Deck 7: Social Structure Theories

Question 1

Which university pioneered research on the social ecology of the city and inspired criminologists to conclude that urban social forces can create crime?

A) University of Chicago
B) Yale University
C) University of California
D) William and Mary

Answer 1

University of Chicago

Question 2

What was the name given to the group of sociologists who pioneered research in the social ecology of urban environments?

A) university club
B) Chicago collective
C) mid-west cohort
D) Chicago school

Answer 2

Chicago school

Question 3

Which of the following does a sociologist study?

A) mortality
B) demography changes
C) patterns of behaviour
D) social activities

Answer 3

patterns of behaviour

Question 4

Which statement best supports studying crime through examination of social structures instead of looking at the individual level?

A) Studying an individual's criminal history only tells you about the past.
B) Looking at social structures allows us to pre-emptively sort individuals based on known social factors.
C) Individual level analysis fails to account for consistent crime patterns.
D) Social structures fail to address individual crime histories and patterns.

Question 5

Which statement would be most accurate if one assumed that social structures were the only influence on crime and criminality?

A) Young people would commit crime based on their genetic predisposition.
B) Levels of violence would peak based on age related cognitive development.
C) There would be almost no crime in Canada within a decade.
D) Individuals exposed to similar social pressures would react to those pressures in a fairly uniform manner.

Question 6

Current cultural norms place strong emphasis on individuality and independence. What change in society do some criminologists think this change might be related to?

A) the advent of hip-hop
B) the weakening of the influence of family on an individual
C) changes in corporate workspaces that reduce privacy
D) reductions in serotonin levels across all ages in North America

Question 7

Who called for anthropological methods of description and observation to be applied to urban life?

A) Robert Ezra Park
B) Oscar Lewis
C) John Hagan
D) Thomas McKay

Question 8

What pattern in crime rates convinces criminologists that crime must have a social basis?

A) that males consistently commit more violent crimes than females
B) that if violence is biological, it should be distributed evenly through the social structure
C) the year-to-year variations in the amount of crime
D) that there are fewer violent crimes than property offences

Question 9

According to a sociologist, which term best describes what a crime, at its most basic level??

A) an engagement
B) a Conflagration
C) developmental
D) an interaction

Question 10

Which aspect of Canadian society has not changed since 1980?

A) the quality of life for retirees
B) the number of firearms related murders
C) the percentage of children living in low-income houses
D) the percentage of individuals who report being unemployed

Question 11

What does recent evidence show about employment in relation to criminality?

A) Only unemployment influences criminality.
B) Only those who are marginally employed participate in crime.
C) The quality of employment and not merely unemployment influences crime.
D) There is no relationship between employment and crime.

Question 12

According to your text book, what is it probably fair to say that all societies are characterized by?

A) social equality
B) social stratification
C) affluence
D) poverty

Question 13

Which statement best describes the minorities living in poverty in urban Canadian centres?

A) They outnumber Caucasians.
B) They are underrepresented.
C) They are disproportionately represented.
D) They are not accurately counted because poverty research does not ask individuals about their racial identity.

Question 14

Who argued that the crushing lifestyle of slum areas produces a "culture of poverty" passed from one generation to the next?

A) Oscar Lewis
B) John Hagan
C) Hugo Munsterberg
D) Mitchell Chamlin

Question 15

According to Oscar Lewis, which of the following is marked by apathy, cynicism, helplessness, and mistrust of social institutions?

A) culture of fear
B) culture of poverty
C) culture of deviance
D) culture of racial inequality

Question 16

Who described a "worldwide underclass of people cut from society, its members lacking education and skills in demand in modern society"?

A) Émile Durkheim
B) John Hagan
C) Robert Merton
D) Gunnar Myrdal

Question 17

In the underclass theory, how is poverty perceived?

A) as being beyond individual control
B) as a personal failure in which poor people are responsible for their own fate
C) as a result of poor government
D) as being independent of social structure

Question 18

What would a proponent of underclass theory say about poverty?

A) It is beyond individual control.
B) It is a personal failure in which poor people are responsible for their own fate.
C) It is a result of poor government.
D) It is independent of social structure.

Question 19

What does the social structure approach link crime to?

A) economic deprivation
B) personal failure
C) conformity
D) mental illness

Question 20

Which statement best exemplifies the reasons why upward mobility may be highly difficult for people living in poverty?

A) The cost of primary education is beyond reach for many families, limiting employment opportunities.
B) Individual failings account for most poverty situations, and come from a myriad of personal factors.
C) The burden of living in high-crime areas, combined with high unemployment and poor educational opportunities is very difficult to overcome.
D) Many people living in poverty suffer from mental illness and so gainful employment is hard to maintain.

Question 21

On an aggregate level, the relationship between crime and unemployment is weak. What does the data indicate at the micro-level?

A) The relationship mirrors that of aggregate research.
B) Offenders have the tendency to be under or unemployed, which supports a crime-unemployment relationship.
C) Offenders tend to be legitimately employed when they commit their crimes for "extra" spending cash.
D) There link between economic status and criminal behaviour is affected by status.

Question 22

Why does most research indicate that unemployment increases crime?

A) It reduces people's stake in conformity.
B) It causes people to desire items they can't afford.
C) It leads to perceptions of the self as a failure, and crime redeems a person's self-respect.
D) Having a limited income causes people to commit crime for the sake of financial gain.

Question 23

Unemployment seems to have the greatest influence on opportunistic property crimes and the least influence on violent assaultive crimes. What might this indicate about the unemployment-crime relationship?

A) It is offender specific.
B) It is offence specific.
C) It is nonexistent.
D) It is linked to personal mental health.

Question 24

Which research finding would highlight the relationship between poverty and victimization?

A) Poor women on welfare cannot afford to leave abusive relationships.
B) Unemployed men are unable to afford to partake in the night-time economy, and as such are less victimized.
C) Poor women work more hours, keeping them away from their family responsibilities.
D) Poverty and mental illness are correlated.

Question 25

What is the relationship between poverty and victimization?

A) Poverty and victimization levels are totally unrelated.
B) Poverty and victimization are related, but only in minority communities.
C) Poverty and victimization have a negative correlation.
D) Poverty and victimization appear to be related.

Question 26

Which statement best explains why teenagers' crime rates may not be impacted by downward shifts in the economy.

A) Teenagers commit crimes of violence that are not impacted by increased or decreases in the economy.
B) Young offenders are not yet aware of economic realities in their community, and as such act on their individual impulses.
C) Teenagers are usually not yet part of the workforce, and so less affected by employment rates.
D) Criminality amongst young people is a normal part of cognitive development and affected by hormones more than economic factors.

Question 27

What term does John Hagan use to describe the process whereby juveniles become delinquent first, which subsequently makes them unemployable?

A) relative deprivation
B) social embeddedness
C) anomie
D) ritualism

Question 28

According to the concept of social embeddedness, what excludes individuals from legitimate work?

A) poor academic opportunities
B) social stigmatization
C) criminal behaviour
D) bad parenting

Question 29

What factor do social structure theorists believe causes crime?

A) psychological imbalance
B) biological traits
C) personal choice
D) social forces

Question 30

What term refers to the view that criminal behaviour is a result of forces operating in deteriorated and deprived lower-class areas?

A) social process theories
B) environmental theories
C) social policy theories
D) social structure theories

Question 31

Which group's law-violating behaviour is the focus of most structural theories?

A) elderly
B) upper class
C) youth
D) unemployed

Question 32

What term best exemplifies the core area of focus in social structure theory?

A) poverty
B) class stratification
C) unemployment
D) social ecology

Question 33

Which perspective includes three branches known as social disorganization theory, strain theory, and cultural deviance theory?

A) deprivation theory
B) poverty theory
C) underclass theory
D) social structure theory

Question 34

Which branch of social structure theory says that deteriorated neighbourhoods, inadequate social control, and conflicting social values lead to criminal behaviour?

A) social-bio theory
B) cultural deviance theory
C) social disorganization theory
D) strain theory

Question 35

Which statement supports social structure theory's contention that social forces influence behaviour?

A) Rich individuals scorn those living in poverty.
B) Crime rates increase as you move down through social/economic classes.
C) Individuals with low levels of serotonin commit more crime.
D) Society provides equal opportunity in terms of healthcare, education, and exposure to media, so differences in criminality cannot be held responsible for individual choices.

Question 36

What does social disorganization theory link crime rates to?

A) the existence of environmental toxins
B) neighbourhood ecological characteristics
C) labelling and social identification
D) social learning practices in family units

Question 37

How do sociologists categorize an area when the institutions of society are no longer functioning as expected?

A) disorganized
B) strained
C) deviant
D) subcultural

Question 38

You fall asleep during a lecture on social structure theory and awake to see a video being played by your instructor. The video pans over a derelict landscape as the narrator says, "In this neighbourhood the social structure has deteriorated. Unemployment is high, there are few commercial establishments left, the schools are failing, and parents are unable to supervise or control their children." What branch of social structure theory are they probably discussing in this segment of the video?

A) social disorganization
B) strain
C) determination
D) cultural deviance

Question 39

Looking over some research you come across the questions the researcher asked her research subjects. They include questions about the subject's economic situation and their aspirations or goals. The researcher also asked her research subjects about if they have experienced challenges or conflicts reaching those goals, and if so, did the subject turn towards crime to obtain those items or goals. Which branch of social structure theory is this researcher probably aligned with?

A) social disorganization
B) strain
C) determination
D) cultural deviance

Question 40

Which theory believes that crime is a function of the conflict between the goals people have and the means they can use to legally obtain them?

A) social disorganization
B) cultural deviance
C) strain
D) concentric zone

Question 41

Which change to society would most undermine the basis of strain theory?

A) giving each person a new TV
B) creating a single currency system for all countries
C) reducing the cost of goods and services
D) eliminating peoples' desire for wealth and material possessions

Question 42

Which branch of social structure theory proposes that social disorganization and strain encourage the development of subcultures?

A) social-bio theory
B) cultural deviance theory
C) social disorganization theory
D) strain theory

Question 43

What term is used to describe the passage of subcultural values from one generation to the next?

A) cultural transmission
B) inherited deviations
C) value disorganization
D) ecological transfer

Question 44

George often told his son, Martin, about how the police harassed him growing up as a new immigrant living in a bad part of town. Martin has experienced some poor interactions with the police, tries to avoid police, and has very little trust in the fairness or morals of the local police. Martin's son has never had any contact with the police, but shares his father's views. What term best describes why Martin's son feels this way?

A) ecological transmission
B) inherited deviations
C) value disorganization
D) cultural transmission

Question 45

What is a basic tenet of social disorganization theory?

A) Crime is a result of personal traits and personal choice.
B) Crime is a consequence of social strain between legitimate goals and illegal means for obtaining those goals.
C) Crime stems from destructive ecological conditions in urban slums.
D) Crime is a natural product of a capitalist society.

Question 46

In what way are strain theory, social disorganization theory, and cultural deviance theory united?

A) They view people as inherently in need of control by the state.
B) They see socially isolated individuals and communities as subject to crime producing social forces.
C) They understand poverty as a result of modern shifts in the economic models.
D) They promote individual responsibility to overcome social forces acting upon the individual.

Question 47

Who described the ecological nature of criminal areas?

A) Sutherland and Cressey
B) Sykes and Matza
C) Cloward and Ohlin
D) Shaw and McKay

Question 48

In which city did Shaw and McKay link life in transitional slum areas to crime?

A) New Orleans
B) Washington D.C.
C) Chicago
D) Newark

Question 49

According to Shaw and McKay, which type of neighbourhood will have high crime rates?

A) stable
B) immigrant
C) interstitial
D) transitional

Question 50

Which type of neighbourhood has high rates of turnover and is incapable of inducing residents to remain and defend the neighbourhood against criminal groups?

A) concentric zone
B) natural
C) transitional
D) city

Question 51

Which concentric zones have the heaviest concentrations of crime?

A) suburban stable
B) urban business
C) transitional inner-city
D) rural temporary

Question 52

Which term is most related to the concentric zone model?

A) social
B) psychological
C) biological
D) ecological

Question 53

Because of their deviant values, disadvantaged young people often show resistance toward existing middle-class norms. What is this called?

A) norm violation
B) neighbourhood code
C) value conflict
D) resistance network

Question 54

According to Shaw and McKay, what element was missing for new immigrant families living in transitional neighbourhoods that they were accustomed to in their previous environment?

A) informal social control mechanisms
B) strong police presence
C) capable guardians
D) older generations to take care of children

Question 55

According to Shaw and McKay, why was the effectiveness of the neighbourhood as a unit of control and as a medium for the transmission of the moral standards of society greatly diminished in transitional neighbourhoods?

A) Deindustrialization took away jobs, forcing people to move regularly to find work elsewhere.
B) Police officers came from outside of the neighbourhoods in which they patrolled.
C) Industrialization of the area resulted in dissolution of neighbourhood culture and organization.
D) Neighbourhood organizations were controlled by corrupt individuals who sought to exploit new immigrants.

Question 56

According to Shaw and McKay's statistical analysis of their theoretical suspicions of concentric zones, which two zones had the highest crime rates?

A) zones I and II
B) zones II and III
C) zones III and IV
D) zones IV and V

Question 57

What community-based treatment program was founded by Clifford Shaw?

A) Chicago Area Project
B) MidCity Project
C) Mobilization for Youth
D) VISTA

Question 58

Why is the criticism that Shaw and McKay relied on police records to calculate neighbourhood crime rates so important?

A) High crime rate zones will naturally have high arrest rates.
B) A zone's high crime rate may be more a function of police practices and not a measure of actual crime rates.
C) Chicago police department records are not open to public inspection and thus modern researchers cannot replicate the research.
D) The dark figure of crime is not present in arrest records.

Question 59

Which statement best exemplifies Shaw and McKay's findings regarding social disorganization.

A) Crime will grow as immigrants from minority populations enter a neighbourhood.
B) Additional security features can reduce social disorganization.
C) Crime falls as rich families flee decaying urban cores.
D) Criminal activity is a normal response to adverse conditions.

Question 60

What do modern social ecologists stress in their purer form of structural theory?

A) narrower concentric zones and how they affect the development of housing, schools, and shopping malls
B) the association between pollution, street lighting, allergies, and crime
C) the association between concentric zones and life expectancy
D) the association of community deterioration and economic decline to criminality

Question 61

What orientation did the social ecology school add to social disorganization theory?

A) sociological
B) spiritual
C) social psychological
D) biological

Question 62

Who found that gang homicide rates were associated with variables such as the percentage of the neighbourhood living below the poverty line, the unemployment rate, and the influx of new immigrant groups?

A) Park and Burgess
B) Curry and Spergel
C) Cloward and Ohlin
D) Sampson and Wilson

Question 63

What do truly disadvantaged people begin to lose because of the oppression of their situation?

A) money
B) self-confidence
C) identity
D) trust

Question 64

According to William Julius Wilson, what type of group would be able to pressure national public officials to focus on the interests of ordinary people?

A) poor peoples' coalition
B) middle-class parents
C) multiracial citizen's coalition
D) former politicians

Question 65

Which type of community fear exists when the outside world is considered an enemy that is out to destroy the neighbourhood; namely, mistrust in critical social institutions?

A) anomie anomaly
B) siege mentality
C) political paranoia
D) gentrification

Question 66

Which of the following is most likely to engender a siege mentality in a community?

A) a gang starts openly dealing drugs
B) a young boy is hit by a car because there was not street-light
C) police officers regularly beat handcuffed suspects in plain view of the public
D) a young mother kills her children because she has untreated mental healthcare issues

Question 67

Who was the Canadian equivalent to Park and Burgess of the United States?

A) David Curry
B) Carl Dawson
C) John Hagan
D) Michelle Wright

Question 68

Who said that "the city was an organism with a centre of dominance (the business sector) around which were arranged a number of zones, their use and occupants varying with the value of the land and the distance from the centre"?

A) Muriel McCall
B) Richard Cloward
C) Carl Dawson
D) Emile Durkheim

Question 69

What does the map of social differentiation in Montreal resemble?

A) banana
B) triangle
C) kidney
D) flower

Question 70

Why can a high population turnover have a devastating effect on community culture?

A) More races and cultures are competing for positions in the population.
B) Housing problems result in disorganized neighbourhoods.
C) Unrelated people live together.
D) It interrupts communications and information flow.

Question 71

The latter stage in the urban cycle is a renewal stage in which obsolete housing is replaced or upgraded. What is this stage called?

A) gentrification
B) concentration effect
C) siege mentality
D) population turnover

Question 72

Which research finding would most clearly indicate the emergence of concentration effect?

A) The median house price has dropped by 20% over three years.
B) The racial and economic composition of the neighbourhood has become homogenous and poor.
C) There is an increase in murders in the neighbourhood.
D) There are fewer students in the local primary school.

Question 73

During an episode of poverty concentration that leads to a concentration effect which of the following leaves with the middle-class families?

A) private jobs
B) role models
C) institutional resources
D) informal social control

Question 74

What concept applies to how areas become isolated and insulated from the social mainstream and more prone to criminal activity and gang activity?

A) gentrification
B) concentrated poverty
C) anomie
D) transition

Question 75

What two factors did Messner find are strongly related to neighbourhood crime rates?

A) obesity and unemployment
B) median house price and unemployment
C) Median house price and the percentage of people living in poverty
D) Single-parent households and the percentage of people living in poverty

Question 76

According to Pratt and Godsey, which organization should be given priority to lower homicide rates?

A) Alcoholics Anonymous
B) the police
C) social support organizations
D) private businesses

Question 77

What does cohesion among neighbourhood residents, combined with the shared expectations for informal social control of public space, promote?

A) social altruism
B) labelling
C) collective efficacy
D) concentration effect

Question 78

Which response to a researcher's question on neighbourhood trust would best indicate the presence of collective efficacy?

A) I don't really know my neighbours, but I'm sure they're nice people.
B) My neighbours and I often talk about things in the neighbourhood, and I know that my kids have people looking out for them when they play outside.
C) My neighbour on one side is very nice, but the others around here are pretty sketchy.
D) I like my neighbourhood and feel safe walking home.

Question 79

Suppose that you are studying the decay of institutional social control in an urban neighbourhood. Which of the following would be most indicative of a loss of institutional social control?

A) You observe that families must work increasingly longer hours to get by, leaving young people home alone more often.
B) You begin to realize that there are not that many police officers patrolling in this neighbourhood.
C) The local church burns down and, since no one was attending anyway, the church is not rebuilt.
D) An old man regularly spends the afternoon sitting on his porch and watching people pass by his house.

Question 80

Which factor would you want to measure if you were interested in researching public social control in a neighbourhood?

A) the amount of police spending on foot patrols in the neighbourhood versus other neighbourhoods
B) the number of arrests in a neighbourhood
C) the number of churches, schools, and community organizations in a neighbourhood
D) the median house price and how it has changed over the last five years