The Probable Efficacy of Alternatives to Incarceration Research Paper

The Probable Efficacy of Alternatives to Incarceration - Research Paper Example 1). So the criminal justice system is looking into the efficacy of many alternatives to incarceration like intensive supervision, boot camps and electronic monitoring/house arrest, which offer many advantages in terms of cost reduction, social relevance and the feasibility of a meaningful and effective rehabilitation. The Probable Efficacy of Alternatives to Incarceration Introduction Any sane and sustainable from of sentencing ought to be pragmatic, result oriented and financially viable, while confirming to the moral, ethical and social objectives inherent in it. Since times immemorial, civilizations have resorted to opting for incarceration as a regular mode of restraining and punishing their criminals and offenders. However, a more realistic approach towards this issue does not validate the fact that all the offenders deserve to be rigorously incarcerated, nor incarceration is the only possible method of achieving all the objectives ascribed to it (Bailey, 2003). In the criminal justice systems around the world, incarceration serves varied and multiple purposes. Incarceration is resorted to, to keep the individuals suspected of having committed some crime under a secure control, till their innocence or guilt is validated by a court of law. Incarceration is also used to penalize offenders found guilty of having committed a crime by depriving them of their freedom and liberty. Jail terms are also used to prevent chronic criminals from further committing a crime, until they get appropriately rehabilitated. To put it simply, the objective of incarceration is to allow the state to have a control over the factors that lead to crime, to protect the society at large from the offenders considered willing to and capable of indulging in further crimes and to rehabilitate the offenders, if possible (Bailey, 2003). A more versatile and creative approach towards these objectives do corroborates to the conclusion that many of them could be achieved by resorting to varied alternatives to incarceration like intensive supervision, boot camps, electronic monitoring and house arrest. Merits of Resorting to other Alternatives Necessity is the mother of invention. Hitherto, the criminal justice system has been opting for a one size fit all approach towards sentencing, being somewhat oblivious of the problems it would have created for law enforcement mechanisms. However, with the dawn of an era where the penitentiaries are fast getting overcrowded, the budgets ascribed to criminal justice systems are more than ever under diverse pressures and a relative humanization of the ethical, social and legal approaches towards sentencing, the criminal justice system is awakening to the fact that many available alternatives to incarceration could successfully serve the vouched objectives, while facilitating varied advantages (Diiulio Jr, 1991, p. 7). The criminal justice system is fast recognizing the fact that the homogenization and generalization of sentencing has g iven way to many problems and has divested it of varied other sentencing options like intensive supervision, boot camps and electronic monitoring/house arrest, which extend much scope for sentence customization. These alternatives arm the courts with much choice and multiple options. They allow the courts to opt for economically viable sentences, while ascribing the penalty in consonance with the gravity of offence of an offender (Diiulio Jr, 1991). Not to mention that varied

Literature Review of Value at Risk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Literature Review of Value at Risk - Essay Example Modern financial institutions are careful to estimate the risk in relation to the magnitude of the asset and are careful to assess the levels of risk apparent from the credit quality of the company and the risk caused by the particular product. ( Hsaio 2008) . Modern Credit Risks are no longer defined by outright exposure and are currently calculated by a popular method of the Value at Risk (VaR)This method estimates the maximum amount of loss possible in a portfolio subject to certain periodic intervals and has its advantage of being comparative in nature, i.e it will allow the financial institutions in question to allocate capital more efficiently.(Chance 1979).These methods employ the risk level models of capital , which are used to estimate the profitability of capital, like the risk-adjusted capital (RORAC) or risk-adjusted return on capital (RAROC) and such models today play a pivotal rile in the management of risks inherent in the management of financial institutions. In credit risk calculation VaR or Value at risk is a single numerical estimate which is an indicator of the possible maximum loss of a portfolio over a given time horizon at a certain confidence level.This methodology developed as a response to the financial disasters in the decade of the 1990s and have obtained an increasingly important role in risk management (market, credit and operational).The attraction of using VaR for credit risk assessment thus lies in the fact that it is able to provide a single quantity that states the overall market risks faced by an institution. The criticisms have however stemmed from a recognized lack of coherence in the VaR methods and its failure to account for losses beyond a certain level and does not give due credit to the advantages of diversification by not taking into account sub-additivity. Various VaR models currently dominate the literature.These include the historical or (empirical) approach (see Van Der Vaart 1998),the Gaussian approach, the extreme value theory approach (which through the block maxima method (BMM) and the peak over threshold (POT), focuses on variables above a given threshold Also relevant here are the interest rate risks which are related to the relative value of an interest-bearing asset diminishing due to a rise in the interest rate. It can be calculated by a variety of ways to give an estimate as to how changing interest rates are impacting upon a bank's portfolioThese include the "market value of portfolio equity" method which uses market value of the assets,analysis of the shifts within the Yield curve ,the Value at Risk method, and measuring irregularities within the interest sensitivity gap of assets and liabilities. (Bower 1984). There are many main models for measuring credit risk and differ by the period at which they were used .Value at Risk (VaR) is one of the most modern methods of measuring credit rate risk and is an integral part of the modern market risk measurement framework and it aims at expressing the total market risk as a single number, i.e. to summarize the expected maximum loss over a target horizon within a given confidence interval.