Security or electronic concentration camp? Persons` identification techniques, errors, consequences
©2014
Textbook
84 Pages
Summary
The research analyses the following problems: Decision and risk at immigration service (police) work, remote identification, biometrical systems and identification, probability of identification errors and their consequences, identification algorithms and their implementation, morphological analysis for decision making, practical experiments. <br>Research novelty: the research links up probability, risk theories with their practical application at immigration service work;<br>Tasks of the research:<br>1) To find out risk factors;<br>2) to analyse risk impact on decision making;<br>3) to define risk diminishing factors;<br>4) to put into practice risk diminishing factors.<br>Research methods:<br>The theoretical ones: To analyse references and service documentation;<br>The practical ones: Observation, surveys, experiments, analysis.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
8
PREFACE
Research novelty: the research links up probability, risk theories with their practical
application at immigration service work;
Aim of the research: to find out risk diminishing factors taking a decision at
immigration service work;
Object of the research: immigration service;
Subject of the research: risk diminishing factors;
Base of the research: immigration service officials;
Tasks of the research:
1) to find out risk factors;
2) to analyse risk impact on decision making;
3) to define risk diminishing factors;
4) to put into practice risk diminishing factors.
Research methods:
The theoretical ones: to analyse references and service documentation;
The practical ones: observation, surveys, experiments, analysis.
Questions of the research:
1) What is decision?
2) What can influence decision taking?
3) Which is the best decision?
4) Which are the reasons and consequences of incorrect decision?
Theoretical model and references used:
Juridical, mathematical, technical references were used including: books on probability,
risk, and decision taking theories, systemization and logic.
Hypothesis of the research:
Systematization of actions may reduce the probability to take incorrect decisions at
immigration service work.
9
CHAPTER 1
Each decision deliberately taken is always a choice from variety of possible decisions.
Each decision, in its turn, brings consequences: positive or negative. If these
consequences are known in advance, the tactic is very simple --
to choose
the decision
which will lead to the targeted results or consequences. Unfortunately, it is not always
possible to predict consequences of the decision taken.
According to the
decision theory, various options we choose are called alternatives. So, if the decision "A
is better than
B,
and
B is
better than C, then logically that "A is better than C" (33, 13).
These
alternatives
may also be expressed by numbers or by words
,
such as if we ,,
assign to
A the
value 15, to
B the
value 13 and to C the value 7" and since "A has a
higher number than either
B or
C,
A
should be chosen." (33, 13)
.
Even if the best decision has been taken, it can be hard to prove or express in numbers
its quality or value. For example the expression "A is better that
B"
is "binary relation"
(33, 14) because it is impossible to define how much A is better then B? Another good
example could be "a cup of coffee and sugar
".
For example there are 1000 cups of
coffee where "C0 cup has no sugar, C1 one grain of sugar, up to C999
!
" (
33
, 19) A
man drinking coffee from both cups C0
,
C1 ,,can not taste the difference" (33,19) in
one granule and the coffee in both cups will taste for him as without sugar. The
opposite situation will occur when comparing coffee from cups C0, C1 with the cup
C999. In the latter case Hoffman will be able to feel the sugars and "clearly taste the
difference" (33, 19). Clearly there exists some sensitivity threshold -
Cx
which depends
on the number of sugar granules. If there
are
less than x sugar granules in the
cup
the
person will not distinguish its presence and will consider such coffee without any sugar
and vice versa. The threshold may vary for different people and even sometimes does
not exist at all when, for example, one is ill with agnosia an illness characterized with
the loss of taste functions of the tongue, or "inability to taste." (44, 368)
. When for
example, we say to our child "the weather today was better than yesterday and you may
leave umbrella at home" it is not necessary to compare physical qualities of cyclone like
wind speed, pressure, moisture. In our daily life we can evaluate many things
approximately and it is enough to understand each other without any numbers or
formulas, but there are cases when precise data is essential. No one would argue that
precise data is the basis of such sciences as mathematics, physics, mechanics, but what
10
about jurisdiction? How to define in which indices it is possible to measure the good or
bad decision?
Each decision depends on some conditions, for example there are two alternatives for a
man: to take or not take an umbrella before leaving home? Here the main condition on
which the decision taking will depend is if it "rains or it does not rain." (
33
, 25) Rain is
here risk factor. After having taken the decision one may predict and expect possible
outcomes or consequences of this decision, for example, if an official takes the decision
he too must predict possible risks, choose an appropriate decision and after all taking
responsibility for it. Let us try to measure decisions and their outcomes on the example
of "umbrella and rain." (
33
, 25) So, if someone has taken an umbrella with him, but the
rain will not pour that day, in turns out that there is no rain but his suitcase is heavier.
And
opposite, if someone has not taken an umbrella but there is a heavy downpour his
suitcase is lighter but he will be totally wet. One can conclude that the ideal opportunity
for such person would be an easy suitcase and no rain! Let us describe all possible
decisions and their outcomes in the following table which in scientific slang is called
"decision matrix." (33, 25)
Table No.1.1. Possible outcomes in situation "to take or not to take an umbrella"
(33, 25)
it rains
it does not rain
umbrella
dry clothes, heavy suitcase dry clothes, heavy suitcase
no
umbrella
soaked clothes, light
suitcase
dry clothes, light suitcase
Then let us "value" (33, 26) these outcomes in the scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is the
best and most suitable, desirable outcome. As it has been written before the best
opportunity for a person, especially a woman, is to go out in a sunny morning without
an umbrella and therefore let us mark this opportunity with 10 and, on the contrary, no
one would like to be under a heavy downpour without an umbrella. (See the following
table)
11
Table No.1.2. possible outcomes in situation "to take or not to take an umbrella"
expressed with numbers in 10 point value scale. (33, 26)
it rains
it does not rain
umbrella 5
5
no umbrella
1
10
* the values in the table are introduced by the author
In the example of rain and umbrella it was possible, at least approximately, to define
outcomes and even to determine their probability, but there exist decisions where one
will not be able to predict their outcomes and therefore they are called decisions under
"non-certainty." (
33
, 26) Each event, according to the probability theory may occur with
probability from zero to one or in other words from 0% to 100%. In the example of
"rain and umbrella" it is acceptable to define possible outcomes and their probability. In
our case the probability of being wet or dry will greatly depend on wind, moisture in the
atmosphere and if one wishes one can find out quite accurate weather forecast in his
region for a particular time. The fact is that there are decisions which may cause
unpredictable outcomes like
:
will my deposit bring profit or loss in two years; will the
sportsman win or lose competition, etc.
An official must always try to foresee possible outcomes of his decision because on this
will depend someone's health and sometimes even life. If all possible outcomes of a
decision were evident the problem could be
solved easily-choose
the decision which
will be correct, suitable, profitable, but unfortunately or fortunately there are also
decisions which will be taken under non-certainty, then the law may sound as follows:
the more one knows or the more information one possess on the object, the better one
can predict its future behavior. In our daily language we usually describe the probability
of some event with ordinary words and phrases like
:
certainly, unlikely, sure. (See the
next table)
12
Table No.1.3. Scale of knowledge situations and decision problems (33, 28).
certainty
deterministic knowledge
risk
complete probabilistic knowledge
uncertainty
partial probabilistic knowledge
ignorance
no probabilistic knowledge
If someone is certain of something that means that he possesses exhaustive information
on something and due to it he is able to predict its future behavior with the highest
possible degree. For example, rocket designers and engineers know their constructed
objects or systems almost in detail and it is compulsory in order to be convinced that
during the real flight the object will function according to the calculated characteristics.
Otherwise, the less one knows about an object
the worse
will be one's prediction degree.
The ability to predict is necessary not only for engineers, but also for officials. For a
policeman it is important to know if a detainee will assail or not, will he escape or not,
will he submit or not, etc. If one could certainly predict the above-mentioned problems
they would be solved simply: it is compulsory to put handcuff-because the detainee will
assail, it is compulsory to put him behind the bars-because he will escape, but due to the
lack of information about the detainee one can never certainly predict his future
behavior. Though one hundred percent probability degree is a theoretical value, some
events are predictable to the degree close to 100% and due to such a high number they
may be considered certain in occurrence.
From author's point of view, probability degree is conditional value because each
seemingly inevitable event may not happen due to the possible but. For example, if one
throws a stone-it will definitely land, but only if Earth's gravity does not diminish, if
there is no atomic blast at the moment of the up-throw, etc. Evidently these but will
13
never be taken into calculation of many formulas, like path of projectile, but
nevertheless their possible appearance and influence will make the formula absurd.
Our human language, mathematics is incapable of explaining some natural events. For
example, "
an
event with probability of 0,000001 (one chance in a million) is a rather an
unlikely event" (19, 14), but from psychological point of view, people dealing with the
event which appears with probability of 0,000001 will be so accustomed to its absence
that will eventually qualify it as impossible. Furthermore, humankind helplessly
struggles to describe events in the grand scheme of things, where due to universal
domains "distinctions of any kind become impossible." (
16
, 99) But nevertheless being
curious by nature, humans try to use available, restricted methods of their imperfect
science to explore a boundless and perfect universe.
Let us return to the earth, in order to exclude risks from assault the law allows
policemen to use handcuffs and other special means. In case of need a policeman will
choose from two possible options: to put or not
to
put handcuffs. Here, decision taking
process is fast and almost entirely depends on detainee's behavior and health condition.
A
process of decision taking may extend and become far more complicated in the cases
when a number of detainees
increase
, if they are in different places, they have
committed various crimes, they are speaking different languages. In such complicated
condition sophisticated computer based systems, particularly "decision-making
program" (35, 179) may be effectively applied. There exist various systems of that kind,
but if an official is a manager he can choose "information reporting system,
decision
support system and executive information systems" to "facilitate
rapid
and effective
decision making," (18, 291) The above-mentioned systems differ in amount of data
stored, their aim, but the common feature is that they process
information,
then
provide
answers. Main function of decision systems may be expressed in the chain "if-then": if
you do this, then the consequences will be these." The application of decision-making
systems is preferable in the cases when there is a lot of data which must be processed
quickly, but accurately. For example, some law enforcement institutions in the USA
apply "computer-aided dispatch systems or CAD" (43, 74) to provide effective
management of victim-police chain. The role of CAD system is so great that it is even
"in the core of police departments` decision support process!" (43, 74)
14
SUBCHAPTER 1.1
Decision is "usually understood
to be
synonymous with choice" (13, 1), but sometimes
it may be dangerous to choose. At his work an official also has to choose one alternative
among others which in the end will be his decision he will be responsible for. American
scientist Bruce F. Baird writes that every decision taken may influence taker's
"reputation" far in the future. (
12
, 5) As it has been written in the previous part, more
often one has to take decision under uncertainty where one can not absolutely predict its
outcomes, but nevertheless one has to work and take decisions. In order to organize this
process, not only computer software, but morphological analysis is used as well.
Let us take a look at decision making from the standpoint of combinatorial analysis. For
example, a manager has to divide three prizes: award, appreciation, cash bonus
among
his 6 juniors. According to the "permutation" it can be done in 6*5*
4=120
different
combinations! (
42
, 2) More likely that an ordinary manager due to the overload, lack of
time or simply idleness, does
not consider
even the tenth part of these combinations, but
rather
keeps
in mind his best subordinates and
distributes
the prizes according to their
merits. In the above-mentioned problem a manager may calculate all possible variations
or choose several ones, but in the end particular decision must be taken and it will be
judged by its consequences or "
final result
"
(12, 14).
The above-mentioned example of distributing prize is an illustrative one because in
practice it is difficult to imagine a manager considering all 120 variations according to
the combinatorial theory.
Finally
there may be and there are real situations when
manager has to find and
analyse
all possible variations seriously.
How can an ordinary manager consider all variations or how he can orient himself in the
sea of numbers and permutations when combinatorial theory and math
may have been
forgotten
by him since school times? One of
the ways in which
to expose
variations
luminously is
decision tree. (See
the next figure) In it one can see all possible actions
relating
to the particular decision, let us
analyse
official's decision-to detain a foreigner.
15
Figure No. 1.1.1. Decision tree
* the tree designed by the author
The above-exposed decision tree is in shortcut form because the rightmost decision to
"detain" is not the final one and decision chain could have been continued with the
following, sequential actions: to frisk person, his belongings-write protocol-inform
authorities-to put into detention facilities... The tree is an illustrated summary of
possible officials' actions and is very convenient from pedagogical point of view. If the
tree is considered from probability theory's point of view, it may look like as follows:
Stateless
person
Detained
suspect
without any
documents
can be
foreigner
Third
country
EU citizen
can be
non-
foreigner
citizen
Non-
citizen
Asylum
Alternative
status
Asylum in
Asylum in 3-
Detain up to 10 days.
Detain up to 3 hours.
Detain up to 3 hours.
Detain up to 10 days
Detain up to 7 days
Detain up to 7days
Detain up to 3 hours
Detain up to 10 days
16
Figure No. 1.1.2. Decision tree and probability theory
* The tree designed by the author
This tree is equivalent to the previous one except for the number of probability degree
inside its boxes. Each box represents an approximate probability of the action which the
author drew from his own statistic data. So, with the probability of 70% the detained
suspect without any travel documents will be a foreigner, with the same probability he
will be the third country national and finally according to the immigration law he will
be almost certainly detained up to 10 days (90%), but if he has relatives in the country
or is very ill, detention can be replaced with the regular
checking
at the police office
(10%). The chain of actions (marked with green) will occur more often in immigration
policeman's work and one may even predict that the suspect without any travel
document will be the third country national who will be detained for certain.
Decision
tree is a convenient way of graphical summarization of laws, operating
instructions because on the page one can see permitted actions, their probability and
finally it discharges user from reading the original text. The last circumstance is very
essential in society where people read less and less and therefore their reading skills
decrease from generation to generation. Reading is not only a pronunciation of words,
but acquisition of visual information from the page and its "comprehension" (58, 23)
Contemporary generation generally became used to the information such as
advertisement, short, adopted texts. Characteristic property of adapted materials is that it
2%
Detained
suspect
70%
70%
26%
28%
50%
50%
2%
2%
90%
10%
90%
90%
90%
90%
90%
90%
90%
90%
17
is deliberately designed to "catch the reader's attention." (
57
, 113) It is possible to
arrange actions not only on the paper, but in the software too. The software is
convenient if:
x one needs to find out all possible actions immediately.
One of the software composing decision trees is "
SAS
Enterprise
Miner
" or Statistical
Analysis System
".
(37) As some contemporary
software
, it has auxiliary functions
including drawing decision trees of various degrees and complexity. In other words,
SAS is
an electronic decision tree, but additionally each decision tree's operational
mode contains "if-then" development.
(14, 265)
SUBCHAPTER 1.2
In order to calculate
the risk
factors decision taker needs two things: "
a
probability
estimate and a consequence/impact estimate." (
26
, 73) Probability degree may be
represented by numbers from 0- the event will never happen, to 1- the event will happen
with
probability 100%. Possible consequence, or better to say, impact is also expressed
with numbers from 0 to 1. In order to assess risk
one needs
to correlate both probability
and impact/damage and there is
the formula
for this purpose: "
event probability x
probability
of damage."
(
4
, 45) For example, the door is created to enter and leave the
flat and if someone nevertheless decides to go out through the window of the third floor
the probability that he will fall down is one and damage caused by falling down could
be
serious- 0,8
. According to the above-mentioned formula, the risk of going out
through the window here is 1 x 0,8 = 0,8 or 80%. If
a hundred
percent is the highest
possible number of risk, then 80% is sufficient reason to use the door for this purpose.
Damage's
evaluation with numbers is a convenient and accurate method to compare
risks because in
a
daily work, the
officials
are not supposed to calculate risk at the
regular basis and usually they compare risk intuitively or approximately. Wordy risk
assessments do not contain precise data therefore the latter one is substituted by
standard phrases like "drastic consequences,"
"
high
risk
",
"
may
endanger security" and
often such assessments are accepted as admissible in official reports when in practice
there is "no possibility of calculating probability or determining
real impact
without
using data." (
32
, 86) Though a wordy risk assessment is an inaccurate and general one,
nevertheless,
it may remain the only possible and accessible humanly transparent
18
method for those who do not know math. Risk assessment formula can be widely used
for different situations. In the table below
,
using
risk
assessment formula, one can see
a
probable impact
for an official in a particular situation.
Table No.1.2.1. Risk assessments for an official missing his job and risk
assessments when he does not explain a detainee his rights.
Official's
violation
probability
of
particular
consequence
(in words)
probability
of
particular
consequence
( 0-1)
damage
brought by
particular
consequence
(in words)
damage
brought by
particular
consequence
( 0-1)
Risk
assessment
=
risk
probability x
damage x 100
To be late
for job for
2 minutes
minimal 0,1
minimal 0,1
1%
Not to
come to
the job
high 0,95 considerable
0,6 57%
Not to
explain to
the
detained
foreigner
his rights
high
0,8 notable
0,9 72%
* the table designed by the author
For example, if an official misses job for two minutes the consequences of this violation
are not expected to be severe and there is a minimal probability that his chief will notice
it. In excuse of his delay the employee may provide the proof that the time on his and
chief's clock may differ for several minutes.
Then let us mark
the probability
that the
chief will notice official's delay as 0,1 or 10% and possible damage- reproof from the
chief also as 0,1 and according to the formula, risk level
is here
0,01 or
1%.
And
19
otherwise, absence from work without reasonable excuses will be definitely noticed by
the chief and he
will therefore
punish his subordinate severely. "The probability of an
event is equal to the sum of probabilities of its component outcomes." (
8
, 13) And it
can be scored by formula: P (A) = m occurrence of the particular event / n summary
of all events occurred or P (A) =m/n.
And
possible damage of an event may be defined
arbitrary in the range from 0 to 1.
As a result there will appear quite precise risk level assessment for a particular situation,
but in order to make it more precise it is important to accumulate data on damage,
probability. This accumulation is called
statistic
and the more data accumulated the
more precise will
be risk
assessment itself. In order to prove the previous statement one
should turn to the classical example of heads or tails. Which event will dominate over
appearance of heads or tails? It is proven that in this case probability of both events will
be approximately the
same-50%. But if a coin has been flipped comparatively not many
times, for example 100 times, then it may be that the occurrence of head "is 44 times."
(
11
, 68) And here the law is "the more you toss the coin, the nearer the outcome will be
to the predicted probability" of 50%. (49, 33).
The probability of two similar events and possible damage (outcome) degree will
various in different working places, but nevertheless risk assessment is
an appropriate
way
to characterize decision. If we flip coin three times
it can happen that eagle
occurs
two times and the tail one time, but it does not follow thence that eagle's probability
degree is
66,66%! This example clearly demonstrates why accumulation of data makes
prediction more precise, but here arises another question
-
how much data must be
accumulated to derive
a probability degree
of an event? The answer is indefinite, but the
tendency is evident
-
"the more experiments are conducted the average value obtained
in the n experiments should approach the expected value."
(
67
, 183) Therefore, tossing
a coin three times or is not
enough to derive even approximate probability of occurrence
of head and tail (see the next table).
20
Table No. 1.2.2. Tossing of a coin. (70, 28)
Number of flipped coins-n
Occurrence
of
head-m
(times)
P(head) occurrence
probability % = m/n x 100
10 4 40
%
100 42 42
%
1000 460 46
%
10000 4950 49,5
%
An official may as well use
the risk
assessment formula in his work to define detainees`
breakup
probability, possible damage, nationalities involved in it
etc.
The question of
whether risk assessment should be conducted by an official or specially trained
colleagues remains secondary one, but nevertheless the author of the paper insists on a
separate division or office responsible for data accumulation and further assessment of
probability, damage and risk because an official or
a
policeman
must be fully occupied
with his direct duties and not with mathematical estimation. Theoretically, the
final
product
of risk assessment performed by this office could be new service instruction
based on risk, probability and
decision-making
theory. The outstanding characteristic of
such instruction could be its scientific basis.
SUBCHAPTER 1.3
One of many reasons, but probably the decisive one why most people solve problems
unsuccessfully is an "unstructured approach" to solution. (
53
, 11) Distinctive feature of
this approach is "chaos and randomness."
(
53
, 12) Having
analysed
people who
resolved problems successfully the researchers G.
Nadler
and W.
Chandon
concluded
that they
applied
asking smart questions. This approach to solution is not a scientific
breakthrough in methodology because even an ancient Greek philosopher and thinker
Socrates practiced it and so "infuriated" (53, 16) representatives of authorities with it
that they sentenced him to death in the end.
This method
may indeed
irritate ordinary users because it presents a challenge and extra
mental job therefore it drastically differs from habitual, template way of solving
21
problems. Template thinking is far less energy and time demanding than the critical one
since it is often supported from our habits. For example, there are numerous absurd
things which are accepted, approved and even mandatory in society. In records
management it is polite to write "yours respectively" at the bottom of the letter, but
what if I despise the addressee or do not know him personally? How can I respect a
person whom I have neither seen nor spoke with? The second example, it is almost a
common legal procedure when a chief
shall be
released from position if any of his
subordinates
commits
service violations. How on earth can one man who is
sitting
in the
office be responsible for all his subordinates` actions? One more example, there is a
standard routine in paperwork when the head of
an
office
signs
blank sheets of
certificates, letters of acknowledgment and other supportive documents in advance and
it is recognized that the chief himself has awarded
the top performer. Usually it is the
clerical office which compares performance results, proposes top candidates and brings
documents for signature. As a result the habit to perform absurd
actions does
not
contribute to the development of critical thinking. Apparently there are numerous
examples of unexplainable logic in legal documents therefore many service instructions
may contain such "mandatory absurd" as well. In their work, officials
are
supposed to
trust and follow service instructions which
may subsequently
cause excessive
"dependence" (66, 112) on them. The author does not deny the necessity of instructions
at all, but in non-routine situations only critical thinking may be indispensable. Let us
analyse
and see it in the following examples:
Situation No.1.
Car driver while driving a car in a remote place pierced his front tire.
The first expected question is-where is spare wheel and jack to pick up the car and
replace the wheel? But if there is no jack inside the car, no mobile phone to call car
mechanic? May one say that it is not possible to replace the wheel without jack? No,
because if the question had been posed in other way, like how it is possible to lift car's
side without jack, the possible solutions could be:
1. to approach to some ditch with a pierced wheel so as to put it in the air;
1. to pick up car's side with stick or log;
2. to inflate the remaining 3 tires to the uttermost.
22
Situation No.2.
Some engineers had been given the task to create a soundless firearm.
A shot, from acoustic point of view is a sound way with a particular "pressure and
frequency". (15, 243) Human's ear does not hear the whole sound spectrum, but only a
particular diapason from it. The right question for engineers would be: how to create the
firearm which shooting's sound will be out of human perception spectrum? The correct
answer to the correctly posed question would be "nozzle". (29, 356) Changing its
diameter one will be able to change sound wave's parameters considerably. Evidently
there may be other technical solutions reducing the sound: barrel's metal, gunpowder's
chemical composition, "subsonic ammunition". (25, 17)
Situation No.3.
It is known that during the Second World War pontoon bridges over
rivers had been destroyed massively by "bombers" (2, 61) because they were seen from
air easily. In order to hide them some innovation must have been invented. The right
question here is: how to make a pontoon bridge invisible for enemy aircrafts` crew? The
right answer here is to submerge it under the water to the depth of approximately 1
meter.* In this case the bridge is submerged and barely seen from the air and at the
same time military transport could drive on it. No doubt that other additional means
how to camouflage the bridge exist: color, camouflage, but they play supportive role
here.
* Once read from memoirs of WW2 participant.
If smart question approach may be applied in engineering, then it could be effectively
implemented in immigration service work as well. It is reasonable to include teaching of
smart question method into officials` training program concretely as "a repeatable
process". (53, 12)
23
CHAPTER 2
Contemporary people in the civilized world, especially the young ones, may justly be
defined as "net generation." (
40
, 5) This metaphor is not an exaggeration since one can
easily notice that generally we "
write
" more messages than letters, read or better to say
skim more announcements, advertisements than we read literature, pay more by credit
card than by cash. Taking into account the tendency to digitalize everything that is
electronically nonnumeric, paper money will be eventually replaced by e-money.
Though this implementation process is not going on smoothly due to the considerable
concerns "about the impact of e-money on tax collection and criminal activity" (24, 5)
but nevertheless it is developing.
One example of
some
increasing digitalization that is
a sad fact
that
those now
who
write
more than others are generally pupils "at schools."
(
31
, 117) The conveniences
brought by penetrating digitalization process seem to be the progress itself, but
nevertheless they
possess not
only advantages, but hide disadvantages as well. As one
of them is inclusive, general regress of reading skills among modern humans which as a
consequence may eventually lead to readers` complains that "I can not understand"
what
here is
written. (52, 55) Reading,
in
its turn, is in direct relationship with writing
because "reading skills influence writing skills." (
64
, 216) Reading ability most often
precedes
writing and there exist strong reading-writing link because "instructions in
reading can be effective in improving writing" (7, 89) and
generally speaking
one may
conclude that the worse one reads the worse
one writes
.
Comparative irrelevance to read and write will cause far-reaching consequences not
only in teaching methodology, but in paperwork as well. General decrease in writing
skills and as the consequence substitution of handwriting with taping may also deprive
investigators of some vital evidences because even handwriting's pressure may unravel
its author's "firmness, vitality, capability to work, endurance." (
21
, 15) Nevertheless one
has to admit that exhausting evidences from handwriting may be multiply compensated
by the ones from e-mails, social networks.
The research conducted in the USA showed that in "1960 young men read newspapers
as much as their fathers, grandfathers but in 2000 young men aged 18-29 read half of
the amount read by their parents."
(
10
, 177) And the less one reads the less one is able
24
to read which manifests itself in inability to "decode words, comprehend text,
activate
personal knowledge
during reading," (30, 340) Unfortunately reading is not "inherited"
ability
( 60
, 205), and it is not only spelling of words, but also drawing comparisons,
conclusions and "understanding" meaning of the text. (
58
, 23) Here one can draw very
important conclusion that reading is not simply the ability
to spell
words, but more
complicated one: comparing facts, drawing conclusions. Even if contemporary people
read something, their reading materials consist mainly of announcements,
advertisements and operating instructions. Such texts are exceptionally "interactive"
containing a lot of "media forms."
(
65
, 60) The above-mentioned interactive insertions
are called adaptations which usually manifest themselves
in the form of
drawings,
animation and video. The adopted text, besides its evident advantages of being easily
and quickly comprehended by contemporary TV and net-generation, conceals
an
inevitable disadvantage
-
atrophy of reading skills. One should remember that original
legal text, like law, decree or regulation does not contain any of the above-mentioned
adaptations and each official must be able to read it because otherwise being
misunderstood it may cause serious consequences.
If a
person does not read his or her
reading skills will diminish gradually because "good readers read considerably more
than poor readers both in and out of school,"(17, 49). Legal texts intentionally
composed to differ from other ones particularly with terminology, if-then links therefore
their "textuality
seems to be pragmatically uninteresting" for contemporary readers (46,
250)
If a reader is indeed able
to read, he can perform it in
two different ways
: a) scanning
b)
skimming. Skimming is a fast reading when a reader "skims" the text in order to get
main idea and scanning
on the contrary
searching for "particular" facts or details. (
55
,
51) Application of one or another method depends on reader's aim, so if the official is
already acquainted with the text but he wants to elaborate details- he uses scanning, and
otherwise if there is new instruction he initially uses skimming to get meaning. Service
instruction or law being misread and misunderstood by an official may cause various
drastic consequences. The impact produced will depend on official's occupation, rank
etc
but nevertheless there exist some approaches which greatly improve text
understanding: a) "reading aloud" (58, 180)
b)
after-reading exercises which include
asking three "w" questions: "
who
?
when
?
where
"? (
68
, 358) Each reader may ask these
questions
to
himself to comprehend text better.
25
Legal texts are also notable for their "substantiality" and "neutrality" of emotions.
(
71
,
51) ,,Distinction
between facts and events" determines
a specific composition
of legal
text. (46, 248) Legal language
may be embarrassing for those who must implement it in
practice including policemen,
border guards
because
not all of them will be able
to
comprehend its meaning.
To prove
the latter statement let us read a
sentence
from
immigration law:
"country of residence the country of citizenship of a foreigner
, the
foreigner's previous country of permanent place of residence".
(39)
First,
one may
wonder how much time means "permanent":
one year,
ten years?
Second,
what is the
meaning of comma in this
sentence?
Third,
what is the country of
residence
if for
example
a
Syrian citizen has been living permanently in Turkey?
According
to
the
formal logic comma could mean both conjunctions
"and
",
"
or".
If comma means
"or"
then
"or
",
in its turn,
,,can be inclusive or exclusive
"
. (
1
, 121)
Inclusive means that the
sentence
is truth when "one or both"
(1, 121)
component parts of the
sentence
divided
by
"or"
are truth.
Let us
interpret the sentence
inclusively,
country of residence is- the
country of citizenship of a foreigner or previous country of permanent place of
residence or both country of citizenship and previous country of permanent place of
residence
.
Exclusive means that the
sentence
is false when its "disjuncts
are
both
truth
". ( 1
, 121)
So,
country of residence is - the country of citizenship or previous country of permanent
place of residence but not both at the same time.
Taking into account, the difficulties interpreting a text, especially the legal one,
legislators should
firstly
solve one vital problem before elaborating laws, service
instructions: how to get text more comprehensible for a contemporary reader? There
could be two solutions: 1)
to teach
reading techniques 2) to adapt text according to
readers' ability. If the first solution requires elaboration and an organization of reading
improvement courses that are directly-proportionally connected with time, money, then
the second one requires making instructions more comprehensible for contemporary
readers. A text redesigned with the purpose to be more understandable for readers is
called adaptive, like for example a text in simple English. The process of textual
adaptation
may include substitution with synonyms, simplification of grammar with the
aim
of creating
a final product-the summary containing only vital information. Reader
himself may perform the task of textual adaptation in order to aggregate information,
but he should be prepared for it because it ,,is not an easy task because the reader is
