4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 13, 2005

OPINION


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JASON Z. PESICK
Editor in Chief

SUHAEL MOMIN
SAM SINGER
Editorial Page Editors

ALISON GO
Managing Editor

EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890
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ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com

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I am here for a doctoral degree and it shows
ERIC JACKSON . T's REVIEW THE FACTs
A s my name normative behavior. racial, religious and economic backgrounds.
and photo But this approach assumes that those being Attempts to diminish intergroup conflict
indicate, I punished are significantly affected by the pun- in these experiments through peace meetings
could scarcely be less ishment. This is easy to manage in research between group leaders, discussions of brotherly
of a minority, and so I settings and computer simulations, but less so love and forgiveness and joint participation in
cannot say much about in a community setting. There the sanctioned pleasant activities all failed. Sherif ultimately
what the campus cli- can simply disregard the castigations of the managed to reduce conflict by creating super-
g mate toward minorities minority community (who, their actions sug- ordinate goals, objectives both groups want-
is actually like. Many gest, they do not respect to begin with). To ed to achieve and could best be attained by
of the individuals who significantly punish those who transgress, it intergroup cooperation. It is not immediately
have spoken up follow- is essential to elicit sanctions from the groups apparent how such superordinate goals could
ing the murky happen- that the transgressors belong to (such as their be established in the University community, or
ings on the 600 block of South Forest, however, family, friends and social organizations). what exactly they would be, but research indi-
have been minorities and many are uncomfort- A series of requests have also been made for cates their establishment would be beneficial.
able with the current state of affairs. I have no new "distinct programs" to combat bias-moti- I encourage motivated individuals and groups
reason to disbelieve their appraisal. vated behavior. I am dubious about the effica- to consider what these goals may be and how
What I will not simply take on faith, though, cy of additional programs, even more so after they may be implemented, and to communicate
are the myriad suggestions for change that reading a pair of survey articles on bias-moti- their thoughts to the University community.
have been voiced. If there is a genuine problem vated crimes and finding no specific programs Interestingly, research following Sherif's
to be tackled regarding discrimination against that have been empirically shown to decrease initial experiments has indicated that super-
minorities, then we assume a responsibility to discriminatory behavior. To the extent that ordinate goals facilitate reduced hostilities
critically evaluate proposed solutions. campus groups are driven to organize such by diminishing group boundaries, making it
For some, the solution was a simple plea for programs, they should focus on implementa- more difficult for individuals to marginalize
change, for things to somehow, some way move tion not solely at the University but also (per- and discriminate by making the out-group
from worse to better. I give them a point for haps even primarily) in elementary and middle seem more like the in-group, and vice versa.
bothering to join the discussion, but fail them schools. But even with early intervention, it is Perhaps the greatest challenge for the Uni-
in the realm of effectiveness. Others came pre- not clear from current research that decreas- versity community, then, is to figure out how
pared with suggestions and after reading the ing the number of youth with prejudicial atti- to balance the reflexive intensification of in-
relevant news pieces, editorials, columns and tudes will lead to a decrease in bias-motivated group identification during times of apparent
open letters, I found twelve specific proposals. behavior later in life. threat (something that is clearly occurring at
I only have space to talk about a few. If change is to be enacted here at the Uni- present) with the knowledge that it is the blur-
Several sources have requested that the Uni- versity, one possible guide for success derives ring, rather than the strengthening, of group
versity and other minority groups - including from findings in the psychology of intergroup boundaries that helps to alleviate intergroup
those not specifically targeted - publicly con- conflict. In the 1950s and '60s, a series of hostilities.
demn discriminatory behavior. In the behav- experiments by Muzafer Sherif and colleagues The solution to this dilemma, maintaining
ioral science literature, this approach is called examined the interactions between young a strong racial/ethnic/religious/sexual identity
altruistic punishment, and requires that all boys at a simulated summer camp. By merely without sowing the seeds of intergroup con-
members of a community impose sanctions placing the boys in two different cabins, the flict, is far from trivial. Again, I am open to
on norm-violators, even when not directly researchers were able to observe the emergence suggestions.
harmed. When combined with the ability to of within-group solidarity, negative stereotyp-
reward acceptable actions, such sanctions are ing of the out-group and hostile between group Jackson can be reached at
quite successful in maintaining high levels of interactions ... all in children from the same edjacks@umich.edu.
VIEWPOINT
Won't somebody please think of the children?
By REGGIE BROWN and state legislature to do the same. a two-stage treatment program offered in mini-
Essentially, a rapist is destroying the life of mum-security facility specifically for the treat-
Josh Maciorski, 18 years old, was convicted in a his victim, much like a murderer destroys the ment of sex offenders). A study conducted by The
Rhode Island court room of having sex with a 13- life of his. Rape and murder are the absolute Sexual Abuse Clinic of Portland Oregon found
year-old girl. The teen was put on probation in lieu most heinous crimes that one human can com- that, as of 17 years post-treatment, the treatment
of jail time, and went on to molest a 14-year-old mit against another. And yet, while most mur- of homosexual pedophiles was unsuccessful in
girl two years later, for which he served one year derers receive harsh punishment, rapists are 23 percent of cases, and overall treatment of rap-
in jail. Once out, the 20-something-year-old went often times hit with soft sentences that fail to ists was only 73.5 percent successful. So, while
on to rape a 16-year-old. After his third strike, he live up to the severity of their crime. According some of the numbers regarding rehabilitation of
received only a three-year jail sentence. To see to statistics released by the Justice Department, sex offenders are encouraging, it seems that rap-
more examples like this one, go to www.billoreilly. between 1981 and 1996, 19 percent of convicted ists and pedophiles are more likely to repeat their
com/outragefunnels. rapists never received jail time, as compared to offense, even after psychological treatment, than
The list on the site is far from comprehen- 6 percent of persons convicted of murder. Over those convicted of lesser offenses.
sive, but it illustrates the need for a law that will that same time period, the average sentence The results of these studies make it apparent
make sure child molesters do hard time. Jessi- handed down to rapists was 121 months; The that convicted child molesters must be taken off
ca's Law, named for nine-year-old Jessica Lun- average sentence for murder was 251 months, a the street, so that we might prevent those that we
sford, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered, difference just short of 11 years. know have already molested young children from
is legislation that mandates a 25-year minimum Setting a precedent of soft penalties for rapists doing so again. We cannot allow this legislation
prison sentence (higher in some states) for con- is dangerous, especially considering that approxi- to become an issue of Right versus Left. For once,
victed child molesters whose victims are below mately three out of four who do not receive coun- let's just think of the children and pass Jessica's
a certain age. Currently only Florida, Arizona seling will repeat their offense, according to a Law in Michigan.
and Louisiana have a version of the law in the 2003 Department of Corrections report. Even
books, but there are a handful of states consid- after receiving counsel, 10 percent of offenders Brown is an LSA sophomore and a member of
ering the law. We must pressure our governor will repeat their crime (based on statistics from the Daily's editorial board.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

0

0

Eyes, not ears, deceive frat
boy reading the Daily
To THE DAILY:
Do my ears deceive me, or is The Michigan
Daily actually trying to say the Greek System
can do something good for this campus/com-
munity? Too many times I have read articles
in this literary masterpiece that were very
skewed and sometimes completely untrue
about things that are going on or have gone
on in the Greek system over my three years
on campus. Dare I classify the Daily as anti-
Greek? After Greek members all over campus
have read some of your "articles" or whatever
the D[ilv chnne to call them now von want

way for Greek houses to get new members in
and solidify their membership into the bonds
of whichever house they so choose. This is a
positive thing for the smaller Greek houses
because it allows them to pick from the new
crop of freshman just like any other house.
My house has a pledge class of 22 and I am
damn proud to say that this is directly related
to a great house of brothers and early rushing.
Delaying rush would almost certainly hurt
the rush of smaller houses on campus because
it allows the biggest houses to throw parties
all of first semester and in a sense gain more
pledges that would have joined other houses.
Secondly, delaying rush hurts the greek sys-
tem because a lot of the pledges who choose
earlv rush have friends that are still waiting to

take one of those programs out of the picture?
In closing, the Greek system on campus does
not need a campus newspaper to tell it the good
and bad sides of delaying rush until the winter,
or tell us anything for that matter. If you want
the Greek system to come together and help
out the student body just ask us, I am sure a
lot of houses on campus would be more than
willing. Do not try and strike up the cause by
saying that this lease signing proposal would
allow us to have a better rush, because rush has
finally gone back up, no thanks to the Daily.
Paul W. Short, II
LSA senior
The letter writer is a "Proud Card Carrying
Member of Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity Inc."

Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Reggie Brown, Amanda Burns,
John Davis, Whitney Dibo, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg,
Eric Jackson, Ashwin Jagannathan, Theresa Kennelly, Will Kerridge,