Deck 1: Perspectives on Crime and Punishment

Question 1

The study of the history of corrections in society today has revealed two distinct trends. One trend is the centralization and professionalization of punishment in corrections. What is the other trend?

A) a movement toward releasing all prisoners into the community earlier in their sentence
B) an expansion of surveillance and control over offenders
C) a movement to use psychotherapy on all violent offenders regardless of their desire to improve themselves
D) an expanded use of ethic/cultural specific rehabilitation methods

Answer 1

an expansion of surveillance and control over offenders

Question 2

The government announces that nine new halfway houses will be built in the next 12 months. What concept does this infrastructure development best illustrate?

A) penal moderation
B) restorative justice
C) correctional change
D) community decentralization

Answer 2

correctional change

Question 3

Which of the following is a defining characteristic of "corrections"?

A) the structures, policies, and programs delivered by governments, to sanction, punish, treat, and supervise offenders
B) the structures, buildings, and institutions that hold offenders for both federal and provincial offences
C) the action of processing an accused from the time of arrest to the time of incarceration
D) the action of modifying a behaviour for the betterment of society

Answer 3

the structures, policies, and programs delivered by governments, to sanction, punish, treat, and supervise offenders

Question 4

In which century did the Catholic Church start operating ecclesiastical prisons?

A) 6th century
B) 7th century
C) 8th century
D) 9th century

Question 5

In what year was the first house of correction opened in England?

A) 1437
B) 1557
C) 1627
D) 1717

Question 6

In 1703, an offender was convicted of committing a criminal offence in England and was sent to America as punishment. Which correctional strategy was the offender subjected to?

A) exile
B) deportation
C) repatriation
D) transportation

Question 7

Which of the following best defines John Howard's reformation efforts during the 1700s?

A) hard labour and more prayer and religious reflection
B) silence and meditation on one's crimes and personal life actions
C) better trained staff and improved facilities and amendments for the prisoners
D) "earned release" for prisoners who behave and work hard, and other benefits for model prisoners.

Question 8

Which terms best categorize the three competing perspectives on crime and criminal offenders, and on the objectives of corrections?

A) conservative, liberal, or radical
B) theological, emotional, or spiritual
C) biological, medical, or psychological
D) social, economic, or geographical

Question 9

What perspective on crime forms the basis of the beliefs that society lacks discipline and is in a state of social disorder, that traditional institutions and values have broken down, and that a lenient criminal justice system has led to a view that "crime pays"?

A) the moral perspective
B) the conservative perspective
C) the liberal perspective
D) the radical perspective

Question 10

What perspective on crime forms the basis of the beliefs that the system is inherently inhumane, that crime is a result of the way society is structured, that any attempt to reduce crime must focus on the system rather than on individual offenders, and that the criminal justice system is used to repress the lower classes?

A) the moral perspective
B) the conservative perspective
C) the liberal perspective
D) the radical perspective

Question 11

Which individual writing during the Age of the Enlightenment believed the certainty of punishment was the most effective deterrent against criminal behaviour?

A) Voltaire
B) Montesquieu
C) Cesare Beccaria
D) Jeremy Bentham

Question 12

Which perspective on crime, offenders, and punishment is exemplified by an individual who decides NOT to rob a bank out of concern for being caught, convicted, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment?

A) the Critical School
B) the Punitive School
C) the Classical School
D) the Rational School

Question 13

What leading reformer of the English criminal law during the 1800s suggested that offenders engaged in hedonistic calculus?

A) Voltaire
B) Montesquieu
C) Cesare Beccaria
D) Jeremy Bentham

Question 14

Which statement best describes "hedonistic calculus"?

A) The costs of crime need to outweigh any benefits.
B) Officials can calculate the likelihood that a prisoner will reoffend.
C) Prisoners seek pleasure in their imprisonment at any cost.
D) Time will be calculated off a prisoner's sentence for good behaviour.

Question 15

Who said that the gravity of the offence should be measured by the injury done to society, that certainty of punishment was the most effective deterrent against criminal behaviour, and that punishments that were too severe served only to embitter offenders and perpetuate criminal conduct?

A) Malcolm Howe
B) Raffaelo Garafalo
C) Cesare Lombroso
D) Jeremy Bentham

Question 16

What perspective on crime supports the primary goal of deterrence, NOT revenge; the idea that to be effective, punishment must be certain and must fit the crime; the view that people can be dissuaded from committing a crime by the spectre of certain, swift, and measured consequences; and the perspective of recent "tough on crime" approaches that involve mandatory minimum sentences and mass incarceration to reduce crime rates?

A) the Rational School
B) the Classical School
C) the Punitive School
D) the Critical School

Question 17

Who theorized that crime centres on the exploitative nature of the capitalist system and uses the justice system to oppress the lower classes?

A) Montesquieu
B) Karl Marx
C) Cesare Lombroso
D) Voltaire

Question 18

Which perspective on crime and criminal justice is exemplified by the belief that crime is a result of poverty, racism, and other social injustices?

A) the Radical School
B) the Marxist School
C) the Classical School
D) the Positivist School

Question 19

Which perspective on crime and criminal justice is exemplified by the belief that providing correctional treatment to offenders can stop crime?

A) the Liberal School
B) the Marxist School
C) the Classical School
D) the Reintegration School

Question 20

Which was a shared belief of Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri, and Raffaelo Garafalo?

A) The consequences of crime should be certain, swift, and measured.
B) The primary goal of criminal justice is deterrence.
C) Offenders are influenced by external societal factors.
D) The scientific method should be used to study criminal behaviour.

Question 21

Which perspective on crime and criminal justice is exemplified by the belief that offenders commit crime because of neurological disorders?

A) the Radical School
B) the Positivist School
C) the Treatment School
D) the Conservative School

Question 22

Which four principal justifications for punishing criminal offenders apply to our present-day view of punishment?

A) retribution, discipline, corporal punishment, and silent meditation
B) retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation/reintegration
C) psychological assessment, treatment, medical intervention, and electric shock therapy
D) minimal intervention, cooperative treatment, more freedom, and autonomy

Question 23

Which term is defined as corrections policies that are formulated in pursuit of political objectives, often in the absence of an informed public or in spite of public opinion, and are centred on being "tough on crime"?

A) penal populism
B) positivist penality
C) punitive penology
D) philosophical punishment

Question 24

Which term best describes the key concept in corrections that is characterized by laws and correctional policies that increase the severity of criminal sanctions and expand the control exercised over offenders by systems of corrections, often referred to as "tough-on-crime" legislation?

A) punitive penology
B) recidivism
C) socioeconomic maltreatment
D) community rehabilitation

Question 25

What shift in correctional philosophy is now being pressed into service in the United States to assist in revitalizing the U.S. correctional systems?

A) "three strikes you're out"
B) "lock 'em up and forget about them"
C) evidence-based programs
D) electroconvulsive therapy

Question 26

The advent of mass incarceration in the United States has been extensively documented. Describe and discuss the factors that have influenced the present shift away from the mass incarceration model.

Question 27

John Howard's classic work, The State of Prisons in England and Wales (1777), proposed several prison reforms. Describe some of the reforms that were introduced and discuss whether these reforms were successful then, and whether they are successful or malfunctioning in their present form.