Deck 8: Sport, Social Deviance, and Social Problems

Question 1

The case of Duke lacrosse players regarding an off-campus party with exotic
Dancers and allegations of rape demonstrates that:

A) the Dominant American Sports Creed is valid.
B) the common racial and class stereotypes of violent athletes are correct.
C) the criminal justice system may display bias against affluent white athletes.
D) alleged or actual misbehavior by athletes at elite universities tends to be ignored or treated uncritically by the media.

Answer 1

the criminal justice system may display bias against affluent white athletes.

Question 2

Social deviance in sport is challenging for sport sociologists to study because:

A) it is caused by faulty genes.
B) stars in professional sports such as Major Leaguers Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds and bicyclist Floyd Landis talk openly about the problems of drug abuse in their sport and readily admit to using drugs such as steroids to enhance their performance.
C) what is accepted or normative in sports may be deviant elsewhere in society.
D) sport sociologists tend to be sports fans.

Answer 2

what is accepted or normative in sports may be deviant elsewhere in society.

Question 3

The concept of deviant underconformity is best illustrated by athletes who:

A) overtrain.
B) "fix" the outcome of a game by intentionally missing a foul shot or dropping a touchdown pass to make money from a gambler.
C) engage in unhealthy eating practices to help them stay in shape for their sport.
D) continue to push their bodies when they are hurt.

Answer 3

"fix" the outcome of a game by intentionally missing a foul shot or dropping a touchdown pass to make money from a gambler.

Question 4

Deviant overconformity to the "Sport Ethic" among athletes is most likely to result from:

A) a growing detachment from sport.
B) an eagerness or desire to be accepted as serious athletes by coaches and peers in their sport.
C) an unwillingness to make the physical sacrifices that sport requires.
D) a failure to be impressed by sports achievements.

Question 5

The information about hazing in athletics presented in the text and in this course indicated that hazing:

A) is unlikely to occur among sports teams that value tradition, team bonding, leadership and assertiveness.
B) is frequently accepted as a necessary or important ritual of initiation by those who participate in it.
C) always results in almost universal condemnation of the accused athletes and teams by parents and members of the community when students are seriously abused.
D) typically results in a great deal of sympathy among classmates for the victims who break the code of silence about hazing incidents at the high school level.

Question 6

The concept of quasi-criminal violence is illustrated by:

A) violent collisions, hits, tackles and body checks that are normative or within the rules of sport.
B) brushback pitches in baseball and the violent use of elbows in soccer and basketball, which are against the rules of the sport but are widely accepted practices within the sport.
C) cheap shots, late hits and flagrant fouls, which cause injuries, are violations of the rules of sport as well as the informal norms held by most athletes, and usually result in fines, suspensions and condemnation.
D) premeditated assaults during games that result in players being arrested.

Question 7

Which type of theoretical perspective would be most likely to lead to the conclusion that the discovery of deviant practices, such as an NBA referee betting on NBA games, is good for the league and sport because it increases the league's commitment to finding and punishing gamblers in the league?

A) structural functionalist theory
B) social conflict theory
C) critical theory
D) feminist theory

Question 8

An example of a social problem in sport that is predominantly a matter of social inequality rather than a matter of social deviance is:

A) steroid use.
B) violence on the field.
C) illegal gambling.
D) sexism.

Question 9

Soccer hooliganism:

A) occurs when players engage in violence on the field.
B) is a problem for soccer officials in the stadium but does not spread beyond the stadium.
C) is considered a major societal problem in Great Britain.
D) has involved vandalism and other property crimes, but no one has gotten hurt as a result of it.

Question 10

Based on the CBC Sports Online report of prominent drug cases, we can conclude that:

A) the strict regulation of sports in the Soviet Union and other communist nations in the "Soviet Empire" prevented the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
B) allegations of the use of performance-enhancing drugs by Floyd Landis have hurt the "clean" or drug-free image of the Tour de France.
C) illegal performance-enhancing drugs have been used by athletes in big-time team sports and in big-time individual sports.
D) drug testing has had no effect on the athletic careers of athletes who have been found guilty of doping.

Question 11

Based on discussions in the text and in this course about substance abuse in sport, we can conclude that:

A) the Sport Ethic discourages the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances.
B) steroids and similar drugs have no effects on athletic performance.
C) the Golden Triangle encourages a culture that is conducive to illegal drug use by athletes.
D) athletes who play hurt are unlikely to take risky performance-enhancing drugs.

Question 12

According to discussion in the text and in this course about "social control" efforts regarding doping in sport:

A) the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has made few serious efforts to identify or punish athletes suspected of doping.
B) recent evidence suggests that a law enforcement investigative approach will be more effective in identifying and discouraging doping cases than drug testing has been.
C) doping has generally been incompatible with the culture of Olympic and professional sports and has been viewed as quasi-criminal deviance by the most success-driven athletes as well as by sports officials.
D) more commercialized sports are more able to control doping activities influenced by outside organizations such as BALCO.

Question 13

Discussions of gambling in sport in the text and in this course indicated that:

A) certain elements of the Golden Triangle promote sports gambling.
B) bookmakers studied by Coontz were typically connected to organized crime and saw themselves as criminals trying to beat the criminal justice system.
C) fixing is not considered deviant by most sports officials or sports fans.
D) a recent NCAA sports gambling study revealed that no college football or basketball player admitted accepting money for playing poorly in a game.

Question 14

Kreager's research about school sports, peer networks, and male adolescent violence, revealed that:

A) males on the high school tennis team were as likely as males on the football team to be involved in serious fights.
B) female athletes were as likely as male athletes to be involved in serious fights.
C) males whose friends played football were more likely to be involved in serious fights than were other males at their school.
D) there was no relationship between playing contact sports and getting involved in off-field violence among high school males.

Question 15

Evidence about men's professional tennis players has indicated that:

A) the historical connection between tennis and the elite has insulated it against corrupt practices such as gambling and fixing among players.
B) match fixing is more likely among lower-ranked than top-ranked players.
C) tennis has attracted very little interest among Internet gamblers.
D) professional tennis officials have expressed little or no concern about whether players in their sport have displayed honesty or integrity in their efforts on the tennis court.

Question 16

The Barry Bonds and Michael Vick cases have demonstrated that:

A) fans generally ignore allegations of deviance against star athletes.
B) professional sports teams and leagues do not waver in their public support of their top stars, even after they have been accused or convicted of crimes.
C) no element of the Golden Triangle of a sport benefits or tries to benefit from the pursuit of a major record in the sport by athletes alleged to be deviants.
D) athletes may be charged and prosecuted for what they say about their doping rather than for the doping itself.

Question 17

A national survey regarding high school athletes and deviance reported by the Josephson Institute revealed that:

A) most of the surveyed athletes did not admire or respect their coaches.
B) the surveyed athletes were less cynical about ethical issues and less inclined to steal than their nonathlete peers were.
C) both male and female athletes in the survey were less likely than nonathlete peers to cheat in school.
D) the majority of the male athletes in the survey admitted that they had used performance-enhancing drugs.

Question 18

A USA Today study of 168 sexual assault allegations against athletes over a 12-year period showed that:

A) the majority of these cases went to trial and resulted in convictions.
B) the majority of the cases resulted in plea agreements.
C) most of the accused athletes pleaded guilty as charged.
D) the majority of the accused athletes were not charged, had the charges dropped, or were acquitted.

Question 19

Evidence about doping and other forms of cheating in the Tour de France has shown that:

A) the involvement of the Golden Triangle in the race eliminated all forms of cheating.
B) doping was more institutionalized or embedded in typical race behavior in the early years of the Tour than it is now.
C) the informal "rules of the game" of the race increasingly condone or encourage illegal or ethically questionable performance-enhancing practices.
D) doping has decreased in the Tour as competitive and commercial pressures have increased.

Question 20

A study about punishment of athletes in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB between 1995 and 1999 that was cited in the text showed that:

A) league officials were generally reluctant to impose severe penalties to deter misconduct by athletes in their sport.
B) league officials were more concerned about punishing the players than about maintaining the public image of their sport.
C) the punishments tended to be major deterrents because players tended to view the punishments very seriously.
D) in cases of fighting and intimidation in Major League Baseball, most of the penalties involved fines rather than other penalties such as suspensions.

Question 21

How did the Duke lacrosse "sex scandal" conflict with stereotypical ideas about race, social class, sexual violence, and athletes, and why were allegations of deviance somewhat justified despite the dropping of criminal charges in this case?

Question 22

What did the Duke lacrosse "sex scandal" reveal about responses to apparent scandals involving college athletes by the Golden Triangle, university authorities, and many members of the public?

Question 23

What is the difference between social deviance and social problems, what are the two main types of social problems examined in the text, and what is an example of both types of social problems in sport?

Question 24

How are structural functionalists and social conflict theorists likely to differ in their conceptions of social deviance and social control? Give examples of social control in sport that reflect these two perspectives.

Question 25

How would a symbolic interactionist view deviance in sport? Give a specific example.

Question 26

What did Benedict find in his research that would make us cautious in making sweeping generalizations about the criminal behavior of NFL players?

Question 27

According to the discussion in the text, what are three kinds of strategies that are likely to prevent or minimize serious hazing incidents in high school sports?