Deck 12: Social Consequences of Inequality

Question 1

Why should you be wary about drawing conclusions from crime statistics and your own conception of what crime is?

A) Crime is a social construct and crime statistics tend to be biased in the groups and types of crime sampled.
B) Crime is a personal construct and differs from individual to individual.
C) People miss the fact that white-collar crime exists and it, in part, is what causes the socioeconomic conditions for all other crimes.
D) The FBI and the police are arbitrary in what is and is not a crime.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What affects the perception of a high crime rate?

A) the racial makeup of a neighborhood, not the actual crime rate
B) redlining and blacklisting of neighborhoods by real estate agencies
C) when Whites are continually portrayed as victims
D) neighborhoods with a high incident of Black-on-Black crime

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Although Blacks don't commit crimes for reasons different from Whites, there is a difference in social context. What is it?

A) Blacks engage in criminal behavior because of more inequality factors (poverty, social isolation, unemployment, etc.).
B) Blacks suffer extremes in cultural differences.
C) Blacks are perceived to commit more crimes, and so they do as a result.
D) The loss of manufacturing and deindustrialization is more pronounced in the inner city.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Studies and statistics tend to ignore which relationship in the commission of a crime?

A) differences in power between races, classes, and genders
B) white-collar criminals vis-à-vis the more freedom they enjoy
C) White neighborhoods and Black neighborhoods
D) Marxian measures of class

Question 5

The Blau theory of violent crime cites which qualities in intensifying and driving feelings of relative deprivation?

A) race, vis-à-vis a meritocratic society
B) economic differences
C) police brutality and lack of police protection
D) the impetus of revenge and "getting paid"

Question 6

Immediate poverty as well as the surrounding context that causes it contributes to violent and other crime rates. What has research suggested as remediation of this cause and effect?

A) A change in the structure of inequality could reduce crime rates.
B) Criminal activity is reduced by a one percent improvement in the economy.
C) A 1 percent increase in wages can reduce crime in segregated neighborhoods.
D) A program of income redistribution can have a disproportionate effect on reducing crime.

Question 7

Evaluate the following: White criminals are less likely to be sentenced to the same degree as Blacks and Hispanics.

A) This is true, given the many studies conducted from 1980 into the new century.
B) This is true, except for statistics measuring White-on-minority crimes.
C) This is false, given the many Appalachian Whites who are sentenced much like other ethnic and racial groups.
D) Statistics show that Whites are now being sentenced as harshly (or leniently) as Blacks.

Question 8

How does serving multiple prison terms compound the financial fragility of lower socioeconomic individuals?

A) Prison terms erode marketable skills and mean lost income and lower earnings upon release.
B) Multiple prison terms result in career criminal lifestyles to replace lost income.
C) Multiple prison terms result in an inability to pass on wealth to the next generation.
D) The loss of voting rights, income, and other privileges results in anomie and disempowerment, and makes a person virtually unhireable.

Question 9

What does the statistical evidence reveal about the dollar loss that white-collar crimes costs society when compared to street crimes?

A) The estimated dollar value of white-collar crimes ($250 billion) far exceeds that of street crime ($18 billion).
B) The monetary losses of caused by street crimes are more immediately felt than losses from white-collar crimes.
C) The money spent to convict street criminals exceeds what it costs to investigate and convict white-collar criminals, even though the latter cost society more in dollars.
D) Street crimes have a disproportionate effect on the U.S. economy.

Question 10

Street crimes are feared for their violence, yet we have no like fear of white-collar crimes. On one level such a perception indicates our bias. On another level it is inaccurate. How so?

A) White-collar crimes cause collateral death and injury, too, often where the profit is derived from intentional negligence.
B) The loss of trust is a form of psychological violence.
C) The damage inflicted by white-collar crime can result in spousal abuse, "mob hits," witness intimidation, indeed, all forms of violence.
D) We should fear nonviolent crimes for the damage they inflict on society.

Question 11

How is status defined in what we read about or how we discuss street and white-collar crimes?

A) The terms used to describe white-collar crimes are often ambiguous, softer, and not as straightforward as those for street crimes.
B) White-collar criminals are increasingly being given the "perp walk."
C) Typically, white-collar crimes begin with the prefix mis-.
D) Words such as stealing, theft, lying, and the like just don't seem believable when discussing white-collar crime. It is actually more indicting to speak in euphemisms.

Question 12

What aspect of capitalism, especially with regard to corporations, causes many to violate the law because it is this aspect that trumps even so-called "best practices"?

A) the need to compete in order to survive
B) the ability to lobby for laws that are tilted in favor of one company over another
C) letting a few "bad apples" make the kind of profits shareholders want
D) having the power to redefine these "crimes" so they are no longer crimes

Question 13

Hate crimes are unique in what way?

A) The perpetrators seek to hurt or threaten a group, not just a single member of that group.
B) Hate crimes do not take place when the perpetrators are of low status and the victim is of a higher status.
C) Hate crimes only involve minorities, women, and homosexuals.
D) Some laws, up until 2003, can be considered hate crimes.

Question 14

What effect does environmental inequality have as a form of social inequality?

A) It has a negative effect on the chances that lower socioeconomic groups can have for a healthy life.
B) Because it falls unevenly on all existing divisions of society, only a few truly benefit from environmental legislation.
C) Environmental racism is the effect given the differentials in environmental quality that exist.
D) One effect is that rich developers can gentrify a neighborhood to such an extent that the poor can no longer afford to pay rent.

Question 15

How is inequality systemic?

A) The negative effects of inequality spread throughout society and weakens the unifying aspects needed for its survival.
B) Inequality leads to a social structure of discontent.
C) Inequality is systemic in the sense that populations cease to trust each other.
D) Mechanisms are established that serve to perpetuate class and racial inequalities exponentially.