Impacting factors on human social service Essay Example for Free

Impacting factors on human social service Essay Socio cultural factors are norms, values, beliefs, material and non material objects that are passed on from one generation to another in any given society .Socio cultural factors are crucial in any developmental aspect of a community.(Noyo Ndangwe p230) There is considerable interest in analyzing these factors that are impacting on human social service delivery and these are economic, religion, political and socio-cultural factors which are of special significance because of their tendency to shape the context or foundation for the operation of any other set of factors that operate upon human social service delivery. In this regard, we will try to look at one factor, that is, Socio cultural factor how it is impacting on human social service delivery. First and foremost would like to define the key concepts this assignment. 1. Socio means interaction. 2. Culture means the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behaviour of a particular nation or people. 3. Factors mean something that contributes to or has an influence on the outcome of something. 4 Impacting means to have an immediate and strong effect on something or somebody. 5 Social Service These are welfare programs aimed at enriching human life 6 Delivery means taking something to somebody.  The first to way to discuss this will be to try to analyse how socio-cultural factors affect the performance of Primary Health Care. There is now a large body of literature on the social and cultural determinants of health which ‘refer to both the specific features and pathways by which societal conditions affect health. The WHO has, for example, identified a number of socio cultural factors and conditions. The list of factors includes (i) cultural beliefs and taboos, (ii) gender inequality, and (iii) the urban – rural divide. The socio-cultural factors impacting on health will differ  between societies and even within sub-cultures within the same society. Thus the factors in a developed society will tend to differ from those that are operative in a backward, underdeveloped society. Factors such as urban-rural migration, unemployment, education, gender inequality, lack of money, transportation, distance to health facility, cultural inhibition, fear of going alone to health facilities, inability to make informed choices and the need to obtain permission from some authority figure such as the husband in the case of some married women have been cited (Social Determinants of Health: Nigerian Perspective: 2005). Social cultural taboos and social meanings attached to certain diseases and their causes are other socio cultural factors that are impacting on service delivery. Cultural beliefs and taboos Cultural beliefs and taboos impact upon the performance of the Primary Health Care in several ways. First, they shape forms of behaviour that lead to certain health outcomes. As an example, consider beliefs about fertility and family planning. People living in rural areas tend to want to have more children and not to want to use the more modern methods of family control (PHC, WHO: 2004). This has implication for population growth, the incidence of child and maternal mortality and the number in the population seeking access to health care. As another example, we can also consider the case of beliefs about HIV/AIDS. Quoting a UNESCO Report, Kickbusch et al (2002:4-5) have observed that in some parts of Africa, ‘people believe that clean and well-dressed individuals cannot become infected or that having sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS’. Ladipo et al (2003) have also reported a study on the perceptions of Gate keepers, the custodians of cultural beliefs and moral norms, about sexuality and HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Using in-depth interviews with teachers, media representatives, religious, political and traditional leaders and focus group discussions among parents the study reported that the culture downplayed the sexual mode of transmitting the disease; ‘condom promotion was not accepted on religious grounds by most participants. Cultural beliefs not only also shape how individuals respond to forms of disease and illness but also choices about which forms of care should be accessed. For example, cultural beliefs about certain forms of disease may lead to silence and denial thus creating  veritable grounds for the continuation of behaviours and actions that promote the disease (Human Rights Watch, 2002). Studies of the social meaning of infertility in Nigeria have shown that beliefs about infertility play a determinant role in interpretation and treatment of infertility. Following these beliefs, most people used three treatment outlets: ‘churches (spiritualists), traditional healers and hospitals (orthodox medical treatment)’ (Okonofua et al 1997:211). Gender inequality Gender inequality impacts the Primary Health Care system through its contribution to lower status, lack of empowerment, higher rates of illiteracy, and higher levels of poverty for women. As in the case of illiteracy, these factors translate into higher incidence of ill-health for women and paradoxically, their lower capacity to access health care. For example, women with less education have less control over their sexual activities and therefore also more affected by sexually transmitted diseases. For example, HIV/AIDS which is transmitted largely through sexual activities is more prevalent among women than among men. The relative lack of control over their sexual choices also means that many more women get pregnant than should be the case. This has implications for fertility and maternal mortality rates. Women therefore have a higher need to access health care especially at the PHC level. Only women generally tend to need the permission of men to access health facilities. Poverty is also higher among women in the population than men. These factors suggest that women will also have a lower capacity to meet their health needs even when facilities exist to provide for those needs. The urban – rural divide The urban – rural divide is implicated in the differences in living conditions between urban and rural areas, in the distribution of the population between the two areas and in several other factors. Differences in these factors impact upon the performance of PHC in a number of ways. First, it imposes different challenges on PHC in urban and rural areas. It has been observed for example, that living conditions, especially with respect to the availability of electricity, good roads, water, transportation, communication, poverty and quality of life tend to be much higher in urban than rural areas (Imoudu, 1995). The implication of this is  the tendency for PHC units to be better staffed and equipped in urban areas than rural areas. It is thus not surprising to find that storage facilities for drugs are better in urban areas than rural areas (Gupta et al, 2004). Professional health personnels are also more reluctant to accept postings to rural areas. Another implication is the pattern and distribution of the disease burden between urban and rural areas. Given the fact that urban areas have more PHC facilities and that other secondary and tertiary health care facilities tend to be located in them, the health needs of urban populations tend to be better served than those of rural areas. There will therefore tend to be more pressure on PHC facilities in rural areas. If we take into consideration the additional factor of higher poverty in the rural areas, the lower capacity of rural communities to access health care when they need it will translate into worse health indices in the rural areas than urban areas. However it should be noted that socio cultural factors also impact positively in human service delivery in the following ways. Traditional medicines have become part or alternatives were modern medicine has failed. That not all in certain areas use of socio cultural factors has enhanced social service delivery in the areas of ceremonies which bring in foreign exchange and general leading to an improved standard of life of the people.eg prior to the kuomboka ceremony of the lozi people of western province, roads are graded, buildings painted, the towns and villages cleaned hospitality industry also takes a new shape which is a plus in service delivery. CONCLUSION Socio cultural factors are norms, values, beliefs, material and non material objects that are passed on from one generation to another in any given society. As we looked at how socio-cultural factors affect the performance of Primary Health Care we have noted that socio cultural factors are crucial in any developmental aspect of a community The socio-cultural factors impacting on health will differ between societies and even within sub-cultures within the same society. The WHO has, for example, identified a number of socio cultural factors and conditions. The list of factors includes (i) cultural beliefs and taboos, (ii) gender inequality, and (iii)  the urban – rural divide. The socio-cultural factors impacting on health will differ between societies and even within sub-cultures within the same society. Cultural beliefs and taboos impact upon the performance of the Primary Health Care in several ways. First, they shape forms of behaviour that lead to certain health outcomes. Gender inequality impacts the Primary Health Care system through its contribution to lower status, lack of empowerment, higher rates of illiteracy, and higher levels of poverty for women. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Dr. Festus Iyayi, (2009), Socio cultural factors impacting upon Primary Health Care in Nigeria, Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria 2. Global Health Watch (2004) Global Health Action, edited by Whyte, A., McCoy, D and Rowson, M, Russell Press 3. Noyoo. N, (2000), Social Policies and Social Services in Zambia. UNZA Publishers, Lusaka, Zambia. 4. Oxford advanced learners dictionary (2002).

Clifford Olson: Canadian Serial Killer Essay -- Biography Biographies

Clifford Olson: Canadian Serial Killer Clifford Olson is one of Canada's well known serial killers. He showed no sign of sympathy for the public all throughout his life and would eventually end up killing many innocent people and spending a good portion of his life in jail. Clifford Olson was born on January 1st 1940, in Vancouver, British Columbia. While he was growing up he was always in trouble. Even as a child in school her was referred to as a bully and not a nice kid. Then as he grew up things didn't change for the better the just got worse. As a teenager and young adult Olson found himself in trouble with the law quite frequently. From the year of 1951 to 1981 ( ages 17-21) he had 94 arrests. He was put in jail for some of them and served time for cries ranging from fraud to armed robbery. While in prison Olson was known for two things. One was for being a homosexual rapist and the second was for being a snitch, and helping out the police. Olson helped the police by getting his friend named Garry Marcoux (also in jail), to give a detailed description and confession to raping and mutilating a nine year old girl. Somehow Olson was able to get Marcoux to write down his confession. Olson them gave this to police and it was used to convict Marcoux of that crime. Once Olson had served his time and was released he went to live with the mother of is son. One would have thought that he had learned his lesson and would try to turn his life around. However very unfortunately that was not the case. In November of 1980 A young girl, 12 years old, named Christine Weller went missing. She would later prove to be one of Olson's first murder victims. Christine was abducted from her home in Surrey, BC. Her mutilated body ... ...ack of his van, police found an address book containing the name of Judy Kozma. Along with this and other evidence the police were able to charge Clifford Olson with the murder of Judy Kozma 6 days later. Olson knew that he was going to be put back in jail and was suspected on some of the other murders that he had committed.. So Olson made a deal with the prosecution. In his deal Olson' s family, (wife and son) were to be paid $10,000 for each of his victims. This was very controversial. In exchange Olson would provide the information on the known murders and gave the police direction to 6 outstanding bodies. Olson kept his part of the deal and so did the prosecution. The money was paid to Olson's family on schedule. On January 11th 1982, Clifford Olson pleaded guilty to 11 counts of murder. For this he was sentenced to 11 concurrent life terms in prison.

Kingston’s Women Warrior Gives Voices and Identities to Chinese and Chinese American Women Essay

Growing up with a family of five sisters and myself as first generation Korean Americans, The Women Warrior focuses on the author’s life were she struggles to find her voice. Maxine Hong Kingston’s writing of this book is an example of how ancient talk stories, myths, and beliefs help one find her voice in America. The Women Warrior takes us on an adventure through five main female characters and five chapters that helps us understand how she finds her voice in America. The five chapters integrate Kingston’s experiences through the five women brought to life throughout the book. The references in the book refer to Kingston’s emotional struggle while showing the reader the benefit of finding ones personal voice in America. The book shows how the five women in this book along with the talk stories help in the search for individual identities. Through Kingston’s writing of this book the chapters help show how she manages to give her aunt an identity, Chinese women an identity, her mother a voice, and finds her own identity and voice in America. If women do not have voices in traditional Chinese culture, then the talk stories that mothers pass on to there daughters may be considered subversive tales and instructions for their daughters. In the first chapter of The Women Warrior, Kingston’s mother Brave Orchid tells the story of her sister and the relevance of the no name women. This talk story was told by Kingston’s mother in order to teach her daughter of proper women behavior. The fact that the story starts with her mother saying not to repeat the story makes this book a way of bringing Kinston’s aunt to life. The story was based back in the village in China where it is believed that she brought disgrace to her whole family by having an illegitimate child. â€Å"You must not tell anyone, my mother said, what I am about to tell you† (Kingston 3). This is how the book starts and the story of Kingston’s mother’s sister who killed herself with her newborn daughter. The no name women had become pregnant while her husband was off to war. The thought of what China was like painted a confusing picture for Kingston. She knew that the village that her aunt had killed herself by throwing her and her daughter in the village water well shows very little error for family values. It is here were the reader can come to know that the struggle of her aunt is the struggle she herself is going through while trying to make sense of all the tradition of China while living in America. The point of Brave Orchid to tell Kingston the story of her husband’s sister is to warn her to be careful and cautious. â€Å"Now that you started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Do not humiliate us. You wouldn’t like to be forgotten as if you had never been born† (Kingston 5). The story truly begins through this talk tale. Kingston is not allowed to mention the story of her aunt she has to create her own fantasies to complete the story. Kingston feels that the story makes more sense to her as if her aunt was rapped by a villager that ordered her to be with him. She also feels that her aunt may have stepped out of the normal social order and her sexual passion could have been incest and the whole town turned there backs and even her own family turned there backs. The birth took place in a pigsty and since the aunt already knew her fate she walked her daughter to the well and they drowned themselves. The whole idea that it was a daughter or a girl makes the story more interesting because the customs in China may have already named the girl useless and immoral. This chapter is often one of the more frequent anthologized sections of the book. The talk story of her aunt opens the door for more stories to follow. The place of women in Chinese society comes to question while the thought of Kingston’s place in America comes to question as well. Her reference to the village society of her aunt was vital to eliminate sexual attraction. This came true to Kingston herself who would try not to make herself to attractive to boys. The chapter is mainly a talk story told by her mother and the rest is the writing of Kingston. The first chapter makes the reader wonder if the stories are fiction or nonfiction. The tales from Brave Orchid seem to trouble Kingston from what is real and what is fantasy. You can see the struggle of where Kingston and her aunt seem to be voiceless throughout their lives. The fact that the no name women never told anyone who the husband was shows that she was protecting him with silence. By writing about her aunt Kingston gives her a voice. â€Å"The real punishment was not the raid swiftly inflicted by the villagers, but the family deliberately forgetting her† (Kingston 16). Although Kingston never finds out her aunts name, the symbolic act of naming her the No Name Women honors her memory. The second chapter White Tigers is based on another talk story about a female warrior Fa Mu Lan. The fact that the story is told in the first person gives Kingston her ability to become a warrior. This chapter develops some background for Kingston and her voice is heard through the story of the Fa Mu Lan. The warrior in the story starts her training at the age of seven and since it is written in the first person we can picture the warrior to be Kingston herself. In the fantasy Kingston follows a bird up into the mountains until she comes to the hut of an old couple who want to train her to become a great warrior. As part of her training she spends years on the mountain, fasting for days and eating only roots and vegetables while drinking snow water. At her hungriest moment she was sitting by the fire and a rabbit sacrifices itself for her to eat. â€Å"The rabbit seemed alert enough, however, looking at me so acutely, bounding up to the fire. But it did not stop when it got to the edge. It turned its face towards me, then jumped in the fire† (Kingston 26). Her starvation in the mountains causes her to hallucinate. â€Å"I saw two people made of gold dancing the earth’s dances† (Kingston 27). She eventually returns at the age of fourteen and her mentors teach her to fight. She is able to see images of her family in a gourd of water and she can see her family preparing her wedding to a childhood friend. She saw her husband and brother taken away and she wanted to help so badly but the training was not over. She was to wait until she became twenty two. When she is ready to leave the mountain she has learned how to us her magical sky sword and is given powerful beads by the old couple. Kingston returns home and her parents in preparation for battle tattoo a list of grievances all over her back to symbolize revenge. In men’s armor she rides her white horse and prepares to lead an army. This is probably the most exciting chapter in the book. We can see that Kingston is retelling the story as if she was the great Fa Mu Lan. This chapter follows a Chinese myth that the women would fight in place of their father. â€Å"We are going to carve revenge on your back, my father said. We will write out oaths and names† (Kingston 34). The tattoo that was actually carved in a man’s back is carved into Kingston’s back. She is pretending to be a man and becomes a great warrior at the head of a huge army. She defeats and wins over the army of a giant. Her husband then joins her and soon she is carrying a newborn baby under her armor. She eventually leads the entire population of China to overthrow the corrupt emperor and put a peasant in his place. In the fantasy Kinston takes on the role of a powerful man warrior and yet is also a female avenger. She has the ability to create life and to take life. These dual powers let her maintain both her sense of womanhood and duties of a wife. When she is a warrior she would wear her hair up and reveal the tattoos and when it was time to be a wife she lets down her hair to cover the tattoos. He wept when he took of my shirt and saw the scar words on my back. He loosened my hair and covered the words with it† (Kingston 39). When in battle her husband joins her and after birth to the newborn the husband leaves to care for the child. This sign of role reversal gives more meaning to Kinston’s life. She is able to transcend the rigid customs and traditions in this chapter. At the end of the chapter the reader can see that the customs of women constrict her in America as well. â€Å"Did you know the restaurant you chose for the banquet is being picketed by CORE and the NAACP? Of course I knew that is why I chose it. I refuse to type these invitations, I whispered, voice unreliable. He leaned back in his chair, his bossy stomach opulent. He picked up a calendar and slowly circled a date. You will be paid till here and we will mail you a check† (Kingston 49). We can see her trying to stand up to her boss in America and he simply fires her. In reality the only powers Kingston has is through her writing. It is in her writing that her aunt and her voice are heard. The end of the chapter states the real powers of Fa Mu Lan. The sky sword created by Kingston is as powerful as she wants just like her words. They can only have as much power as she can give them. The fact that the women with bound feet created an army in her writing gives them much deserved credit for all that they have endured The point of this chapter is through writing Kingston found a way to give voice to all Chinese women. She has found a way to poke holes through old stereotypes and thus through her writing she can change customs and give women a more important role in society. Although chapter two was the most adventurous it is in the third chapter that the reader can actually see that Kingston gives her other a voice and even finds out more about her own self. Shaman focuses on Kingston’s mother, Brave orchid and her childhood in China. The chapter traces her life in China after her husband was in America. Kingston is able to bring the talk stories of her mother and along with other storytellers Kingston writes of her mothers accomplishments becoming a doctor. The chapter brings her mother to life. In America she has no voice and in China she was a remarkable doctor. It was at the To Keung School of Midwifery were Brave Orchid truly excelled as one of the top students. â€Å"It rolled over her and landed bodily on her chest. There it sat. It breathed airlessly pressing her, sapping her. Oh no a sitting ghost, she thought† (Kinston 69). It was here when she defeated the ghost at her school and impressed the other students. It was as if she could perform magic. When Brave Orchid returns back to her village she had the ability to heal the sick and defeat the ghosts. Kingston feels that her mother’s power comes from her being able to eat any beast. She remembers one talk story that Chinese people ate the brains out of the head of a monkey. One day Kingston and her mother went to purchase a slave. I am a doctor, she told her new slave, when they were out of the dealer’s hearing† (Kingston 81). It is here that Kingston feels some uncertainty towards her mothers talk stories. Her mother recalls spending two hundred dollars for Kingston when she was born. Kingston remembers her mother commenting on the fact that they gave away girls that were infants. Here Kingston is torn with the fact that she cost her mother money and that being a girl was almost a burden on her family. The struggle with honoring her mother’s powers and with identifying herself is clear in this chapter. The fact that Kingston comments on her being a girl and being useless is what she truly struggles with. Many families in China look down at baby girls and it isn’t until Kingston writes about her mother and herself to give them an identity. The second part of the chapter takes place in America where Brave Orchid a once powerful doctor has no voice in America. She couldn’t speak English so the simple language barrier silenced her. The way to get Kingston to understand her mother was through the talk stories and ghosts Brave Orchid made up. But America has been full of machines and ghosts, Taxi ghosts, Bus ghosts, Police ghosts, Fire ghosts, Meter reader ghosts, Tree trimming ghosts, Five and dime ghosts† (Kingston 97). The surroundings of America contained many ghosts but the reader can sense that Kingston is happier that she is in America. The chapter ends on the present day during a visit by Kingston. Brave Orchid complains about how hard they work in the laundry and tomato field businesses. Her mother claims that even the time goes faster in America. Brave Orchid never stopped calling China home. She seems to understand little of the political situation in China. She has finally told Kingston that they would never return to China. The chapter is best summed up as the ghost chapter. The new ghosts in America along with the ghosts from China can be terrifying. The deformed baby that was kicked out to die in the outhouse would haunt Kingston. The chapter of Shaman is the chapter that depicts the conflicts of Brave Orchid’s life and the mother daughter relationship she has with Kingston. The reader can see how frustrating Kingston is as she tries to find her identity in America. If there were no talk stories of her mother’s life in China then Brave Orchid could have never had her own identity. Brave Orchids life in America is completely opposite and in America she struggles with her own identity because she only speaks Chinese. The next chapter At the Western Palace is where Brave Orchids sister Moon Orchid comes to America. It is through these women that Kingston can identify with herself. Brave Orchid sends for her sister and she makes the trip to America from Hong Kong. â€Å"Brave Orchid momentarily saw, like a larger, younger outline around this old woman, the sister she had been waiting for† (Kingston 117). The two women kept describing how old each one looked. The fact that Brave Orchid sent for her sister to come to America raised question as to why her husband, who lived in America, never sent for her. It is here that I noticed that Moon Orchid was a lady with no identity in America. Brave Orchid insisted that Moon Orchid should go demand her life as a wife to her husband. â€Å"Moon Orchids eyes got big like a child’s. I shouldn’t be here, she said† (Kingston 124). This was Moon Orchids reaction to her sister’s rambling about her reclaiming her husband. Moon Orchid got money from her husband. He sent her money and she never worked a day in her life. She tries to tell Brave Orchid she was not abandoned and that he sent money for all the food and servants one could need. He even sent their daughter to college. Brave Orchid pressured her sister till finally one day they went to Los Angeles to confront her husband. Brave Orchid tells her sister to demand her place as the first wife but Moon Orchid wants no part in it. They came up with a plan after Brave Orchid saw his doctor office. They would send Brave Orchid’s son to the office and make the doctor come out thinking their was an accident. The plan did bring him out but it failed in Brave Orchids mind. He mentioned his new wife did not know of the first marriage and that he wanted no part in her life, but he would continue to send money to his daughter in care for Moon Orchid. The doctor embarrassed Moon by calling them grandmothers. This made Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid ghosts and the comic and tragic story of Moon Orchid takes form. The daughter takes Moon Orchid in after brave Orchid realized she was useless in helping her. She could barely fold towels and she got to hot to work. Her inabilities to perform the easiest tasks became annoying. Like many women in China they would marry the men just before they left for â€Å"the Golden Mountain† America. The fact that Moon Orchid comes to America and is useless to Brave Orchid and her husband wants nothing to do with her raises more speculation to her identity. The women in this story seem to have to find their own place and are voiceless. Like in previous chapters Moon Orchid comes to life through Kinston’s writing. In this chapter Kingston is hardly present. This is the first appearance in the book of her siblings and her father. Brave Orchid is embarrassed that her children are unaware of respecting or understanding Chinese culture. The fact that Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid become ghosts while confronting her husband takes a lot out of Moon Orchid. She slowly begins to deteriorate and Brave Orchid tries to comfort her but she ends up sending her to away to a home. The stories in this chapter are an important reminder to Kingston and her feelings for her mother. The fact that these women both had great lives in China can show the reader that in America the women were of no use and in America they struggled to find their identity. It s in the final chapter A song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe, Kingston finally begins to focus on her own life. We can see Kingston in some of her most important turning points in her life. She is insecure, quiet and an alienated young girl. Kinston has begun to see the world logically and as a more mature person. She embraces her roots and her past and finds strength in her writing. Kingston and other Chinese Americans are constantly told not to tell anyone outside the community about their lives. This makes finding ones identity harder. It is very important that Kingston does not spare herself in the final chapter. Here the quiet girl even has two long rants showing her words were often bottled up. Her ability to write made her more mature and gave her a clear perspective of her place in society. In America silence is a trait of Americans and Kinston finds herself as quiet and American-feminine. â€Å"So I had to stop, relieved in some ways. I shut my mouth, but I felt something alive tearing at my throat, bite by bite, from the inside† (Kingston 200). This is when you can see that Kinston remaining quite only kept things bottled up inside. The story ends with another talk story about the Ts’ai Yen who had to translate the songs of the Barbarians back to the people. It is here that the reader can sense that Kinston has found a way to communicate from her writing to her readers. Kinston’s identity seems to be in between American and Chinese American culture. The culture of both worlds has come to life throughout this book and it is in this chapter that Kingston realizes that she can give anything identity through her writing. Kingston’s ability to find herself in both cultures reveals her true identity. It is through her mother’s talk stories and through the other women in this book that helps her find her own identity. Kinston also gives identity to her No Name Aunt as well as Moon Orchid, and her mother. This novel focuses on the stories of these women and there struggles to find their voices. After realizing her place in society Kinston gave herself and all the other women in this book a voice and an identity. The women who have no identity and the struggle of a Chinese American women makes this book reveal everyone’s place and identity. Through her writing, talking about her past becomes the cure for silence and the cure to achieve an individual voice as a Chinese American Women.

The Legal Systems Of The World Law Example For Free - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1099 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Review Did you like this example? I truly believe that our modern society needs Law. Laws are guidelines that set out appropriate behaviour, so we are required to follow this system of rules, in order to keep everything balanced and stabilized. Without the fulfillment of these desired tasks, man simply will become equal to animals or worse still, allow their darker sides to emerge and control their lives. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Legal Systems Of The World Law Example For Free" essay for you Create order Legal Systems of the World For this purpose every country has a certain system that the all citizens are required to obey: up to date there are about two hundred countries in the world and each of them makes its own Legal System that is based on certain characteristics and factors of the country. The Legal System consists of certain laws and rules that shape the citizens morality and behaviour in the society. There are many academic terms describing what legal system is but from my point of view the best one is the description by J.H Merryman: The three most widespread Legal Systems are: Continental Law Legal System, Common Law Legal System and Religious Law Legal System. Each of these legal systems is unique and has its own specific features and individual structure. Lets take a brief look on each system and see how systems differ from each other or discover their similarities. Common Law Legal System History, sources and structure The common law system prevails in Britain and its former colonies, including Australia, Canada, and the United States. Traditionally, the common law system, as the name implies, was governed not by a code, but by court-made law that developed incrementally over time. It is different from the civil-law system, which is introduced mostly in Europe and in areas colonized by France and Spain. The body of decisional law based largely on custom as declared by English judges after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The common law doctrine of following precedent, known as stare decisis remains an important component of both the English and American legal systems today. English common law was based primarily on custom, tradition, and precedent rather than a formal written legal code. Over centuries of experience, the common law became the major influence on the development of American criminal law both before and after the American Revolution. After the Revolu tion, the common law continued to be the basic law of most states. However, today almost all common law principles and rules have been enacted by legislative bodies into statutes with modern variations. ). One of the interesting characteristics of the system is that the common-law system allows judges to look to other jurisdictions or to draw upon past or present judicial experience for analogies to help in making a decision. This flexibility allows common law to deal with changes that lead to unanticipated controversies. Civil Law Legal System History, sources and structure and developed in Continental Europe and around the world. It is divided into two branches: the codified Roman law and uncodified Roman law. The Differences and Similarities between the Legal Systems Common law and civil law legal systems share similar social objectives: individualism, liberalism and personal rights. A major difference between the civil law and common law is that priority in civil law is given to doctrine over jurisprudence, while the opposite is true in the common law: it finds in judge-made precedent the base of its law. The civil law doctrines function is to draw from cases the rules and the principles which will clarify and purge the subject of impure elements, and thus provide both the practice and the courts with a guide for the solution of particular cases in the future. The common law author focuses on fact patterns. He or she analyzes cases presenting similar but not identical facts, extracting from the specific rules, and then, through deduction, determines the often very narrow scope of each rule, and sometimes proposes new rules to cover facts that have not yet presented themselves. Common law jurisprudence sets out a new specific rule to a new s pecific set of facts and provides the principal source of law, while civil law jurisprudence applies general principles, and that jurisprudence is only a secondary source of law of explanation. Civil law judgments are written in a more formalistic style than common law judgments. Civil law decisions are indeed shorter than common law decisions, and are separated into two parts the reasons and the order. This is because civil law judges are especially trained in special schools created for the purpose, while common law judges are appointed from amongst practicing lawyers, without special training. The method of writing judgments is also different. Common law judgments extensively expose the facts, compare or distinguish them from the facts of previous cases, and decide the specific legal rule relevant to the present facts. Criminal Law and Civil Law Basic Information There are two branches of law: Criminal Law and Civil Law. That means that when a person breaks any law, he or she may be judged according to what branch of law it is. Criminal Law those laws for redressing public wrongs that injure society in general and Civil Law those laws for redressing private wrongs to individuals.ÂÂ  Civil law attempts to right a wrong, settle a dispute, or honor an agreement. The victim is being compensated by the person who is at fault, this becomes a legal alternative to, or civilized form of, revenge. Criminal law consists of two main branches substantive criminal law and procedural criminal law. Substantive criminal law prohibits certain forms of conduct by defining what acts constitute crimes and establishing the parameters of penalties. Procedural criminal law regulates the enforcement of the substantive criminal law, the determination of guilt, and the punishment of those found guilty of crimes. Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure Criminal Procedure. The branch of the criminal law that deals with the processes by which crimes are investigated, prosecuted, and punished. Thus, procedural criminal law is the process followed by police and the courts in the apprehension and punishment of criminals from the filing of a complaint by a member of the public or the arrest of a suspect by the police, up to the time the defendant is sent to jail, or, if convicted, to prison. Civil litigation that deals with private disputes between parties is subject to the rules of civil litigation, sometimes referred to as civil procedure. Criminal cases, deals with acts that are offenses against society as a whole, such as murder and robbery, as subject to the rules for criminal law, and is also known as the rules of criminal procedure.