Juvenile Crime Analysis Essay Example For Students

Juvenile Crime Analysis Essay One of the biggest problems which the United States is faced with isjuvenile crime. The reason experts feel juveniles commit crimes is because ofrisk factors when they were younger but experts still have not found the mainreason why juveniles commit crimes. Some risk factors associated with juvenilecrime are poverty, repeated exposure to violence, drugs, easy access to firearms,unstable family life and family violence, delinquent peer groups, and mediaviolence. Especially the demise of family life, the effect of the media on thejuveniles today, and the increase of firearms available today have played a bigrole in the increase of juveniles crimes. The most common risk factor is the demise of the family life and theincrease in family violence. Between 1976 and 1992 the number of juvenilesliving in poverty grew 42% and this caused an increase in crimes by juveniles. Many of these juvenile criminals have been abused or neglected and they alsogrew up in a single-parent household. Research has found that 53% of thesechildren are more likely to be arrested, and 38% more likely to commit a violentcrime as an adult, then their counterparts who did not suffer such abuse. Thesymptoms of child abuse are high levels of aggression and antisocial behaviorand these children are twice as likely to become juvenile offenders. Alsoimproper parental care has been linked to delinquency such as mothers who drinkalcohol or take drugs during pregnancy cause their babies to grow up withlearning disorders, a problem which leads them to be juvenile criminals. Another risk factor is the effect of the media on the juveniles of today. Before the time a child has reached seventh grade, the average child haswitnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on the television. Thereis no doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes ofaggressive behavior, crime and violence in society. Television violence affectsyoungsters of all ages, of both genders, at all economic levels, and all levelsof intelligence. Long-term childhood exposure to television is a casual factorbehind one half of the homicides committed by juveniles in the United States. The increased availability of guns has played a big part in escalatingthe number of crimes committed by juveniles. In Los Angeles juveniledelinquency cases involving weapon violation grew by 86% from 1988 to 1992,which was more then any other type of juvenile offense. According to aUniversity of Michigan study found that 270,000 guns accompany secondary schoolstudents to class daily. This is startling because it shows how many morejuveniles are carrying guns and the juvenile use of guns in homicides hasincreased from 65 to 80 percent from 1987 to 1991. The possession of firearms plays a big cause in the delinquency ofchildren and is playing a bigger role in the crimes which juveniles commit. Another cause of the increase of juvenile crimes has been the effect of childrenseeing multiple murders and other acts of violence on the television. Finallythe demise of the family life and the increase in family violence has been thebiggest factor in the increase of juvenile crime. Category: Law

Sample Revision Essays - Use Research Papers For Your Essay

Sample Revision Essays - Use Research Papers For Your EssayWhen you are required to write a review or sample revision essay, you are in the market for writing supplies. This is not the type of essay that you can just use as is; you need to be prepared to make the revisions needed in order to write your review well. One of the tips that I have found helpful is to make sure that you have the correct research materials.Before you begin writing a sample revision essay, make sure that you have your basic writing supplies on hand. It is important to have a pen and paper so that you can write down some of the ideas that you will be looking at during the course of the essay. You should also have a notebook paper so that you can jot down some of the ideas that you come across while you are writing. When you have all of these items, you will be ready to write the research materials that you will need for your essay.If you are currently not using any of the standard essay supplies, then you sho uld definitely start considering getting some of the supplies that you will need to write a sample revision essay. Some of the most essential things that you will need are: a business card, a piece of copy paper, a letter opener, a tape measure, and a pen. These supplies will give you everything that you need in order to complete the rest of the task.When you are looking for research papers to rewrite, you will want to take a look at sample revision essays that are available on the Internet. The best thing about using these resources is that they have a variety of different writing assignments that you can use. You can get started right away with one of the revision essays that is available, and then you can get back to work on the next one as soon as you finish the first one.While you are doing your research, you will want to make sure that you purchase all of the writing supplies that you need. There are plenty of other writing resources out there, but when you are already startin g to work on the sample essay, you should make sure that you have everything that you need so that you will be able to finish the assignment before you even start it. The fact is that this is a very important task that you should plan on doing, and you should not get in the way of making sure that you are going to be able to complete it properly.In addition to writing supplies, you will also want to make sure that you have the papers that you are going to use to help you with your sample revision essay. While you will be doing most of the writing, you will still need to find something to use when you need a reference. These papers will be invaluable in helping you to complete the essay that you are working on.If you want to review a sample essay that you have written, then you should always keep an old version of the essay on hand. This is especially important if you have already rewritten the paper and found that it did not work out well. In order to avoid any rewrites or revisions , you should keep the essay that you have written on hand so that you can look over the entire composition when you need to review it.One last tip that you should consider is to never get too hung up on rewriting until you have gone through your entire essay. You may think that you are rewriting something when really, you are just revising. You should never rewrite an essay, if you are not going to rewrite it from scratch. Rewriting should only be used as a stopgap until you have finished the whole project, and this will help you to avoid repeating work that you have already done.

Written by Scripps for the School Magazine free essay sample

Newspaper Article- Written by Scripps for the school magazine. Outstanding! Our Oxbridge Boys Elevate The School! So how can you do the same? So it’s final! Congratulations! The boys of Cutlers’ Grammar school have finally made their headmaster the happiest man in Sheffield after eight of Cutlers’ most influential students make the grade and earn themselves a place at Oxbridge. They are the first of their kind in the history of the school and are they proud? The answer lies firmly with the pleased-as-punch headmaster. For now, the school sits securely at the top of the league tables, right where it was intended to be. An outstanding performance all round has seen an 100% success rate of all of Mr Hector, Mr Irwin’s and Mrs Lintott’s students furthering their education and getting themselves into University. Even the unlikeliest of boys made the grade. So how did they achieve such a difficult challenge set to them by the school? Was luck on their side? Maybe the pressure from both teachers and other students is to blame. We will write a custom essay sample on Written by Scripps for the School Magazine or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page How about the boy’s intelligence itself? Or maybe even God. Whatever the answer is, it’s clear that the boy’s entry into Oxbridge for the first time in all of Cutlers’ history should not just be a one off. Education itself is like a religion. You only get out what you put in. It’s fair to say that some take it seriously, while others don’t. The pressure to succeed is enough to make you rebel and the influences along the way are bound to affect the choices and decisions you take along the way. The teachers themselves are committed to the students, desperately trying to make their education worthwhile†¦. or are they? The teachers of the school play a vital part in the development and contribution an individual student makes to the school. Mr Hector, the boy’s English teacher has a very controversial attitude towards teaching. It is very much a cultural learning experience. Deemed inappropriate by some, it is clear that whatever Hector equips these boys with, certainly works. Mr Hector is adamant on teaching the boy’s life skills, which they can take with them beyond university. He acts as more of a tour guide, if you will, into the unknown world that exists beyond education. Certainly being able to quote poetry and speak fluent French is something to be proud of, but will this help you get into university? It makes us ask the question: What is better for the boys: thoughtfulness or intelligence? Hector isn’t against the intelligence the boys possess, just that is be used in an appropriate way and not so structured. Learn from the wise Mr Hector a life beyond grades and the syllabus. In contrast to this, we introduce the ever modern Mr Irwin. Now the youngest teacher of the school, Irwin was bought in to coach the students for the entrance exams and encourages them to see a different angle to education. Making the boys think outside the box is the key here, but with the upmost of tactics. Liberal in his interpretations, Irwin encourages the boys to look at their work in a provocative way. Not overly encouraging or tactile as a teacher himself, Irwin’s confusing and sometimes frustrating methods really encourage the boys to think. Having been through the same process as the boys barely years before sees him as the most likely to sympathise with the boys. Differing greatly to Hector, Irwin has a set purpose and structure about him. Whilst both startling and thought provoking teaching methods links the teachers; they couldn’t be more different if they tried. It is important the gain knowledge from Irwin and life lessons from Hector in order to be successful into Oxbridge and indeed into life. So where do they get the cold hard facts from? How do the boys actually learn the subject in hand, without being controversial? The answer lies in Mrs Lintott, the most competent teacher; the boys A-Level History grades reflect this. Always to the point, her lessons do exactly what is asked of them. Immensely structured and ridged, the boys learn nothing but what is asked of them. No need to be elaborate or thought provoking, Mrs Lintott teaches the boys what they need and sees no reason to be otherwise. In contrast to both Irwin and Hector, Mrs Lintott holds her own and needs no bells or whistles to do so, the real foundation of learning. As the new students start the new term with a team of varied teaching styles behind them, what could go wrong? There is something for everyone at Cutlers school for boys. However, when all is said and done, the new boys cannot rely on the teachers to mould them into the people they become, nor can they give them the desire to achieve. The new boys must possess a desire to do well, whatever the teachers say or do. There are a certain number of recommendations for a boy to enter Oxbridge: by being intelligent, impressionable, religious, musically gifted or sporty. It’s best to try and be at least three of those things in order to glean whether or not you are an Oxbridge candidate. Whatever your religion, or aspiration is, focus on what you believe in and it will all become suitable in the end. Always have a goal, a point in which you want to reach. Decide what is important to you and build on that. Success is just a word, until you make it a reality. Individually, the boys least likely to fail are the ones who absorb all that is given to them. Is there any chance the new boys could achieve the same amount of success?

The Relative Uncertainty Formula and How to Calculate It

The Relative Uncertainty Formula and How to Calculate It The relative uncertainty or relative error  formula is used to calculate the uncertainty of a measurement compared to the size of the measurement. It is calculated as: relative uncertainty absolute error / measured value If a measurement is taken with respect to a standard or known value, calculate as follows: relative uncertainty absolute error / known value Absolute error is the range of measurements in which the true value of a measurement likely lies. While absolute error carries the same units as the measurement, relative error has no units or else is expressed as a percent. Relative uncertainty is often represented using the lowercase Greek letter delta, ÃŽ ´. The importance of relative uncertainty is that it puts error in measurements into perspective. For example, an error of /- 0.5 cm may be relatively large when measuring the length of your hand, but very small when measuring the size of a room. Examples of Relative Uncertainty Calculations Three 1.0 gm weights are measured at 1.05 g, 1.00 g, and 0.95 g. The absolute error is  ± 0.05 g.The relative error (ÃŽ ´) of your measurement is 0.05 g/1.00 g 0.05 or 5%. A chemist measured the time required for a chemical reaction and found the value to be 155 /- 0.21 hours. The first step is to find the absolute uncertainty: absolute uncertainty 0.21 hoursrelative uncertainty Δt / t 0.21 hours / 1.55 hours 0.135 The value 0.135 has too many significant digits, so it is shortened (rounded) to 0.14, which can be written as 14% (by multiplying the value times 100%). The relative uncertainty (ÃŽ ´) in the measurement for the reaction time is: 1.55 hours /- 14% Sources   Golub, Gene, and Charles F. Van Loan. Matrix Computations – Third Edition. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.Helfrick, Albert D., and William David Cooper. Modern Electronic Instrumentation and Measurement Techniques. Prentice Hall, 1989.

Complete work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Complete work - Essay Example For the few women who owned businesses, and were married â€Å"in manu† (meaning their husbands were in control of them), the groom together with his family was in charge of all the woman’s possessions. This law prevented women from owning anything they earned with the inclusion of her inheritance and dowry (Kidner, 2014). Women almost had no say in the ‘manus’ marriage and what the husband said was the last word on all the matters. I believe that if the women were given the opportunity to own property in the manus marriage, their families would have benefited more, as there would be two providers. In politics, women could not support their husbands in privacy and not in the public. Their public role was to attend to the traditional activities of household chores. At home they could weave, spin yarn in order to make clothes for their families (Kidner, 2014). If women had a say in politics and even participated in things like voting, most of the empire probl ems would be unheard of and the empire governed in a much better way. Women were also made to think that their role was to sit pretty at home, nurture their children and heed to their husband's decisions. Unlike today's society, fathers chose husbands for their daughters and girls got married at the legal age of 12 years (Kidner, 2014). Fathers allowing their daughters to become of age and then get married to the men of their choice would have resulted in decreasing the number of divorces as well as sexual promiscuity. The male dominance in the Roman Empire was a great influence on how women led their lives. The men were the determinants of what was good or bad for the women. They suppressed the voice of the women who only had an option of doing that which their husbands or fathers demanded from them. Their opinions did not matter and therefore were in no way an influence to the social norms nor the political attributes in the empire. This did not stop the women but they raised high above the norms and laws and managed to change their world. This persuasive paper shows how women changed some of the social factors of the Roman Empire. Women in the Roman Empire may not have had any political office or any voting rights but made great contributions in religion. They did this amidst the fact that they could not stand for their rights. Women always had to serve under a male figure, be it a husband or a father. Men dominated in the social field and politics but the amazing thing is that they were not a great influence on religion. As it was customary, the women took care of the homestead’s shrines, altars, and offering daily prayers. They would perform the necessary rituals to keep the household gods appeased. The Romans believed that these gods, when women appeased them, would live in harmony with the family. The appeased spirits would protect the home and family from any harm and so the women had to pay attention to how well they kept the gods. However, thi s changed over time as women became goddesses and there are coins present in the empire that have images of these goddesses. Helena was the woman who saw it that Christianity was the foundation of the Roman Empire (Winter, 2003). The chauvinistic male society made it clear that only males would assess education. Women, as per

Reading assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reading assignment - Essay Example In The Abolition of Man, C.S Lewis uses the example of The Green Book and its authors Gaius and Titius which is meant to provide English education for children (Lewis). Gaius and Titius basically created the following proposition, according to C.S. Lewis: â€Å"firstly, that all sentences containing a predicate of value are statements about the emotional state of the speaker, and secondly, that all such statements are unimportant†(Lewis). To Lewis, this is unacceptable and goes against the natural moral law as it teaches â€Å"the belief that all emotions aroused by local association are in themselves contrary to reason and contemptible†(Lewis). This means that a large part of the learning process in studying literature is being able to understand and interpret the emotions conveyed by the author of a piece. In turn, not being able to comprehend the emotional aspect or associating the emotions with something negative or of little merit, students are losing the lessons i n ethics, morals, and philosophy that often are interwoven with literature. By taking the emphasis off of this type of examination, the study of English and literature becomes much more scientific, clinical, and empty. Many of the important moral and philosophical lessons comes from literature and by threatening to take this aspect out of books or by placing less emphasis on it, the education system is not supporting the high morality that has existed in the Western hemisphere. Without this support, the moral and philosophical nature of the Western culture will further deteriorate and there will be a plethora of unreasonable citizens in its wake. C.S. Lewis continues his argument for natural moral law with providing evidence that society has lost objective truth and morality. According to Lewis: â€Å"Their skepticism about values is on the surface: it is for use on other peoples values; about the values current in their own set they are not

The Purpose and Objectives of Annual Reports

The Purpose and Objectives of Annual Reports The literature review section talks about the background of research being undertaken. It provides an illustration about the importance of the different sections of the annual reports and the qualitative characteristics of information that make it useful for users of accounting information. Hence, it outlines on the previous research done on the study of annual reports and the importance of annual reports to users who have a reasonable knowledge in business, economics and accounting. The main purpose of annual reports The purpose of the annual report is to inform shareholders as to the financial status of a company. Coy and Pratt (1998) conclude that the annual report serve as a communication tool and determines the reality of the organization in the public mind. However for this reality to be recognized, it depends on the quality of information provided in the annual reports. Annual reports are extremely significant sources of company information (Stanga,1976). Furthermore studies by Chang and Most (1985) and Hawkins and Hawkins (1985) concluded that even though individual investors do not find the annual report useful in decision making and do not meet their information needs, still the annual report is the document used as reference for investors and managers. Though annual report is not the only source of information for a company, as in New Zealand newspapers and magazines were also found as a source of information, nevertheless the annual report is considered to be an important resource due to its large reporting and availability. Therefore the fundamental aims of preparing financial reports are for decision making and accountability. Accountability Annual reports are considered as the main accountability mechanism. In 1975, the American Accounting Association (AAA) defined the purpose of accounting as to provide information for making useful economic decisions and which, if provided will increase social welfare. Thus annual report can be one tool for communicating economic information to allow update decisions and judgements by users. According to Stanton and Stanton (2002) the annual report uses the tools of management, marketing and communication theory to construct a picture of the organization. Thus, annual report is a tool for a firm to classify its accountability for managing and controlling business activities. Moreover, a number of researchers (Winfield, 1978; Chang and Most, 1985; Boyne and Law, 1991), have noted the importance of annual reports as a vehicle releasing accountability. Furthermore accountability is involved in the monitoring, evaluation and control of organizational agents to make sure that they perform in the welfare of shareholders and other stakeholders (Keasey and wright,1993). It can be classified as a requirement for one party to another party for its performance over certain time. In short, accountability is simply a must to report upon as it gives an extent to which an entity has met its responsibilities towards its owners and to fulfill this role, financial reports should reflect the nature and extent of performance that are related to the entity. Moreover accountability requires broadening the capacity of disclosure beyond the financial focus to ensure that adequate and meaningful qualitative information is also contained in the annual report. Besides, the owners of the companies, the shareholders, have a right to know what actions and what developments are taking place within the organization. Thus, the organizations are accountable to its shareholders and the annual report plays a great role in conveying the firms performances to them. Decision making As per IAS 1, the financial statements objective is to offer and inform the performance and the evolution of the financial situation, that could be helpful to a wide range of potential users for evaluating and making economic decisions .It is further claimed that, when the general purpose of financial reports meet this objective, they will also enable entities to discharge accountability. Consequently the first aim of the Trueblood Report is the provision of information for economic decision making is being interpreted as being the primary function of financial statements. Hence financial reports should seek to satisfy the information needs of users. In 1989, the Solomons Report, commissioned by the ICAEW (1989) reaffirmed that decision usefulness is the fundamental aim of financial reporting. Financial reports should provide information that will be accommodating to several users who have interest in financial performance and making decisions about investing and lending. Gray (1994, pp9), have proved that accounting literature is presently dominated by the idea of decision usefulness which mean that financial reporting will have to be maintained in order to meet the need of all users of accounting information. It is seen that nowadays there has been a rise in the users of accounting information for decision making hence objectives of annual reports are regarded as the major means by which companies distribute information to the external users (Firth, 1979). OBJECTIVES OF ANNUAL REPORTS According to FASB the main goals of annual reports can be classified in three parts: Objectives for making potential economic decisions; Objective of providing information about the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of an entity; Objectives for presenting and disclosing of information. Hence it is the attributes of the qualitative characteristics that make accounting information to be useful in annual reports. Characteristics of accounting information The quality of the information provided in annual reports determines the usefulness of those reports to users. FASB and the IASB propose that if Financial Statement setters study the standards and qualitative features in the process of preparation of financial statements only then the financial station would give the true and fair view. Many researchers like (Alford et al. 1993, Amir et al. 1993, Banyopadhyay et al. 1994, Harris et al. 1994, Joos and Lang 1994, Barth and Clinch 1996, Joos 1997, Lewitt 1998 and Pope and Walker 1999) had conduct studies with the aim to identify higher quality as it is related to the ability of financial statements to pass useful information to the users. Hendriksen and Van Breda (1992, P.123), has described qualitative characteristics as components of accounting information which lean to improve its usefulness. The Corporate Report of the Accounting Standards Steering Committee, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), (1975) has identified seven qualitative characteristics viewed as desirable to make the annual reports useful: relevance; understandability; reliability; completeness; objectivity; comparability; timeliness. Relevance Relevance refers to the capacity of information to influence the decision making process of users. The Solomons Report (1989) has emphasized on this point: Relevance must come first, for if information is irrelevant, it does not matter what other qualities it has. FASB Concepts Statement 2,says in paragraph 27, to be relevant accounting information must be able to make a difference in a decision by facilitating users to form predictions about the result of past, present and future events. It also proposed that there is a trade-off between relevance and reliability that is accounting information should be both relevant and reliable. A number of research by Stanga (1980), and Mores and Duncan (1988) have already been conducted to deal with the issue of relevance and reliability and that optimistic association exists between the two, with minimum levels of reliability necessary to achieve relevance. UNDERSTANDABILITY Understandability is viewed as a user-specific property in the FASB model. Information cannot be useful to decision makers who cannot understand it, even though it may otherwise be relevant to a decision and be reliable. Information is understandable when users will be able to reasonably grasp its meaning. Thus useful information should be capable of being understood by users with reasonable knowledge of business and accounting and the way information is presented in annual reports. In addition, researchers like Subramanian, Insley, and Blackwell (1993), had evaluated the relationship between the performance of companies and the readability of their annual reports, concluding that the annual reports of companies that done well were easier to read than those of companies that did not perform well. RELIABILITY Reliability involves the completeness of information. Information is reliable when it is free from material error and bias and can be depended upon by users to signify faithfully. FASB has also concluded that verifiability is a major factor of reliability. Verifiability is the ability through consensus among measurers to guarantee that information represents what it purports to represent. It also focuses on whether a particular basis of measurement is properly pertained, rather than on whether it is appropriate. While Lev and Thiagarajan (1991) , got proof that the market does not retort to certain balance sheet information results of other studies suggested that it may wait until the balance sheet information shows up in future earnings which make accounting information more verifiable and reliable. COMPLETENESS Good Accounting information is complete when it provides all its potential users with all the required information that are vital to fulfill their needs and requirements. Moreover reported information in annual reports should provide a complete image of the activities of the organization. Completeness is also when all transactions and events that should have been recorded have been recorded and classified properly. It also assumed that there will be no error of omission in the information. Thus information in the financial reports must be complete within the bounds of materiality and cost is a vital element of faithful representation. OBJECTIVITY According to Hines (1991), it is in the benefit of accounting profession to publicly produce information that is objective. Financial information being objective means it should be free from bias in accounting decisions and shall be a measurement of having supporting proof. In other words together with objectivity, information should be both reliable and uniform. COMPARABILITY Comparability is the quality of information that allows users to identify similarities in and differences between two sets of economic phenomena. Moreover compliance with accounting standards helps to attain comparability. Thus, information about an entity gains more importance if it can be contrasted with similar information about other entities and with similar information about the same entity for some other period or some other point in time. Comparability is different from consistency because comparability is the goal while consistency is a means to achieve that goal. Users must be informed of the accounting policies used in the preparation of financial statements, any changes in those policies and the effects of those changes. However it is argued that any consideration of comparability must come after relevance and faithful representation. As noted by Sterling, Robert, R (1985), Comparability alone cannot make information relevant. TIMELINESS Timeliness is considered an ancillary aspect of relevance. Timeliness is about having relevant information available sooner before it loses capacity to influence decisions. Kross and Schroeder, (1984), indicated that the timeliness of annual reports is relative to the abnormal return around the release date of reports, corporations that released their annual reports earlier held higher cumulative abnormal returns than that of later releases. Researchers like Dyer Iv, and McHugh (1975),Whittred (1980) and Dwyer, and Wilson (1989), found that timeliness is affected by factors reporting lag such as auditing opinion, profitability and company size. Therefore the use of technology may enhance position of all users and improve regularity of timeliness with which information is received. In addition to the qualitative characteristics mentioned above, there is two more qualities proposed in the accounting literature which is essential; they are faithful representation and materiality. FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION Faithful representation is attained when information is representing faithfully the transactions and other actions it either claims to represent or could reasonably be expected to represent. However faithful representation does not mean total freedom from error in the representation of an economic phenomenon because economic phenomenon presented in financial reports is normally evaluated under conditions of uncertainty. Thus, to attain a faithful representation, it sometimes may be essential to clearly disclose the degree of uncertainty in the reported financial information. MATERIALITY Materiality does not involve only relevance but also faithful representation. Information is material if it could persuade users decisions taken on the basis of the annual reports. Materiality depends on the nature and amount of the item in case of omission or misstatement. It forms the threshold for recognition of information and only material information is contained in the annual reports. According to SEC (1999), is a symmetric in emphasizing that small misstatements may be material for qualitative reasons but SAB 99 is silent on whether, and when, a quantitatively large error could be immaterial, (Taub 2007). Thus, many registrants and practitioners consider that this guidance prevents judging quantitatively large misstatements to be immaterial. COMPONENTS OF ANNUAL REPORTS The annual report encloses a huge amount of information about a company. As formal communication documents the annual reports also contains quantitative information, narratives, photographs and graphs. There have been several survey-based studies in accounting conducted that the annual reports is useful source of information (e.g., Briggs, 1975; Lee and Tweedie, 1975, 1976,1981; Anderson and Epstein, 1995; Abu Baker and Naser 2000; Ho and Wong 2004). Ho and Wong (2004) conducted a research in Hong Kong and concluded that annual reports are consisted of high value of information in comparison to other sources, even though the respondents are not fully satisfied with the amount of information disclosed. Thus in Mauritius, the section 221 of the CA 01 specifies the contents of an annual report. Hence it includes the following: Chairmans Report Lee and Tweedie (1975), Barlett and Chander, 1997, p.246 found that the most common read sections of the annual reports is the chairmans statement .This was attributed to the simplicity of the chairmans report, which clarifies the more technical information, contained in other parts of the report. On the other hand, Wilton and Tabb(1978) surveyed about 300 shareholders and concluded that the chairmans report was the most widely read followed by the income statement. However, Barlett and Chander have also disclosed that the majority of respondents in their sample desired less information in the form of a summary report rather than the annual report itself. Directors Report The Directors report supply useful information to investors about the activities of the company, the dividend policy and information about the decision makers of the company. Anderson (1998) spot out that despite majority of investors found the basic financial statements to be most valuable, the most thoroughly items read in the annual report are the directors report. Lee and Tweedie (1975) found that the executives report was of great to less importance, over one-third of the respondents believed the directors report to be of no value. Corporate Governance Report Corporate governance (CG) has been a foremost policy issue in developed market economies for more than a decade. Hashim (2009) defines CG as a combination of processes and structures conducted by the board of directors to authorize, direct and oversee management towards the achievement of the organizations objectives. The Report on Corporate Governance for Mauritius, states that companies that are listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius shall abide to all provision of the code and there should be a separate corporate governance section in the annual report. Dividend policy, Directors profile and going concern of the corporate governance report might be useful to user of accounts. Shareholders will attain valuable information about the amount and timing for payment of dividends declared by the company. On the other hand the disclosure of the qualifications and experience of the board members is useful to investors as such information specify that people with required experience, qualifications and integrity are managing the company hence it boost up the confidence of shareholders. Cohen, Krishnamoorthy and Wright (2004) recommend that CG can be one of the main functions in ensuring the quality of financial reporting. Auditors Report The auditors are required to report to the shareholders of the company as to whether in their opinion the financial statements have been prepared accordingly with the accounting standards and whether they give a true and fair view of the transactions of the company. The fundamental aspects of an Auditors report are set by ISA 700-The Auditors Report on Financial Statements. This ISA gives guidance on the type and content of the auditors report as a result of an audit carry out. The auditors report was the most understandable section of the annual report while the balance sheet was the forth (Nasser and Rutherfords 1996). Hence it is useful to users of accounts as it offers assurance that the users are making economic decisions based on reliable information. However, Bartlett and Chandler (1997) found that the auditors report was read the least by individual shareholders. Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) CSR can be described as the process of communicating the social and environmental effects of organisations economic actions to particular interest groups within society (Gray et al 1996 p.3). Corporate social disclosure is referred as the provision of financial and non financial information that intend to discharge social accountability of an organisation (Gray et al 1987).Gelb and Strawser (2001) states that CSR disclosure is a form of socially responsible behaviour, thus by providing more information to the public will help companies to meet their responsibilities towards their stakeholders in a better manner. However research studies have shown that most users use the information of financial statements for financially based decisions. IAS 1, of IASB, 2004: (para.7) states that the objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions. So the financial statements are made as follows: Statement of financial position Statement of comprehensive income Statement of changes in equity Statement of cash flow Notes to the accounts Statement of financial position This statement provides a snapshot summary of what a business owns or is owed-assets-and what it owes-liabilities-at a particular date thus it is referred as a statement of net worth. It shows how solvent a business is, how liquids its assets are and how much capital is being spent. It also consists of non-current assets, current assets, capital and reserves, non-current liabilities and current liabilities. The non-current can be classified as assets that are not quickly and easily realizable, and current assets are assets that can be readily convertible into cash within a short time. Furthermore share capital represents amount receives in respect of shares issued by a particular company, non-current liabilities and current liabilities are obligations that are not aimed to be liquidated within a year and one that are expected to be settled within one year respectively. Statement of comprehensive income The main purpose of the comprehensive income statement is to report a companys earnings over some pointing period of time. This statement reflects the companys revenues, expenses and earnings; it gives information about the financial performance of a company. Users of accounts who are concerned about the profitability can obtain relevant information in the comprehensive income statement and they can make use of ratios to take out information they need therein. Statement of changes in equity IAS 1 requires that companies should prepare a statement of changes in equity to be presented with the same value as the other primary statements. According to Barry and Jamie Elliot this statement is vital because a quantity of gains and losses are required by law or accounting standards to be managed through directly with reserves, so as to prevent the financial statement from being incomplete. The shareholders acquire more information about any changes made to share capital, retained earnings, revaluation reserves, share premium other reserves and to proposed dividends. Sometimes gains and losses may be easily traced by reserve accounting, which permits items to bypass the income statement. Hence the statement of changes in equity provides more transparency in reporting these gains or losses. Statement of cash flow Section 217 of the CA 01 requires all companies to include in their annual report a statement of cash flow and the latter should be prepared in accordance with IAS 7. The purpose of IAS 7 is to include the provision of information about the historical changes in cash and cash equivalents of a company by means of a statement of cash flow. Cash flow statement has become useful sources of information for users (Day (1986) and Yap (1997)). Thus cash flows are classifies during a period from: operating activities-the cash effects of transactions concerning trading activities; investing activities-cash flows from the purchase and sales of non-current assets and short term investments; financing activities-involve receipts from or refund to external providers of finance in respect of the primary amount. Notes to the accounts Notes to the accounts can be refers as explanatory notes that accompany the financial statements. These are intended to give further detail of the items appearing in the financial statements, to provide surplus information, to represent attention of related party transactions and to give existence of interest to stakeholders, other than the shareholders. It includes the IAS, concepts, depreciation policies and methods of valuation that an entity has used. Furthermore studies conducted by Anderson (1981), found that the most readable sections of the annual report were seen to be the balance sheet, profit and loss account, notes to the accounts, and the chairmans statement respectively. The comprehensive income statement, however, was seen to be more essential than the balance sheet. However this author failed to carry out any test whether there are major differences between the users usage of annual reports sections and on the other hand observed its importance of those sections. Epstein and Pava (1993) has developed on the work of Epstein (1975) and found that there has been an increased in the importance of annual report as a source of information. Furthermore, they found that the importance of the balance sheet had extended, and that over the same period the perceived usefulness of the income statement had declined. Anderson and Epstein (1995) argued that in Australia they found that the comprehensive income is more useful in making an investment decision rather than the directors report. In this respect the respondents had also demand for simplification and more explanation of the balance sheet, statement of cash flow, and the income statement. In another study by, Abdelsalam (1990ÂÂ ­) it was highlighted that the comprehensive income and information about the future of the company as well as information about directors was seen to be important part of the annual report. Ba-owaidan (1994) also found the profit and loss account to be the most influential part of the annual report followed by the balance sheet but has also concludes that some respondents faced some problems in understanding the contents of the annual reports. The Kruskal Wallis test revealed that the cash flow section was the only section of the annual report that the user groups have significant differences regarding its value. This is not surprising as the findings reported by Lee and Tweedie (1975), Wilton and Tabb (1978) and Yap (1997) for developed countries disclosed that individual and institutional investors have little interest in the cash flow statement and may not rely upon, as they are not a sophisticated group. In New Zealand, Chang and Most (1985), disclosed that newspapers and magazines were the preferred source of information and the comprehensive income statement was found as the main statement in the annual report for decision making. Moreover, Anderson (1979) and Courtis (1982) also found that the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement were regarded as the two most essential statements for decision-making. In addition, Anderson and Epsteins (1997) study revealed that in Australia, New Zealand and US, the comprehensive income and financial position statement were ranked as the most essential items but the cash flow was less important to New Zealand and Australian investors than to US respondents. Moreover, Stephen L.Buzby carried a research in 1974 on the usefulness of annual reports and his aim was to find the perceptions of professional financial analyst on selected items in the annual reports. To summarize Daniels and Daniels (1991) found that information present in financial statements is important and very useful but not sufficient enough to evaluate the financial condition of a company. USERS OF ACCOUNTS According to IASB, financial information is prepared for users, presuming that they have a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and a willingness to study the information with reasonable diligence. The different users and their needs are identified below: Investors Investors need information to decide whether they should continue to invest in an entity, to assess whether that particular organization will be able to pay out dividends as well as how the enterprise has been managed. The investors require information about profitability, volumes, sales, amounts invested, assets owned, share price and information about competitors. Epstein and Pava (1993) document that individual investors demand for more financial and non financial information in the annual reports. Shareholders Shareholders are the owners of the company. Thus, they have the right to receive dividends from the companys profit. Information in annual reports is very important to shareholders as profit acts as an indicator of the amount of dividends they ought to obtain. According to Cook and Sutton (1995), companies should prepare summary annual reports based on information requirements of shareholders in order to satisfy their needs. Thus, companies should disclose essential piece of information in a clear and understandable format that will enhance the relevance and value of annual reports in communicating company information to shareholders. Lenders and Financial institutions Lenders such as insurance companies, pension funds use FS information to decide the loan amount, the interest rate and security needed for business loan and they should also make sure whether the company would be able to repay back both the principal amounts and the interests payments. The key accounting information for lenders is therefore: Cash flow Investment requirements in business Thus such information required by lenders is available in the annual report. Employees Employees demand annual report for the stability and profitability of the business. They are interested in information about employment prospects, security of their jobs and retirement benefits. Furthermore, Clark and Craig (1991) conclude that relevant information for investors is also relevant for employees. Government The government group makes use of an annual report for tax purposes. The tax authorities such as the Inland Revenue needs information on the profitability of an entity to levy corporation tax and custom and excise make use of information to check VAT returns. Hence tax authorities use FS information as a source for enhancing social welfare by establishing tax policies. Public The public are usually considered as stakeholders and businesses form part of society at large and as a result create much public interest. Marston and Shrives (1991, pp196), found annual report as the main document available for the public thus is being regarded as the main disclosure vehicle. Moreover despite some improvements has taken place in reporting in recent years, the users groups of annual reports wish to have more information than is currently provided (Abu-Nassar and Rutherford, 1996; Hatif and Al-Zubaidi, 2000; Naser and Nuseibeh, 2003). On the other hand, Dye and Bowsher (1987) concluded that most users seek an annual report to include other information that will enhance their understanding. Hay and Antonio (1990) found that users demand for highly detailed disclosures in annual reports. In addition users want information on future prospects, company products, publication of quarterly reports and management audit reports (Anderson 1981). Furthermore Benston (1976) reported that annual report were the least important source of information compared to financial press and newspaper reports. In summary, results from preceding studies shows that users believed that annual reports is the main sources of information; though each section was not considered as of equal significance. The results also disclose a necessity to establish some changes to the annual reporting that allow the information to be more understandable and sufficient for potential users.