Criminology Criminal Justice System - 1028 Words

Criminology Defined: An In Depth Look Of The Criminal Justice System In The U.S. Criminology, as defined by the book Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, written by the author Dr. Frank Schmalleger, Ph.D., is â€Å"the scientific study of the causes and prevention of crime and the rehabilitation and punishment of offenders† (Schmalleger, 2006, p. 20). Criminology, in itself, has a wide variety of function in treating crime and providing punishment to those who commit the crimes here in the U.S. Since crime increases with the population growth, more policies are being given to law makers, which changes the perspective in how the Criminal Justice system works. Due to the increase in crimes, new laws are made to help reduce the crimes in order to minimize the threat of increasing the crimes that are being committed. The Criminal Justice system offers a wide area of responsibilities that houses different types of functions which helps in the fulfillment of accomplishing the tasks needed for a better, well organized running of the Criminal Justice system. In the old Western times, when cowboys and gunslingers used to roam the country with their horses, crime was hard to detect due to the lack of proper law enforcing. Many people died with their bodies lost within time, criminals roam free, and people were suffering from high crime rates as there was no enforcing that was done during those early days. Even though policing has existed throughout history, from the Roman era ofShow MoreRelatedCriminology And The Criminal Justice System824 Words   |  4 PagesAs it pertains to the last ten years, Criminology and its relevance to the criminal justice system has been taught internationally to a number of students seeking employment within the criminal justice field. Criminology (as a whole) is a comprehensive study of criminal behavior, crime as a social matter, and criminal conduct. This is best explained in Stout’s book titled Applied Criminology when it is stated that â€Å"Different criminological theories emerge from different contexts, are shaped by differentRead MoreCriminology : Criminal Justice System1117 Words   |  5 PagesCriminology Defined: An in Depth Look of the Criminal Justice System in the U.S. Criminology is defined by the book Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, which was written by author Dr. Frank Schmalleger, Ph.D., as â€Å"the scientific study of the causes and prevention of crime and the rehabilitation and punishment of offenders† (Schmalleger, 2006, p. 20). People look at criminology in a big concept of criminal prevention but criminology in itself carries a wide variety of functions in treating crimeRead MoreCriminology and the Criminal Justice System Essay1113 Words   |  5 PagesCriminology and the Criminal Justice System Jackulin, Cyrus Sec/340 October, 1, 2012 Criminology and the Criminal Justice System No matter where you live in the world the city or the country crime always happens from murder, rape, robbery, arson, assault, auto theft, and burglary. People try their hardest to try and find an area where they cannot deal with crime you can’t find a place. Either were you live crime goes up or down. Living in Minneapolis Minnesota I seen all types of crimesRead MoreThe Role Of Criminology And The Criminal Justice System1565 Words   |  7 Pagesthese set rules is a crime and it is punishable as stipulated in most state constitutions across the world. Through criminal justice systems, people’s conducts are judged according to guiding laws and principles and those found guilty are punished for their crimes. Criminological enterprise In the above context, criminology therefore refers to the scientific approach to studying criminal behavior. Apparently, every crime committed is usually motivated by different factors. For instance, some peopleRead MoreA Comparative Study of the Field Criminal Justice and Criminology1314 Words   |  6 PagesFields Criminal Justice and Criminology Javier Landa-Miranda Ivy Tech Community College CRIM 101 What is Criminal Justice and what is Criminology? They are the same? Those are the questions that people ask their selves when they talk about those fields. There might be many controversies about the differences and similarities about Criminal Justice and Criminology. People must think that these two fields are totally different or just the same thing. The reality is that Criminal Justice and CriminologyRead MoreAdvantages And Disadvantages Of Theory Integration1050 Words   |  5 Pagestwo theories are relaying the same message with different opinions. Another advantage is that integration brings consistency to theories Future of Theory Integration Theory integration requires goals in order to make an impact on the future of criminology. According to Muftic (2009), the first goal of integration is theory reduction. Reducing the number of theories that basically explain the same behavior reduces the competition amongst researchers as well as inconsistency in theories. A second goalRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System1700 Words   |  7 PagesIn order for the Criminal Justice System to effectively deter crime, it is imperative to understand what causes crime, understand why crime exists and why offenders engage in criminal behaviour. In the 18th century criminologists such as Jeremy Bentham, Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria and Cesare Lombroso all established criminological theories, in an attempt to achieve this goal. The most influential theories are known as the Classical and Positivist perspectives. Both of these theories have had a long-termRead MoreCriminology And The Scientific Study Of Crime And Criminals767 Words   |  4 Pages1. What is criminology and which scientific areas does it borrow from? Criminology is the scientific study of crime and criminals including its causes. It is a sub-group of sociology which is the scientific study of social behavior. Criminology uses several fields of study, including psychology, psychiatry, statistics, and anthropology. 2. What is meant by valid and reliable statistics? A valid statistic measures facts. While a reliable statistic measures consistency from one measurementRead MorePositivism And Classical Criminology1069 Words   |  5 PagesIn Criminology there are two main approaches when talking about why criminals commit crime: positivism and classical criminology. Throughout the decades there have been many criminologists that debate this subject like positivist Cesare Lombroso who believed that criminals were less evolved than non-criminals and believed they had a more primitive mind. Whereas Bentham viewed all people as rational decision makers and created the pain-pleasure theory. In the Sage Dictionary of Criminology the definitionRead MoreClassical Theory of Criminology Essay1523 Words   |  7 PagesCriminology is the study of why individuals engage or commit crimes and the reasons as to why they behave in certain ways in different situations (Hagan, 2010). Through understanding the reasons or why an individual commits a crime, one can come up with ways to prevent and control crime or rehabilitate criminals. There exist a large number of criminology theories, some link crime to an individual or person; they believe a person weighs the cons and pros and makes a conscious decision on whether to

Statement of Purpose key point in my career Free Essays

Statement of Purpose: I feel I am at a key point in my career, where I find myself intensely energized by the possibilities to exchange ideas, and participate in higher learning opportunities, particularly within the field of Business Administration. For the past four years I have relished an interdisciplinary scope of work in the field of Risk Compliance Management at Hardware and Lumber Limited; Occupational Health Safety, Compliance Audit, Internal Control Audits, Disaster Policy, and Business Continuity are just some of my day to day remit. I am most fascinated by the clash between economic interests of stakeholders, and the company’s need to comply with international environmental standards. We will write a custom essay sample on Statement of Purpose: key point in my career or any similar topic only for you Order Now My central goal is to work on the cutting edge of the progress reached in the field of business and entrepreneurship, while striking a balance between the contending priorities. The University College of the Caribbean MBA Program will optimally provide me with the tools techniques required to achieve this goal. My Interest in Risk Management began to evolve with what I witnessed firsthand in Manhattan, New York, U. S. A. on September 11, 2001. I noted with amazement, that in spite of the understandable confusion of all concerned, there was an unprecedented level of coordination in response, which was activated and executed within minutes, with relative seamlessness. The result was fewer lives lost, due to quick, appropriate, and adequately resourced response. On the other hand, later acts of nature, which were disseminated across computer screens and television sets, belied evidence of advancements in the sphere of Disaster Preparedness. Cases in point: The response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, and the Haitian and Japanese earthquakes. The snail paced response to the former and the relative ad hoc protocols for recovery of the latter two events have left images which will not be easily expunged from my memory. These have served as confirmation that at all socio-economic levels there is the need for prudent disaster planning and management. Professionally, I have sought advancement and have been charged with increased responsibilities and new learning opportunities related to Risk Management for the past 11 years. In 2001, I assumed the post of Regional Manager of the Jamaica National Small Business Loan Company. With my interest peaked, and the â€Å"911† legacy of Business Continuity not as entrenched as it is today, the subject took on unprecedented importance in our company. As a young middle manager, I was mandated with ensuring that the loan portfolio was sufficiently diversified with varying business activities to mitigate the risks of similar events; at that time sale of imported wares featured disproportionately in the portfolio. The company would claim eventual success thanks to this strategic move, and I would earn the Chairman’s Award, with the real legacy being that I facilitated proper risk assessments techniques, which was adopted and became entrenched in policy and procedure. I later ventured to the Civil Service, eventually assuming the post of Compliance Manager pro tem, at the Companies Office of Jamaica. My total tenure was approximately five years. On this assignment, my mandate was to ensure that local business risks were adequately underwritten. A major responsibility in this capacity was ensuring that entities which operated businesses in Jamaica were duly registered and met their statutory obligations in a timely manner, and by extension that they qualified for General Peril Insurance. The strategy employed was to engage proprietors through canvassing, mass media campaigns, information sessions, and outreach initiatives. An analysis of local entrepreneurial pursuits gleaned a common cyclical tenure in small and micro activities in Jamaica. These entities would have their ultimate demise with the passage of a natural, manmade, or economic disaster. Generally, Risk Management and Business Continuity Planning were identified as lacking operational imperatives. I was able to make the case for deliberate Risk Management at the public education presentations with anecdotes of companies and businesses which were so affected. My proposition is that Disaster Planning is a most important domain of Business Administration and economic continuity, without which enterprises, economies, and nations invariably fall prey to ravishes of man or nature. To become an effective advocate for sustained and coordinated State and Enterprise Risk Management, one must earn formal endorsement. I am convinced that by earning this degree I would have gained the appropriate start. Ultimately, I aspire to teach and work in Risk Management. I hope to find ways of enabling business development, while protecting enterprises from the crippling effects of disasters. At this time, an MBA is the ideal course to pursue towards achieving this end. Respectfully submitted by: Gregory Spalding How to cite Statement of Purpose: key point in my career, Essay examples

Sylvia Plath †“Daddy” Essay Sample free essay sample

Sylvia Plath used poesy as a kind of confessional katharsis whereby she allowed all of her emotions and feelings to be expressed and hopefully to be released from her scruples. In making this her audience benefited from honest ideas about all kinds of topics in her life. The verse form â€Å"Daddy† identifies her relationship with her male parent every bit good as the Nazi/Jew relationship. and a farther probe demonstrates a connexion between the two images. The verse form begins with her speech production of a toe and her comparing of herself to her father’s toe. It appears that her male parent had lost a toe. which first became grey and finally fell away. The line: â€Å"Ghastly statue with one grey toe† demonstrates how her male parent was a strong figure had one toe that was about falling off. ( 9 ) In this subdivision of the verse form. Plath is depicting her male parent. We will write a custom essay sample on Sylvia Plath – â€Å"Daddy† Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She so proceeds to depict herself as a Jew being taken away by Germans to assorted concentration cantonments. For case. the subdivision saying â€Å"Chuffing me off like a Jew. / A Jew to Dachau. Auschwitz. Belsen. / I began to speak like a Jew. / I think I may good be a Jew. † describes how she is like a Jew to her male parent. ( 32-35 ) She so begins to propose that she has some itinerant heritage. but may still be a Jew every bit good. She eventually relates her feelings about her male parent in the ulterior phases of the verse form. She tells the audience that she had ever feared her male parent who is supposedly German. Plath is purportedly of Judaic lineage. so this creates some struggle in the verse form. Plath continues to associate to the audience that her male parent had died when she was 10 old ages old and that she attempted self-destruction to be with him when she was 20 old ages old but failed at the effort. Plath ends the poem speech production of how her male parent was more like a lamia and that she has staked him in the bosom and he is finished everlastingly. A reader could take the verse form literally and recognize what Plath is seeking to show. First. she is comparing her male parent to a Nazi ( who may hold really been a Nazi ) . Plath is comparing herself to a Jew. The two groups. the Nazis and the Jews. played of import functions in WWII. The Nazis were the tormentors. and the Jews were the persecuted. Plath is noticing on her father’s deficiency of compassion and attention for her. For case. the lines: â€Å"Every adult female adores a Fascist. / The boot in the face. the beast / Brute bosom of a beast like you. † suggest that her male parent was like the Nazi fascists of WWII. ( 48-50 ) They were beasts and tormenters of the Judaic people. She is proposing that her male parent was a tormenter of her. and continues to torture her even after his decease. After her male parent dies she demonstrates how every adult female adores a Fascist by trying to be with her male parent. despite all of the inhuman treatment she expe rienced when he was alive. This demonstrates how Plath is conflicted throughout most of the verse form when discoursing her father’s influence on her life. However. towards the terminal of the verse form she begins to to the full turn to her positions on what she truly thinks of her male parent. She compares him to a beast and how he has a Meinkampf expression. She so goes on to compare him to a lamia who really sucks out her life-force like all lamias mythically do. This thought of her male parent as a lamia and as a Nazi demonstrates two of import facets of her version of his personality. First. the Nazi demonstrates her male parent as the tormenter and Plath as the Judaic victim. Second. the lamia demonstrates her male parent as a animal that continues to stalk her and run out her after his decease. Basically her male parent will go on to run out her unless she puts an terminal to him as a lamia. Towards the terminal of the verse form she stakes her male parent and proclaims â€Å"Daddy. dada. you b astard. I’m through. † ( 80 ) This line signifies the closing that Plath feels with her male parent. and how her get the better ofing his actions is illustrated by her symbolic staking of her father’s bosom. The full verse form is a psychotherapeutic roller-coaster that ends with eventually being free of her father’s negative influences. Plants Cited Annas. Pamela J.A Perturbation in Mirrors: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath. New York: Greenwood Press. 1988.

Speech on Marijuana Legalization free essay sample

A well-known issue, right now, in the USA is that of the legalization of marijuana. This controversial topic is on the minds of our entire country. Whether or not to legalize marijuana has been a nation wide debate for years. In this informative speech I will be discussing only facts and opinions. Opinions and facts will come from organizations such as The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Marijuana Legalization Organization and the Drug Policy Alliance. Marijuana Legalization is an issue because there are so many individuals using the substance illegally. These individuals feel that Marijuana is not a harmful substance and can serve to profit states that legalize it. The biggest concern on everyone’s mind is that of health risks. Most people feel that it is in the best interest of the nation for marijuana to remain illegal. Marijuana Legalization Organization states that that is not entirely true. â€Å"Health considerations provide arguments to avoid excessive use of marijuana, but ultimately each individual should be allowed the personal freedom to decide whether or not to use marijuana. (MLO) In their opinion, as with anything taken in excess, marijuana is only harmful to those who choose to use it. The example used in MLO is that of an excess amount of unhealthy food. â€Å"[N]umerous studies have shown that foods with a lot of cholesterol and fat are unhealthy. Should we outlaw bacon? †(MLO) The thought is that instead we need to educate individuals and let people make their own decisions as we do with things like fatty foods, cigarettes and Alcohol. â€Å"A recent survey of research found that long term marijuana use did not have a significant effect on cognitive abilities. The report was published in the July 2003 Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. † This is also stated in the list of facts about marijuana on the Drug Policy Alliance Website. They state that, not only are there no long-term cognitive impairment but, â€Å"[m]arijuana has been proven helpful for treating the symptoms of a variety of medical conditions. † Medical marijuana has proven to be of significant relief for cancer, glaucoma, and aids patients as well as individuals that suffer from neurological disorders. While there are the medical reliefs from the use of Medical marijuana, but DPA also states that the substance has not shown cause of mental illness or to increase risk to cancer. The next claim is that Marijuana is a gateway drug. Webster defines a gateway drug to be â€Å"a drug (as alcohol or marijuana) whose use is thought to lead to the use of and dependence on a harder drug (as cocaine or heroin)†( http://www. merriam-webster. com/) â€Å"Some people claim that using marijuana will make you want to use other drugs, like heroin, cocaine, LSD, amphetamines, and ecstasy. They argue that marijuana acts as a stepping-stone, or a gateway, that leads people to harder drugs. They support their argument with statistics that show that most people who use hard drugs have tried marijuana before. † (MLO) â€Å"There is no conclusive evidence that the effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent use of other illicit drugs. Preliminary animal studies alleging that marijuana primed the brain for other drug-taking behavior have not been replicated, nor are they supported by epidemiological human data. Statistically, for every 104 Americans who have tried marijuana, there is only one regular user of cocaine, and less than one user of heroin. Marijuana is clearly a terminus rather than a gateway for the overwhelming majority of marijuana smokers. † (norml) MLO states â€Å"In essence, the link between marijuana and other illegal drugs stems from the fact that they are illegal. Because they are illegal, marijuana and other drugs are only available on the black market, and anyone who enters the drug market is likely to be exposed to more than one drug. The solution is simple: by legalizing and regulating marijuana sales, we will eliminate the connection to hard drugs. † (MLO) They use Holland as an example. â€Å"In Holland, where politicians decided over 25 years ago to separate marijuana from the illicit drug market by permitting coffee shops all over the country to sell small amounts of marijuana to adults, individuals use marijuana and other drugs at rates less than half of their American counterparts. † (norml. rg) The argument is that, if marijuana were not illegal it would not be a problem. The DPA website states that the majority of the individuals that use marijuana never even use any other illicit drugs. This statement disproves that common misconception about marijuana being a gateway drug. Finally my sources argue that keeping marijuana illegal it is costing more than necessary. MLO claims that â€Å"Cost of keeping marijuana illegal = cost of active law enforcement + cost of prosecution (and defense! of a ccused offenders + cost of incarceration of convicted offenders + hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that would be generated if drugs were legal and taxed + cost of foster care and social services for children of incarcerated offenders. † â€Å"Washington state would save about $105 million a year if marijuana were legally regulated, according to University of Washington Economics professor Dick Startz. † â€Å"The US Federal Government Spends More Than $12 Billion Per Year on Drug Control Programs. Federal drug control budgets do not separate spending by drug, so we there is not a precise figure available for the amount that is spent on marijuana alone. Also, these figures do not include any spending by state or local governments, which are likely to be substantial since state police, courts, and prisons are constantly busy dealing with marijuana offenses. † They also state that â€Å"US Marijuana Crop Estimated to Be Worth Over $35 Billion. A new statistical analysis indicates that marijuana is Americas most valuable cash crop. If these figures are even close to the truth, a logical system to regulate and tax marijuana would produce billions of dollars in revenue every year. † According to DPA, the fight that the United States is having against drugs in all is costing $51,000,000,000. They also stated that if California would profit annually an estimated $1,400,000,000 if marijuana were taxed and regulated. There are only two major solutions to this issue; to Legalize or not to legalize that is the question. Legalization could stand to earn the US economic growth but it could also lead to even more people using or abusing the substance. Keeping it illegal could have the government spending money that they don’t necessarily need to spend to regulate the use of this substance or this could be positive a by keeping individuals from abusing it. Only time will tell! Does anyone have any questions?

Your Argumentative Essay Topics For High School

Your Argumentative Essay Topics For High SchoolWriting an argumentative essay is a difficult thing to do, especially if you are a grade school, because you cannot expect to write your essay on the subject of your current year. It would be better to write an essay on the topic of the year before your current year of education. The reason for this is that the topic of your essay has to be relevant to the current year of your education.Of course, it is possible to adapt the topic of your essay to match the current year of your education. However, there is a great danger in doing so. If you adapt your topic from another year of your education, you may be surprised to find out how much that was considered as the right topic in that particular year of your education.For instance, if you were in sixth grade and were interested in applying to colleges or universities for college in the next academic year, you would have to think about how your essay would fit into the context of the current year. If you chose the right topic for the year before your sixth grade education, then the subject of your essay would probably not be covered by the topic of your sixth grade education. In this case, you would probably be asking yourself why did your college application material need to be in the same genre as the topic of your sixth grade education.Alternatively, if you are writing an essay on the topic of politics or American history, then the topics of your various essays will probably have to be different to make them relevant to the current year of your education. You may also consider having several different topics for each of your essays, so that you can cover each of them independently. This will ensure that each essay in turn can be examined separately, rather than being lumped together to make a unit.Before you begin writing your argumentative essay topics for high school, you should first have a clear idea of the subject matter of the topic you wish to cover. One of th e easiest ways to come up with the right topic is to ask yourself what you have learned throughout the years from the material you have read. What have you learned from reading this book, for example?If you have learned a lot of valuable information through this book, then you may want to use it to help shape the topic of your essay. It would also be best to use the book's material to help you in writing your essay topics for high school. If you haven't found the material particularly useful, then there is no point in using it.As you work to come up with your argumentative essay topics for high school, don't forget to take into account all the information that you have acquired during your schooling. If you had learnt something new through your coursework, don't forget to incorporate that into your topic. You can always consult with your teachers for additional information or tips.

Frankenstein Essays (522 words) - Frankenstein,

Frankenstein Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is filled with various underlying themes, the crux being the effect society has on The Creature's personality. These topics have been discussed and explored on countless occasions, and the novel has been compared with its contemporaries of the Romantic Age numerous times. However, if one were to correlate and contrast Shelly's masterpiece with another, the greatest work would be the creation story in Genesis. Victor and The Creature are obvious representations of God and Adam, and the events in the two accounts parallel and differ from each other in several ways. God breathed life into Adam and created him in his own image and likeness. He placed him in a utopia and gave him authority over everything. With this authority, Adam used his knowledge to distinguish right from wrong, and if he needed help, God was always there with his unconditional love. Victor, on the other hand, assembled body parts from different corpses and made a hideous monster in the heat of his madness. He left The Creature to fend for himself in a world full of ugliness, violence, and hate. There was no mutual feeling of love between Victor and his creation, only that of hate and fear. An all-powerful being who was perfect in every aspect created Adam. God saw that he was lonely and chose to make a mate for him to live with. When Adam sinned, he accepted his guilt, obeyed God, and left the garden. Though his own creation went against him, God loved Adam the whole time. A flawed mad man, whose intentions were only to satisfy himself, created The Creature. He demanded that his creator make a mate for him so he could have someone to share his love with. When Victor refused his request, The Creature swore vengeance, and hate was shared by both. One of the main similarities between Adam and The Creature is the fact that their creators went from one extreme to another at pivotal moments in the stories. Victor had compassion for The Creature as he listened to his story in the cave, and God became angry with Adam when he ate the forbidden fruit. Even though Adam broke the rules, God never stopped loving him. Victor hated The Creature throughout the book. Never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness(160). Although these two tales are different in numerous aspects, both have morals and lessons. Frankenstein teaches that man should not try to defy God, and that no one should be judged by their physical appearance. The creation story shows that man should respect his authorities. Victor, a flawed version of God, made the mistake of abandoning his son at birth, and continuing to shun him the rest of his life. The Creature was flawed, but not by his own fault. He was sent into an ugly world by himself, with no one to help him or teach him. Mary Shelley used a deep, gothic theme to get several different points across, and made it interesting by paralleling the main characters with the characters of a well- known story. Bibliography none English Essays

Building Tension Skills For Crafting Suspense In Your Story - Freewrite Store

Building Tension Skills For Crafting Suspense In Your Story - Freewrite Store Mastering your craft as a writer - especially as a fiction writer - can take years. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can be proactive in getting to grips with the skills and techniques you need to take your writing from mediocre to masterful. One of the most foundational skills you need to comprehend is that of creating tension (or suspense) in your stories. Why Suspense Matters Suspense is an essential ingredient in fiction. It’s what keeps your readers turning the page long after they’ve declared that they’ll ‘read just one more page before I put the light out’. Without tension and suspense, your story is flat and lifeless. When I first started out as a self-proclaimed fiction writer, I didn’t understand suspense at all. I thought that suspense fiction was a genre all of its own, and so I didn’t realize how important it was to my stories. Suspense matters. You can’t write a great story without it. Unfortunately, writing scenes full of suspense and tension can be tricky. You have to learn about the right balance (otherwise known as pacing) and understand the different techniques you can use to create tension. Authors who rely too much on just one or two tension-building techniques suffer from the unfortunate problem of creating ‘predictable tension’. You might get away with that in one book, but if you build a following of fans, you’ll soon find that they get wise to your predictable tension techniques, so your writing loses much of its suspense. You want to keep your readers gripped, which means you need a whole arsenal of tension techniques that you can mix up in your writing to avoid the death-knell of predictability. I’m going to teach you three essential suspense skills you need to write unputdownable fiction. #1. Create Crucial Conflict Conflict is one of the key ingredients of suspenseful writing. Conflict automatically creates tension in scenes, so naturally, it’s an author’s best friend. What makes conflict even more important is its versatility. There are different types of conflict too. For example: Character versus nature (e.g. when a character faces some kind of natural disaster) Character versus self (e.g. a character who has some kind of internal struggle to deal with) Character versus society (e.g. characters pitted against an oppressive government regime, or a character that’s part of a minority group who struggles with marginalization) Character versus character - relational type (e.g. unrequited love or some kind of drama within a family) Character versus character - hero/villain type (e.g. the traditional good-guy versus bad-guy situation) Character versus technology (e.g. science fiction scenarios where technology is the antagonist) Character versus the supernatural (e.g. scenarios where characters are faced with battles against prophecies about their own fate) As you can see from this list of conflict types, conflict in fiction is always rooted in characters - the conflict is between the character and something else. If you try to create conflict by any other means, your story will fall flat, unfortunately. At its heart, conflict is about something keeping your character(s) from their goals. That means that you need to know - and make clear to your readers - what your characters’ goals are. Without this fundamental first step, you can’t create the tension you need to create a gripping story. Spend some time brainstorming your character’s goals and the types of conflict that might keep them from achieving those goals. Pick two or three scenarios out of your brainstorming session and write a scene for each where your character is pitted against the literal or figurative nemesis to their goal. Creating conflict is a skill you need to practice until it becomes an automatic part of writing. Don’t just practice when you’re writing your novel, either. Honing your craft as a writer means spending time developing your skills before you sit down to write your masterpiece. Here’s some prompts you might want to try: Davy is about to leave the house and embark on a trip when an unexpected guest arrives†¦ Allison has planned the speech she’s going to make to break up with Drew, but then, just as she’s about to open her mouth, Drew gets down on one knee and proposes†¦ Craig has just accepted a place at CalTec when a news story breaks that threatens his entire future†¦ Becca is hiking in the mountains alone, trying to come to terms with something that’s happened, when a fierce storm unexpectedly hits. #2. Raise the Stakes You know your characters, you know their goals - but your goal as a writer is to keep your characters from achieving their goals (at least until you’re ready for the climax of your story). One thing that startled me when I started writing full time was how much I came to sympathize with my protagonists, so much so that I felt bad for pitting them against so many obstacles to keep them from their goals. You can’t afford to let sentimentality get in the way of your tension-creating skills. I learned that the hard way. One of the most effective ways of creating tension in your writing is to keep raising the stakes. This means that the more your characters fight against the things opposing their goals, the further away they seem from achieving their goals. There’s a range of ways you can raise the stakes in your novel - but before you get to writing your story for real, try practicing these different stake-raising techniques: The Ticking Clock Nothing raises the stakes more than a time limit. In practice, that means that you give your character a goal that has to be achieved in a certain time frame. The reason why the limit is there is up to you. When you use this technique, every time your character makes a failed attempt to overcome the obstacle in their way, the more aware the reader becomes of how little time is left. It keeps your readers gripped. The Fun-House Floor If you’ve never been in a fun-house, this won’t mean anything to you, so I’ll explain. In a fun-house there is often a section made up of platforms that move up and down and side to side, making it really difficult to cross to the other side. In fiction, the fun-house floor technique introduces change and uncertainty for your character, unbalancing them and making them (and your reader) wonder how to move forward. There’s plenty of things you can introduce to create uncertainty - the death of a loved one, the revelation of a secret, the loss of a job. The Shock Revelation To use this technique effectively, you need to understand foreshadowing (you can check out my guide to using foreshadowing if you want to brush up on those skills). Making a shock revelation is a great way of raising the stakes - as long as you ensure that it’s a revelation that in some way keeps your character from their goals. You can’t just dump a shock revelation into your story, however. It needs to be set up (using foreshadowing - but carefully) so that your readers get the ‘ah-ha’ moment. Chucking in a revelation that you haven’t hinted subtly at using foreshadowing isn’t going to make your readers happy. It can be a shock to your character, but your readers might already have their suspicions. Practicing Raising the Stakes Use these prompts to practice your stake-raising skills: Amelia’s nephew has gone missing while she was taking care of him, and his parents are due home in 36 hours†¦ The deadline is in three days... Juan has just 24 hours to gather evidence to prove that his partner is innocent of the murder†¦ Carrie receives an anonymous letter with the words â€Å"I know what you did† on it... Ethan’s secret is out†¦ Michael’s uncle dies suddenly†¦ Stefan has just paid the deposit on his condo when his boss fires him... #3. Partner Tension With Pacing When I realized that my fiction was missing tension, I kinda went to the extreme with it, and tried to throw tension into every scene, every conversation, every moment my characters took to think†¦ It wasn’t pretty. It was the precise opposite of pretty. When you’re working with tension and suspense, you need to have a balance. That’s where pacing comes in. Pacing gives your characters (and your readers) time to breathe between intense scenes filled with tension. You can’t have your character going from tension-filled-scene to tension-filled-scene without having some kind of ‘normality’ in-between. That’s not how real life works, and it doesn’t work in fiction, either. Understanding pacing creates a more realistic flow to your fiction, which is why it’s important you learn to pace your writing in parallel with tension. There are two types of pacing - fast pacing and slow pacing. Let’s take a look at them and see how you can partner pacing with tension for fabulous fiction. Fast Pacing Essentially, fast pacing is where most of your tension lives. These scenes carry urgency and spend less time on unnecessary details. When you’re writing these kinds of scenes, you want your writing to be punchy to reflect the pace. This is not the place for long descriptions or explanations. Fast pacing works by building tension to a crescendo. These are the scenes that will keep your reader urgently turning the pages to find out what happens. Slow Pacing To give your character a breather, slow pacing after a particularly tense scene works really well. Here’s where you can focus on the details, explore your character’s psyche and begin to build up towards the next tense scene. Slow pacing can be filled with emotion or packed with emotive and atmospheric details. You can still add tension in these slower scenes, but you’ll do it differently. In slow-paced scenes, you’re not using action to create tension, but rather focusing on building tension with atmospheric details. This works particularly well in thrillers or horror fiction, where things like the rustling of leaves or footsteps on the pavement can create suspense. Some slow-paced scenes are pretty identical to ordinary, non-tension-filled scenes, so if you can write an ordinary scene, then you can write one of these. Writing slow-paced atmospheric scenes with undercurrents of more gentle tension, however, take a bit more practice. Here are some prompts you can try out: Describe the shadows in the room The light flickers†¦ Phoenix is sitting in the basement. Describe the atmosphere†¦ Sam is taking a walk to clear his head. He heads into the forest, his favorite place in the world. Describe the sounds, smells, sights. Then, there’s the crack of a twig†¦ Making Tension Come Naturally You can’t write fiction without tension, so if writing is your passion, then you have to master the art of creating both fast-paced and slow-paced tension. For most people, this takes time and patience before you get it right - but once you do, you’ll find that it soon starts to come naturally, and you’ll find yourself putting just the right amount of tension into your scenes without having to consciously think about how you’re going to do it. The more you practice, the easier it becomes!