Commercial Sex, Prostitution - Essay Example

? Social work Social Work Question 2-Liberal and Conservative Approaches There are various approaches that can be employed in the field of social work. Of the approaches, the most common perspectives include the conservative, as well as the liberal approach. Based on the conservative approach, there is advocacy for the provision of welfare services to people who are not in a position to provide for their needs. According to conservatives, there is no need to support programs that advocate for people’s entitlement to some basic needs, especially with regard to the provision of welfare to people who can provide for themselves. This implies that this approach only advocates for the rights of vulnerable groups in society such as the poor, disabled, homeless, as well as disadvantaged groups that may not have the necessary mechanisms to advocate for their rights (Jansson, 2012). The liberal approach to the provision of social services advocates for universal rights to all citizens without favoring some groups at the expense of others. The liberal approach tends to support the provision of basic services to all citizens and not a selected few. This implies means that this approach reaches out to everyone with the ultimate aim of ensuring that people are accorded universal rights. An example of a program based on the liberal approach is the social security program, which aims at ensuring that all citizens have equal access to retirement benefits. The difference between the two approaches is that while one advocates for the provision of services to the disadvantaged, the other advocates for the provision of services to all, regardless of the status one holds in society (Jansson, 2012). The current federal administration employs the liberal approach in the provision of social welfare services to the United States citizens. This emanates from the fact that the provision of social services in the United States aims at ensuring that all citizens are accorded equal rights. The government has set up measures to ensure that public policies, programs, and services are in favor of all citizens. Consequently, the rich, poor, as well as the middle class benefits from the social welfare services provided by the government (Dogan, 2011). An example of a social welfare program that illustrates both approaches is the healthcare policy. Over time, the United States has engaged in the provision of this service to all the citizens with an aim of benefitting the entire population. Medical services have been subsidized, and healthcare fees reduced in order to ensure that all citizens have access to health services. For a long time, the Medicaid and Medicare policies have aimed at helping the poor and unemployed access medical services. This falls under the conservative approach. At the same time, health has been classified as a universal right of all American citizens. As such, all citizens of the United States (inclusive of the poor and the rich) have benefitted from this social policy. This can be said to fall under the liberal approach. In this regard, therefore, it can be concluded that healthcare policies in the United States fall under both the liberal and conservative approaches. Question 3-Elizabethan poor laws The Elizabethan poor laws outlined a series of measures that discussed how assistance should be provided to the poor in the society. The society in Elizabethan was transforming rapidly, and the number person living in extreme poverty was increasing. This led to the introduction of a number of laws by the English Parliament in 1563, 1572, 1576, 1597, which finally resulted to the 1601 poor law. Over this period, opinions regarding the poor were changing significantly beginning with a harsh position towards the poor but later turned to a more compassionate attitude. The rising level of poverty in Elizabethan England was as a result of number reasons, some dating back to the era before Queen Elizabeth (Slack, 1995). The contributing factors to the high level of poverty included the breakdown of Feudal system, dissolution of the monasteries, which was initiated by King Henry VIII. This move left Monks and Nuns homeless and needy people without places for refuge. The other factor that contributed to the high level of poverty was the change in religion, which caused a decline in values and morals. Before the transformations in religion, Christians were guided by principles of feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoners, giving water to the thirsty, and burying the dead. The other factor was land closure to allow for the rearing of sheep instead of the traditional peasant farming. This forced many people to migrate to towns in search of jobs, and eventually there was a drastic shortage in food production (Wagner, 2005). The poor law-1552 Act The severity of poverty in Elizabethan required urgent attention. This led to the passing of the 1552 Act with an aim of identifying the number of poor people in each Parish register. This process was to ted the smallest unit within a church organization. With a total of 15,000 parishes in England and Wales, each parish had a church and a clergyman. Parliament proposed that each parish should have two collectors of alms to help the churchwardens Sunday services. After the collections, the alms collectors shared the money to the poor registered within the parish (Wagner, 2005). The poor law 1563 Act The passing of the 1563 Act through parliament was as a result of a threat to civil disorder. Under this Act, poor people were a group in order to know the kind support that they might receive. The identified groups were the “deserving poor”, and this category comprised of the old, young, and poor who needed support. The support was provided through outdoor relief inform of food, clothing or money. The second category comprised of the “deserving unemployed”, which was a group made of people who were willing and able to work, but were unemployed. People under this category were given indoor relief through care in almshouses, workhouses, and orphanages. Under the same category, the sick received care in hospitals, and the young received apprenticeships. The third category comprised of the “undeserving poor” who were people turned into a criminal life or that of beggars (Slack, 1995). The poor law 1572 Act In 1572, there was the introduction of the first poor law tax that was compulsory and imposed at a local level which made the fight against poverty a local duty. Each parish had a responsibility of providing for the poor, aged, and sick people. The responsibility of collecting the tax was assigned to the justice of peace in each parish. The tax was referred to as the poor rate and collections were made weekly. The collections were for the deserving poor and people who refused to pay were imprisoned (Hindle, 2004). The poor law 1576 Act The 1576 Act demanded that each town was to provide work for the unemployed, establish a poorhouse, and houses for correction of beggars and vagrants. There was also a requirement for the towns to provide raw materials such as wool and the poor to provide labor. The poor law 1597 Act The introduction of the 1597 Act was influenced by the poor harvest of the 1590’s, which impacted negatively on the economy. The law required the justices of peace to collect additional compulsory funds. The new law also created a new position of overseer of the poor who collected poor rates from property owners, calculated the amount of poor rated need by the parish, and supervised the parish poorhouse. The other role was to distribute food, clothes or money to the needy. Importance of the Elizabethan poor laws in the development of social work in the US The Elizabethan poor laws contributed immensely in the development of social work in the US. The establishment of a clearly explained government responsibility for the provision of assistance to the needy is purely associated with the Elizabethan law of 1601. To put this into perspective, the statute of Elizabeth 43 signifies the height of a two century process of England’s continuous efforts to control aid to the needy. It first started with repressive measures, which were followed by the establishment of positive obligations. The positive move entailed a process in which parishes issued locally collected tax funds that were meant to offer direct funds to the unemployed, apprenticeship for deserving children, and work for those who could work. These aspects of the Elizabethan poor laws remained the source for American provision to the needy for over 300 years and remain to have significant influence. In America, the social security Act stands out as a clear example of social welfare system, which borrowed heavily from the Elizabethan poor laws. The Act established a federal social insurance system for the unemployed, disabled, and the aged. In addition, it had a provision for a state federal public assistance that catered for dependent children, disabled people, and needy elderly. The Act also developed a system of federal grants for states in similar social work (Hindle, 2004). Evolution of indoor and outdoor relief in the US The use of outdoor relief had begun way before the introduction of indoor strategy. Through the outdoor relief needy, people were required to seek assistance from local officials who had the duty of overseeing the poor. The local officials used the collected tax money to provide needy people with clothing, food, and medical care. However, need to improve the care of the poor pushed for the established of indoor relief approach as institutions of reform. This advancement took place during the engineering age, and after identifying the problem, human analytical skills were applied in fixing the problem. The analysis of the problem was mainly done through government commissions such as the Quincy commission in Massachusetts and Yates commission, in New York. After looking into the problem and listening to sufficient testimonies, the commissions came to one conclusion; the outdoor reliefs had ruined the poor (Lindert, 2004). Question 4-The progressive era The progressive era was a period in the history of the USA that saw purification of the government as well as other social, political and economic reforms. Progressivism was used to refer to the responses that accompanied the challenges that came with the rapid industrialization and urbanization. The era saw several social welfare challenges that faced most people in the USA. During the progressive era, one of the major social welfare problems included the role of women in society, as well provision of equal rights to women (Jaycox, 2005). Role of women in the society during progressive era The progressive period came at a time when women in the USA had been educated in the new women’s colleges, which had sprung all over the country during the second half of the 19th century. These women had the necessary education, but they could hardly be allowed into any profession. Most of the professions during this period could be seen to bar women. These started a series of public associations that they used as a way of remaining active in the public life. The central aim of these associations was to reduce the male dominance in the running of public issues. They also sought to protect the rights of the female workers in the garment factories who were exploited by the factories’ owners (Piott, 2011). The temperance Union was one of the associations built by women during the progressive period. This association sought to protect female workers who could get exploited by their male colleagues. It also educated women on ‘proper’ ways of life (Piott, 2011). The union stressed more on helping those women who were working as prostitutes. The female reformers hoped to help women to have a role in the society. They felt that the present society was diminishing women and looking at them as second to men. Relating to the modern days’ role of women The progressive women had limited the capabilities women were empowered with. Women could not be allowed to actively take part in matters that affected the society as a whole. This can be seen to be very different from the modern day world. In the modern era, women have been empowered the most since civilization of man. Their roles have been clearly stipulated. The issue of gender equality has been addressed with women getting equal rights as their male colleagues. The modern society can be said to have made tremendous efforts to address the issue of the role of women in the society (Jaycox, 2005). Many people in the modern society have started appreciating those women deserve equal rights as men in the society. The issue of commercial sex work in the society is, however, still rampant in the modern world. The issue has seen varied opinion from different groups. Although religion has always been against it, prostitution is still there in the society. Women organizations can also be seen to be championing for the rights of women just as it was the case during the progressive period. The only difference is that the modern women organizations have diversified their activities. References Dogan, N. (2011). Pragmatic Liberal Approach to World Order: The Scholarship of Inis L. Claude, Jr. New YorK: Univ Pr of Amer. Hindle, S. (2004). On the Parish?: The Micro-Politics of Poor Relief in Rural England C.1550-1750. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Jansson, B.S. (2012). The reluctant welfare state: Engaging history to advance social work practice in contemporary society. 6th Ed. Belmont,CA:Thomson.Brooks/Cole. Jaycox, F. (2005). The progressive era. New York: Facts on file. Lindert, P. H. (2004). Growing Public: Volume 1, The Story: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Piott, S. L. (2011). Daily life in the progressive era. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood. Slack, P. (1995). The English Poor Law, 1531-1782. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wagner, D. (2005). The Poorhouse: America's Forgotten Institution. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Read More