Deck 13: Interactionist Theories

Question 1

Which of the following examples best represent the main difference between primary and secondary deviance,as conceptualized by Lemert?

A) the head of an outlaw motorcycle gang versus a lower-ranking member
B) the single mother who occasionally shoplifts versus a drug addict who once robbed a bank with a gun
C) the youth who stole a chocolate bar one time on a dare vs the young adult who breaks into garages and steals tools on weekends
D) the serial killer who suffers from schizophrenia versus the serial killer who suffers from psychopathy

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is the best example of a primary deviant?

A) a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang
B) a person who lives off the avails of others (e.g.,a pimp)
C) a young person who shoplifted when dared to do so by friends
D) an adult who has been working as a prostitute since the age of 12

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following statements contradicts symbolic interactionist theory?

A) Meanings emerge from interactions among people.
B) Meanings are applied and occasionally modified.
C) Meanings are derived from empirical research into social situations,patterns,and statuses.
D) People act toward objects on the basis of meanings that objects have for them.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Criminal careers are "composed of adjustments to,and interpretations of,the contingencies and turning points encountered" at each stage of this career.Which of the following schools of thought on criminality does this statement best represent?

A) critical criminology
B) consensus theories
C) psychological theories
D) interactionist

Question 5

Short notes that careers in youth crime are likely to be prolonged after certain turning points have been reached.Which of the following is one of the turning points discussed by Short in the textbook?

A) late language development
B) the type of crime carried out by the offender
C) an early interest in drugs
D) early employment

Question 6

What is the term used to denote a rationalization whereby offenders stress the cunning and power they bring to bear against people who are otherwise more powerful and uncontrollable?

A) moral rhetoric
B) instrumental rhetoric
C) symbolic power relations rhetoric
D) secondary deviance rhetoric

Question 7

A sense of continuity,a perception of increasing opportunities,and an increased sophistication and possibly recognition by peers are all characteristics of which of the following?

A) deviant career
B) symbolic interactionism
C) secondary deviation
D) drift

Question 8

According to Matza,which of the following best describes young American male offenders who smoke,drink,and are tough and who pursue the hedonistic pleasures of "real" men?

A) They are attracted to subterranean traditions.
B) They are reacting against middle-class values.
C) They are following secondary deviance values.
D) They are a product of father-absent families.

Question 9

An individual commits delinquent acts but does not adopt a self-identity as a deviant.Which of the following is this an example of?

A) secondary deviation
B) primary deviation
C) drift
D) adolescent-limited deviance

Question 10

Which of the following is among the most important concepts for interactionist theories of crime?

A) power relationships
B) the level of inequity
C) cultural goals
D) the deviant career

Question 11

Which of these criminological theories centres on the interchanges people have with one another and on the meanings of these interchanges in the past,present,and future?

A) strain
B) interactionist
C) conflict
D) critical theory

Question 12

Which of the following statements best describes the drift towards delinquency?

A) All individuals and groups experience a deviant drift at some point.
B) It always involves an entire subculture.
C) It is always a highly individualized process.
D) An individual or an entire peer group of youths may drift toward deviance.

Question 13

According to the Schwendingers,justifying theft as a response to store owners' greed is an example of which of the following?

A) instrumental rhetoric
B) the rhetoric of denial
C) lower-class rhetoric
D) the rhetoric of egoism

Question 14

Interactionists have observed that some groups or individuals have enough power to force criminal identities on less powerful groups or individuals.What term has been applied to describe this phenomenon?

A) identification
B) labelling
C) deviant career
D) primary deviation

Question 15

Which of the following is one of the reasons that labelling is not fair?

A) Everyone engaged in criminal activity,no matter how serious the crime,has the deviant label applied to them.
B) Some have not involved in deviant behaviour,but are labelled as such.
C) The label lasts forever.
D) It is only applied to those engaged in "street-level" crime.

Question 16

Which of the following best represents a main foundation of symbolic interactionist approach to understanding criminality?

A) introspection
B) independence
C) interactions
D) intelligence

Question 17

Which of the following best characterizes the use of moral rhetoric by young offenders,according to Schwendinger and Schwendinger?

A) It is used to justify one's deviant behaviour.
B) It is used to place pressure on peers to also become involved in deviance.
C) It is a technique to defraud senior citizens.
D) It is used as a cognitive behavioural technique to reduce recidivism.

Question 18

Which of the following is a focus of the interactionist approach to criminality?

A) the establishment of a power structure
B) the application of moral rules through labelling
C) how the mode of production in a society produces moral entrepreneurs
D) the impact of socioeconomic status on crime rates

Question 19

What term has been applied to refer to a psychological state of weak normative attachment to either deviant or conventional ways?

A) tertiary deviance
B) moral purgatory
C) drift
D) moral rhetoric

Question 20

Within the context of primary deviation,which of the following statements best describes young offenders,according to Schwendinger and Schwendinger?

A) Early offenders tend not to employ any moral rhetoric; older offenders tend to use the rhetoric of egoism and/or the rhetoric of instrumentalism.
B) Early offenders tend to employ the moral rhetoric of instrumentalism; later offenders tend to use the moral rhetoric of egoism.
C) Early offenders tend to employ the moral rhetoric of egoism; later offenders tend to use the moral rhetoric of instrumentalism.
D) Early offenders tend to use the rhetoric of egoism and/or the rhetoric of instrumentalism; older offenders tend not to employ any moral rhetoric.

Question 21

Which of the following best represents the role of police,judges,prison personnel,and probation and parole officers?

A) agents of social control
B) first line public defenders
C) agents of social work
D) legal administrators

Question 22

Why,during the primary deviation stage,do young people drift between deviance and conventional norms?

A) They engage in moral rhetoric to determine their path of choice.
B) They lack value commitment to either set of values.
C) Crime has become their master status.
D) They are stigmatized by the thought of getting into trouble with their parents.

Question 23

Which of the following is the most influential factor behind moving from primary to secondary deviance?

A) finding deviant friends to spend time with
B) learning the skills to commit crime
C) being labelled a deviant
D) extreme feelings of guilt

Question 24

Which of the following best describes Sutherland's differential association theory?

A) It helped bring a psychological perspective to the forefront of criminology.
B) It points to the importance of learning criminal behaviour.
C) It has received no convincing empirical support.
D) It no longer is relevant to contemporary theories or research into causes of crime.

Question 25

What is the term used for an unintended event,process,or situation that that can affect the movement of an individual along a deviant career?

A) primary deviation
B) career contingency
C) continuance commitment
D) master contingency

Question 26

For many years,groups such as the Canadian Cannabis Corporation have lobbied to have cannabis legalized.Which of the following terms can best be applied to such groups?

A) agents of social control
B) moral entrepreneurs
C) moral capitalists
D) agents of moral dissemination

Question 27

"A characteristic of an individual that is negatively evaluated by others,thereby distorting and discrediting that person's public identity." Which of the following terms does this definition apply to?

A) stigma
B) primary deviance
C) drift
D) moral rhetoric

Question 28

What two areas of interactionist theories can be seen in the context of socialization into crime?

A) the process of differential association and acquisition of a criminal identity
B) the process of differential association and acquisition of a social control identity
C) the process of differential association and psycho-analytical theories of crime
D) the acquisition of a social control identity and group conflict theory

Question 29

Which of the following is the best example of what Goffman meant by the term "stigma"?

A) being an ex-inmate
B) being a straight C student
C) being a member of the mafia
D) being a member of a church choir

Question 30

What is the term used to describe an offender's awareness of the impossibility of choosing a noncriminal identity because of penalties (societal reactions)in making the switch?

A) career contingency
B) continuance commitment
C) self-enhancing commitment
D) self-degrading commitment

Question 31

Who developed the original theory of differential association?

A) Sutherland
B) Cohen
C) Lemert
D) Cressey

Question 32

What are the "two sides" of the criminal identity that solidify it in place?

A) The view of the police and the view of the courts.
B) The view of self by the individual and the perception of the community.
C) The perception of the defence and that of the prosecution.
D) The perception of the individual and that of the victim(s).

Question 33

Which of the following is an agent of social control?

A) police
B) parents
C) offenders
D) victims

Question 34

What term denotes a social category into which deviants are placed by others and which they may place themselves?

A) criminal identity
B) career contingency
C) continuance commitment
D) unadjusted pathological deviance

Question 35

In which category of deviant behaviour does Lemert place alcoholism and drug addiction?

A) self-defeating and self-perpetuating deviance
B) self-enhancing and self-perpetuating deviance
C) adjusted pathological deviance
D) unadjusted pathological deviance

Question 36

What is Lemert's term for someone whose life and identity revolve around deviance?

A) tertiary deviant
B) secondary deviant
C) full deviant
D) primary deviant

Question 37

Which of the following is a key principle of differential association theory?

A) Criminal behaviour is learned in isolation from one's family.
B) Criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with others.
C) Learning includes the techniques but not the motives for committing crime.
D) Learning criminal behaviour stems from unique individual needs and values.

Question 38

What is the term used when society considers someone's criminality as their defining characteristic?

A) primary deviation
B) secondary deviation
C) master status
D) career contingency

Question 39

What generally leads criminals to end their deviant careers?

A) maturation
B) jail sentences
C) counselling
D) advice from friends

Question 40

According to symbolic interactionist Becker,which of the following best characterizes deviance?

A) a quality of an action
B) behaviour that people label as such
C) juvenile delinquency
D) variation from a recognized norm in a given society

Question 41

Which of the following is a critique of interactionist theory?

A) It fails to connect crime and other forms of deviance to temperament.
B) It fails to indicate how people make sense of deviant inclinations.
C) It fails to account for trends in place and time.
D) It examines only labelled deviants (those officially identified as having deviated).

Question 42

Conceptually,the stages of personal involvement in criminal activity are nothing like the like stages in a legitimate occupational career.

Question 43

American studies on the drift toward deviance among youth are generally not applicable to Canada.

Question 44

Interactionist theories group the root causes of criminal behaviour into a category called "primary deviation."

Question 45

Career contingency refers to a criminal offender's awareness of the impossibility of choosing a noncriminal identity because of penalties in making the switch.

Question 46

Young people have little commitment to deviance; therefore,they drift between conventional and deviant behaviour.

Question 47

Someone who advocates for the criminalization of marijuana can be called a moral entrepreneur.

Question 48

Deviance may provide some youth an opportunity to enjoy good standing and reputation with both the legitimate and deviant groups in their lives.

Question 49

One of the basic premises of symbolic interactionism is that people act according to objects in their lives and to the meanings those objects have for them.

Question 50

Maintaining a deviant master status leads to moving away from like-minded others and creating individualized values,attitudes,and behaviours.

Question 51

Criminal careers,once established,rarely change trajectory.

Question 52

Secondary deviation occurs with little change in the individual's everyday routine or lifestyle.

Question 53

Primary deviation becomes secondary when deviants see that their behaviour substantially modifies their ways of living.

Question 54

The term moral rhetorics is used to refer to claims and assertions used to justify one's deviant behaviour.

Question 55

Those experiencing self-enhancing commitment to crime are compelled to leave the non-conformist lifestyle and to seek conventional work to support themselves.

Question 56

A major factor leading to secondary deviation is the tendency of society to treat someone's criminality as a master status.

Question 57

A central concept in interactionist theories of crime is the deviant career.

Question 58

Interactionist approaches to understanding crime centre chiefly on what happens to criminals once their deviant activities commence.

Question 59

Interactionist theories of deviance focus overwhelmingly on how the techniques of how crimes are committed in a particular time and place.

Question 60

Which of the following is an implication stemming from interactionist theories of crime?

A) It highlights the therapeutic effects of the deviant label.
B) It exposes the elements of the judicial system that stigmatize the poor.
C) It highlights how the capitalist mode of production eventually leads to the application of deviance only to those involved in street-level crime.
D) It outlines the impact that labels have on an offender's re-entry into a community.

Question 61

According to Sutherland,learning criminal behaviour through differential association is much different compared to learning other forms of prosocial behaviour.

Question 62

The strengthening of deviant ties and the weakening of non-deviant ties solidifies the impact of differential association.

Question 63

One contribution that interactionist theories have made to criminology is to influence legislation such as the Youth Criminal Justice Act in Canada.