Deck 4: Classical, Biological, and Psychological Theories of Crime

Question 1

Which of the following focused on the developmental processes and changes that explain why some individuals continue in crime while others stop engaging in crime.

A) Terrie Moffitt
B) Travis Hirschi
C) Jean Jacques Rousseau
D) Edwin Sutherland

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The ______ perspective assumes society consists of groups with competing interests and values that do not agree on what behaviors should be regulated and punished by law.

A) universalistic
B) consensus
C) power
D) conflict

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Gottfredson and Hirschi argue that the subject matter of criminology should be universal and ______.

A) defined in an abstract way
B) defined in a concrete way
C) legalistically defined
D) surrealistically defined

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In terms of criminological theories, which of the following is true?

A) The theories use the terms crime and delinquency interchangeably.
B) Theories are broad groupings of paradigms.
C) More complex theories are valued more than more simple theories.
D) Theories are merely educated guesses.

Question 5

Which of the following believed in the doctrine of original sin, or the belief that humans are inherently selfish and hedonistic?

A) Charles Darwin
B) Edwin Sutherland
C) Thomas Hobbes
D) Raffaele Garofalo

Question 6

Which of the following argued that humans are inherently pure and good.

A) John Locke
B) Edwin Sutherland
C) Jean Jacques Rousseau
D) Thomas Hobbes

Question 7

Which of the following refers to an individual's tendency to engage in law breaking behavior?

A) crime
B) criminality
C) invariance
D) tabula rasa

Question 8

Which of the following perspectives assumes that humans rationally choose to commit crime after weighing the cost and benefit of the behavior?

A) classical perspective
B) Hobbesian perspective
C) conflict/critical perspective
D) positivist perspective

Question 9

Which of the following can be defined as atypical and usually the violation of social norms?

A) crime
B) acts of delinquency
C) deviant behavior
D) social violations

Question 10

Who first coined the term criminology to refer to the scientific study of crime?

A) Edwin Sutherland
B) Travis Hirschi
C) Michael Gottfredson
D) Raffaele Garofalo

Question 11

Which of the following focuses on the individual-level behaviors and characteristics and personal-level processes, such as friends and family?

A) prosocial theories
B) macro-level theories
C) micro-level theories
D) reductionist theories

Question 12

The term tabula rasa refers to the idea that humans are ______.

A) incapable of pure evil
B) neither inherently good nor bad
C) inherently selfish and hedonistic
D) creatures of destiny

Question 13

Logical consistency and ______ are the two pillars of science.

A) reason
B) empirical validity
C) scope of application
D) equivocal propositions

Question 14

The positivist perspective assumes which of the following?

A) People have free will.
B) People are inherently evil.
C) People are governed by law of nature.
D) People have are a tabula rasa.

Question 15

______ behavior is wrong because a rule or law says it is wrong.

A) Mala in se
B) Mala prohibita
C) Rasa mala
D) Tabula mala

Question 16

If you created a theory that essentially said that crime is a result of biology, you would have created a theory consistent with the ______.

A) classical perspective
B) positivist perspective
C) Hobbesian perspective
D) conflict/critical perspective

Question 17

Theories that attempt to explain law breaking are best thought of as having a(n) ______.

A) criminal approach
B) judicial approach
C) holistic approach
D) legalistic approach

Question 18

The ______ perspective assumes that members of society agree on which behaviors should be regulated and punished by law.

A) conflict
B) consensus
C) diversity
D) universalistic

Question 19

______ behavior is "evil in itself."

A) Rasa mala
B) Mala prohibita
C) Mala in se
D) Tabula mala

Question 20

Before explaining a certain phenomenon, a theory should first ______.

A) identify the theory's scope of application
B) specify its major propositions
C) define what it is trying to explain
D) explain which level of analysis will be utilized

Question 21

The term mens rea refers to the ______.

A) fallibility of man
B) seriousness of the offense
C) offense type committed
D) intent of the offender

Question 22

According to Emile Durkheim, the weakening of social norms, what he refers to as ______, results in increased crime levels.

A) anomie
B) deficiency
C) politicalization
D) social revolutions

Question 23

The ______ test, the forefather of the IQ test, was developed at the beginning of the 20th century.

A) Binet
B) Comte
C) Goddard
D) Physiognomic

Question 24

One of the most studied chromosome abnormalities related to criminality is the XYY abnormality, often referred to as the ______.

A) superfemale
B) superhuman
C) supermale
D) supersoldier

Question 25

The Age of Reason emerged in the ______ against the backdrop of the Middle Ages.

A) 16th century
B) 17th century
C) 18th century
D) 19th century

Question 26

During the 18th century, crime was equated with ______.

A) harmless behavior
B) mental illness
C) codification
D) sin

Question 27

Charles Darwin wrote which of the following books in 1859, which introduced the theory of evolution and natural selection?

A) On the Crime and Punishment
B) On the Origin of Species
C) On the Proximate Cause of Crime
D) On the Purpose of Punishment

Question 28

______ are people who do not feel shame or guilt and are incapable of forming attachments to others.

A) Imbeciles
B) Psychopaths
C) Superegos
D) Anomies

Question 29

Cesare Beccaria argued that the purpose of punishment should be ______.

A) deterrence
B) entertainment of the nobility
C) incapacitation
D) retribution

Question 30

Low levels of ______ have been found consistently to be related to criminal offending.

A) dopamine
B) estrogen
C) serotonin
D) testosterone

Question 31

John Bowlby developed attachment theory, which emphasized the importance of attachment or bond between ______.

A) father and child
B) mother and child
C) man and woman
D) colleagues and peers

Question 32

One of the first theories to focus on biological variations to explain crime was ______, which relied on the measurement of skulls, and the examination of the brains of deceased people.

A) craniometry
B) evolution
C) physiognomy
D) social Darwinism

Question 33

Willem Bonger developed a theory of crime based on the works of ______, which attributes crime to the characteristics of modern capitalist economies.

A) Alfred Binet
B) Emile Durkheim
C) Henry Goddard
D) Karl Marx

Question 34

The ______ was developed in 1940 to detect psychological issues and abnormalities.

A) Binet Personality Inventory
B) California Personality Inventory
C) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
D) Psychopathological Personality Inventory

Question 35

Which of the following proposed the idea of the "felicific calculus," which considered humans like calculators figuring the costs and benefits in deciding on the best course of action.

A) Cesare Beccaria
B) Jeremy Bentham
C) John Locke
D) Edwin Sutherland

Question 36

The most famous version of psychoanalytic theory was developed by ______.

A) Henry Goddard
B) Emile Durkheim
C) Sigmund Freud
D) John Alexander

Question 37

______ is considered the father of the positive school of criminology because he was the first person to apply the scientific method to the study of crime.

A) Cesare Beccaria
B) Cesare Lombroso
C) Charles Darwin
D) Herbert Spencer

Question 38

According to Cesare Beccaria, the most important aspect of punishment is the ______ of punishment.

A) type
B) severity
C) swiftness
D) certainty

Question 39

Freud argued that the ______ acted as our moral conscience.

A) id
B) defense
C) ego
D) superego

Question 40

After comparing crime data in Belgium, Holland, and France, ______ found that the level of crime varied across places, and concluded that something about places must affect crime.

A) Alfred Binet
B) August Comte
C) Emile Durkheim
D) Adolphe Quetelet

Question 41

The classical school perspective assumes that people have free will.

Question 42

Physiognomic studies focus on the genetic makeup and chromosome abnormalities.

Question 43

Proximate explanations of crime occur at a distance to the crime event (e.g., the age at which someone first began drinking to explain drinking in middle age).

Question 44

Legalistic approach to defining criminology is problematic because the specific behaviors prohibited by law often vary across time and space.

Question 45

Humans have only recently begun to try to explain why some people engage in crime.

Question 46

Discuss the work of Cesare Lombroso and others who followed in his footsteps. Why is Cesare Lombroso important to the field of criminology? Be sure to discuss the works of Ernest Hooten and Charles Goring. What did each study? What were their major findings? What were the major criticisms of Lombroso, Hooten, and Goring's work?

Question 47

While more sophisticated than early biological theories, the findings of the biological studies of the early 20th century (such as the family studies, twin studies, adoption studies, and studies of twins separated at birth) were criticized for not separating out the effects of environmental impact and genetics.

Question 48

A high level of estrogen is associated with risk-taking, greater tolerance for pain, and preference for sensory stimuli.

Question 49

The conflict/critical perspective emerged in the 1980s.

Question 50

The classical perspective dominated the field of criminology for almost two centuries.

Question 51

Discuss the contributions of Emile Durkheim to the study of crime and criminality. Why is Durkheim important to the study of sociology and criminology? What was Durkheim's view of society? When is crime likely? What support does he offer?

Question 52

Identify the development of modern biological theories of crime related to family studies, adoption studies, and twin studies (both twins raised together and twins raised separately). When did these studies emerge? What led to the development of such theories? What were the key findings of each type of study? What were the criticisms of such studies?

Question 53

In science, more value is placed on theories with a larger scope of application.

Question 54

Anomie is especially profound during periods of rapid social change, regardless of when such change is better or worse than previous conditions.

Question 55

Hormones are chemicals that carry electric impulses/signals that the brain wishes to communicate.

Question 56

Discuss the differences between the conflict and consensus perspectives. How does each perspective view society? How is each related to crime and criminality? Make an argument about which perspective is correct.

Question 57

According to Cesare Lombroso, criminals are evolutionary throwbacks.

Question 58

Explain the difference between the preclassical school perspective and the classical theory of crime, especially in terms of the stance on human nature.

Question 59

In recent years, the positivist perspective has adopted the position of soft-determinism.