Response to #2 essay

In my second essay I wrote about Title IX and the equality of men and women's sports. I presented many arguments and reactions to them. I believe that I anticipated the objections because I was prepared to give a response that proved some of these arguments wrong. Some of the arguments and answers to them were taken from journal articles that I researched. However, some of the arguments I answered through experience and general knowledge about the topic. I think that I represented them fairly because I went into detail about what was said in the articles. I feel that I answered the objections well, but I should go back and add in some extra information that will further prove the answer. I used some of the chapters templates but now all of them. I think that a naysayer helps strengthen my argument because it helps provide me with more information and more questions or arguments to respond to.

Gladwell Essay

In the section of Gladwell's essay that talks about New York's crime rate there are many different perspectives. Gladwell shows the perspective of three groups of people. They are the police, criminologists, and economists. All three of these perspectives are different but they all give solid reasoning as to why the crime rate may have dropped so suddenly. I think that Gladwell may include the perspective of some of the people that live in the crime infested area. Gladwell's views are clearly distinguishable from the three sources that he used in his essay. Gladwell was very sceptical of the reasons that his three sources used to explain that decrease of the crime rate. It seems that he does not agree with their reasons. He does use clear voice-signaling phrases because he always introduces who is giving the opinion.

Crime Rate in New York

In recent discussions of the crime rate in New York City, a controversial issue has been why the crime rate has decreased. On the one hand, "New York police will tell you that what happened in New York was that the city's policing strategies dramatically improved." On the other hand, criminologists "point to the decline of the crack trade and the aging of the population." Gladwell then argues that there is "a puzzling gap between the scale of the changes in policing and the size of the effect on places like Brownsville and East New York." My own view is that it is a mix of all things combined. The increase in police efforts and the decline of the crack trade both played a major role in the decreasing crime rate in New York areas. Though I concede that the decrease of the crime rate did drop in a very short amount of time, I still maintain that just one thing would not lessen the crime rate, it had to be a combined effort.