Deck 9: Contesting Crime

Question 1

The Uniform Crime Report tracks arrest data for 21 Part II crimes, including ______.

A) drunkenness
B) robbery
C) arson
D) human trafficking

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Why are the number of violent crimes reported in the NCVS higher than the number of violent crimes reported in the UCR?

A) The NCVS has a much larger sample size.
B) The NCVS is less scientifically rigorous than the UCR.
C) The NCVS is less valid than the UCR because it involves self-reports by victims.
D) The NCVS allows victims to report a crime to the researcher, without being required to report a crime to the police.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following acts would illustrate the breaking of a folkway norm?

A) Corey accepted a bribe.
B) Rob physically assaulted his ex-wives.
C) Kellyanne didn't wash her hands after going to the restroom.
D) Mike engaged in incest.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The victim's rights movement and battered women's movement began in response to the publication of which study?

A) Annual Crime Survey (ACS)
B) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
C) Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
D) General Social Survey (GSS)

Question 5

What are the features that differentiate folkways, mores, and taboos?

A) Violating a taboo is the same as committing a crime, while folkways and mores are not criminal.
B) Folkways are informal, while mores and taboos are formal.
C) Each norm has a different level of negative sanctions that may result from norm breaking.
D) Breaking a folkway is considered to be unethical, while breaking mores and taboos are considered criminal.

Question 6

Brett had too much to drink at a dorm party. He exposed himself to one of the young women who also lived in the dorm, and thrust himself in her face when she tried to get away. Which statement best describes Brett's behavior?

A) Brett violated a folkway norm, because Brett broke an informal rule.
B) Brett's actions violated mores, because mores are norms that regulate moral and ethical behavior.
C) Brett's actions were taboo, and taboos are extreme norm violations on par with incest and cannibalism.
D) Brett's behavior did not violate norms.

Question 7

The ______ is an annual survey of a nationally-representative sample of American households.

A) National Perpetrator Survey (NPS)
B) Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
C) General Social Survey (GSS)
D) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

Question 8

The function performed by ______ is to emphasize and enforce norms that have been formalized, or codified.

A) sanctions
B) laws
C) taboos
D) crime

Question 9

Homicide, rape, burglary, and arson are crimes that are categorized as ______ in the Uniform Crime Report.

A) white-collar crimes
B) violent crimes
C) Part I crimes
D) Part II crimes

Question 10

Which of the statements is true when comparing and contrasting the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)?

A) The UCR surveys households, while the NCVS collects self-reported crime statistics from police departments.
B) The UCR does not track public order offenses (e.g., public drunkenness), but the NCVS does.
C) The NCVS captures crimes that were not reported to the police, so it is better to examine the dark figure of crime.
D) The UCR is the most accurate because it comes from official police reports instead of self-reported surveys.

Question 11

Identify the different types of norms in order of how harshly people are negatively sanctioned for breaking them, from the least severe sanctions to the most severe sanctions.

A) folkways, mores, taboos
B) taboos, mores, folkways
C) mores, taboos, folkways
D) folkways, taboos, mores

Question 12

What statement describes similarities between deviance and crime?

A) both are forms of sanctions
B) both rule the ethics and morals within a society
C) both involve formal norms
D) both involve a norm violation

Question 13

Which source of data on crime would provide more accurate statistics about the prevalence of sexual assault?

A) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
B) Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
C) Annual Crime Survey (ACS)
D) General Social Survey (GSS)

Question 14

Which scenario describes a violation of mores?

A) Betsy promised to go to her friend's birthday party, but decided not to show up instead.
B) William told white lies at a job interview to make himself sound more professional.
C) Steve constantly interrupts his subordinates.
D) DJ cheated on his wife.

Question 15

What is a key difference between deviance and crime?

A) All norm violations are deviant, but an act of deviance is only a crime if the act is prohibited in law.
B) All deviance is criminal, but not all crime is deviant.
C) Committing crime generates negative sanctions, but acts of deviance do not.
D) Deviance is a more serious norm violation that crime.

Question 16

Which statement is true regarding the use of statistics to engage in claims-making about social problems?

A) There is no way to find out if statistics used by others are accurate.
B) Statistics can be trusted when they are used as evidence to back up an argument.
C) Data was used successfully by the battered women's movement to get others to recognize that domestic violence was a social problem.
D) UCR statistical crime data is exceptionally accurate.

Question 17

Which scenario describes a taboo?

A) Brad has a crush on a girl in his neighborhood; sometimes, after dark, he sneaks up to her window and spies on her.
B) Michelle never uses her turn signal when changing lanes.
C) After being stranded for months in snow without food or water, George agrees to eat the flesh of one of the dead settlers.
D) Jason cheated on his final exam.

Question 18

What type of negative sanction may occur as a punishment for breaking a taboo?

A) being verbally corrected
B) expulsion from society
C) being fired from your job
D) having someone cuss you out

Question 19

A study by the sentencing project compared news reports and official arrest records. They found that, when compared to the real number of incidents, black males are overrepresented as perpetrators, but underrepresented as victims in television news stories. Which statement describes a likely outcome resulting from the way that black males are represented on the news?

A) This may cause more white men to commit crimes.
B) This can contribute to implicit bias in members of the community, as well as among members of the police force.
C) The way this group is represented might cause news departments to compete with rival stations in covering crimes.
D) This can contribute to the dark figure of crime.

Question 20

The Uniform Crime Report reported 16,214 homicides in the United States in 2018. If based on this data, I was to make the claim: "…there were 16,214 murders in the United States in 2018", why would it be inaccurate?

A) The UCR is known to be full of clerical errors sent in by local police with sloppy records.
B) This number does not include the "dark figure of crime."
C) Some of the perpetrators of those homicides may be acquitted once they go to trial, so it would be inaccurate to refer to those crimes as murder.
D) Not all perpetrators of homicide will be arrested, and some may escape justice.

Question 21

Which theoretical perspective is consistent with the view that powerful corporations escape justice and maintain their power because their malfeasance is ignored by society, while at the same time street crimes are emphasized?

A) criminological theory
B) critical theory
C) functionalism
D) interactionism

Question 22

Which theory contends that bad neighborhoods where people lack connections are problematic because they cause crime?

A) strain theory
B) social disorganization theory
C) classical theory
D) critical theory

Question 23

Preston has always wanted a fancy sports car, but has never been able to afford to buy one. One day, he walks by his dream car, unlocked with the keys inside. Preston considers stealing the car, but ultimately decides that the risk of ending up in jail is not worth it. What term describes Preston's thought process as he considered stealing the car?

A) anomic imbalance
B) hedonistic calculus
C) risk/reward decision-making
D) desire principle

Question 24

Which theoretical perspective examines the ways in which social structures create barriers for less-powerful individuals in a society?

A) critical theory
B) intersectionality
C) social disorganization theory
D) strain theory

Question 25

Donald felt like he was not making enough money at his job to live a successful life. After following the rules for a while, he eventually became impatient and started embezzling money from the company. Which typology describes Donald's mode of adaptation to anomic imbalance?

A) retreatist
B) ritualist
C) innovator
D) conformist

Question 26

According to critical theorists, why are the wealthy less likely to be searched, arrested, convicted, and incarcerated than the poor?

A) The wealthy are more trustworthy when compared to the poor.
B) Wealthy individuals are less likely to feel financial strain, so they are less likely to commit crimes.
C) The criminal justice system criminalizes the poor in order to allow the wealthy to maintain their dominant position in society.
D) The poor commit more crimes because they are more likely to lack education, leaving them with few legitimate employment options.

Question 27

What is the purpose of critical theory?

A) To critique other theoretical perspectives.
B) To utilize critical thinking skills when examining crime.
C) To identify unequal social structures as social problems that must be changed to achieve equality.
D) To integrate different social structures in order to restore social order.

Question 28

In 1939, Edwin Sutherland became the first to define a long-overlooked type of crime as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation." What crime was he defining?

A) street crime
B) high-class crime
C) bourgeoisie crime
D) white-collar crime

Question 29

Mae has lived in her home for nearly 70 years. It seems that every few years, people move into the community, and move out, and Mae never seems to have time to get to know them. In contrast to the transient population, a few things have remained constant: Her neighborhood's high crime rate and high poverty rate. What theory can help us understand why crime rates remain the same in Mae's neighborhood, even though the entire population has changed?

A) social disorganization theory
B) strain theory
C) critical theory
D) classical theory

Question 30

A non-profit moved into a low-income, high-crime neighborhood and began working on several programs for the community with the intention of connecting people and helping them restore pride in their community. They assisted people in avoiding getting evicted, set up a neighborhood watch program, and implemented an afterschool tutoring program. What criminological theory would be consistent with this type of solution?

A) strain theory
B) social disorganization theory
C) classical theory
D) critical theory

Question 31

Which theory suggests that the solution to crime is to ensure that punishments are certain, swift, and harsh enough to discourage people from choosing to engage in criminality?

A) strain theory
B) social disorganization theory
C) classical theory
D) critical theory

Question 32

What category of crimes is responsible for the greatest loss of life every year?

A) white-collar crime
B) street crime
C) gang crime
D) terrorism

Question 33

Why did researchers Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay decide to look for structural causes of criminality in Chicago neighborhoods as opposed to studying individual-level causes?

A) Because the correlation between individual-level causes of criminality had been disproven by the social scientific community.
B) Criminology had yet to develop scientifically sound research methods to study individual-level causes of criminality.
C) The population was too wary of researchers to consent to being research subjects.
D) Crime rates appeared to be tied to location, not people, because crime rates remained constant even when the entire population moved out and new groups of people moved in.

Question 34

Eric failed at everything he ever tried. He failed at school, got in trouble, and joined the military. He began to feel trapped, working hard but getting nowhere. After a messy divorce and a dishonorable discharge from the military, he finally gave up and self-medicated until he developed an opioid addiction. Which typology describes Eric's mode of adaptation to anomic imbalance?

A) retreatist
B) ritualist
C) innovator
D) conformist

Question 35

Policies that offered greater financial support for education and a pathway to gainful employment in order to cause a reduction in crime would be consistent with which theory?

A) strain theory
B) social disorganization theory
C) classical theory
D) critical theory

Question 36

Why would a classical criminologist be opposed to keeping a convicted criminal's sentence secret from the public?

A) Without transparency, the public may lose faith in the government's ability to keep them safe.
B) The public needs to know that retribution has been achieved and justice has been served.
C) People need to know what punishment to expect if they commit a crime so that they can weigh the costs and benefits of engaging in criminality.
D) If the sentence is kept secret, people may believe the punishment is too harsh, and will lose trust in the government.

Question 37

Barb has always been ambitious. Although sometimes she feels like she's spinning her wheels, the dream that someday she'll be able to afford her own home keeps her motivated to work hard. Which typology describes Barb's mode of adaptation to anomic imbalance?

A) retreatist
B) ritualist
C) innovator
D) conformist

Question 38

______ refers to the recognition that life chances are different for different people because of the interaction between race, gender, and class.

A) collusion
B) intersectionality
C) interactionism
D) converging

Question 39

Which criminological theory suggests that crime is a rational decision made by rational individuals seeking to maximize pleasure and minimize pain?

A) social disorganization theory
B) strain theory
C) critical theory
D) classical theory

Question 40

Richard used to dream of owning a nice house in the suburbs, but after 15 years in a dead-end job, he's given up. Every morning, Richard leaves his small rented apartment, makes the long commute to work, and clocks in promptly at 8
A)m. to a job he hates. Which typology describes Richard's mode of adaptation to anomic imbalance?

A) retreatist
B) ritualist
C) innovator
D) conformist

Question 41

Deviance becomes criminal when societies create formal sanctions via laws.

Question 42

Strain theory refers to the media-facilitated fascination Americans have with violent crime.

Question 43

The more local news people consume, the greater their fear of becoming a victim of crime.

Question 44

If you violate a formal norm known as a law, you are committing a crime.

Question 45

Social constructionism is a perspective that examines how social structures control the types of opportunities available to individuals, creating inequality.

Question 46

Taboos are the most serious of all rules, so the breaking of a taboo is also considered illegal behavior.

Question 47

Discriminatory police tactics are the primary explanation for why there are a disproportionate number of people of color in prisons.

Question 48

The most powerful groups in society determine what is-and is not-considered criminal.

Question 49

Violating a folkway will result in the harshest negative sanctions of all types of social norms.

Question 50

Although more people die from the effects of white-collar crime, our society tends to pay more attention to street crime.

Question 51

Critical theorists believe that the powerful groups in society maintain their power by criminalizing any groups that could challenge their supremacy.

Question 52

Mores are norms that are closely related to a society's ethics and morals.

Question 53

The Uniform Crime Report involves official data released annually that accurately measures all crimes committed in the United States.

Question 54

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) details crimes reported by police departments across the United States

Question 55

The dark figure of crime refers to the actual amount of crimes committed, which is higher than the number of crimes reported.

Question 56

The Thomas Theorem states that "If [people] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."

Question 57

Immigrants' disproportionality commits more crimes than their native-born counterparts.

Question 58

The function of laws is to enforce norms within a society.

Question 59

Research suggests that implicit biases results in police using deadly force against unarmed black individuals at higher rates than whites.

Question 60

Intersectionality is a concept that suggests those social structures, and the way in which they intersect to determine our life chances.

Question 61

How are critical class theory, critical race theory, and critical gender theory connected?

Question 62

Criminologists and sociologists who study criminology seek to explain crime by examining root causes.

Question 63

What are "cultural goals" and "institutionalized means," according to Merton's Strain theory?

Question 64

Norms are shared ideas about what kind of behavior is appropriate and desirable. When someone violates a norm, they are likely to face negative sanctions. However, not all norm violations are punished equally. Define and describe the three types of norms categorized based on how strictly they are enforced with sanctions. Give an example for each norm, and suggest a negative sanction that would be likely to result from violating each norm.

Question 65

What is the "dark figure of crime"?

Question 66

What is the Thomas Theorem, and how is it relevant to media portrayals of crime?

Question 67

What is the difference between Part I crimes and Part II crimes in the Uniform Crime Report?

Question 68

What are the two main sources of statistical crime rates in the United States, and how do they collect their data?

Question 69

Classical theorists believe that criminals decide to engage in crime after engaging in hedonistic calculus.

Question 70

According to Merton, people will experience strain whenever they cannot achieve the culturally approved goals of society while following the institutionalized means.

Question 71

According to Merton, anomic imbalance exists in the United States because most people expect to achieve the American Dream of financial success, but it is very difficult for most people to achieve that dream using the institutionalized means.

Question 72

Briefly define classical theory, social disorganization theory, and strain theory. Identify what social problem each theory suggests is the cause of crime.

Question 73

Ritualists are people who adapt to strain by accepting the goals of financial success and the institutionalized means of achieving those goals.

Question 74

Name and describe the three types of norms in the order of how harshly an individual would be sanctioned for violating them.

Question 75

Cesare Beccaria blamed neighborhood disorganization as the underlying cause of crime.

Question 76

Strain theorists believe that crime occurs because criminals make rational decisions to engage in deviant behavior.

Question 77

What must happen for a deviant act to be considered criminal?

Question 78

Merton claimed that individuals who fall in the "retreatist" typology were often addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Question 79

Conformists accept both society's cultural goals, as well as the institutionalized means of achieving those goals.

Question 80

Social disorganization theory suggests that crime is primarily caused by macro-level factors such as poverty and population transience.