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Sociology is a social science that studies society and the individual in perspective of
Society. The origins of Sociology lie in the 19th century but the during the 1960-70s, it
became a major social science subject, taught in universities and colleges, and schools.
The scope of sociology has only become more scientific with time.
Sociology Definition
"Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and
compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behavior as social beings. The
scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters
between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes".
Anthony Giddens ("Sociology", 1989).
Social issues
Social issues are matters which directly or indirectly affect a person, many or all
members of a society and are considered to be problems, controversies related to moral
values, or both.
Social issues include poverty, violence, pollution, injustice, suppression of human rights,
discrimination, and crime. As well as abortion, gay marriage, gun control, and religion.
Social issues are related to the fabric of the community, including conflicts among the
interests of community members, and lie beyond the control of any one individual.
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority (via
mechanisms such as legal systems) can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual
human societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime
violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches
of contract and of other civil law may rank as "offences" or as "infractions". Crimes are
generally considered offenses against the public or the state, distinguished from torts
which are offenses against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action.
When informal relationships and sanctions prove insufficient to establish and maintain a
desired social order, a government or a sovereign state may impose more formalized or
stricter systems of social control. With institutional and legal machinery at their disposal,
agents of the State can compel populations to conform to codes, and can opt to punish or
to attempt to reform those who do not conform.
Authorities employ various mechanisms to regulate (encouraging or discouraging) certain
behaviors in general. Governing or administering agencies may for example codify rules
into laws, police citizens and visitors to ensure that they comply with those laws, and
implement other policies and practices designed to prevent crime. In addition, authorities
provide remedies and sanctions, and collectively these constitute a criminal justice
system. Legal sanctions vary widely in their severity, they may include (for example)
incarceration of temporary character aimed at reforming the convict. Some jurisdictions
have penal codes written to inflict permanent harsh punishments: legal mutilation, capital
punishment or life without parole.
The label of "crime" and the accompanying social stigma normally confine their scope to
those activities seen as injurious to the general population or to the State, including some
that cause serious loss or damage to individuals. Those who apply the labels of "crime" or
"criminal" intend to assert the hegemony of a dominant population, or to reflect a
consensus of condemnation for the identified behavior and to justify any punishments
prescribed by the State (in the event that standard processing tries and convicts an
accused person of a crime).
Often a natural person perpetrates a crime, but legal persons may also commit crimes.
Types
• property crime
• public order crime
• violent crime
Property crime
Property crime is a category of crime that includes, among other crimes, burglary,
larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime only
involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force
against a victim. Although robbery involves taking property, it is classified as a violent
crime, as force or threat of force on an individual that is present is involved in contrast to
burglary which is typically of an unoccupied dwelling or other unoccupied building.
Property crimes are high-volume crimes, with cash, electronics (e.g. televisions), power
tools, cameras, and jewellery often targeted. "Hot products" tend to be items that are
concealable, removable, available, valuable, and enjoyable, with an ease of "disposal"
being the most important characteristics.
Public order crime should be distinguished from political crime. In the former, although
the identity of the "victim" may be indirect and sometimes diffuse, it is cumulatively the
community that suffers, whereas in a political crime, the state perceives itself to be the
victim and criminalizes the behaviour it considers threatening. Thus, public order crime
includes consensual crime, victimless vice, and victimless crime. It asserts the need to use
the law to maintain order both in the legal and moral sense. Public order crime is now the
preferred term by proponents as against the use of the word "victimless" based on the
idea that there are secondary victims (family, friends, acquaintances, and society at large)
that can be identified.
For example, in cases where a criminal act subverts or undermines the commercial
effectiveness of normative business practices, the negative consequences extend beyond
those at whom the specific immediate harm was intended. Similarly, in environmental
law, there are offences that do not have a direct, immediate and tangible victim, so crimes
go largely unreported and unprosecuted because of the problem of lack of victim
awareness. In short, there are no clear, unequivocal definitions of 'consensus', 'harm',
'injury', 'offender', and 'victim'. Such judgments are always informed by contestable,
epistemological, moral, and political assumptions.
Violent crime
A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens
to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is
the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end,
such as robbery. Violent crimes include crimes committed with and without weapons.
With the exception of rape (which accounts for 6% of all reported violent crimes), males
are the primary victims of all forms of violent crime.
POPULATION
Pakistan Table of Contents
In early 1994, the population of Pakistan was estimated to be 126
million, making it the ninth most populous country in the world. Its
land area, however, ranks thirty-second among nations. Thus
Pakistan has about 2 percent of the world's population living on less
than 0.7 percent of the world's land. The population growth rate is
among the world's highest, officially estimated at 3.1 percent per
year, but privately thought to be closer to 3.3 percent per year by
many planners involved in population programs. Pakistan's
population is expected to reach 150 million by 2000 and to account
for 4 percent of the world's population growth between 1994 and
2004. Pakistan's population is expected to double between 1994 and
2022.
These figures are estimates, however, because ethnic unrest led the
government to postpone its decennial census in 1991. The
government felt that tensions among Punjabis, Sindhis, muhajirs
(immigrants or descendants of immigrants from India), Pakhtuns,
and religious minorities were such that taking the census might
provoke violent reactions from groups who felt they had been
undercounted. The 1991 census had still not been carried out as of
early 1994. The 1981 census enumerated 84.2 million persons.
The key reason for migration to urban areas has been the limited
opportunity for economic advancement and mobility in rural areas.
The economic and political control that local landlords exercise in
much of the countryside has led to this situation.
Pakistani cities are diverse in nature. The urban topology reflects the
varied political history within the region. Some cities dating from
the medieval era, such as Lahore and Multan, served as capitals of
kingdoms or small principalities, or they were fortified border towns
prior to colonial rule. Other precolonial cities, such as Peshawar,
were trading centers located at strategic points along the caravan
route. Some cities in Sindh and Punjab centered on cottage
industries, and their trade rivaled the premier European cities of the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.