Deck 5: Delinquent Subcultures, Subcultures of Delinquency, and the Labeling

Question 1

The Progressive Era is characterized by its concern for

A) tax rates and income equity.
B) moral instruction and labor market preparedness.
C) alleviating social problems.
D) keeping America white.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The city of Chicago experienced rapid immigration from Europe and in-migration from the American South, as a result of

A) social policies that encouraged movement away from the coasts and toward the heartland.
B) fears of political persecution among refugees.
C) Chicago's plea for more people to work in its factories.
D) Al Capone's promise of economic opportunity for all who would move there.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, by Thomas and Znaniecki

A) employed official documents from government agencies to track Polish immigrants.
B) used government-sponsored survey research to estimate the numbers of Polish immigrants.
C) used personal documents and life histories to examine the circumstances of Polish immigrants.
D) used in-depth interviews to help Polish immigrants understand their new surroundings.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The Unadjusted Girl illustrated how female delinquency results from what Thomas determined were

A) four wishes.
B) novel approaches to social circumstances.
C) clear violations of proper behavior for girls.
D) single-mother patterns in their families of origin.

Question 5

In Delinquency Areas, Shaw argued that physical deterioration of the neighborhood led to social

A) solidarity.
B) disorganization.
C) atrophy.
D) integration.

Question 6

Unlike previous criminologists, Chicago School scholars believed that delinquents were

A) abnormal people living in normal conditions.
B) normal people living in normal conditions.
C) abnormal people living in abnormal conditions.
D) normal people living in abnormal conditions.

Question 7

In studying the demographics of juvenile delinquency, Shaw and McKay identified the highest rates of delinquency in

A) suburban areas.
B) the zone of transition.
C) the central business district.
D) rural areas.

Question 8

According to Shaw and McKay's research, physical deterioration eventually leads to

A) social chaos.
B) social order.
C) social disorganization.
D) mechanical solidarity.

Question 9

Shaw and McKay believed that neighborhoods with high rates of delinquency were usually ethnic-minority communities because

A) they were morally inferior to the white natives of Chicago.
B) they had not had the opportunities to work their way out of those conditions yet.
C) those communities were battling cultural conflicts among themselves.
D) the immigrants were ill-equipped for doing business in the United States.

Question 10

By plotting juvenile delinquency rates on maps, Shaw and McKay were able to show that

A) certain areas of Chicago had large concentrations of juvenile delinquents.
B) crime and juvenile delinquency remained relatively constant across the zones of the city.
C) it is possible to prevent juvenile delinquency in most cities.
D) filtering delinquency rates outward is a good social strategy for containing them.

Question 11

According to Shaw and McKay's research, delinquency rates vary with

A) rates of school truancy.
B) presence of young adult offenders.
C) infant mortality rates.
D) all of the above.

Question 12

According to Cohen, a subculture refers to the existence of a set of cultural practices that

A) differ from the dominant culture.
B) reinforce the dominant culture.
C) eventually dominate the main culture through physical force.
D) subdivide the dominant culture.

Question 13

According to Cohen, a subculture of delinquent boys is characterized as being

A) utilitarian, benevolent, and positive.
B) nonutilitarian, malicious, and negativistic.
C) nonutilitarian, benevolent, and negativistic.
D) utilitarian, malicious, and negativistic.

Question 14

A defining characteristic of delinquent subcultures is that they are usually

A) black.
B) white.
C) female.
D) male.

Question 15

A specific problem encountered by working-class boys, according to Cohen's research, is that they are

A) raised by working-class parents.
B) never given proper training in schools.
C) evaluated based on a "middle-class measuring rod."
D) encouraged to succeed at all costs.

Question 16

The "middle-class measuring rod," by which all children are evaluated, includes

A) income levels and graduated resources distributed based on ability to pay.
B) ambition, individual responsibility, achievement, and constructive leisure.
C) adjustment mechanisms.
D) both a and c.

Question 17

According to Cohen, in response to the "status frustration" that they experience, working-class boys often respond with a

A) control strategy.
B) physical altercation with a middle-class boy.
C) plea for help from the principal of their schools.
D) reaction formation.

Question 18

What did Cohen argue regarding female delinquency?

A) Girls do not face the same problems of adjustment that working-class boys face.
B) Girls are socially not to associate in small groups, such as gangs.
C) Delinquency often has a negative effect on a girl's status, but a positive effect on the status of boys.
D) Both a and c.

Question 19

A serious omission in Cohen's theory was his failure to examine

A) race and ethnicity.
B) class.
C) gender.
D) sexuality.

Question 20

A serious problem with Cohen's theory was his failure to provide empirical evidence that

A) middle-class goals are better than working-class goals.
B) working-class boys are indeed more delinquent than middle-class boys.
C) working-class delinquents actually accept middle-class goals.
D) middle-class parents are more ambitious than working-class parents.

Question 21

According to Miller, female-headed households result in

A) boys seeking male role models on the street.
B) girls becoming sexually promiscuous.
C) mothers working too many hours.
D) mothers living on welfare without adequate child support.

Question 22

According to Miller, boys who are reared by a single mother are likely to

A) become effeminate and homosexual.
B) experience teasing and humiliation.
C) suffer from poverty and loose morals.
D) suffer from an identity crisis and develop problems with gender-role identification.

Question 23

According to Miller, gangs resolve the problems of identity crisis for lower-class boys because they

A) teach boys new skills on getting along in a tough world.
B) provide a sense of belonging and a status to the boys.
C) teach boys the difference between right and wrong.
D) help boys belong to a constructive civic group.

Question 24

According to Cloward and Ohlin's research, Type III boys

A) want middle-class success within middle-class standards.
B) want monetary success and internalize middle-class values.
C) want monetary success, but don't internalize middle-class values.
D) are dropouts.

Question 25

Where are criminal subcultures most likely to exist according to Cloward and Ohlin's research?

A) In poor, disorganized, transient, and unstable neighborhoods.
B) In poor but stable urban neighborhoods where legitimate aspirations are blocked.
C) In immigrant neighborhoods.
D) Both a and c.

Question 26

Where are we most likely to find boys who fail in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunities?

A) conflict subcultures
B) retreatist subcultures
C) criminal subcultures
D) underground subcultures

Question 27

Which type of subculture focuses on highly visible acts of interpersonal violence, gang warfare, and property destruction?

A) conflict subcultures
B) retreatist subcultures
C) criminal subcultures
D) underground subcultures

Question 28

Subcultural theories of juvenile delinquency were influential in developing social policy during what presidencies?

A) Truman and Eisenhower
B) Kennedy and Johnson
C) Ford and Carter
D) Reagan and Bush

Question 29

One major problem with the subcultural theories of juvenile delinquency is their pejorative assumption regarding

A) young people's needs and desires.
B) upper-middle-class culture.
C) middle-class culture.
D) lower-class culture.

Question 30

Which of the following is not a key concept of Matza's theory?

A) conformity subculture
B) subculture of delinquency
C) drift
D) positive delinquency

Question 31

According to Matza's research, the subculture of delinquency is of "two minds." They are:

A) condemning deviance while condemning conventional values.
B) condemning deviance while embracing conventional values.
C) allowing deviance while condemning conventional values.
D) allowing and encouraging deviance while remaining basically committed to conventional values.

Question 32

According to Matza, delinquents tend to __________ between violations of the law and adherence to it.

A) drift
B) negotiate
C) compromise
D) none of the above

Question 33

"Appeal to higher loyalties" is seen in which of the following examples?

A) "It didn't hurt anyone else."
B) "He hit me first!"
C) "She deserves what's coming to her."
D) "I was just helping my friend!"

Question 34

Denial of the victim is seen in which of the following examples?

A) "It didn't hurt anyone else."
B) "He hit me first!"
C) "She deserves what's coming to her."
D) "I was just helping my friend!"

Question 35

In his critique of Matza, Jack Katz argues that criminologists should study the

A) foreground of delinquency and crime.
B) background or social causes of delinquency and crime.
C) intellectual aspects of delinquency and crime.
D) political meaning of delinquency and crime.

Question 36

The labeling perspective's neutral posture toward deviants eventually became a

A) celebration of deviant activity as evidence of the virtue of social diversity.
B) celebration of deviants because they are so oppressed.
C) warning against deviant behavior because of the threat to social order.
D) warning against deviant behavior because of the possibility of disease.

Question 37

Labeling theorists saw alcoholism, mental illness, and criminality as

A) evidence of the diseased nature of the chronically poor.
B) evidence of a widespread pathology in modern capitalism.
C) victims of society who had the potential to rebel against its values.
D) the result of blocked access to illegitimate subcultural opportunities.

Question 38

Which of the following is NOT a key concept of the labeling perspective?

A) psychopathic personality
B) the social meaning of deviance
C) societal reaction to deviance
D) stigma

Question 39

From a labeling perspective, crime and deviance are

A) never fully understandable.
B) pregiven, objective categories and nonnegotiable statuses.
C) socially relative categories and negotiable statuses.
D) relatively similar concepts and statuses cross-culturally and historically.

Question 40

Becker's research on marijuana users indicates that

A) they must learn to experience the effects of marijuana as pleasurable.
B) they must learn to deceive their parents about their use.
C) they get high on the first try.
D) users of medical marijuana do not experience a high from the drug.

Question 41

According to __________, what counts as deviance is mostly a function of the ability of powerful groups to impose their concept of right and wrong on others.

A) Sykes and Matza
B) Cohen
C) Becker
D) Shaw and McKay

Question 42

What causes "primary deviance" according to Lemert?

A) membership in delinquent gangs
B) social, psychological, and cultural factors
C) single-parent families
D) personality disturbances

Question 43

Lemert sees "secondary deviance" as caused by

A) membership in delinquent gangs.
B) ineffective reactions to primary deviance.
C) single-parent families.
D) societal reactions to primary deviance.

Question 44

Which statement most accurately reflects a labeling perspective?

A) Punishment produces criminality.
B) Criminality produces punishment.
C) Deviance leads to social control.
D) Social control leads to deviance.

Question 45

"Deviance amplification" results from

A) internalized subterranean values.
B) the application of social control.
C) failures of internalized self-control.
D) inability to manage stigma.

Question 46

What is "deviance amplification"?

A) Decreased deviance as a result of social control.
B) The dialectical relationship between deviance and social control.
C) An unintended increase in deviance as a result of social control.
D) The mutually constitutive relationship between norms, conventionality, and deviance.

Question 47

According to labeling theorists "stigma" is

A) a sign denoting someone disqualified from full social acceptance.
B) an indication of one's inherent inferiority.
C) a sign of disgrace imposed on an individual.
D) both a and c.

Question 48

According to Goffman, total institutions are

A) safe environments for leaving behind a stigmatized identity.
B) difficult environments from which to escape the effects of stigma.
C) environments where individuals learn to maintain a stigmatized identity.
D) environments where people escape the effects of stigma.

Question 49

Which of the following reforms would be advocated by labeling theorists?

A) Decriminalization, diversion, and decarceration.
B) Three-strikes policies and mandatory minimum sentencing.
C) The Juvenile Justice Prevention and Control Act.
D) Neighborhood watch and clean-up programs combined with increased police presence.

Question 50

Shaw and McKay linked their explanations of juvenile delinquency to nativist principles.

Question 51

Shaw and McKay's study Juvenile Delinquency in Urban Areas found that delinquency rates were higher in the zone of transition than in the suburban areas of Chicago.

Question 52

Cohen's research on juvenile gang members tried to answer questions about their values and beliefs.

Question 53

Cohen believed that due to the "middle-class measuring rod," most juvenile delinquents are drawn from the poor and working classes.

Question 54

One of the problems with Cohen's research is his failure to address female delinquency.

Question 55

Miller's research linked lower-class boys' juvenile delinquency with female-headed households.

Question 56

According to Cloward and Ohlin's research, Type III boys want more economic success and seek status through big cars and flashy clothes.

Question 57

Cloward and Ohlin believed that Type III boys were high achievers in educational settings and had aspirations for economic success through legitimate workforce participation.

Question 58

A "conflict subculture" is characterized by a high level of involvement in criminal activities such as racketeering, numbers, and selling illegal drugs.

Question 59

Despite its popularity in criminology, subcultural theory has not been able to influence federal crime policy.

Question 60

Matza believed that many young people who act in a deviant manner eventually conform.

Question 61

Labeling theorists emphasize the importance of stigma in the process of adopting and internalizing a deviant identity.

Question 62

Primary deviance always leads to secondary deviance.

Question 63

The labeling perspective is basically a conservative view of human behavior and the relationship to society.

Question 64

Labeling theory flourished in the 1960s and dominated criminology for a time, but has not led to new research since then.

Question 65

According to Chiricos et al., arrests and adjudication are not related to recidivism.

Question 66

Hirschfield's research found that arresting juveniles lowered their status in families and neighborhoods.

Question 67

Subcultural theorists agree that neutralization techniques are used before delinquent or criminal acts.

Question 68

According to Pereetti-Watel, marijuana smokers scapegoat hard drug users.

Question 69

Shaw and McKay's research on delinquency is often held up as an exemplar of the Chicago School. Briefly explain what distinguishes the Chicago approach from other criminological theories. Be sure to address at least two key findings from Shaw and McKay's work in the course of your answer.

Question 70

First, identify the five techniques of neutralization as formulated by Sykes and Matza. Next, explain how student "cheaters" might use two of these techniques to justify cheating.

Question 71

The labeling perspective is often described as a "paradigm shift" in criminological theory. Explain what made the labeling approach different from the theories that proceeded it, and briefly discuss two key labeling concepts or insights.

Question 72

Although their work differs, Albert Cohen, Walter Miller, Richard Clower, and Lloyd Ohlin are considered "subcultural theorists." Briefly explain two key ideas these subcultural theorists share. Next, briefly discuss the different ways these theorists explain why working-class boys are involved in delinquent subcultures.