Deck 3: Deviance, Law, and Crime

Question 1

How does the text explain why issues such as drug trafficking, gang activity, and school shootings interest people?

A) They are large scale social problems that are difficult to explain.
B) They feed our morbid sense of curiosity.
C) They affect our economic well-being.
D) They explain why people deviate from social norms.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Adultery is an example of an activity that is ______.

A) illegal because it violates legal marriage vows
B) contrary to norms of behavior
C) acceptable in most Western societies
D) against both norms of behavior and the law

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Jaywalking is an example of an activity that ______.

A) breaks the law only
B) violates norms only
C) breaks both the law and norms
D) doesn't break the law or norms - it is considered normal behavior

Answer 3

C

Question 4

A homeless person is in the habit of urinating in back alleys. Because it doesn't directly affect most people, his behavior is overlooked most of the time, except by the people who live next to the alley. They have started a petition to get the police to take action. This demonstrates how deviance varies in terms of ______.

A) legal culpability
B) punishment required
C) social norms
D) perceived harmfulness

Question 5

______ is the degree to which an action is believed to hurt others.

A) Severity of public response
B) Perceived harmfulness
C) Level of public agreement
D) Legal culpability

Question 6

Incest and sexual assault are almost always considered to be ______.

A) deviant
B) criminal
C) deviant and criminal

Question 7

When Brigid turned 16, she got a tattoo on her ankle without telling her parents. When they saw it, they were very upset and concerned that she would have trouble getting a job because of the tattoo. This is an example of a ______.

A) minor crime
B) lesser crime
C) minor deviance
D) consensus crime

Question 8

Julio was very creative, as evidenced by the graffiti he liberally applied to abandoned buildings. Most people would consider Julio's graffiti as a ______.

A) white-collar crime
B) lesser crime
C) minor deviance
D) consensus crime

Question 9

Which type of crime is likely to have the least serious legal and social consequences?

A) Lesser crime
B) Capital crime
C) White-collar crime
D) Consensus crime

Question 10

Acts that are considered extremely harmful to society and carry severe punishments are called ______.

A) minor crimes
B) lesser crimes
C) white-collar crimes
D) consensus crimes

Question 11

What type of crime usually takes place in the workplace and has high social costs and a negative impact on society?

A) Minor crimes
B) Lesser crimes
C) White-collar crimes
D) Consensus crimes

Question 12

The Chief Financial Officer of Enron went to jail for defrauding the company and lying about financial statements. This is an example of a ______.

A) minor crime
B) lesser crime
C) white-collar crime
D) consensus crime

Question 13

How do conflict theorists explain why people commit white-collar crime?

A) They experience financial hardship.
B) They enjoy risk taking behavior.
C) They have social and economic power.
D) They have inflated self-esteem.

Question 14

Symbolic interactionists maintain that we learn about the world through ______, such as parents and friends.

A) socializing agents
B) community influencers
C) personal contacts
D) communication sources

Question 15

Berger and Luckmann believe that ______ has two steps: categorizing experiences, then forgetting how we determined this categorization in the first place and assuming it is natural and unchanging.

A) symbolic interactionism
B) social construction
C) cognitive processing
D) mental conditioning

Question 16

The text gives an example of the fact that different societies have contrived different ways of categorizing time, but all have come to see their way as the natural and unchanging way of doing it. This demonstrates the concept of ______.

A) symbolic interactionism
B) mental conditioning
C) cognitive processing
D) social construction

Question 17

Always-evolving social expectations that guide behavior are ______.

A) cultural universals
B) social perspectives
C) behavioral limitations
D) norms

Question 18

Sexual activity between consenting persons of the same sex has been legal nationwide in the United States since ______.

A) 1965
B) 1988
C) 2003
D) 2015

Question 19

Émile Durkheim felt that all societies have crime and deviance, and in fact there is a ______ that exists.

A) normality of crime
B) sensitivity to crime
C) desensitization to punishment
D) empathy toward crime

Question 20

According to Durkheim, we cannot learn what is and is not acceptable without ______.

A) breaking the rules ourselves
B) making the rules ourselves
C) understanding punishment's role
D) seeing others break the rules

Question 21

When did all states recognize and license same-sex marriages?

A) 1965
B) 1988
C) 2015
D) 2003

Question 22

Martin Luther King Jr. was considered a deviant because he broke norms when campaigning for racial equality. Which of Durkheim's functions of deviance applies here?

A) Affirm cultural values and norms
B) Understand right and wrong
C) Unite individuals in society
D) Encourage social change

Question 23

Which television program clearly demonstrates some of Durkheim's functions of deviance ?

A) Family Feud
B) Grey's Anatomy
C) Maury Povich
D) Sesame Street

Question 24

Some people feel that criminals are genetically defective and can't help it. What explanation of crime does this adhere to?

A) Social-level
B) Biological-level
C) Psychological-level
D) Individual-level

Question 25

If you believe that the man who stole your car cannot be rehabilitated because he is just rotten from the inside out, you subscribe to the ______ explanation of crime.

A) individual-level
B) biological-level
C) psychological-level
D) social-level

Question 26

When the individual-level explanation of crime prevails, what level of punishment tends to occur?

A) Light sentences with community service
B) More severe punishments with longer sentences
C) Early release or probation
D) No sentence, just community service

Question 27

Social explanations of crime seek to understand the act as the result of ______.

A) how the environment shapes actions
B) how other people respond to situations
C) how individuals see themselves
D) how biology shapes behavior

Question 28

Maurice was unemployed and desperate to feed his children, so he stole from his local grocery store. This behavior demonstrates Merton's ______ theory.

A) hardship
B) strain
C) psycho-social
D) conditional

Question 29

Inner-city gangs sometimes require a member to have a "kill" to prove their loyalty. Which theory explains this purpose for committing a crime?

A) Individual-level
B) Strain theory
C) Subcultural theory
D) Labelling theory

Question 30

Theorist Stanley Cohen describes gangs as ______.

A) a collective adaptation to social conditions
B) an outgrowth of primary culture
C) a protest against culture
D) a reimagining of community institutions

Question 31

What theory can be explained by the statement, "the best place to learn how to be a criminal is in jail"?

A) Labelling theory
B) Strain theory
C) Subcultural theory
D) Learning theory

Question 32

There is some evidence that people in prison can become radicalized to Islamic extremism from interacting with other prisoners. Which theory explains this behavior?

A) Labelling theory
B) Control theory
C) Subcultural theory
D) Learning theory

Question 33

Employees who commit mass shootings in their workplaces may feel unconnected to the people who work there, that they are being unfairly treated, or that they will never be able to advance in the company. Which theory helps to explain how these feelings can lead to a criminal act?

A) Labelling theory
B) Control theory
C) Subcultural theory
D) Learning theory

Question 34

Which theory involves a process by which identifying someone as a criminal can produce a self-fulfilling prophecy?

A) Learning theory
B) Control theory
C) Subcultural theory
D) Labelling theory

Question 35

Which theory is organized around the idea that crime can be created by the process of getting caught?

A) Learning theory
B) Control theory
C) Subcultural theory
D) Labelling theory

Question 36

When Lavinia and her friends were in middle school, they shoplifted makeup from a store just for the thrill of it. This is most likely an example of ______ deviance.

A) secondary
B) primary
C) persistent
D) predictive

Question 37

The first time Carly shoplifted, she experienced such a thrill that she decided to see if she could steal money from the cash register at work. Next, she stole a car, the biggest thrill of all. Carly's actions are most likely examples of ______ deviance.

A) secondary
B) primary
C) random
D) isolated

Question 38

Arturo was proud that he was called a "bad boy" by the other students because he talked back to teachers and roughed up other kids. He eventually dropped out of school and joined a gang, where his activities became more serious. Arturo's behavior can best be explained using ______ theory.

A) learning
B) control
C) subcultural
D) labelling

Question 39

Juvenile confidentiality laws could keep ______ deviance from becoming ______ deviance.

A) primary; secondary
B) initial; pseudo
C) individual; social
D) persistent; primary

Question 40

Social explanations typically support rehabilitative punishments and crime prevention by focusing on ______ factors.

A) psychological
B) relationship
C) contextual
D) personal

Question 41

Stanley Milgram's experience tested ______.

A) how individual's behaviors are shaped by social context and roles
B) how blindly following someone's orders affects people's treatment of each other
C) what happens when an authority figures changes places with a subordinate
D) what happens when deviance causes the inability to get employed

Question 42

In Milgram's experiment, the learner was ______.

A) a volunteer
B) the experimenter
C) an actor
D) an observer

Question 43

In Milgram's experiment, who insisted that the experiment continue even when it became uncomfortable?

A) The learner
B) The experimenter
C) The teacher

Question 44

In Milgram's experiment, what happened when the learner made a mistake in the task?

A) He was penalized by having time removed from the clock.
B) He was frowned at by the teacher and made to feel incompetent.
C) He was administered a shock.
D) His financial reward was reduced.

Question 45

What was the outcome of Milgram's experiment?

A) Most of the teachers went all the way through the experiment without asking to stop once.
B) Most of the learners got up and left the room, refusing to further participate.
C) Most of the teachers stopped administering shocks after several complaints by the learner.
D) Most of the teachers administered the highest level shock.

Question 46

Where did Zimbardo's experiment take place?

A) In a lab in the psychology building with two-way mirrors
B) In a basement at Stanford University
C) In a classroom with student observers
D) In an actual prison near campus

Question 47

In Zimbardo's experiment, what happened when the "guards" were resisted by the "prisoners"?

A) The guards punished them.
B) The other prisoners harassed the prisoners who were resisting.
C) The other prisoners supported the actions of the resisting prisoners.
D) The guards backed down and gave in to the resisting prisoners.

Question 48

What federal agency keeps track of arrest data in the U.S?

A) The CIA
B) The Department of Defense
C) The U.S. Federal Court System
D) The FBI

Question 49

Violent and property crime have been ______ in the U.S. since 1990s.

A) increasing
B) decreasing
C) staying the same

Question 50

Why is it difficult to compare crime rates across countries?

A) Not all countries track crime.
B) Not all countries share crime data.
C) Crime classifications differ among countries.
D) Crime rates fluctuate too much for comparison.

Question 51

Of these countries, which has the highest murder rate?

A) Australia
B) Japan
C) the U.S.
D) Brazil

Question 52

It is easier to get a gun in ______ than most other countries.

A) Canada
B) the U.S.
C) Great Britain
D) Japan

Question 53

Shoplifting, minor drug use, and petty theft by young people are usually acts of ______ deviance.

A) primary
B) secondary
C) prime
D) pervasive

Question 54

Which of these crimes are women least likely to perpetrate compared to men?

A) Murder
B) Abduction
C) Prostitution
D) Theft

Question 55

A survey of 70 law enforcement departments in the U.S. found that Black people are arrested ______ times as often as other racial groups.

A) 3
B) 7
C) 10
D) 20

Question 56

______ is/are a denial of certain privileges, abilities, or rights.

A) Penalties
B) Retribution
C) Deterrence
D) Punishments

Question 57

One function of punishment is ______, which is making the cost of punishment outweigh the benefit of the crime.

A) deterrence
B) retribution
C) societal protection
D) labelling

Question 58

Offenders can provide ______ by fixing the injustice caused by their crime, whether by compensation or constructive confrontation.

A) solidarity
B) rehabilitation
C) restoration
D) remuneration

Question 59

Individuals reoffend at a very high rate - up to 77% after 4 years. This is called the ______ rate.

A) incarceration
B) recidivism
C) probation
D) restoration

Question 60

Approximately what is the cost to incarcerate a person for one year in the United States?

A) $10,000
B) $20,000
C) $30,000
D) $40,000

Question 61

An act is NOT considered deviant until it breaks a law.

Question 62

In some states, LGBTQ people can legally be discriminated against in employment and housing.

Question 63

In spite of Americans' general acceptance of homosexuality, there are still countries in the world that punish it with a death sentence.

Question 64

Travis Hirschi's (2004) control theory argues that people have control over the acts they perpetrate.

Question 65

Nadia was in the prison cafeteria when she overheard some inmates discussing the easiest way to rob a bank, so when she was released, she tried it. This behavior can be explained using strain theory.

Question 66

Primary deviance is more serious than secondary deviance.

Question 67

Followers of labelling theory would be more likely to promote programs that use community service for young people caught engaging in criminal acts instead of the courts.

Question 68

Gun homicide rates are 10 times higher in the United States than in other high-income countries

Question 69

If you buy a gun in Japan, one of the steps you must take is to have references from family and friends.

Question 70

When there are more guns in a country, it is more likely there will be mass shootings.

Question 71

After age 60, people are highly unlikely to engage in criminal activity.

Question 72

Women currently account for only about 10% of the people arrested in the U.S.

Question 73

The death penalty is a good example of specific deterrence.

Question 74

Parole and probation both involve releasing people who have been convicted of crimes into the community.

Question 75

The rise of private, for-profit prisons is a concern because it may result in fewer people in prison.

Question 76

Compare and contrast the types of deviance, including lesser crimes, consensus crimes, and white-collar crimes. Give examples of each.

Question 77

Émile Durkheim's theory about crime is unconventional. Explain what this means using the four functions of deviance he proposed.

Question 78

Differentiate between the social explanations of deviance and crime: strain theory, subcultural theory, learning theory, and control theory. How do their focuses differ?

Question 79

Describe Milgram's and Zimbardo's experiments and state what they have in common.

Question 80

Why are recidivism rates so high in the United States? What social factors contribute to this problem?