Deck 6: Social Structure Theory

Question 1

Failure to complete high school greatly impacts one's social and economic opportunities. What percent of inner-city, black males do not complete high school?

A)10%
B)30%
C)40%
D)over 50%

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Strain theory holds that crime is a function of:

A)unequal distribution of wealth.
B)loss of informal institutions of social control.
C)conflict between people's goals and means.
D)available methods of achievement.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

According to the author, the most important of Shaw and McKay's findings was that:

A)crime rates increase as police services increase.
B)over time crime rates shift outward from Zones I & II to the suburban zones.
C)crime rates correspond to neighborhood structure.
D)the number of abandoned buildings decreases as emigration increases.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What two elements of culture interact to produce anomie and/or anomic conditions?

A)informal social control and public social control
B)middle-class measuring rods and educational underachievement
C)culturally defined goals and socially approved means for obtaining them
D)community cohesiveness and collective efficacy

Question 5

What is the result of ineffective community social control efforts?

A)Mutual trust increases.
B)Neighborhood cohesiveness strengthens.
C)Crime rates increase.
D)Siege mentality decreases.

Question 6

Which of Merton's social adaptations is most closely associated with criminal behavior?

A)conformity
B)innovation
C)ritualism
D)retreatism

Question 7

According to Shaw and McKay, a __________ neighborhood is an area wracked by extreme poverty and suffering high rates of population turnover.

A)subcultural
B)transitional
C)concentric
D)ecological

Question 8

Which theory focuses on the urban conditions, such as high unemployment and school dropout rates, to explain crime?

A)strain theory
B)social disorganization theory
C)cultural deviance theory
D)general strain theory

Question 9

Why are personal relationships, including establishing communication and common goals, strained in socially disorganized neighborhoods?

A)Because the hostility of long-term residents makes it difficult for new people to move into the neighborhood.
B)Because residents are constantly moving in and out of the neighborhood.
C)Because police refuse to organize neighborhood groups.
D)Because gang formation disrupts families in the neighborhood.

Question 10

________ are segments of the population whose members have a relatively similar portion of desirable belongings, and who share attitudes, values and norms.

A)Social groups
B)Social classes
C)Social subcultures
D)Social cultures

Question 11

Cultural deviance theory combines elements of _____ and social disorganization theories.

A)strain
B)poverty
C)socialization
D)transmission

Question 12

When members of the lower-class are unable to achieve symbols of success via conventional means they feel anger, frustration, and resentment. These feelings are collectively referred to as:

A)focal concerns.
B)aggression.
C)siege mentality.
D)strain.

Question 13

Social ecology school criminologists associate crime rates and the need for police services to:

A)community deterioration.
B)community fear.
C)community change.
D)poverty concentration.

Question 14

Oscar Lewis argues that the crushing lifestyle of lower-class areas produces ________ that is passed on from one generation to the next.

A)a culture of poverty
B)physical deterioration
C)social deterioration
D)family disorganization

Question 15

Cohesive communities with high levels of social control and social integration and where people develop interpersonal ties are also likely to develop:

A)high levels of incivility.
B)collective efficacy.
C)mistrust of public social control.
D)siege mentality.

Question 16

According to social structure theory, the root cause of crime can be directly traced to:

A)individual socialization.
B)socioeconomic disadvantages that have become embedded in American society.
C)lower-class mistrust of social control institutions.
D)the lack of political power within the under-class.

Question 17

Shaw and McKay explained crime and delinquency within the context of:

A)the changing urban environment and ecological development of the city.
B)subcultures with blocked means of achieving majority status.
C)redistribution of goals and means.
D)biological changes resulting from transient neighborhoods.

Question 18

Social disorganization theory was popularized by the work of two Chicago sociologists:

A)Robert Agnew and Albert Cohen
B)Robert Merton and Emile Durkheim
C)Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay
D)Steven Messner and Richard Rossenfeld

Question 19

As working and middle-class families flee inner-city poverty areas, the most disadvantaged population is consolidated in urban ghettos. This phenomenon results in a poverty:

A)solidity effect.
B)concentration effect.
C)cohort effect.
D)instability effect.

Question 20

Social strata are created by the unequal distribution of wealth. While the upper-class is exceptionally well-to-do, ______ people live in poverty in America.

A)1,000,000
B)17,000,000
C)37,000,000
D)67,000,000

Question 21

Judith and Peter Blau developed the concept of __________, the idea that anger and mistrust result from perceptions of inequality that lead lower-class people to feel deprived and embittered in comparison with those more affluent.

A)inequality concentration
B)collective deprivation
C)cultural inequality
D)relative deprivation

Question 22

Cloward and Ohlin's classic work Delinquency and Opportunity combined strain and social disorganization principles to explain

A)violent crime
B)gang formation
C)vandalism
D)drug dealing

Question 23

Social structure theories suggest that social and economic forces operating in deteriorated lower-class areas push many area residents into criminal behavior patterns.

Question 24

According to institutional anomie theorists, the _________ is both a goal and process to accumulate goods and wealth.

A)American Dream
B)American Hope
C)American Ideal
D)American Myth

Question 25

Cohen's theory of delinquent subcultures focuses on social conditions that prevent lower-class youths from achieving success legitimately. Cohen labels this form of culture conflict

A)success frustration
B)status frustration
C)social frustration
D)lower-class delinquent frustration

Question 26

Children who grow up in low-income homes are less likely to achieve in school and less likely to complete school than children who do not grow up in low-income households.

Question 27

People who live in neighborhoods that experience high levels of crime and civil disorder become suspicious and mistrusting.

Question 28

Strain is limited in affluent areas because educational and vocational opportunities are available.

Question 29

Subcultural values are handed down from one generation to the next in a process called

A)norms transmission.
B)social transmission.
C)belief transmission.
D)cultural transmission.

Question 30

General strain theory is not purely a structural theory because it focuses on how _____ influence behavior.

A)biological conditions
B)rational choices
C)life events
D)psychological conditions

Question 31

Minority and white group members are equally likely to be poor.

Question 32

The "truly disheartened" is the term used by William Julius Wilson to describe socially isolated people who dwell in urban inner-cities, who occupy the bottom rung of the social ladder, and who are the victims of discrimination.

Question 33

The social disorganization concepts articulated by Shaw and McKay enjoyed short-term prominence due to the growing homogeneity of American society over time.

Question 34

__________ reflects the view that multiple sources of strain interact with an individual's emotional traits and responses to criminality.

A)General strain theory
B)Relative deprivation theory
C)Focal concern theory
D)Anomie theory

Question 35

Agnew suggests that criminality is the direct result of __________ - the anger, frustration and adverse emotions associated with destructive social relationships.

A)siege mentality
B)negative affective states
C)relative deprivation
D)focal concerns

Question 36

Because social conditions prevent them from achieving success legitimately, lower-class youths experience a form of culture conflict that Albert Cohen labels

A)status frustration
B)youth deprivation
C)juvenile constants
D)teenage anomie

Question 37

Shaw and McKay's statistical analysis confirmed that even though crime rates changed, the highest rates were always in Zones I and Zone II.

Question 38

Walter Miller identified the unique conduct norms that define the lower-class culture and that often clash with conventional values. Which of the following is not one of those norms?

A)Fate
B)Toughness
C)Autonomy
D)Education

Question 39

Collective efficacy refers to the social control exerted by cohesive communities that is based on mutual trust.

Question 40

According to the author, the most important wielder of informal social control is religion.

Question 41

According to strain theorists, what is strain, what causes strain, and how does strain lead to crime?

Question 42

Walter Miller identified the unique conduct norms (focal concerns) that help define lower-class culture. Identify and use Miller's focal concerns to explain how cultural deviance theory combines the effects of social disorganization and strain theories.

Question 43

Robert Agnew suggests that criminality is the direct result of negative affective states. Identify Agnew's negative affective states and explain how they lead to criminality.

Question 44

According to social structure theory, the key to understanding the root cause of crime can be found in the nation's socioeconomic makeup. Explain what is meant by this statement.

Question 45

General strain theory is not purely a structural theory because it focuses on how life events influence behavior.

Question 46

Cultural deviance theory combines elements of relative deprivation and differential opportunity theories.

Question 47

Agnew's focus on negative affective states offers a more general explanation of criminality among all elements of society rather than being restrictive to lower-class crime.

Question 48

Primary elements of the social ecology school include community disorder, community fear and siege mentality. Explain how these elements are associated.

Question 49

Discuss how collective efficacy and community cohesion are associated. Include in your discussion the three types of collective efficacy and how collective efficacy is associated with levels of crime in a neighborhood.

Question 50

Examples of Walter Miller's lower-class focal concerns include achievement, status, and delayed gratification.

Question 51

In his theory of anomie, sociologist Robert Merton applied the sociological concepts first identified by Emile Durkheim to criminology. Discuss the foundations of Merton's anomie theory and the social adaptations found within this strain theory.

Question 52

Social disorganization theorists, Shaw and McKay focus on transitional neighborhoods as "concentric zones" of crime. Discuss this theory and how they applied their theory to the city of Chicago.

Question 53

There are three separate yet overlapping branches within the social structure perspective - social disorganization theory, strain theory, and cultural deviance theory. Briefly discuss the main focuses of each of these theories.

Question 54

Social disorganization theory links crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics. Identify and discuss these characteristics.

Question 55

Merton's view of anomie has been one of the most enduring and influential theories of criminality.