Deck 12: Critical Criminology in Canada

Question 1

What social theorist complained that criminology's "garrulous discourse" and "endless repetitions" relieved judges and police officers of their guilt for delivering pain and suffering on the guilty?

A) Bourdieu
B) Foucault
C) Derrida
D) Agamben

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following best characterizes critical criminology?

A) takes the system to task
B) tinkers with parts
C) denies transformation through promises of justice
D) avoids judgment and critiques in an attempt to destabilize taken-for-granted assumptions

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following concepts best illustrates the case of the modern police officer,who in investigating a traffic accident must gather information pertinent to the courts and police records as well as insurance companies,the public health system,and the automobile industry?

A) governmentality
B) soft city
C) risk society
D) surveillance

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is the name applied byChapter 12 to the group of scholars who,during the reign of Thatcher,Reagan,and Mulroney governments,advocated for more punitive sanctions for crime?

A) right realists
B) left realists
C) administrative criminologists
D) criminal justice apologists

Question 5

Which of the following claims is most likely to be made by a critical criminologist?

A) We need to emphasize justice in the punishment of offenders.
B) We need a "get tough" approach to crime.
C) We need better ways to manage the poor and dangerous classes.
D) We need to provide justice to those who are marginalized.

Question 6

How is risk defined in critical criminological research?

A) the degree of harm caused by various types of crimes
B) the safety of individuals from victimization
C) the level of harm an offender may cause
D) the likelihood of an event happening

Question 7

Which of the following best illustrates the Foucauldian concept of a micro-power?

A) a police officer
B) the Criminal Code
C) a traffic light
D) a shopping mall security guard

Question 8

Which of the following best represents Foucault's conception of power?

A) held by governments or individuals
B) only evident when it is exercised
C) always negative or repressive
D) obvious and therefore seldom influences behaviour

Question 9

How is the concept of risk assessment used in the youth justice system in Canada?

A) The use of a tool to assess risk,needs,responsivity,and professional discretion guides youth justice decision making.
B) The treatment of youth offenders is laid out in specific terms to allow for custody classification.
C) Increased surveillance of certain groups of young people allows police to address youth crimes more effectively in the community.
D) Providing parents with clear disciplinary guidelines helps to reduce youth crime.

Question 10

Which of the following best characterizes a key goal of critical criminology in recent years?

A) conceiving programs that will work well within the existing criminal justice system
B) systematically critiquing government intrusion into the lives of the powerful
C) helping to better manage the poor and dangerous classes
D) providing justice through opening minds to more just ways of being in the world

Question 11

What did Taylor,Walton,and Young advocate a new critical criminology to accomplish?

A) to examine the structural and political-economic dimensions that produce criminal behaviour
B) to question how the criminal justice system can prevent crime for everyone
C) to understand individual instances of crime in their entirety
D) to ensure that a representative number of criminal justice professionals come from working class and marginal backgrounds

Question 12

What group of scholars was criticized by critical criminologists for compromising the goals and momentum of critical criminology?

A) right realists
B) left realists
C) criminal justice apologists
D) administrative criminologists

Question 13

Which of the following refers to statistical calculations of risk across time and groups?

A) risk calculus
B) risk expectancies
C) universal risk assessment
D) actuarial risks

Question 14

What concept did Foucault say extends beyond the state and is not a quantity to hold or possess,but rather is relational and only evident when exercised?

A) surveillance
B) discipline
C) governmentality
D) power

Question 15

Which of the following thinkers advanced groundbreaking theories on power and governmentality that inspired new theorizing in the field of contemporary critical criminology?

A) Hogeveen
B) Foucault
C) Agamben
D) Derrida

Question 16

For Foucault,which of the following is the direct or indirect observation of conduct toward producing a desired outcome?

A) attentive gaze
B) discipline
C) surveillance
D) risk

Question 17

Which of the following schools of thought expressly attempts to draw attention to the hidden and overlooked injustices in society?

A) left realism
B) environmental criminology
C) structural Marxism
D) critical criminology

Question 18

The 1973 book The New Criminology by Taylor,Walton,and Young levelled a number of criticisms at the mainstream and sparked a brief time of radical criminology.Which of the following discussion was part of this brief shift?

A) a recognition that there were some positive aspects of the system
B) there were pleas to abolish prisons
C) claims that opportunities create criminals
D) a desire to focus more on biological and psychological causes of crime

Question 19

Cultural criminologists Hayward and Young alert us to the importance of which of the following in the context of a criminal act?

A) adrenaline
B) cost-benefit analysis
C) heredity
D) rational choice

Question 20

According to your textbook,which of the following is one of the goals of critical criminology?

A) draws attention to hidden and overlooked injustices and demands possible dismantling of practices
B) highlights what is currently working in the justice system and relates this to the discipline of criminology
C) attends to the processes through which the criminal justice system supports offenders as well as victims
D) undertakes empirical research into the causes of crime as a means to help criminal justice policy making

Question 21

A woman was raised by parents who are lawyers.She models her parents' ways of speaking,and thinks of the world in terms of adversarial justice.Which of the following terms is used by Bourdieu to indicate that this woman is already well armed with capital that will help her more easily navigate the legal profession?

A) an attentive gaze
B) negative social capital
C) habitus
D) dangerous knowledge

Question 22

Which of the following is a critique that stems from a deconstruction of the word "community" in the context of community crime prevention?

A) It is exclusionary.
B) It can too quickly encourage inclusive patterns of harmony.
C) When used to address youth justice it can provide too wide a scope to be helpful.
D) It can help build connections within the criminal justice system.

Question 23

In what way does the state control the poor in ghettos that resemble prisons according to Wacquant?

A) low income housing is often situated in industrialized areas that resemble institutions
B) the rules and regulations attached to welfare support are onerous and choice-limiting
C) meal allowances and child care supports are restricted for those with criminal records
D) welfare workers take on authoritarian attitudes when dealing with clients

Question 24

Maher Arar was falsely accused of collaborating with the terrorist group al-Qaeda.His case was cited in the textbook to substantiate a number of issues raised by Agamben.Which of the following is one of these issues?

A) whether the suspension of individual rights is necessary for the protection and defence of society
B) whether we are witnessing a critical period in which religious rights of minority groups like Muslims are being eliminated
C) whether the war on terrorism could provide us with critical information about how to protect our interests
D) whether Canadians can now ask that others be detained if they fear that they may be a threat to Canadian values

Question 25

Which of the following best describes Wacquant's critical criminological interpretation of Bourdieu?

A) He articulated how criminal justice is increasingly based on principles of actuarial risk.
B) He identified the empowerment of dominant groups to further disempower subordinate groups who lack capital to make positive changes.
C) He articulated how the criminal justice system represents governmentality.
D) He examined how a sovereign power can return a society to a state of naked life (life unprotected by law and rights).

Question 26

Through his field theory of criminology,what sociologist provides insight into the cultural and economic conditions in which crime and our understanding of crime are produced?

A) Foucault
B) Bourdieu
C) Agamben
D) Derrida

Question 27

Which of the following concepts best represents the following statement: "Opening up language to the silent,background suppositions that give words and phrases their meaning with the intention of encountering the hidden and excluded elements of language,meaning,and experience"?

A) attentive gaze
B) a state of exception
C) dangerous knowledge
D) deconstruction

Question 28

According to cultural criminologists,what hides beneath structured and rationally planned urban space?

A) the risk society
B) actuarial risk
C) the soft city
D) fields

Question 29

How are cultural criminologists most likely to describe a rally where pro-cannabis protesters smoke pot on Parliament Hill?

A) a form of anti-governmentality
B) an act of transgression
C) a form of attentive gaze
D) a form of dangerous knowledge

Question 30

What is the term Bourdieu uses when someone has a real "feel for the game"?

A) capital
B) habitus
C) endowment
D) capabilities

Question 31

According to cultural criminologists,which of the following does "dangerous knowledge" refer to?

A) the urban "underlife" that hides beneath structured and rationally planned urban space
B) a set of acquired dispositions that allow one to achieve a "feel" for a specific activity
C) information gathered by police informants about marginalized offender populations
D) a form of knowledge that leaves no concept,notion,or idea unquestioned

Question 32

Which of the following scenarios best represents what cultural criminologists mean by the notion of the "soft city"?

A) signs guiding motorists to the most efficient paths through rush hour traffic
B) a supermarket placing commonly purchased goods at the back of the store
C) an illegal occupation of a park by advocates of the homeless
D) the use of more flexible construction materials on streets to lessen injuries resulting from traffic accidents

Question 33

Which of the following best illustrates a state of exception as described by Agamben?

A) the Harper era in federal politics
B) Canada during the 1950s
C) the war of 1812
D) the FLQ Crisis in Quebec

Question 34

Why might you advise a 20-year-old who wants to be a police officer to do extensive volunteer work while completing her post-secondary education?

A) it will increase her capital
B) it will decrease her risk factor
C) it is necessary in order to fit into her field
D) it will contribute to a better understanding of her studies

Question 35

Cultural criminologists propose an intensive ethnographic approach to studying crime.What is the term they use to describe this methodology?

A) dangerous knowledge
B) attentive gaze
C) acts of transgression
D) structural equation modelling

Question 36

What term is used by Agamben to describe the power of the sovereign to suspend civil liberties in the name of the greater good?

A) attentive gaze
B) state of exception
C) risk state
D) actuarial risk

Question 37

What was the basis of the work conducted by Derrida on language and sovereignty?

A) deconstruction of the criminal justice system has resulted in restorative practices
B) deconstruction of the methods used to hold people accountable is needed to achieve lower recidivism rates
C) deconstruction is the only way to create a new and better prison system
D) deconstruction provides insight into what is really going on behind the words

Question 38

Which of the following best represents what cultural criminologists mean by the notion of the "soft city"?

A) rationally planned urban space
B) ideas about space not captured in intended city plans
C) constant changes made by planners to address increasing urban shift
D) the design of defensive urban space made to guide movement

Question 39

What term is used by Derrida to denote the silent or absent element of language that provides words with an essential part of their meaning?

A) a state of exception
B) a habit
C) a field
D) a trace

Question 40

According to Derrida,which is the most commonplace understanding of justice?

A) vengeance
B) cooperation
C) respect for civil rights
D) respect for due process

Question 41

Critical criminology seeks ways to better manage the day-to-day operations of the criminal justice system.

Question 42

Critical criminologists Taylor,Walton,and Young advocate that the focus be placed on the individuals involved in crime rather than diffusing the issue by looking with a wider lens at social systems.

Question 43

The primary focus of critical criminology is judging existing criminal justice policies,programs,and institutions.

Question 44

According to Bourdieu,an actor's ability to display competence within a particular field depends,in part,upon his or her "habitus."

Question 45

Canada remains a hub for critical criminological research and policy changes.

Question 46

Critical criminology seeks ways to better manage the poor and dangerous classes that make up most of the criminal offenders.

Question 47

Street signs are an example of micro-powers.

Question 48

Cultural criminology produces "dangerous knowledge" because it puts the lives of its researchers in danger from delving into the real stories behind crime.

Question 49

For Foucault,power is only evident when it is exercised.

Question 50

According to Agamben,human rights are subject to sovereign power and can be returned to naked life in exceptional times.

Question 51

Today's critical criminology uses critique largely as a means of confronting inequalities and social suffering with promises of more just outcomes

Question 52

Critical criminology attempts to highlight inequalities,discrimination,and suffering as related to the discipline of criminology.

Question 53

Wacquant's adaptation of Bourdieu's work on field theory defines a "double regulation" that justifies the need to hold both offenders and police accountable for crime.

Question 54

Critical criminology has produced a unified group of scholars who promote the discipline under a single label.

Question 55

Restorative justice is a mode of governmentality because it fashions a way of understanding the world that makes the pursuit of "restorative" justice appear rational.

Question 56

The Foucauldian notion of power is exclusively negative and repressive.

Question 57

Which of the following is a criticism of contemporary critical criminology?

A) It is obscure and abstract.
B) It has been used too frequently to rationalize tough-on-crime agendas.
C) It resembles existing practices of crime control and social justice.
D) Some find its language simplistic and outdated.

Question 58

Cultural criminologists emphasize the importance of rational choice in the cost-benefit analysis of whether or not to break the law.

Question 59

The influence of Beck's concept of the risk society on critical criminology is that social problems become risks to be managed,not solved.

Question 60

The term governmentality is used to refer to examples of how the state wields power over civil society.

Question 61

Much of Agamben's work is grounded in a concern for and about the modern conditions of sovereignty.

Question 62

Deconstruction attempts to reveal what is really going on in and through language.

Question 63

For critical criminologists,vengeance is by far the most commonplace understanding of justice.

Question 64

For Agamben,naked life refers to a state of total protection akin to a fetus developing in its mother's womb.