19 he was able to purchase a Mercedes and a $200,000 house in West Hills, California. His place became a popular spot for local kids who came and went at all hours of the day. Jesse was a popular guy, an outgoing kid who, despite being short in stature, was an excellent athlete. How was Jesse able to do all this? Unbeknownst to many, he was a largescale marijuana dealer. Jesse’s world began to unravel when he came up with a scheme to get money owed to him by Benjamin Markowitz, 22, one of his customers. Hollywood went to Markowitz’s family home on August 6, 2000, in order to kidnap him and hold him for ransom. According to authorities, on the way there, Jesse and his friends spotted Markowitz’s 15-year-old stepbrother, Nicholas, whom they forced into a van and transported to the home of another accomplice. After being held captive for a few days, Nick Markowitz was made to walk a mile into the Los Padres National  Forest before being shot nine times with a high-powered  assault rifl e and  buried in a shallow grave. His body was discovered four days later by hikers. While four other kids were tried and convicted in the case, Hollywood e scaped and became the subject of an  international manhunt, his mug shot plastered on the FBI’s website. He wound up in Brazil, where he used fake papers that identifi ed him as Michael Costa Giroux, a native of Rio de J aneiro. In 2005, Brazilian authorities d eported him as an  illegal alien. A 2007 fi lm, Alpha Dog, starring Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, and Sharon Stone, is based on the case. He is currently a waiting trial for the m urder. Jesse James Hollywood grew up in an affl uent family and seemed to be popular and successful. How could he have become involved in an awful, violent crime? How would a control theorist explain his actions?


Sources: Tim Uehlinger, “The Long Hunt for Jesse James Hollywood,” Dateline, April 12, 2006, (accessed June 9, 2007; Ted Rowlands, “ ‘Hollywood’ Faces Murder Charge,” April 19, 2006, (accessed June 9, 2007).

Criminal Profile

Andrea (Kennedy) Yates was born on July 2, 1964, in Houston, Texas. She seemed to have a successful, normal life, being the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, and a member of the National Honor Society. She graduated from the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston and worked as a registered nurse at a University of Texas–run facility. She met and married Rusty Yates, and the couple began to raise a family. Though money was tight and living conditions cramped, the couple had fi ve children in the fi rst eight years of their marriage. The pressure began to take a toll on Andrea, and her mental health deteriorated. On June 17, 1999, after attempting suicide by taking an overdose of pills, she was placed in Houston’s Methodist Hospital psychiatric unit and diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. Even though she was medicated with powerful antipsychotics such as Haldol, Andrea continued to have psychotic episodes and was hospitalized for severe depression. Her losing battle with mental illness culminated in an act that shocked the nation. On June 20, 2001, she systematically drowned all fi ve of her children, including her eldest, seven-year-old Noah, who tried to escape after seeing his siblings dead, but was dragged back into the bathroom by his mother and drowned also. At trial, Yates’s defense team attempted to show that she suffered from delusional depression and postpartum mood swings that can sometimes evoke psychosis. Though she drowned her children one by one, even chasing down Noah to drag him to the tub, did she really have any awareness that what she was doing was wrong? Postpartum depression affects about 40 percent of all mothers and in its mildest forms leaves new mothers feeling “blue” for a few weeks; more serious cases can last more than a year and involve fatigue, withdrawal, and eating disorders. The most serious form, which Andrea Yates is believed to have suffered, is a psychosis that produces hallucinations, delusions, feelings of worthlessness, and inadequacy. Though very uncommon, postpartum psychosis increases the likelihood of both suicide and infanticide if left untreated. Despite her long history of mental illness and psychiatric testimony suggesting she lacked the capacity to understand her actions, the jury found her guilty of murder on March 12, 2002, ordering a life sentence instead of the death penalty sought by the prosecution. Andrea’s conviction was later overturned when a Texas appeals court ruled that an expert witness, Dr. Park Dietz, made a false statement during the trial. (He claimed she might have been infl uenced by an episode of Law and Order, though no such episode ever aired; it was actually L.A. Law that dealt with a case of a mother killing her children.) At the time of this writing Andrea remains in a psychiatric facility. The Andrea Yates case illustrates the association between mental illness and crime. Who could claim that a woman as disturbed as Andrea chose to kill her own children? While the jury may have reached that verdict, it was constrained by the legal defi nition of insanity that relies on the immediate events that took place and not Andrea’s long-term mental state that produced this horrible crime.


Sources: “Andrea Yates: Ill or Evil?” CourtTV Crime Library, CNN, “The Case of Andrea Yates,” (accessed July 10, 2008).

PLANNING VIOLENCE: MURDER FOR HIRE (crime story)

 While violent acts always seem irrational on the surface they may actually involve careful planning and thought. Nowhere are elements of preparation and design more apparent than in elaborate plots involving murder for hire. Take the case of Paul William Driggers, 54, an Idaho man who offered $10,000 for someone to kill his ex-wife because he was facing child molestation and gun charges and because he wanted his children back. Driggers contacted an associate in prison and asked to be put in touch with a person who could do a job for him. He got the name of a third man who was then living in California. In April 2006, using the name “Huey,” Driggers contacted the California man

and induced him to come to Idaho to discuss a “business proposition.” Driggers and the man met at a Coeur d’Alene restaurant and discussed a number of illegal things they could do, including counterfeiting, producing precursor chemicals for the manufacture of methamphetamine, identity theft, and false charity campaigns. After the two left the restaurant, Driggers told the California man that he wanted his ex-wife killed and offered the man $10,000 for the murder. Instead of committing the crime, the California man contacted state police. When the two later met in a Lowe’s parking lot, the California man was wearing a wire. Driggers showed him photographs of his ex-wife, and the two discussed the details of the murder, including using walkie-talkies to communicate, and how to dispose of the body. Driggers was convicted of attempted murder on February 23, 2007. The Drigger’s case is not unique. Richard Kaplan, a former New Brunswick official who plotted to kill his wife, was already serving a federal prison sentence for accepting more than $30,000 in bribes. While in prison he pursued a murder-for-hire plot through a fellow inmate. Rather than commit the crime, the inmate alerted authorities and became a cooperating witness in an FBI undercover investigation. Kaplan wanted his wife dead because of money issues and the belief that she was planning to get a divorce. Not long after arriving at the prison, he began telling a fellow inmate that he wanted to fi nd someone who could kill his wife and make it look like an accident. He told the inmate he was willing to pay $25,000 for the murder.

LOOTING THE PUBLIC TREASURY (crime story)

After graduating from UCLA, Albert Robles served terms as mayor, councilman, and deputy city manager of South Gate, California, an industrial community about 12 miles outside downtown Los Angeles. Soon after Robles became city treasurer in 1997, he plotted to rule the city purely for his own benefit. He even proclaimed himself “King of South Gate” and referred to the city as his “fiefdom.” Once in power, Robles got involved in a number of convoluted illegal schemes, including:

❚ Using the city’s treasury as his “private piggy bank for himself, his family, and his friends” (according to acting U.S. Attorney George Cardona), costing South Gate more than $35 million and bringing it to the verge of bankruptcy

❚ firing city hall employees at will, replacing them with supporters who had little experience

❚ Recruiting and bankrolling unqualified local supporters for city council until he controlled the council 

❚ Threatening anyone who stood in his way (suspiciously, one of his adversaries on the city council was shot in the head)

Robles and his corrupt cronies then cooked up schemes to line their own pockets with the public’s cash. In one such scheme, Robles coerced businesses to hire a financial consultant, Edward Espinoza, in order to win various city contracts, including senior housing and sewer rehabilitation projects. As part of this plan, Robles and Espinoza set up a shell corporation that raked in some $2.4 million—more than $1.4 million of which went straight into Robles’s pockets. He used part of the money to buy a $165,000 beach condo in Baja for his mother; he also forked over $55,000 for “platinum membership” in a motivational group. In another scheme, Robles steered a $48 million refuse and recycling contract to a company in exchange for more than $30,000 in gifts and campaign contributions. In February 2003, Robles was targeted by a federal grand jury looking into the handling of federal loans and grants. FBI and IRS investigators pored over city records to uncover his illegal schemes. The citizens of South Gate ultimately voted Robles and his cronies out of office (but not before he racked up huge legal bills at the city’s expense), and he was convicted at trial in July 2005. Two of his business associates—including Espinoza—also went to prison. Robles’s illegal acts were the product of careful plotting and planning. They were motivated by greed and not need. To some criminologists, stories like these confirm the fact that many crimes are a matter of rational choice.

Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Corruption in City Hall: The Crooked Reign of ‘King’ Albert,” January 8, 2007

A PAIN IN THE GLASS (Crime Story)

From 1997 to 2005, Ronald and Mary Evano turned dining in restaurants into a profitable albeit illegal scam. They used the “waiter, there is glass in my food” ruse in restaurants and supermarkets stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C. While crude, their efforts paid big dividends. They allegedly swindled insurance companies out of $200,000 and conned a generous helping of food establishments and hospitals along the way. And to top it off, in order to look authentic, the Evanos actually did eat glass. How did the Evanos pull off their scam? After ordering or buying food at restaurants, hotel bars, or supermarkets, either Ronald or May would “discover” glass in his or her food. They would then complain of the incident to management and fi ll out a report. After leaving the food establishment, they would check into the emergency room at the local hospital complaining of severe stomach pain. After presenting fake IDs and Social Security cards to hospital staff, they’d allow doctors to examine them. In some cases, x-rays would show actual pieces of glass in their stomachs (but none of it came from the food they purchased). Once released from the hospital, the couple would continue getting medical treatment for stomach pain. After racking up several thousand dollars in bills, they would file an insurance claim for their extensive “pain and suffering.” The scheme unraveled when the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts noticed a pattern of glass-eating claims in the state. The private industry organization eventually realized that most claims were being fi led by the same couple and contacted federal authorities who then traced the couple’s trail of insurance fraud across three states and the District of Columbia. On March 16, 2006, the Evanos were indicted on mail fraud, identity theft, Social Security fraud, and making false statements on health care matters. Ronald was arrested less than a month later, but Mary—his partner in crime—is still on the lam.

Sources: Department of Justice Press Release, “Man Arrested in Glass-Eating Fraud Scheme,” (accessed June 25, 2008); Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Bizarre Meal Ticket: The Couple Who Ate Glass,” November 8, 2006

THE MOTHER OF ALL SNAKEHEADS (A Criminal)

Cheng Chui Ping was one of the most powerful underworld figures in New York. Known as “the Mother of all Snakeheads”—meaning she was top dog in the human smuggling trade—to her friends in Chinatown she was “Sister Ping.” Cheng was an illegal immigrant herself. Born in 1949 in the poor farming village of Shengmei in Fujian province, she left her husband and family behind and set out for the West, traveling via Hong Kong and Canada before ending up in New York in 1981. She opened a grocery store and started other ventures that became fronts for her people trafficking business. For more than a decade, Cheng smuggled as many as 3,000 illegal immigrants from her native China into the United States—charging upwards of $40,000 per person. To ensure her clients paid their smuggling fees, Sister Ping hired members of the FukChing, Chinatown’s most feared gang, to transport and guard them in the United States. In addition to running her own operation, Sister Ping helped other smugglers by financing large vessels designed for human cargo. She also ran a money transmitting business out of her Chinatown variety store. She used this business to collect smuggling fees from family members of her own “customers,” and also collected ransom money on behalf of other alien smugglers. Conditions aboard the smuggling vessels were often inhumane. The voyages were dangerous, and on at least one occasion a boat capsized while offloading people to a larger vessel and fourteen of her “customers” drowned. The Golden Venture, a smuggling ship Sister Ping helped finance for others, was intentionally grounded off the coast of Rockaway, Queens, in early June 1993 when the offloading vessel failed to meet it in the open sea. Many of the passengers could not swim and ten drowned. Cheng Chui Ping was indicted in 1994 when members of the Fuk Ching gang cooperated with federal agents. After her indictment she continued to run a smuggling operation. In April 2000, Hong Kong police arrested her at the airport. Cheng fought extradition but was eventually delivered to the United States in July 2003. She was convicted in New York less than two years later on multiple counts, including money laundering, conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, and other smuggling related offenses, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The activities of Sister Ping illustrate how the law must evolve to confront newly emerging social problems such as illegal immigration. Other areas include cyber crime, drug importation, and terrorism. Unfortunately, the law is sometimes slow to change, and change comes only after conditions have reached a crisis. How might laws be changed to reduce illegal immigration? Should people caught entering the country illegally be charged with a felony and imprisoned?

Sources: FBI News release, “Sister Ping Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Alien Smuggling, Hostage Taking, Money Laundering and Ransom Proceeds Conspiracy,” 16 March 2006