Deck 10: The Chicago School, Subcultures and Cultural Criminology

Question 1

Why was the 'Chicago School' so called?

A)it concentrated on the activities of gangsters
B)it was based at the University of Chicago

Answer 1

it was based at the University of Chicago

Question 2

What is the 'lurch back to positivism'?

Answer 2

To a certain extent cultural criminology is a reaction against what its proponents perceive as the 'lurch back to positivism' (Hayward and Young, 2004: 261) characterised by the rise of 'administrative criminology', the reaction against ethnographic methods and the push to increase the use of randomised controlled trials and cognate methods favoured by those styling themselves as 'experimental criminologists'. By contrast, cultural criminology is more concerned with issues of meaning, of representation and the contested ways in which crime is framed and social constructed. At its heart is the assumption that cultural dynamics carry within them the meaning of crime (Ferrell et al, 2007: 2) As such, this is resonant of elements of interactionist and labelling theory (chapter 10) which places great emphasis on the situated nature of meaning that characterises all social acts, including criminal acts.

Question 3

How do proponents of cultural criminology describe the rise of its origins?

Answer 3

Whilst its proponents are often at pains to argue that cultural criminology is not oppositional' in character - that is to say that it doesn't define itself in opposition to other types of criminology - it has proved quite difficult to set out the major parameters of cultural criminology without engaging in such tactics. Many writers working under the label of cultural criminology are highly critical of the extent to which much contemporary criminology has become dominated by what they perceive to be a somewhat unthinking use of statistics.

Question 4

How are gangs said to invert traditional values?

Question 5

In the early 1940s Shaw and McKay They found that the parts of the city with high delinquency rates were also characterised what?

Question 6

Describing British subcultural theory Downes argues that delinquency is:

A)premeditated
B)rebellious
C)conformist
D)related to working class values

Question 7

Expressive or emotional forms of violence are:

A)used to achieve a goal
B)a response to some sort of challenge to honour
C)class related
D)used in armed robberies

Question 8

Cultural or subcultural theories proceed from the basis that behaviour can be:

A)understood as a largely rational means of solving problems thrown up by existing social circumstances
B)a solution (a delinquent solution) to the dilemmas posed by the dominant culture
C)the result of genetics

Question 9

Shaw and McKay (1942) argued that the high levels of juvenile delinquency found in the zone of transition were a product of social disorganisation in that part of the city. This social disorganisation was characterised by:

A)racial heterogeneity
B)truancy
C)poverty
D)residential mobility
E)0

Question 10

The Chicago School's zonal hypothesis had a 'zone of transition'. What was observed here?

A)deviant behaviour
B)prostitution
C)crime
D)speeding

Question 11

Where and when did British subcultural theories take off?

A)London 1930s
B)North east England 1950s
C)Birmingham 1970s
D)Glasgow 1990s

Question 12

Why was Matza critical of strain theory?

A)for its denial of responsibility
B)for ignoring the role of machismo
C)for its over-prediction of delinquency
D)for ignoring female delinquents

Question 13

A 'zonal hypothesis' is concerned with:

A)global warming
B)cybercrime
C)punishing offenders appropriately
D)an explanation of urban development

Question 14

The Chicago School's research was largely:

A)quantitative
B)statistical
C)historical
D)ethnographic

Question 15

The Chicago School was a group of scholars whose background was mainly:

A)history
B)criminology
C)sociology
D)psychology

Question 16

What is culture?