1. Sample Writing of Karen Mignano
Effectiveness of CCTV on “Street Robbery” as a Serious Crime
Abstract
Recent research has shown that the presence of CCTV in major cities provides law
enforcement with a crime fighting tool against serious crimes. Statisticians and critics
reviewed the effectiveness of CCTV and how much it contributed to the lowering of
crime rates in particular “street robbery”. Researcher’s have concluded that there is a
slight change in crime rates as it pertains to street robbery, but not enough to answer
the question; Does the presence of CCTV deter serious crime enough for it to justify the
it’s purpose. Using articles written by Criminologists, University Professor’s from both
the United States and the United Kingdom as well as Researcher’s from the Home
Office in London, England, in unison most of the conclusion is that CCTV does have a
place amongst us, but a quiet one.
Introduction
The purpose of my research is to bring attention to the effectiveness of CCTV on
“street robbery” while targeting the justification of continued expense in the pursuit of a
more effective surveillance system by asking, does the presence of CCTV/video
surveillance have an effect on serious crimes such as “street robbery” in the United
States and United Kingdom?
My research is conducted between two major cities. Manhattan, N.Y.,
and the other being London, England. There has been substantial research and
investment on the subject of CCTV in both countries, the question has been, does
CCTV warrant it’s presence. Studies’ in both countries show that CCTV is most affective
on some crimes such as car theft within a car park, with only a marginal difference in
street robbery. It is also the “single” most heavily funded non-criminal justice crime
prevention measure in Britain”. Brandon Welsh & David Farrington(2002). Evidence-
based Crime Prevention; The Effectiveness of CCTV.Crime Prevention and Community
Safety.6(2),2-15 The United States uses research from Britain to better assess does

2. Sample Writing of Karen Mignano
CCTV have an affect on serious crimes. Britain as in the United States believe that
there is a place for CCTV in crime prevention, not as a stand alone cure-all but as a
crime fighting tool. “I see CCTV as an important tool in the Government’s crime-
fighting ....
Book Review
The Trial of Leonard Peltier
(A Man Held Against His Will)
By
Karen Mignano

3. Sample Writing of Karen Mignano
Title: The Trial of Leonard Peltier
Author: Jim Messerschmidt
Foreward: William Kunstler
Publisher: South End Press
Released: 1983
Price: U.S. $16.00
Number of Pages: 196
Non-Fiction True Account
Quote: If a law is old enough and is violated consistently enough, it no longer retains
force and validity. The Trial of Leonard Peltier, pg.. Xiv
Jim Messerschmidt, a University Professor at the University of Southern Maine, wrote of
the account of an interaction between two FBI agents and several Native Americans on
the Lakota Reservation in Pine Ridge Dakota Reservation, 1975, and what eventually
turned into a shoot out of innocent Native Americans caught in the cross fire of the
wrath of the FBI. Messerschmidt’s 196 page account became a subject for bias and
racial discrimination of the Native American. Messerschmidt is commended for writing
“not a book but a comprehensive analysis of the FBI, reservation life and the encounter
which became a shoot-out, accounts of Indian life days before, during the trail and
after.”
Background
The Pine Ridge Reservation is the eighth largest reservation in the territory
(USA), but the poorest. Statistics on economy read that unemployment is 80% to 85%
and 49% live below the federal level(2002). Many families have no electricity, telephone
or running water, no sewage systems either. Life expectancy is approximately 47 years
for males and 52 for females in the 20th century. Infant mortality is five times the U.S.
national average. Current reservation population, 28,787. There is little economic
development on the reservation, no banks , no stores. The only relieve from economic

4. Sample Writing of Karen Mignano
strain is a casino, The Prairie Wind Casino, which started business after the Wounded
Knee incident in 1978. It’s proceeds aid in welfare and provide 250 jobs for the
reservation’s over 28,000 residents. Murder rates were high, alcoholism as well which
gave the “FBI goon squads” cause for frequent visits.
The Camp of the Nomos
“A society’s threshold of biological modernity is situated at the point at which the species
and the individual as a simple living body become what is at stake in a society’s political
strategies”. Michel Foucault.
Each male was given less than one hundred and sixty acres of tillable land when
the treaty was first written in 1868. Male consent to transfer land was not a tribal
agreement, it was a stipulation that Washington, DC made. Leonard’s role as a Lakota
male was to secure the land-base.....